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MLA Style Manual

MLA Items

To top of page Academy of Health Information Professionals

MLA's peer-reviewed credentialing and accreditation program for librarians. Use the full name the first time it appears in text; use "the academy" thereafter. Do not use "the Academy" or "AHIP" as a shortened title of this program.

“AHIP” (always without periods) is only used following a person’s name to indicate academy membership. Insert “AHIP” after any academy member’s name in MLA publications.

Do not refer to "MLA certification"; "membership in the Academy of Health Information Professionals" is preferred.

To top of page acid-free paper

The MLA News, JMLA, and books produced by MLA are printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute standard Z39.48-1984, Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material. The JMLA indicates whether books reviewed are printed on acid-free paper by using the symbol for acid-free (¥ surrounded by a circle) at the end of the bibliographic statement for the title.

To top of page annual meeting

Use capital letters for the full name of a particular MLA annual meeting.

Ninety-first Annual Meeting
MLA's 1991 Annual Meeting

Beginning with the 1998 meeting, the preferred name for the annual meeting is MLA followed by the year ("MLA '08") for the MLA News, MLANET, in monographs, and other publications. When referring to the MLA annual meeting generally, do not capitalize.

The annual meeting has been held in Washington, DC, twice in the past five years.

In JMLA articles that have been presented at an annual meeting, set an asterisk at the end of the title, and insert the following footnote: "Presented at MLA [year], the [spelled-out ordinal number if less than 100] Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, [city], [state]; [month] [date], [year]." Follow this style for other meetings at which a JMLA article has been presented. See also "footnotes" in the Miscellaneous section.

Note: MLA did not have a seventy-sixth annual meeting. Because of an error in numbering during World War II, the number of each meeting now matches that of the year. For example, the Eighty-eighth Annual Meeting was held in 1988.

To top of page annual report

Use initial capital letters for the full name and all lowercase letters for secondary references.

Michael Reese Hospital Annual Report 1985
MLA Annual Report 2003
the annual report

To top of page Association Record

The usual parts of the Medical Library Association record are “proceedings” (of the annual meeting) and the annual “audited schedule of changes in net assets.” The proceedings for the previous year appears each January and the audited schedule in October of the same year in the JMLA.

To top of page awards, alphabetization of

Medical Library Association awards that are named after an individual are alphabetized according to the last name of the individuals the awards are named for, which is also used for a shortened version of the award name (e.g., the Janet Doe Lecture is shortened to the Doe lecture, not the Janet lecture, and therefore, alphabetized under Doe).

To top of page contracts and grants (footnote)

In JMLA articles that summarize results of research supported by National Library of Medicine grants, footnote the title of the article and use the following wording:

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health contract no. N01-LM-4-3511 from the National Library of Medicine.

Use the same format for contracts and grants from other sources, such as the National Science Foundation, private companies, universities, etc.

To top of page Janet Doe Lecture

This lecture is published annually, usually in the January issue of the JMLA. Footnote the article's title with "Janet Doe Lecture in History or Philosophy of Medical Librarianship, presented at the [spelled-out ordinal number if less than 100] Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, [city], [state], [month] [date], [year]."

To top of page Fellowship

MLA fellows use the designation "FMLA" following their name, following other degrees and credentials.

To top of page Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecture

This lecture is published irregularly in the JMLA, presented every other year at the MLA annual meeting and at NLM in alternate years. Footnote the article's title with "Joseph Leiter Lecture, presented at the [spelled-out ordinal number if less than 100] Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, [city], [state], [month] [date], [year]" or "Joseph Leiter Lecture, presented at the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, [month] [date], [year]."

To top of page received/accepted statement

Set the received/accepted statements in the JMLA after the author affiliation block in italics, flush left:

Received June 2008; accepted November 2008

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