jan12b.indd


C&RL News January 2012  28

Editorial purpose
College & Research Libraries News (C&RL News) 
publishes articles, reports, and essays written by 
practitioners addressing philosophy and tech-
niques of day-to-day management of academic 
library services and collections. C&RL News pro-
vides current information relating to issues, activi-
ties, and personalities of the higher education and 
academic and research library field. Information 
literacy, scholarly communication, technology, 
professional education, preservation, government 
actions that affect libraries, acquisitions, grants to 
libraries, product updates, and the business of 
the Association of College and Research Libraries 
(ACRL) are covered in C&RL News. Established 
in 1966, C&RL News is the official newsmagazine 
and publication of record for ACRL. It maintains 
a record of selected actions and policy statements 
of the association and publishes timely reports on 
the activities of ACRL and its units. It is published 
11 times per year.

Content
The editor bears all responsibility for the con-
tent of each issue of C&RL News and selects ma-
terial for publication. The editor also reserves 
the right to make appropriate revisions in mate-
rial selected for publication to standardize style 
or improve clarity (except official ACRL docu-
ments). The editor may refer articles on high-
profile topics to editorial board members with 
appropriate subject expertise for comment. 
Note: Formal, theoretical, or research-oriented 
articles inappropriate for C&RL News will be 
forwarded to the editor of College & Research 
Libraries for consideration.

Material selected should fall into one of the 
following categories:

1. Articles on a project, program, or service 
dealing with a topic relevant to academic li-
brarianship (e.g., “Setting up a library iPad pro-
gram,” April 2011).

2. Essays for “The Way I See It” that offer rea-
soned and informed speculation or comment on 
relevant topics (e.g., “The case for preserving aca-
demic branch libraries,” October 2011).

3. Topics for the “Internet Resources” col-
umn. Submit a topic idea and brief information 
about the compiler’s knowledge of the pro-
posed topic. Compilers whose topics are select-

ed will receive specific manuscript preparation 
information.

4. Essays that explore the ACRL President’s 
theme. Topics and authors are selected by the 
President’s Program Planning Committee.

5. Humorous essays related to issues of aca-
demic librarianship and higher education.

6. Essays for the “Scholarly Communication” 
column. ACRL’s Scholarly Communication Com-
mittee has editorial responsibility for this column; 
manuscript ideas should be sent to the committee 
chair.

7. Standards, guidelines, or recommendations of 
an ACRL committee or other official ACRL group.

8. Requests for the donation of books or mate-
rials to libraries. C&RL News may occasionally ini-
tiate requests for the donation of books or materi-
als to libraries, especially foreign libraries, which 
have suffered extensive loss through fire, hurri-
cane, or natural disaster. Other libraries soliciting 
contributions for other reasons will be referred to 
the rates for classified advertising in C&RL News.

Instructions to authors
1. Style. Articles should be practical; written 

in an informal, accurate, and informative manner; 
and follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.

Manuscripts should be original and not pub-
lished elsewhere. (Exceptions may be made for 
items previously published in institutional news-
letters.) Footnotes, charts, and tables should be 
kept to a minimum.

2. Length. News notes may be 150–350 words; 
essays for “The Way I See It” should be 750–1,000 
words; articles should be no more than 2,000 
words.

3. Graphics. Whenever possible, photographs, 
illustrations, images from Web sites, etc., should 
accompany article submissions. Authors are re-
sponsible for obtaining permission to use graphic 
materials. Submit camera-ready artwork for all il-
lustrations; digital files should be 300 dpi. If send-
ing nondigital material, include complete contact 
information on the back of the artwork. A brief 
caption and credit (if appropriate) should be pro-
vided for all images submitted.

4. Submitting manuscripts. Manuscripts 
must be submitted electronically to the 
editor at dfree@ala.org. (Note: An e-mail note of 
inquiry may precede submission of the article.) 

C&RL News submission guidelines