The author of five professional books and 60+ journal articles, Carl is a past president of the American Association of School Librarians, the Association for Indiana Media Educators, and the Indiana Library Federation. Carl served on the Randolph Caldecott Award Committee in 2014, and his school library program at North Elementary School (Noblesville, IN) was the recipient of the AASL National School Library Media Program of the Year Award in 2007. He is also one of the co-editors of the ABC-CLIO journal, School Library Connection.