Title<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em><\/p>\n ISSN<\/strong>: 0002-9769 (Print) and\u00a02163-5129 (Online)1<\/sup><\/p>\n Website<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em> Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n Purpose, objective, or mission<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0is \u201cthe flagship publication of the American Library Association,\u201d dedicated to publishing news \u201cabout all matters of import to libraries and librarians.\u201d2<\/sup>\u00a0Per the Editorial Policy, part of the ALA Policy Manual section 10.2: the editor is charged with \u201ca particular responsibility to convey to the membership and other readers full and accurate information about the activities, purposes, and goals of the Association.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n Target audience<\/strong>: ALA members, the majority of whom are professional librarians in the United States.4<\/sup><\/p>\n Publisher<\/strong>: American Library Association (ALA)5<\/sup><\/p>\n Peer reviewed<\/strong>? No.6<\/sup><\/p>\n Type<\/strong>: LIS professional news magazine.7<\/sup><\/p>\n Medium<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0is a print publication, with occasional digital supplements.\u00a0American Libraries Online<\/em>\u00a0is the online edition.8<\/sup><\/p>\n Content<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em> \u201cfeatures articles on professional concerns and developments, along with news of the Association, library-related legislation, and libraries around the country and the world. Expression of diverse viewpoints and critical interpretation of professional issues make the magazine the premier forum for the exchange of ideas.\u201d9<\/sup><\/p>\n Frequency of publication<\/strong>: The print edition is published 6 times per year, with a digital-only July\/August issue and occasional digital supplements.10<\/sup><\/p>\n Location of submission guidelines<\/strong>:\u00a0Submissions<\/a><\/p>\n Types of contributions accepted<\/strong>:\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0solicits contributions of 600-1,500-word articles, including book reviews, features and opinion pieces on topics of general interest to members of the American Library Association. Letters to the editor are also accepted.11<\/sup><\/p>\n Submission and review process<\/strong>: Manuscripts should be submitted via email to americanlibraries@ala.org. Hard copies may be mailed to American Libraries, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. After submission, there may be \u201ceditorial revisions, deletions, or additions that in their opinion support the article\u2019s focus.\u00a0Editors will make every possible effort to review copy with the author prior to publication, especially regarding any proposed\u00a0substantive changes.\u201d Authors should hear back about their manuscripts within 4-8 weeks.12<\/sup><\/p>\n Editorial tone<\/strong>: \u201cInformal, but informative. Factual articles must be inviting and readable, with\u00a0all statements backed by responsible research and interviews with several expert sources.\u201d The editor encourages the \u201cexpression of diverse viewpoints and critical interpretation of professional issues.\u201d13<\/sup><\/p>\n Style guide used<\/strong>:\u00a0Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>\u00a0(15th ed.).14<\/sup><\/p>\n This 100+-year-old magazine is a well-respected publication with a wide audience. It would not be scholarly enough in tone to carry much weight for someone building up publications for tenure, but it is a credible, professional publication that provides a forum for practical information sharing among members of the LIS community.\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0publishes feature stories and opinion pieces as well as letters to the editor, and occasionally opportunities for columnists arise. Strong writers with appropriate story ideas should be encouraged to submit work here, whether they are LIS practitioners, educators, or students.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Publication circulation<\/strong>: Over 62,000 member organizations, individual members, and paid subscribers.15<\/sup><\/p>\n Audience location and language or cultural considerations<\/strong>: A geographic breakdown could not be found, though\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0does offer rates for the US, Canada, and International subscriptions.16<\/sup>\u00a0It is probably safe to assume that the majority of ALA members reside and work in the United States.\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0is published in English, and readers are likely to be completely comfortable communicating in English. However, overuse of regionalisms should be avoided to appeal to the diverse and widespread American audience.17<\/sup><\/p>\n Reader characteristics<\/strong>:\u00a0Because readers are usually members of the ALA, the vast majority work in a variety of libraries and have a high level of education.18<\/sup>\u00a0As librarians, these readers are likely to be interested in library topics and sympathetic to library issues. However, it is not safe to assume that readers are homogeneous in terms of how they believe problems should be solved. Letters to the editor and point-of-view pieces indicate that readers can be highly opinionated. The editorial policy states that the \u201cexpression of diverse viewpoints and critical interpretation of professional issues make the magazine the premier forum for the exchange of ideas.\u201d19<\/sup><\/p>\n Knowledge of LIS subject matter<\/strong>: Readers are likely to know a lot about general library topics and issues. Still, the audience includes all types of librarians, so authors would want to avoid highly specialized topics and language. For example, public librarians may not be familiar with (or interested in) the particular jargon and issues of military librarians, and technology specialists may not be familiar with the jargon of catalogers.<\/p>\n Because this is a professional rather than a scholarly publication, appropriate submissions would be practical rather than theoretical. Possibilities might include current topics in librarianship, or unique twists on topics of general interest to the broad LIS community such as management, advocacy, and general-interest technologies.\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0readers have in common a professional or personal interest in libraries, but the audience is large, and readers\u2019 specialized interests will be quite diverse. For this magazine, general library topics would be appropriate \u2014 articles on things like library technology, marketing, or management, the kinds of topics that would be relevant to all librarians, no matter what kinds of libraries they worked in.<\/p>\n Authors could assume that\u00a0American Libraries<\/em>\u00a0readers would understand general library language and that basic terms would not need to be explained (the editors of American Libraries, for example, assume that readers will understand ALA\u2019s common acronyms, such as ACRL). However, authors should try to avoid the kinds of topics or jargon that might be related to a specific library environment or aspect of librarianship, such as academic libraries or cataloging. Articles on highly specific topics or for particular ALA subgroups would be better directed toward the publications of the related ALA divisions, such as\u00a0College and Research Libraries News<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Children and Libraries<\/em>.<\/p>\n Last updated<\/strong>: June 30, 2019<\/p>\n Publication analysis About the publication Title:\u00a0American Libraries ISSN: 0002-9769 (Print) and\u00a02163-5129 (Online)1 Website:\u00a0American Libraries Magazine Purpose, objective, or mission:\u00a0American Libraries\u00a0is \u201cthe flagship publication of the American Library Association,\u201d dedicated to publishing news \u201cabout all matters of import to libraries and librarians.\u201d2\u00a0Per the Editorial Policy, part of the ALA Policy Manual section 10.2: the editor is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":772,"featured_media":0,"parent":2015,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2427","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2427\/revisions\/3306"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/infosci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}About the publication\u2019s submission guidelines<\/h3>\n
Conclusion: Evaluation of publication\u2019s potential for LIS authors<\/h4>\n
Audience analysis<\/h2>\n
\nAbout the publication\u2019s readers<\/h3>\n
Conclusion: Analysis of reader characteristics and their potential impact on authors<\/h3>\n
\nReferences<\/h4>\n
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