Tips for Managing Publication Proposals

Created by: IS Policy & Publications Review Committee
Approved by IS Executive Committee, March 22, 2013

Archiving Proposals

Institutional memory is essential in organizations whose membership changes frequently.  Regular, meticulous, well organized record keeping, expressed through well-defined protocols for document management and archiving behaviors serve as a mechanism for maintaining institutional memory.

The following protocols for discovering and archiving publication proposals produced by ACRL IS committees serve to record the genesis of proposals and alert IS membership about the publications that have been proposed. This process enables the Section to discover, document, and track the fate of proposed publications from their conception through revision(s) and/or retirement.

The IS Executive Archivist is responsible for soliciting and discovering proposals for ACRL IS publications.  Additionally, the IS Executive Archivist maintains the Publication Proposal Archive and regularly reviews and updates information regarding the status of both proposals and resulting publications.

Currently, only publication proposals that are reviewed by the IS Executive Committee and by the ACRL are tracked and recorded in the Publication Proposal Archive.  Informal proposals that require only a liaison approval are not added or tracked in the Archive.

The following sequence and cycle of activities performed by the IS Executive Archivist constitute the process used to maintain the Publication Proposal Archive.

Soliciting and discovering committee publication proposals:

After ALA Annual and Midwinter meetings, the IS Executive Archivist reviews the Publication Proposal Archive for publications that are due for revision or retirement.

In addition, the IS Executive Archivist consults with the IS Executive Committee regarding proposals that were recently approved, denied, or otherwise acted upon by the Executive Committee.

Processing publication proposals:

  1. Committees with new or revised publication proposals send completed proposal forms to their Executive Committee liaison, who forwards the publication proposal to the Executive Committee for consideration.
  2. Upon Executive Committee approval, the Executive Committee liaison requests a copy of the revised proposal from the proposing committee’s chair (if necessary).  The IS Executive Archivist adds the approved proposal to the Publication Proposal Archive in ALA Connect.
  3. The IS Executive Archivist notifies the proposing committee chair when the proposal has been added to the Publication Proposal Archive.
  4. After a publication proposal is approved, the proposing committee drafts the publication. The final draft is reviewed by the Executive Committee before it is published (in print or online).  After final approval, the IS Executive Archivist adds the final publication to the Publication Proposal Archive.
  5. Annually, soon after the approved Executive Committee meeting minutes are posted, the IS Executive Archivist reviews the list of Executive Actions to see if any additional publication proposals are mentioned that have not already been added to the Publication Proposal Archive. This information may also be used to update the status of approved and/or denied publications.

Maintaining the Publication Proposal Archive:

  1. After the ALA Annual Meeting, the IS Executive Archivist reviews the Publication Proposal Archive for approved documents requiring review/revision.
  2. Prior to the ALA Midwinter conference, the IS Executive Committee Archivist provide(s) IS Executive Committee liaisons a list of publications that are due for review, updating, or retirement. The IS Executive Committee liaisons charge the relevant committees with updating the documents, or appoint a task force if necessary (for example, for revisions to standards or guidelines).
  3. The IS Executive Committee liaison keeps the IS Executive Archivist informed about any changes to the status of documents that were identified for review, updating, or retirement. Before Annual conference, the IS Executive Archivist requests an update from  IS Executive Committee liaisons about all documents currently under consideration.
  4. After documents have been modified or retired, the IS Executive Archivist updates affected records in the Publication Proposal Archive.