The e-newsletter of the American Library Association | August 27, 2014

Free advocacy resources
ALA is offering free materials to help libraries improve their community engagement and facilitation techniques. The materials—conversation guides, questionnaires, worksheets, and webinars—are designed to help libraries strengthen their roles as core community leaders and work with residents to bring positive change to their communities. Copy and share them, free of charge, on the Transforming Communities website....
Public Programs Office, Aug. 25

Free tools for Library Card Sign-up Month
Celebrate Library Card Sign-up Month (September) with new downloadable tools and public service announcements designed to promote the benefits of a library card to the public. Tools include a sample press release, op-ed, proclamation, PSA scripts, and radio-quality PSAs. Legendary comic creator Stan Lee (above) is serving as the honorary chair of Library Card Sign-up Month....
Campaign for America’s Libraries, Aug. 26

How to conference like a champ
Amanda Yother writes: “Thanks to the kind people at ALSC and Penguin Young Readers, I was able to travel to my first ALA Annual Conference this summer. Tennessee-to-Nevada travel would generally not be in my public library’s budget, so I was thrilled to receive a stipend that helped with the cost of attendance. (Thanks again, Penguin!) Here are my top Annual Conference tips from a newbie.”...
ALSC Blog, Aug. 26

The Knapp School Libraries Project
Cara Bertram writes: “In 1962, the Knapp Foundation provided a $1,130,000 grant to AASL intended to raise the standards of school libraries. At that time, school libraries in the United States were notably substandard. While federal funds helped to fund school libraries in 1958, AASL realized that school libraries needed more than money to fix their problems. Improvements were needed in collection development, updates in technology, more staff, and renovations in facilities. The five-year project started in 1963.”...
ALA Archives blog, Aug. 25

Go back to the Top

Putting the user first
ACRL has published Putting the User First: 30 Strategies for Transforming Library Services by Courtney Greene McDonald, which provides 30 hands-on strategies, activities, and practical suggestions to enable the transformation of libraries and library services to a more responsive, effective, and user-centered model. These practical strategies are coded for cost, technology, physical space, personal practice, and organizational culture to easily identify areas of impact....
ACRL, Aug. 26

PLA Leadership Academy in Charleston
PLA is now accepting applications for the PLA Leadership Academy: Navigating Change, Building Community, March 23–27, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. This special event will offer intensive, empowering leadership education for public librarians who want to increase their capacity to lead not only within the library, but also in the community. The application deadline is September 30....
PLA, Aug. 26

Alex Haley Museum gets Literary Landmark
United for Libraries, in partnership with the Tennessee Historical Commission and the staff and board of the Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center in Henning, Tennessee, designated the museum a Literary Landmark during a celebration on August 9. More than 150 people joined the museum staff at the ceremony, held on what would have been the 93rd birthday of Roots author Alex Haley (1921–1992)....
United for Libraries, Aug. 25

United for Libraries welcomes Texas groups
Hundreds of Friends of the library groups, foundations, and boards of trustees in Texas are now group members of United for Libraries, thanks to a statewide membership purchase by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Texas joins Nebraska, Kansas, and North Dakota in purchasing memberships for the libraries in their states....
United for Libraries, Aug. 25

Go back to the Top

Nominations still open for I Love My Librarian Award
Nominations are open through September 12 for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award. The award encourages users of public, school, or academic libraries to submit nominations about how their librarian makes a difference on campus or in the community. Up to 10 librarians will be selected. Each librarian will receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque, and a travel stipend to attend the awards ceremony and reception in New York City....
I Love Libraries

Teen librarian wins YALSA Symposium stipend
Rebecca Ruberg, a teen librarian at the Burlington (Iowa) Public Library, won the 2014 Young Adult Literature Symposium worker stipend from YALSA. The stipend provides Ruberg with up to $1,000 to attend the 2014 symposium, to be held November 14–16 at the Hyatt Regency Austin in Austin, Texas....
YALSA, Aug. 22

Apply for a Penguin Young Readers Group Award
ALSC is accepting online applications for its 2015 Penguin Young Readers Group Awards. Made possible by an annual gift from Penguin Young Readers Group, the award provides a $600 stipend for up to four children’s librarians to attend their first ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The deadline for submissions is October 1....
ALSC, Aug. 26

