A summary is a good means of disseminating the information presented at the
program to a wider audience. Summaries are usually published in the CARL
Newsletter, and may now also be made available through the CARL Web Site.
A well-written summary reflects positively on the speakers and the sponsor and
may serve to interest readers in future programs. This task should be given
high priority.
Responsibility for writing the summary should be assigned before the program
and the summary should be prepared and submitted within one or two weeks of
the program. Cover the salient points made by the speakers, plus references
to handouts and audiovisuals used. The summary should be edited and proofread,
and then sent by email to the CARL Newsletter Editor and the CARL
Web Manager, with copies to the Regional Interest Group Coordinators (for IG
programs), the Regional Vice-Presidents and the ACRL Chapters Council delegate,
for representation in the articles submitted to the Chapters Council Newsletter.
The length of the summary should be appropriate to the presentations. As a guideline,
two to five typewritten, double-spaced pages (400-800 words, or a half-page
to a full page in the Newsletter), is the normal range, but shorter
or longer summaries are acceptable. Since a summary of any length is acceptable
for the Web Site, you may wish to submit a longer one for that platform, and
a shorter one for the Newsletter.
See recent issues of the Newsletter for examples of summaries and
for information about submitting items. Deadlines are posted in each issue and
strictly observed. The normal practice is to submit texts by email. If this
is not practical, and you have the file in electronic form, it is better to
mail a diskette instead of printing out the text and mailing it, so that the
Newsletter Editor or Web Manager need not retype the text.
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