Professional Journals can not operate without authors writing articles. Share your talents. Each AISL conference, webinar, and institute introduces us to creative ideas from our members about social justice, information literacy, scope & sequence, collaboration, source literacy, project-based research, and myriad other unique topics. All of this useful information can be shared with other librarians, administrators, and faculty through journal articles. It is time to write about what you present. Share your knowledge with a wider audience.

Last spring the Publications Group wrote the blog Write for Your Favorite Professional Journal, which listed 14 different journals with hyperlinks to author guidelines. We would like to focus on a few publications listed in that blog and provide information about these periodicals and their writing guidelines. Journals are always looking for new material and are excited to hear from professionals that have not written articles previously.

Look at the publications and check their topic calendars for any subjects that you are interested in writing about. Check for submission deadlines. Deadlines for submitting articles are set long before the publication date.

Right now, NAIS is advertising for articles to be published in the Spring issue of Independent School. Information about submitting an article for this issue can be found at Reimagining Schools: From the Physical to the Philosophical. The application deadline is October 1, 2018. Have any of you recently renovated your library, or changed from a library to a learning common, learning research center, library makerspace, etc.? You should write about the experience for Independent School.  The Manuscript Submission Guidelines  list the rest of the themes for the year and author guidelines.

Teacher Librarian does not publish a list of topics for each publication. They do list the most popular subjects published by the journal: “learning commons, digital and multiple literacies, reading, professional collaboration, professional development, teaching and curriculum ideas, and makerspaces.” This is not an exclusive list. Teacher Librarian Submission Guidelines mention that the articles submitted for publication are, “more in-depth articles supported by research, personal practice and experience.”

School Library Connection Article Submission Guidelines is a thorough 9-page document, which does cover: illustration permission, writing style, grammar rules, etc.  The publishing Calendar lists themes for every issue. Some examples of themes from the publishing calendar are October 2018 “For Art’s Sake: Your New Best Collaborators,” November/December 2018 “We ♥Lit.”

Teaching Tolerance publishes three magazines a year and also publishes short articles on its website weekly. Librarians have presented at AISL conferences and Institutes on social justice, diversity, integration, and inclusion. These topics could be articles for the Teaching Tolerance website or magazine. Author guidelines are listed at Writing for Teaching Tolerance.

International Literacy association publishes The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly and Literacy Magazine. Each publication has a different focus. Literacy Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine that describes members accomplishments, instructional ideas, and reports on current topics, while focusing on personal teacher experiences. The Reading Teacher publishes evidence-based teaching tips and lessons. Reading Research Quarterly prints the latest research studies on reading. The International Literacy Journal Author Guidelines provide directions for  authors interested in writing articles for any of these three publications.

AISL has a cadre of gifted and talented librarians. Write for these publications, so that the world of education can benefit from your expertise. The publication group is available to  help you with the writing process.

The Publication Group
Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com
Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org
Dorcas Hand: handd51@tekkmail.com
Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org
Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com
Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org
Darla Magana: Darla.Magana@smes.org
Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org