2014 James Tait Black Prizes
A novel inspired by the daily toil of a shepherdess and the biography of a Booker prize-winning author have won the UK’s oldest literary awards. Novelist Jim Crace (Harvest) and biographer Hermione Lee (Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life) have been awarded the James Tait Black Prizes. The prizes are worth £10,000 ($16,580 US) and have been awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh since 1919....
BBC News, Aug. 23

2014 American Poets Prizes
The Academy of American Poets has announced the winners of its 2014 American Poets Prizes. Robert Hass has received the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award for outstanding mastery in the art of poetry. Rigoberto González’s book Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013) has won the $25,000 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year....
Academy of American Poets, Aug. 26

Go back to the Top

Earthquake knocks books off Napa library shelves
Early on August 24, the Northern California city of Napa was hit by a 6.0 earthquake, the largest in the region since 1989’s destructive Loma Prieta quake. The temblor caused books to be knocked off the shelves at all four branches of the Napa County Library, which reopened after cleanup on August 27 (except for the Calistoga branch). Library Director Danis Kreimeier (right) said there was no structural damage to the main library, but the district attorney’s staff is setting up in the library’s meeting room, as their office was completely trashed, including water damage to files and records....
Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy, Aug. 25; ALA Think Tank, Aug. 26; Napa County Library

Pastor wants vampire books removed
A minister is leading a petition to have certain books removed from the shelves of the teen section at Austin Memorial Library in Cleveland, Texas. The books include Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, the House of Night series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, and other YA books that have a theme of vampires in relationships with young teens. Phillip Missick, pastor of King of Saints Tabernacle, is concerned that these books do not build a teen’s character in a positive way....
Cleveland (Tex.) Advocate, Aug. 21

LC acquires unique Civil War image
Michael E. Ruane writes: “This striking 150-year old tintype (right), one of the most enigmatic images from the Civil War, was just donated to the Library of Congress by a collector who bought it to give to the library. It can be found in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photos. The 1861 photograph shows Sgt. Andrew Martin Chandler of the 44th Mississippi Regiment and his ‘servant,’ Silas Chandler, who was one of 36 slaves owned by the soldier’s mother. The photograph presents modern Americans with an enduring image of the role of race in the US.”...
Washington Post, Aug. 24

Panel approves California State Librarian choice
The son of a former California Supreme Court justice won approval August 20 from a state senate panel as the new California State Librarian after initial concerns that he had never worked in the field and had no formal training as a librarian when he was nominated. Gov. Jerry Brown had named Greg Lucas (right) of Sacramento to the $143,000-a-year post in March. Lucas said he began studying for an online MLS degree from San Jose State University in August....
Associated Press, Aug. 20

Oldest US public library in danger of closing
The oldest continuously operating free library in the United States is faced with another cash crunch, which could cause the facility to close its doors for good before the end of the year. The Darby (Pa.) Free Library (right) has been around for 271 years, but officials say they may have to radically change their operations if they can’t find money for their everyday expenses and some capital improvements....
KYW-TV, Philadelphia, Aug. 27

Montgomery library staff take the ALS challenge
At the end of 12-month training with Auburn Montgomery’s Alabama Training Institute on becoming a next-generation library, employees of the Montgomery (Ala.) City County Public Library celebrated on August 21 by taking part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge at the Morgan Branch Library downtown. The group has challenged all other library systems in the state. Watch the video (0:16). Other library folk getting under the ice bucket include Noyes Children’s Library in Kensington, Maryland; Boone Area Library in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania; Dean B. Ellis Library at Arkansas State University; Niles (Ill.) Public Library; and EBSCO....
Huntsville (Ala.) Times, Aug. 21; Bethesda (Md.) Magazine, Aug. 25; Southern Berks (Pa.) News, Aug. 23; YouTube, Aug. 21, 24; Vimeo, Aug. 22

Brooklyn launches personal recommendation service
The Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library quietly launched a service in August to provide readers with personalized recommendations. Readers need only fill out an online form with a few of their favorite genres, authors, and books. The forms are then fielded by a team of 35 librarians, who scour their databases and memories for suggestions. This is personal attention at its finest: There’s no reliance on algorithms or any other now-ubiquitous computerized shortcuts....
New York Daily News, Aug. 25

