MLA Field Bibliographers
The MLA International Bibliography is compiled by MLA staff members with the assistance of volunteer specialists called field bibliographers. Field bibliographers add new citations to the bibliography by recording publishing information and defining their subject, content, and form.
Benefits
1. Service to the profession—students, scholars, teachers, and researchers.
Indexing for the MLA International Bibliography allows one to contribute to literary scholarship by ensuring that important texts are accessible to present and future scholars.
2. Deepened knowledge of a specialty.
Field bibliographers have the opportunity to read publications in their fields regularly, allowing them to keep aware of current interests, trends, and scholarship.
3. Exposure to new areas of inquiry.
Indexing allows bibliographers to broaden the scope of their knowledge. It educates them on new topics, which later become part of their teaching and their curriculum decisions.
4. Sharpening of research skills through notation and classification.
Field bibliographers gain invaluable insights into using libraries, the MLA International Bibliography, and other scholarly resources, insights that would be difficult to achieve any other way.
5. Institutional recognition.
Field bibliographers are credited on the MLA website. Upon request, the MLA can also provide a letter to a bibliographer’s dean, department head, or supervisor that emphasizes the value of the work being performed and the scholarly skills required by the service.
Please note that field bibliographer work is unpaid. Bibliographers may, however, apply for an MLA Bibliography fellowship.
Responsibilities
Field bibliographers may cover journals, books series, or stand-alone essay collections and monographs. Bibliographers are responsible for at least five periodicals (or enough for at least a hundred citations) per year and should have regular access to the material they cover.
Indexing of the MLA International Bibliography requires the bibliographer to assign descriptive terms in a consistent structure and to adhere to a standard citation format. Bibliographers submit their work online through the MLAIB production platform. All submitted material is edited and entered into the bibliography’s database.
Becoming a Field Bibliographer
Faculty members, independent scholars, librarians, and graduate students are welcome to contribute to the MLA International Bibliography. Through their contributions to the bibliography, they provide an important service both to individual scholars and to the international scholarly community. If you are interested in becoming a bibliographer, please send a letter indicating the area in which you would like to work along with your résumé to the address below.
MLA International Bibliography
85 Broad Street
New York, NY 10004
bibliography@mla.org
Field bibliographers are appointed by the executive director of the MLA.
Training
Field bibliographer training begins with the viewing of a series of recorded webinars on the use of the MLAIB production platform. Once this process has been completed, field bibliographers are trained individually by the MLA staff. These individual sessions take place through teleconferencing sessions during which each bibliographer becomes familiar with MLA indexing practices.
Field bibliographers are also encouraged to meet with a member of the MLA staff at the MLA Annual Convention; at one of the American Library Association semiannual conventions; or, if the bibliographer is located in the tristate area, at the MLA headquarters office in New York City. If bibliographers are not able to meet an MLA staff member in person, they can correspond with the field bibliographer training manager by e-mail.
Contributors to the Bibliography for 2024
Distinguished Bibliographers
Distinguished bibliographers are those who have contributed continuously for more than twenty years.
- Rebecca Day Babcock
- Steven J. Daniell
- Ann Willardson Engar
- Laura Fuderer
- Mark Groundland
- Lila M. Harper
- John M. Jeep
- James R. Kelly
- Moira Marsh (coordinator, Indiana University, MLA Folklore Bibliography Project)
- Paul Videsott
Senior Bibliographers
Senior bibliographers are those who have contributed continuously for more than ten years.
- Dan Coffey
- Liorah A. Golomb
- Kristiina Näyhö
- Michelle Oh
- Anka Sollner Perdih
- Pearlie Mae Peters
- Brian W. Vetruba
- Maria C. Willstedt
- Michael F. Winter
Field Bibliographers
- Amel Abbady
- Mohamed Abdulla
- Virginia M. Adán-Lifante
- Jahidul Alam
- Stacey Amo
- Allison E. Bernard
- Andrea Dawn Bryant
- Aedín N. Clements
- Luciana Cordo Russo
- Catherine J. Dean
- Paige Eggebrecht
- Pegah Eidipour
- Jen S. Fehsenfeld
- Brian C. Flota
- Kiyono Fujinaga-Gordon
- Angela Furry
- David E. García
- Grace Catherine Greiner
- Arianne Hartsell-Gundy
- Yuemin He
- Caroline Heafey
- Nancy Henaku
- Melissa A. Hofmann
- Angela L. Johnson
- Christopher Jotischky
- S. C. Kaplan
- Sweta Kumar
- Vesa Kyllönen
- Adam Lewis
- Jennifer Loring
- Andrea Malone
- Molly Susan Mathias
- Carmela Victoria Mattza
- Kristene K. McClure
- Britt McGowan
- Bradley McIlwain
- Craig Meyer
- Jessica Moore
- Shashibhusan Nayak
- Katrin Nielsdottir
- Brendan Nieubuurt
- Genta Nishku
- Sílvia Oliveira
- Haniyeh B. Pasandi
- Elizabeth M. Peterson
- Patawee Promsen
- Anne Ray
- Téa Rokolj
- Jessica D. Ryan
- Bruce T. Sajdak
- Bethany Sattur
- Shabana Sayeed
- Ana I. Simón Alegre
- Jacqueline Smith
- Troy Wellington Smith
- Daria Solodkaya
- Jennifer A. Strayer
- Rihuan Sun
- Caroline Tatem
- Murielle Sandra Tiako Djomatchoua
- Harismita Vaideswaran
- Amanda L. Watson
- Kevin Windhauser
- Mostafa Younesie
Assistant Bibliographers
- Yuan Chen
- Torie DiMartile
- Holly Mathews