Write about Your Research

Turning Slides into a Children and Libraries Article

You’ve done it! You’ve presented at a conference. Your slide deck was beautiful, you only stumbled over a few words, and you got great audience questions at the end…now what? Do you go back to your office and simply go on with your day, referencing this presentation on your resume and maybe LinkedIn and never touch it again? No–you take that research you’ve already done and turn it into a written article for ALSC’s preeminent journal, Children and Libraries. 

Turning pre-existing research and programming into a publication is a great way to not only reinforce your own learning about the subject but help build you up as a subject matter expert and allow you to extend the impact of a one hour presentation to a wide audience. 

As an early career librarian obsessed with professional development, I got onto the conference circuit quickly. I pitched ideas I had only mostly researched, turned them into amazing slide decks, and then twiddled my thumbs before and after my presentation. Those research rabbit holes went mostly nowhere…until I found a way to take my presentations to the next level with publication. After a presentation on my mindfulness story time program, I turned it into a blog, and then I wrote about it for Programming Librarian, and then I wrote about it for another blog, and then I was asked to present on it again. Would any of those things have happened, and continued to happen for over a year, if I hadn’t written about my program? Probably not! My presentation was to maybe 120 people in a virtual Zoom room at LibLearnX. By writing about my program, it has now reached thousands!

The next time you’re putting together a conference proposal, think about the next steps after that presentation. How can you turn those beautiful slides into an article for a publication, like Children and Libraries? 

Step 1: Check the deadline! CAL accepts submissions on a rolling basis, but some publications have specific deadlines. We recommend sending your CAL submission to our editor, Sharon, as soon as you have it written, especially if it needs to be peer-reviewed. 

Step 2: Know Your Audience! A written piece has to achieve something different than a slide deck. If you’re writing for CAL, you’re writing for ALSC members, librarians, booksellers, and library service practitioners. That means you probably don’t need to define checkout, but you might want to give your own credentials for why you’re the subject matter expert on that type of program!

Step 3: Condense and Expand! Your presentation likely has the bones for your CAL article. Your next step is to go through and condense and expand where you need to to make a robust, engaging article. If you give a few book references in your slides, maybe you provide a short annotated bibliography in your article. Maybe you reference other research on the topic, or provide further anecdotes.

Step 4: Finalize and submit! Add photos if you have permission to use them, copy-edit and proofread, and submit your CAL article. Editor Sharon will be in touch with any edits or concerns, and will confirm publication date so you can celebrate once it’s available for all of ALSC to read!

What are you waiting for? I know you’ve got a slide deck sitting in your drive, just waiting to become a journal article!

Aryssa Damron is a school librarian in Washington, D.C. and the co-chair of the Children and Libraries Editorial Advisory committee. 

This post addresses ALSC Core Competency VII: Professionalism and Professional Development.

The post Write about Your Research appeared first on ALSC Blog.

 Turning Slides into a Children and Libraries Article You’ve done it! You’ve presented at a conference. Your slide deck was beautiful, you only stumbled over a few words, and you got great audience questions at the end…now what? Do you go back to your office and simply go on with your day, referencing this presentation on your resume and maybe LinkedIn and never touch it again? No–you take that research you’ve already done and turn it into a written article for ALSC’s preeminent journal, Children and Libraries.  Turning pre-existing research and programming into a publication is a great way to not only reinforce your own learning about the subject but help build you up as a subject matter expert and allow you to extend the impact of a one hour presentation to a wide audience.  As an early career librarian obsessed with professional development, I got onto the conference circuit…
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