The loss of public libraries in the UK
The remorseless destruction of our national public library system continues. Librarians are sacked, books sold or thrown away, and buildings closed. Unison estimates that nearly 500 of the country’s 3,100 libraries are being cut. No one expects things to get better, or even to stop getting worse. But it did not need to happen like this. The collapse marks a failure of will and imagination, not an inevitability....
The Guardian (UK), Aug. 25; Liverpool (UK) Echo, Aug. 15

Doris Lessing donates books to Zimbabwe library
In 2007, British novelist Doris Lessing (right) became the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. During her acceptance speech, she reminisced about a visit in the early 1980s to a school in Zimbabwe, a country where she lived for a quarter of a century and which she explored in vivid prose. Now more than 3,000 books from Lessing’s personal collection (biographies, histories, reference books, poetry, and fiction) are to be donated to the Harare City Library in the capital. Lessing died in November 2013....
The Guardian (UK), Aug. 26; New Zimbabwe, Aug. 23

Go back to the Top

Streaming media and the future of libraries
Steve Kolowich writes: “Content licensing is a great source of anxiety for librarians in the digital era. Old-fashioned media—books, tapes, CDs—are governed by the first-sale doctrine, a legal provision that allows a buyer to do whatever she wants with a copy. The licensing of digital media, however, gives publishers far more power. Instead of selling an item outright, they can sell permission to access its contents for a fixed amount of time. The licensing model stands to become the norm as physical media get phased out.”...
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Wired Campus, Aug. 22

Contracts and copyright
Nancy Sims writes: “This post is spurred by a number of conversations I’ve had recently with close friends and more distant acquaintances about use or publication of archival materials and materials from subscription databases. Rick Anderson’s thoughtful essay, Asserting Rights We Don’t Have, was also a contributing factor to this post. As far as I can tell, Rick’s post is 100% correct in the statements he makes about law. But it may be worth putting some of those points into very concrete form.”...
Copyright Librarian, Aug. 25; Peer to Peer Review, Aug. 21

The academic book of the future
The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Library are launching a two-year research project that will explore the future of academic books in the context of open access publishing and continuing digital change. A multidisciplinary team will engage with the publishing and academic communities to better understand the current landscape of academic publishing. The project will have a significant impact on the research, library, and publishing communities and generate new evidence and dialogue that will inform policy in scholarly communications....
British Library, Aug. 18

Go back to the Top

Three things you can do with Google Classroom
Nikolaos Chatzopoulos writes: “Google’s advance in the education field has brought to schools around the globe affordable devices and effortless access to educational content. Google’s latest solution for learning is called Google Classroom, which will be available at the beginning of the school year to all schools that have adopted Google Apps for Education. I am impressed with its ability to seamlessly integrate Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail to provide a wonderful and highly productive user experience.” Some other Classroom first impressions are here....
Edudemic, July 23, Aug. 24; The Chronicle of Higher Education: ProfHacker, Aug. 26

Librarianship unplugged
Amanda Hope Davis writes: “A few months ago at work, at approximately 10:30 a.m., the internet went down and service was not restored until about 4 o’clock that afternoon. I work at a public library where many of the patrons are there specifically for using the internet, which is also my main source of ready reference answers. Here is a small sampling of the ways in which librarians and information professionals can tap into library offerings that don’t involve computers or Wi-Fi.”...
Hack Library School, Aug. 26

Bootstrap responsibly
Michael Schofield writes: “Library websites that aren’t responsive feel dated. More importantly, they are missing an opportunity to reach a bevy of mobile-only users that in 2012 already made up more than a quarter of all web traffic. Library redesigns are often quickly pulled together in a rush to meet the growing demand from stakeholders, pressure from the library community, and users. The sprint makes the allure of frameworks like Bootstrap that much more appealing, but Bootstrapped library websites often suffer the cruelest of responsive ironies: They aren’t mobile friendly at all.”...
ACRL TechConnect Blog, Aug. 27; TECHi, July 13, 2012

Storage gets cheaper
Christina Warren writes: “The cloud wars just got even more serious. On August 27, Dropbox announced big changes to its Dropbox Pro offering, including more storage space and better sharing options. The company’s new pricing matches similar moves by Google and Microsoft and makes Dropbox Pro one of the cheapest ways to get a terabyte of storage, though still more expensive than Microsoft OneDrive for Business.”...
Mashable, Aug. 27

