SCOOP: Librarians Have the Write Stuff

Librarians who have faculty status or who are at institutions with some other promotional system are expected to provide evidence of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. The second of these – scholarship – is usually documented through writing for publication, editorial board service, or engagement as a peer reviewer. However, engaging in these scholarly writing activities shouldn’t only be for those librarians under an institutional mandate to do so. There are many reasons why librarians should write, edit, and review. In a 2013 article written for ACRL’s College & Research Libraries News, the author enumerates several reasons why librarians should write beyond the need to do so for promotion or tenure. Librarians should write in order to:

• share innovations and best practices,
• contribute to the knowledge base of the profession,
• stay current on new research innovations,
• learn new skills and knowledge,
• enjoy the satisfaction of professional accomplishment, and
• gain intellectual stimulation and fresh challenges.

These reasons are also compelling for theological and religious studies librarians who not only have innovations and best practices to share with one another but also to the larger profession of academic librarianship. Atla Open Press offers several opportunities to engage in scholarship as an author, editor, and reviewer:

Author with Atla Open Press

From book reviews to entire books, there are many opportunities to write for the publications of Atla Open Press.

Presenters at the upcoming Atla Annual are encouraged to submit their talks as papers to the Summary of Proceedings. What is expected of authors of Proceedings submissions as well as the how and when to submit were shared during webinars leading up to 2021 Atla Annual Online. All new webinars on submitting to the Proceedings are coming soon.

Are you a librarian working in an area of technical services? Then TCB would love to hear from you. TCB is seeking submissions to the new Perspectives & Practices section, where librarians and library staff can report on experiences, projects, processes, or trends in areas such as acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, serials and electronic resources (including open access resources), collection management, digital archives, and leadership and management in technical services. The editors of TCB are also seeking brief reviews of software and solutions implemented to support the work of technical services. Learn more on the submissions page of TCB.

Theological Librarianship is entering its fifteenth year as an open access journal publishing peer-reviewed articles, as well as essays and reviews, on subjects at the intersection of librarianship and religious and theological studies that potentially impact libraries. Currently, Theological Librarianship is seeking submissions for its upcoming forum on multimodal scholarship. If you are a student, there’s still time to submit to the annual student essay contest. And there are always titles available for review if you are interested in contributing your thoughts on a newly published print or electronic resource. The editors of Theological Librarianship welcome submissions year-round and encourage you to reach out if you have ideas for a forum or an article of interest.

Books@Atla Open Press has produced several exciting titles in recent months and welcomes proposals from potential volume editors and authors for new books. The editorial board is currently working on several projects, including a volume on library response to COVID-19, and will be issuing calls for chapter proposals soon. Stay tuned to the Atla blog and Press’s announcements page for these authoring opportunities.

Be an Editor with Atla Open Press

The publications of Atla Open Press succeed and thrive because of our editors. Participation as an editor is an important contribution to librarian scholarship. Editors not only review prospective submissions but also identify trends and topics of interest to theological and religious studies librarians and shape the policies and procedures of Atla Open Press.

At present, there are two vacancies with the Press: as an editor with Theological Librarianship and on the editorial board of Books@Atla Open Press. Applications are due soon, and we encourage our members to consider this opportunity to engage in the writing and publishing of scholarly library literature.

Reviewers Needed

During its annual strategic meeting in January, the Atla Open Press Advisory Council consulted with librarian and author Emily Ford on the topic of peer review. Atla Open Press is preparing peer reviewer guidance generally while the editorial boards of Theological Librarianship and Books@Atla Open Press are revising and implementing, respectively, peer review policies and procedures.

Serving as a peer reviewer is a critical way for librarians to participate in scholarly activities. To sign up to be a reviewer with our publications, please visit the respective publication’s page, and if you have not created an account before, please do so, and in your profile indicate your reviewing interests. If you have already created an account, please login to your profile and edit it to add your reviewing interests. If you have questions about creating or editing an account for one of our serials or books publications, you can contact us.

Additional Resources

Helen Fallon, the author of the Academic Writing Librarians blog, shares her personal reflections on writing as a librarian, in “The Librarian as Academic Author: a reflection” and also provides an excellent bibliography of other articles on the librarian as scholar and author. https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.505/

In this guide by Emerald Publishing, librarian author and editor Rachel Singer Gordon encourages all librarians and information professionals to think about what they want to say and what they have to contribute. https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/archived/librarians/writing/publish_index.htm

In the essay entitled “Professional and Scholarly Writing: Advice for Information Professionals and Academics,” the author offers several approaches to aid librarians in developing their scholarship portfolio. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/26605/

The SCOOP, Scholarly COmmunication and Open Publishing, is a monthly column published to inform Atla members of recent developments, new resources, or interesting stories from the realm of scholarly communication and open access publishing.