For more ALA and library news on a daily basis, check the American Libraries website
or subscribe to our RSS feed.
|
|
|
|
Kristen Totleben (left) and Kathryn Deiss write: “Everyone can benefit from having a mentor—someone who takes an interest in your growth and development and provides you with experience-based wisdom. In September 2012 we began a traditional, mentor-mentee relationship. We agreed to meet in person at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting, where Kathryn also attended the President’s Program with organizational and community building expert Peter Block, who presented on the power of equality in relationships and communities.”...
American Libraries column, Jan./Feb.
|
|
ALA on January 28 announced the launch of Got E-Rate?, a new initiative that encourages library leaders to apply for internet discounts as part of the national E-Rate program. The initiative is a response to the Federal Communications Commission’s recent overhaul of the E-Rate program, which included adding $1.5 billion to the annual available funding. This infusion and other program changes provide new opportunities for libraries to radically rethink their broadband networks and begin to make gains toward the broadband speeds necessary for today’s and tomorrow’s library services....
District Dispatch, Jan. 28
|
|
Sponsored Content
Recorded Books is pleased to announce the launch of an online book club celebrating classic literature.
Free to both libraries and their patrons, the Literary Classics Online Book Club hosts online discussions of classic works via Facebook, Twitter, and the club’s blog. While books are selected from the Classics Collection on OneClickDigital (featuring free ebook and e-audio titles with unlimited simultaneous access), library patrons are also able to access the title in any format from any other source.
January’s discussions have already begun with the club’s first selection, Hamlet. |
|
|
|
|
Steve Zalusky writes: “The Pura Belpré Award is presented to a Latino writer and to a Latino illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children. The award, announced annually at the ALA Youth Media Awards presentation, is cosponsored by the ALSC division and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (Reforma), an ALA affiliate. The award honors Pura Belpré (right), the first Puerto Rican to be hired by the New York Public Library. She pioneered the library’s work with the Puerto Rican community.” Watch a livestream of the Youth Media Awards presentation on Monday morning, February 2....
I Love Libraries, Jan. 29
|
|
|
Sandi Fox writes: “Almost every morning at the Denver Public Library’s main branch, a group gathers on the fourth floor at the doors of the Community Technology Center, home to the library’s public access computers. Many of them are homeless or underemployed. But the DPL, like many city libraries, is a safe haven during the day, especially during winter months. Public libraries have long grappled with how to deal with and assist homeless patrons who bring a unique set of needs and challengers to librarians. ALA President Courtney Young says that in times of economic hardship, more people turn to and depend on libraries and librarians for help.”...
PBS NewsHour, Jan. 28
|
|
|
ACRL has announced the recipients of the 2015 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award: Santa Fe College, Lawrence W. Tyree Library (right), Gainesville, Florida; Amherst (Mass.) College, Frost Library; and Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, Indiana. Sponsored by ACRL and YBP Library Services, the award recognizes the staff of a college, university, and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution....
ACRL, Jan. 27
|
|
In September 2014 the Knight Foundation launched its 12th Knight News Challenge, on libraries, asking the question, “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” On January 30 the foundation announced 22 winners of that challenge, awarding the recipients a share of $3 million for their ideas. Several themes emerged among the winners, including focusing on digital rights and privacy, history and digital preservation, the maker movement, and open data. A recognition ceremony was held at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago....
Knight Blog, Jan. 30
|
|
|
Andy Baio writes: “For years, Google’s mission included the preservation of the past. But in the last five years, starting around 2010, the shifting priorities of Google’s management left its archival projects in limbo, or abandoned entirely. Two months ago, Larry Page said the company has outgrown its 14-year-old mission statement. Its ambitions have grown, and its priorities have shifted. Google may have dropped the ball on the past, but fortunately, someone was there to pick it up. The Internet Archive is mostly known for archiving the web, a task the San Francisco-based nonprofit has tirelessly done since 1996. But it does much more.”...
Medium: The Message, Jan. 28 |
|
|
ProQuest has unveiled the name of its new ebook platform: ProQuest Ebook Central. Launching in mid-2015, ProQuest Ebook Central will integrate key elements from both ebrary and EBL–Ebook Library, along with all-new functionality, delivering a next-generation experience for researchers and librarians. The platform will feature a user-centered design that will improve ebook research and management experiences. Product engineers are working in close collaboration with researchers and librarians to create a responsive resource....
ProQuest, Jan. 30
|
|
Ilene Cooper writes: “These multicultural fiction titles, reviewed in Booklist between February 1, 2014, and January 2015, look at people from different backgrounds, but their struggles are often universal. For example, God Loves Hair (Arsenal Pulp, 2014) by Vivek Shraya. The unnamed narrator, a Canadian son of Hindu immigrants, finally finds answers about his gender when he sees a statue of Lord Shiva depicted as half man, half woman. The evocative text is enhanced by lavish illustrations.”...
Booklist Online, Feb. 1 |
|
Mitch Fraas writes: “When acquiring early manuscripts these days, libraries mostly get them one at a time. It was with excitement then that my colleagues and I at the University of Pennsylvania read the catalog for the sale of some of the 12th Duke of Northumberland’s collection this past July. Among the treasures was a somewhat unassuming lot consisting of nearly 60 manuscript volumes from a single 18th century collector. These manuscripts had been left to the duke by his friend Charles Rainsford (1728–1809). Rainsford was not only a British general and sometime governor of Gibraltar but an avid alchemist and occultist, fascinated by everything from the philosopher’s stone to Tarot to Rosicrucianism.”...
Unique at Penn, Jan. 28 |
AL Direct is a free electronic newsletter emailed every Tuesday and Friday to personal members of the American Library Association.
|
|
Send news and feedback: aldirect@ala.org
Direct ad inquiries to: kbane@ala.org
AL Direct FAQ: americanlibrariesmagazine.org/aldirect
All links outside the ALA website
are provided for informational purposes only. Questions about the
content of any external site should be addressed to the administrator of
that site.
American Libraries
50 E. Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611
800-545-2433, ext. 4216
ISSN 1559-369X
|