The best tune-up utilities
Jeffrey L. Wilson writes: “A tune-up utility, at its most basic, is an application designed to defragment your PC’s hard drive, fix the incredibly problematic Windows registry, and delete useless and duplicate files. Some tune-up utilities do only those things, while others go above and beyond the call of duty to improve your PC in interesting ways. This tune-up utility collection doesn’t include every single system-enhancing tool on the market—just the best.”...
PC Magazine, Aug. 18

EBSCO eBooks incorporate Choice outstanding titles
An agreement between Choice magazine, an ACRL publication, and EBSCO Information Services will highlight the EBSCO eBooks that have been named Choice Outstanding Academic Titles. This agreement will allow librarians to easily identify and acquire the titles that have been designated as excellent in presentation and scholarship, bringing exceptional support to the research of their students and faculty and increasing the value of their overall library collection....
EBSCO, Aug. 26

Study: Readers recall less from ebooks than in print
A forthcoming study by researchers in France and Norway has found that readers using a Kindle are significantly worse than paperback readers at recalling when plot developments occurred in a mystery story. The study gave 50 readers the same short story by Elizabeth George to read. Half read the 28-page story on a Kindle, and half in a paperback. Readers were then tested on aspects of the story including objects, characters, and settings....
The Guardian (UK), Aug. 19; New York Times, Aug. 13

New Kobo e-reader is waterproof
Darrell Etherington writes: “Kobo has a new e-reader out that offers waterproofing as a standard factory feature and a high-res, 265-dpi, 6.8-inch e-ink display. The Kobo Aura H2O basically takes the already impressive Aura HD, makes the design thinner and lighter, and adds IP67 environmental resistance, which is a tough package to beat.”...
TechCrunch, Aug. 27

NCSU Libraries offer grants for alternative textbooks
The North Carolina State University Libraries are inviting faculty to apply for grants to adopt, adapt, or create free or low-cost open alternatives to today’s expensive textbooks. Ranging between $500 and $2,000, the competitive Alt-Textbook grants will be awarded to help faculty pursue innovative uses of technology and information resources that can replace expensive traditional textbooks. Larger grants may be available for especially high-impact projects....
NCSU Libraries News, Aug. 21

Book jackets in the digital world
Peter Mendelsund writes: “As we spend more of our reading time in digital, disembodied, notional environments where texts lack differentiation and may easily leach into one another unconstrained, covers (and physical books in general) remain part of an anxious cultural effort to corral and contain the boundless. The cover is a skin, here, in the sense that it provides a book with a unique face, and in so doing, it helps establish a text’s unique identity.”...
Slate: The Eye, Aug. 7

2014 Annual Conference and Exhibition, Las Vegas, June 26–July 1. Look back at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference, enjoyed by 18,626 attendees and exhibitors. Enjoy American Libraries coverage. Get the Cognotes highlights. Looking for handouts? See you in 2015! Bundle registration opens on September 9.

What would they read? That ’70s Show
Brandi Smits writes: “It’s time once again to consider what books our favorite TV characters would read. While reading isn’t boring, it’s not that exciting to watch. This month I decided to bring the past to the present. Our six beloved teens from the 1970s probably read the classics like The Hardy Boys and books by Judy Blume. It definitely makes me wonder what books the gang from That ’70s Show would read if they were teens today.”...
YALSA The Hub, Aug. 25

50 recommended essays
Emily Temple writes: “Humans are striving creatures, and also empathic ones, so most of us are always looking for an opportunity to improve ourselves, even in tiny, literary ways. If you’re looking for a more direct shot to the heart than a novel, try an essay. Here are 50 essays more or less guaranteed to make you a better person—or at least a better-read one—some recommended by notables of the literary and literary nonfiction world, others by yours truly.”...
Flavorwire, Aug. 25

3D storybooks for visually impaired children
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have designed a series of children’s books for the visually impaired. U-Boulder’s Tactile Picture Books Project uses 3D printing technology to turn classic children’s books, including Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon and Harold and Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon, into books with three-dimensional tactile experiences....
GalleyCat, Aug. 25; Be Boulder, June 23

