LER Guidelines

Submission Process

Submissions to Library Exhibitions Review is open to all, and not limited to exhibition practitioners or library/information professionals. All submissions that meet our Reviewer Guidelines will be considered.

Prospective reviewers are invited to apply for reviews to arlisnaler@gmail.com. Selected reviewers will be contacted by co-editors by email. Completed reviews can be submitted by email to arlisnaler@gmail.com.

We are also accepting suggestions for exhibitions to review on a rolling basis. Suggestions can be submitted by email to arlisnaler@gmail.com.

For Reviewers

To avoid conflicts of interest, reviewers may not review their own exhibitions.

Reviewers must be able to complete their reviews in the time period assigned to them by their Library Exhibitions Review co-editors.

If a submission is received after a deadline, the co-editors reserve the right not to include the review in the given publication cycle. Co-editors reserve the right to not publish a review if it does not adhere to the guidelines sufficiently in advance of issue publication.

Review Criteria

The exhibition should be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Summary (background info and overview, no more than 150 words)
  • Visual Analysis (graphics, aesthetics)
  • Content Analysis (thesis, intention, curation, execution)
  • User Experience (use of technologies, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, accessibility)
  • Documentation (label writing, description, catalogs, etc.)
  • Pedagogical Value
  • Potential Impact

Reviewer Guidelines

Calls for Reviewers are distributed semi-annually by Library Exhibitions Review co-editors, along with a list of available exhibitions on the ARLIS-L listserv and various other communication resources.

Exhibitions to review will feature a library exhibition on display between 2022 and 2024.

Each review should be between 500 and 800 words in length.

Each review should be accompanied by at least one thumb-sized image, screen capture, or film still (jpeg/png, at least 72 dpi).

See Publishing Guidelines below for image permission specifications.

Editor Guidelines

All reviews will be edited by the Library Exhibitions Review co-editors. Reviewers will be able to preview their edited review before it is published. Co-editors will make all final editorial decisions. 

Grammar and style decisions will be determined by these manuals:

Publishing Guidelines

Each article will be given a DOI number through the ARLIS/NA Humanities Commons CORE deposit process.

Reviews will be attributed to the reviewer, and include their title, place of employment, and contact information.

First Name Last Name, Job Title
Employing Institution (if applicable)
email@emailaddress.com

(sample)

The reviewer must provide the images for the review of the exhibition. The reviewer is responsible for obtaining the permission of the exhibiting institution to include images in their review.

Contact LER

Questions? We can be reached by email at arlisnaler@gmail.com.