Submissions

Young Adult Library Services publishes accessible, practical, and thought-provoking articles about serving young adults, ages 12-18, in public and school libraries. We welcome writing about library programming, technology, books and media, the library profession, and other topics of interest to library staff working with teens.

Feature articles can be as short as 1800 words or as long as 4000 words.

We are particularly interested in submissions that push librarians beyond our comfort zone and welcome authors who do not work in libraries but that have a connection to topics of interest to library staff serving teens. Articles that cover perennial topics such as young adult literature or managing teen spaces should take new perspectives or offer a fresh approach.

If you are interested in writing for YALS, please send a short query to the editor at yalseditor@gmail.com. Please describe your topic and approach and include a projected word count. Be sure to discuss why your article will be significant to YALS‘s readership and what makes you particularly suited to write this article (for example, “I doubled program attendance at my library with zero budget” or “I have been a member of my library’s Teen Advisory Group for two years”).

YALS is published quarterly. Please submit a query at least 3 months in advance of an issue’s publication date. We accept articles on a variety of topics but are especially interested in articles that fit each issue’s theme. Themes are selected annually by the publication's Advisory Board. 2017 themes are:

• Winter 2017 (submit query by September): Cultural Competence
• Spring 2017 (submit query by January): Advocacy
• Summer 2017: (submit query by March): Leadership Development
• Fall 2017: (submit query by July): Funder & Partner Development

Please note, if you are looking to submit research articles, YALSA has a research journal called The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults.