ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

C&RL News guidelines for submission of articles or columns

Purpose of C&RL News

College & Research Libraries Newsis the official news magazine of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, reflecting the priorities of ACRL as embodied in the goals and objectives of its Strategic Plan. Its purpose is to record significant activities of ACRL and to report news about academic and research libraries. As the official ACRL news magazine, C&RL News maintains a record of selected actions and policy statements of the Association and publishes timely reports on the activities of ACRL and its sections, committees, discussion groups, councils, task forces, and chapters.

As a vehicle for communication among college and research libraries, C&RL News reports news items pertinent to academic and research librarian- ship, including information on bibliographic instruction, continuing education, appointments, acquisition of special collections, grants to libraries, new technology, and publications (brief notices).

The editor bears responsibility for the contents of each issue of C&RL News. Materials selected by the editor must be newsworthy, timely, and of practical value to people in the field. The editor has authority to decide what material is appropriate for publication, based on the following guidelines. The editor also reserves the right to make appropriate revisions in material selected for publication in order to standardize style or improve clarity (except official ACRL documents, president’s letters, and similar material).

Formal, theoretical, or research-oriented articles inappropriate for C&RL News will be forwarded to the editor of College & Research Libraries for review.

I. Length

Articles and columns should be no more than 3,000 words and no less than 500 words.

II. Style

C&RL Newsis informal, informative, and accurate.

III. Content

Material selected should fall into one of the following categories:

a. Reports on a project, program, or research underway or recently completed dealing with a topic relevant to academic librarianship. Footnotes should be minimal and charts or tables avoided. These reports may be preliminary descriptions of programs or research to be published formally at a later date in library literature (e.g., “Undergraduate Term Paper Citations in Two Colleges and Two Universities: A Comparison,” January 1990).

b. Reports on a recent conference or workshop of interest to academic or research librarians (e.g., “EDUCOM Stimulates Librarians’ Imaginations,” December 1991).

c. Reasoned and informed speculation or comment on a relevant topic, especially if solicited by the editor or an official ACRL group (e.g., “The Future of Reference II,” October 1989).

d. State-of-the-art reports on a relevant topic (e.g., “Installing a Local Area Compact Disk Network,” December 1989).

e. Standards, guidelines, or recommendations of an ACRL committee or other official ACRL group (e.g., “Standards for University Libraries,” September 1989).

IV. Manuscript

Authors should submit two copies, doublespaced, following either the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian. If the manuscript is prepared on a word processor, please supply an electronic version of the manuscript—as a text file in an IBM- compatible format, preferably in WordPerfect 5.1 or ASCII. Either 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disks are acceptable.

Manuscripts and inquiries may also be submitted via bitnet: U38398@UICVM.bitnet.

V. Requests for Donations

C&RL Newsmay occasionally print requests for the donation of books or materials to libraries, especially foreign libraries, which have suffered extensive loss through fire, hurricane, or other natural disaster. Other libraries soliciting contributions for other reasons will be referred to the rates for classified advertising in C&RL News.

Editors note: These guidelines were adopted by theC&RL News Editorial Board at the Denver Midwinter Meeting on January 25,1982.