100 odd titles of real 18th-century books
Graduate student Lawrence Evalyn has put together an intriguing list of oddly titled 18th-century books. Titles range from The Adventures of an Irish Smock, Interspersed with Whimsical Anecdotes of a Nankeen Pair of Breeches, to “I Can’t Afford It” and Other Tales, and Who Is the Bridegroom? or, Nuptial Discoveries....
The Toast, Aug. 6

Classic first lines in emoji
Slate has translated 12 famous first lines from novels into emoji characters. Can you name them?...
Slate, Aug. 27

NN/LM Library Disaster Readiness Test
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine offers a Library Disaster Readiness Test. On a sheet of paper, give yourself a tick mark for each time you answer yes to one the 15 elements of a library at a state of disaster readiness. Add up your score. Most libraries will score between 0 and 5. The NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Initiative provides tools and training to create a disaster-ready culture in libraries so that scores will be above 10....
NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Initiative, Aug. 5

Outside the Lines Week
Outside the Lines, a celebration scheduled to take place September 14–20, is designed to help people understand how libraries have changed into dynamic centers for engagement. Participating organizations will connect with their communities through creative, unexpected activities meant to demonstrate how libraries are more relevant than ever before. More than 125 organizations from across the US and Canada have signed up to participate....
Programming Librarian, Aug. 26

Six alternative web browsers
Victor Clarke writes: “Most alternative browsers are remade versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Internet Explorer, all of which are highly customizable. But some alternative browsers can provide additional functionality for people who don’t want to bother with installing add-ons. Here are some that might be worth your attention, based on what you need from this kind of software. You won’t have to abandon your primary browser and completely switch to an alternative.”...
GigaOM, Aug. 24

Lunch at the library
Renee Grassi writes: “There are many ways for us to serve the underserved in our library communities. Whether we provide outreach in local preschools or daycares, visit incarcerated youth, or serve children with disabilities, outreach is a crucial part of inclusive library service. This summer, the Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Public Library served—quite literally—children with a different type of need. Here’s a brief look at some statistics and information about hunger in our communities.”...
ALSC Blog, Aug. 26; Feeding America

Twitter feeds for job seekers
Kiersten Bryant writes: “Need career or job hunting advice? Looking for a new job? Make social media work for you and use Twitter. Twitter is a great resource for finding out about job openings when they first become available, and sometimes they are posted on Twitter before they are listed anywhere else. Here are some Twitter feeds to follow.”...
INALJ, Aug. 26

So you want to be a corporate librarian?
Leslie Howerton-Hicks writes: “Like most corporate librarians I didn’t go to library school to become a soulless corporate drone (joking). My background is in archaeology and museum studies, and I have always been interested in the more specialized side of librarianship. I will warn you that not all corporate gigs are as good as mine. But they are out there! Many companies have librarian or archivist positions. You just have to look for them. Intel, Ralph Lauren, Fossil, Microsoft, Apple, all have librarian positions.”...
Letters to a Young Librarian, Aug. 21

Download free résumé templates
Mihir Patkar writes: “A good résumé can land you that job interview, so you want to stand out. If formatting a résumé isn’t your thing, Hloom has 275 free Microsoft Word templates to download. The templates are spread across different categories, thus catering to different job types. All the templates are a standard A4 page or US letter size, and made in Microsoft Office 2010 with the office suite’s default fonts.”...
Lifehacker, Aug. 21

Bugs in books
Sarah J. Biggs writes: “Even the most cursory glance over the pages of medieval manuscripts will reveal a plethora of insects. Bugs are everywhere; although we hasten to add that we are extremely vigilant about avoiding the presence of any actual living insects within the pages of our books. But there has been little comprehensive scholarship about the appearance of such creatures in medieval manuscripts. Insects usually live literally in the margins, often not even appearing in catalog entries despite their profusion.”...
British Library: Medieval Manuscripts Blog, Aug. 26

Seven things librarians are tired of hearing
Ellyssa Kroski writes: “We’ve all heard them. Probably more than once or twice. These are the reactions and responses librarians receive when they introduce themselves to those who aren’t in the field. It’s amazing the ways people respond when I tell them I’m a librarian. I assure them, however, that we are somehow soldiering on in the library field, along with all of the doctors who are still attempting to stay relevant in spite of WebMD.”...
iLibrarian, Aug. 25

Go back to the Top