Editor’s Welcome 
Megan Lowe, University of Louisiana at Monroe

Welcome to the second issue of Codex! We are still going strong and bringing more quality work to the discussion of academic librarianship. 
This issue debuts two new features: the ACRL-LA President’s Column and a new section, Annotated Bibliographies. This President’s Column is penned by outgoing president Tony Fonseca; the next issue will feature a piece by incoming president Melissa Goldsmith. The Annotated Bibliographies section features a compilation by Jenna Ryan and highlights titles related to Hurricane Katrina. We hope this section will expand over time – be sure to check out be sure to check out “Section Policies” for guidelines.
As always, we have several articles and reviews. John Budd examines academic librarianship literature in his article. Angela Dunnington and Mary Lou Strong share their experiences and results regarding an assessment tool for information literacy. Tony Fonseca explores the implications and uses of Return-on-Investment (ROI) in libraries and discusses the ACRL-LA’s work on developing a ROI calculator. Several librarians from LSU share their experiences in forming a writing group designed to help tenure-track librarians with professional writing and publishing. 
Sometimes scholarship can tend toward the philosophical or theoretical. In this issue I believe we’ve seen research in action, producing practical applications that librarians can use and consider when faced with day-to-day challenges and issues, and enhancing our understanding of who we are as academic librarians. The better we understand ourselves as librarians and scholars, the better we understand our roles and abilities, which in turn will allow us to better help our patrons. It is also important, in what Fonseca calls “times of austerity,” to be able to capitalize on the many things librarians and libraries can do, regardless of tight belts and meager money, and demonstrate clearly to administration how important the library is to the health of the institution. It is important that we show administration how cutting library resources is like starving a man of food or water or oxygen: it will ultimately result in the death of the organism. 
During these times, the benefits of open access resources become even more obvious. Budgets will be cut, resources will disappear – but research must still go on. Students and faculty alike will have to engage in research. In order to do research, they will need access to quality resources. Open access resources like Codex, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and Project Gutenberg are trying to make sure that everybody has access to quality information. In addition to the practical, hands-on information found in this issue of Codex, let me strongly encourage you to start exploring open access resources and incorporating them in the resources and services you offer your campus community. Some resources, like Project Gutenberg, have MARC records, so you can incorporate their holdings into yours! And if you lack the resources for such an undertaking, just mentioning these resources on your home page can help users find good information. 
In closing, I want to thank all our readers and authors for coming back for more in this second issue and for patiently putting up with us as we hammered out problems in the first issue. As we go, things will get smoother and better. So stick around – there are lot more good things to come from Codex!

					Megan Lowe, Editor