American Libraries

Ever wonder how American Libraries produces it's magazine? Here's one month in the life of a single article from beginning to end, in this case, Mary Pergander's column, Working Knowledge. The article, previously contracted, arrives on time, or close to it in the in box of the editor, in this case, Dan. Dan reads the email, which includes some notes from the author. Dan prints out the attached article, reads it, and makes some edits. Then it's off to Gordon to copy edit.

Gordon reads and for appropriate headlines, bylines, descriptions, author notes, pulled quotes, proper spelling, names, states, Web site URLs, contact information, even math. Once he's done, it's back to Dan. Dan looks at Gordon's edits and makes changes if necessary. Then he applies the magazine styles to the document and saves it on to the American Libraries shared hard drive. Then Dan clips on the cover sheet and sends the article to production, all the way across of the American Library Association building.

Tai loads the article from the shared space into Adobe InDesign, the desktop publishing program, where she makes all necessary text breaks, inserts photos, pulled quotes, and sidebars and arranges everything so that all looks good. If it's too long, she makes a note that the editor will have to cut something. Then she prints out the fancy new version and takes it all the way back to the editors. It's time for the first revise.

Pam takes the article from its slot and reads it, making sure all the copyediting was done correctly. Then she checks for proper subheads, pulled quotes, use of italics and bold face, unusual spellings, different kinds of dashes, and confirms the spellings of proper names and URLs. When she's done, it goes back into the box where Beverly picks it up. She checks for the exact same things, also taking notice of Chicago writing style, sense and grammar, and things like correct page numbers and dates. When she's done, it goes back to old you-know-who.

Dan looks at Pam and Beverly's changes and marks with changes he agrees or disagrees with, then it's off on another journey across the building. This time, Tai looks at the marked paper copy and makes each requested change. Often the changes alter the page arrangement and the text must be rearranged all over again. When she's done, she prints out a new copy and—guess what? Takes it back over to the editors. Meanwhile, Dan emails a PDF of the current draft to the author to make sure everything's looking all right. Sure enough, he gets a prompt email back that confirms that everything is a-okay. Now it's time for the page proof.

Greg picks up the article, makes sure production caught all of the editorial changes from the last version, and checks for errors in headers, floaters, vertical lines, drop caps, author spelling, bottom and top alignments, bad text breaks, and more. When Greg's finished, Leonard scoops it up and checks for all the same things, including sidebar and pulled quote alignment, indents, subhead placement, captions, and art credits. When he's done, it goes back once again, to good old Dan. Dan takes a look at the suggested edits and makes some tough decisions. Then he sends it back on its third trip across the building. So long, article.

Tai knows this column pretty well by now. She makes the changes, prints it out, and just like that, it's on its way back to Dan, who couldn't be more excited to read it one more time.

Meanwhile, Karen takes the entire issue that's in progress and hangs it on the wall. Remember, this is just one article and this particular issue has thirty new stories, nineteen ALA news stories, fourteen columns, twenty-three pages of features, and almost twenty more pages of other stuff. Hanging everything on the wall gives the entire staff a chance to see how the whole issue is coming together. Way to go, Karen.

Dan now holds the final proof in his hands. He checks the changes. Then he reads it once more, looking a final time at headers, footers, page numbers, names, alignment, text breaks, indents, subheads, captions, images, and everything else we mentioned before. Sometimes there are still some changes to be made. But this time, everything looks super. And look, there it goes, back across the building.

Now it's time for the whole editorial staff to get together and look at the entire issue one last time. They go page by page, looking for anything and everything that could be a little bit better. After making some last minute edits, the editors agree that the issue is finally finished. So now, Karen takes all of the notes and heads back across the building. After addressing all of the final changes, she's at last ready to convert the entire issue into a PDF and upload it to the Web site of the company that prints the magazine. With a few clicks of a button, the issue is off. Bon voyage!

Then life goes back normal at American Libraries, in other words, it starts all over again. But then comes the magical moment a couple weeks later, when a brown cardboard box arrives. Inside are the first issues of the new American Libraries. Look how excited they all are.

And look there on page seventy-two—that's the article Dan received in his email one month ago. Isn't it marvelous?