Call for Submissions: 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries

The annual collaborative document, Best Practices for Government Libraries, showcases government librarians who are innovating and creating success in the workplace and beyond. The 2010 Best Practices for Government Libraries includes 70 articles and other submissions provided by more than 60 contributors from libraries in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, LexisNexis consultants, and more. Some of the authors have had their articles re-published in other journals and newsletters as well. Articles from Best Practices are posted on the Government Info Pro blog.

Here are a few examples of recent posts of Best Practices articles on the Government Info Pro:

• More Nancy Drew than Marian the Librarian by Jennifer L. McMahan, Supervisory Librarian, U.S. Department of Justice
• Parsing Digital Value in an Academic Library by Edwin B. Burgess, Director, Combines Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, and Deborah E. B. Keller, Reference Librarian, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Pilot Study as a Best Practice: Exploring the Value of the NIH Library Editing Service by Cindy Clark, Brigit Sullivan, Mary Ryan, and Verma Walker, National Institutes of Health Library, Office of Research Services, Bethesda, MD
• Showcasing the Value of the Library Through Social Media by Christine Sellers, Legal Reference Librarian, and Andrew Weber, Senior Legal Information Analyst, Law Library of Congress
• Strategic Planning and the Value of Libraries by Ellen Ensel, Director of Knowledge Management and Library Services, U. S. Institute of Peace

You can see the PDF version of the 2010 Best Practices here: 2010 Best Practices for Government Libraries: The New Face of Value. Earlier editions are also available in PDF from the right sidebar of the Government Info Pro blog.

In 2011, we look forward to seeing even more of your good ideas.

This year, the topic for the document is E-Initiatives and E-Efforts: Expanding Our Horizons. We seek examples of your efforts to create, provide, and showcase whatever e-efforts you have been working on: e-libraries, e-collections, e-services, e-pubs, e-programs, e-gov, e-everything. Your submission could be electronic or hard copy, cutting-edge or time-tested but with a new twist, in place or conceptual, in the workplace or in the community.

The scope of submissions is only limited by your imagination. In past years, we have received: program descriptions and promotional materials, planning documents, websites and blog entries, video, displays, original articles, tips and techniques, testimonials, awards, and personal observations on the topic.

I particularly want to encourage you to consider the submission of a short, original article on the topic of E-Initiatives and E-Efforts from any angle: library, organization, profession, or personal.

For the 2011 edition of Best Practices, please submit your electronic documents to Marie Kaddell by email or mail hard copy contributions to Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis, Suite 600, 1150 Eighteenth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. Best Practices will be published this spring. The deadline for submission is April 29, 2011. If you have any questions about the 2011 Best Practices collaborative document, please do not hesitate to contact me.

This is your opportunity to step into the spotlight! Take advantage of it and share your successes, your ideas, and your wisdom. I am looking forward to seeing a broad spectrum of content again this year and I hope you will make it a point to participate. Share! Write! Get Published!