Frequently Asked Questions

How do I submit a question?

You should ask us anything! We cannot answer every question, but our goal is to publish an answer within two weeks, including edits from peer reviewers. We will never publish the name or location of the original letter writer. We encourage you to participate in the conversation with other librarians. You, alone, are allowed to call yourself OP in the comments field.

Where are the webinars located?

You can find the YouTube channel, PAM LLAMA, here.

How can I contribute a briefing?

We are frequently looking for additional authors, as we have far more questions than we have answers. As an author, your job will be to send people away with the tools to address these decisions on their own in the future. You want to help the OP diagnose the problem. You might provide resources, personal experiences, or best practices. You can create a “Choose Your Own Adventure” response when you would normally seek clarification from the OP. Does this sound like fun? If you are interested in serving as an author, please contact the Editor in Chief.

What are the editorial board’s responsibilities?

The editorial board is responsible for selecting questions for authors to address, soliciting and identifying outside authors, reviewing briefings and responses to promote witty and intelligible comments, and assessing the performance and impact of the blog.

Each editorial board member will write at least (2) briefings per quarter, and will solicit authors for (2) additional posts per quarter. You will identify gaps in questions or topics, and will strategize new directions and new questions to cover. You might mine questions and themes from the webinars; are we seeing trends and recurring questions or issues that an author should examine in more detail? You will provide a peer review of (12) briefings per year.

You will be assigned individual briefings to monitor the comments and feedback. Salty and challenging questions are fine; ad hominem attacks are for idiots. Encourage the original poster (OP) to provide follow-up information within the comments.

Each board member will serve a two-year term. Experienced board members will serve as mentors to new board members, and only those actively contributing may be retained after their initial term. One individual board member will be assigned the final proofreading of briefings. The entire editorial board will collectively conduct an annual review of the blog’s impact. The board will review policies to ensure readers can remain active and engaged. It will select the editor, who will lead the board for two years and help identify new members of the board.