Writing

Who are we?

On first reference, use South Dakota State Library. If short on space, SDSL is acceptable for subsequent references.

Acronyms

Spell out a term on first reference and use the acronym on subsequent references. Alternatively, you may add the acronym in parentheses behind the first reference and on subsequent references.

Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare (SPEW)

Titles

According to AP guidelines (including computer/video game titles, movie, opera, play, poem, album/song, radio/television program, lectures, speeches, and works of art)

• Capitalize principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
• Capitalize an article -- the, a, an -- or words of fewer than four letters if it is first or last word in a title.
• Capitalize principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
• Quotation marks around names of all such works except the Bible, the Quran and other holy books, and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. This also includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and similar publications. Do not use quotation marks around such software titles as WordPerfect or Windows.
• Magazine names are capitalized, and not in quotes. Lowercase magazine unless part of the formal title: Harper's Magazine vs Newsweek magazine.
• Names of most websites and apps are capitalized without quotes.
• Book titles shall be italicized and not in quotes. While this is not AP standard, this decision was made to further benefit our audience of educators and librarians.
  EXCEPTION: Braille and Talking Book Library pages will adhere to AP Style of quotes, but instead of italics, will use bold letters instead. This is to further benefit our BTBL audience.
  - November 2018

SDSL: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

BTBL: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

Dates and times

Spell out months when they stand alone or accompany only a year: June 2019. Don't use "of" or a comma between the month and year.

Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. when giving exact dates. Place a comma between the date and year: The training is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2019. Don't use "th" (17th).

For time zones, use CT or MT. Please note: press releases follow AP style, which requires CDT, CST, MDT, or MST. Daylight Time is spring/summer (after we "spring" ahead). Standard Time is fall/winter (after we "fall" back).

Job titles

Capitalize a job title if it precedes a person's name. Use lower case if the title follows the person's name.

The President of MACUSA and thus leader of American wizarding society was President Samuel G. Quahog by 2014.

Samuel G. Quahog, president, spoke at the meeting.

Numbers

Spell out one through nine and first through ninth. Use numerals for 10 and above and 10th and above.

Serial comma

Use the serial comma, except in press releases (AP style does not allow the serial comma). Place a comma after the second-to-last item in a series: The students played soccer, hockey, basketball, and dodgeball.