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Marshall Breeding writes: “The exhibit hall at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference offered an almost complete representation of the technology products and services available to libraries in North America. For technology providers, the conference is an opportunity to showcase products to more than 20,000 attendees. Those considering resource management systems, discovery services, ebook lending services, or digitizing equipment can get a firsthand glimpse of the available options.” Read AL’s wrap-up of Annual Conference events, “Pride and Diversity at Annual 2015.”...
American Libraries features, July 22–23 |
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Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (left), professor and coordinator for information literacy services and instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Sara Gaar Laughlin, retired director of the Monroe County (Ind.) Public Library in Bloomington, are the candidates for the 2017–2018 ALA presidency. Hinchliffe has been an ALA member since 1993 and served as the 2010–2011 president of ACRL. An ALA member since 1980, Laughlin served as the 2013–2014 president of ASCLA and was a member of ALA Council in 1991–1995. A slate of 60 candidates for ALA Council has been drawn up....
Office of ALA Governance, July 22–23 |
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A Louisiana school librarian was able to jump in front of her best friend, a teacher, and shield her from a hail of bullets as an unhinged gunman opened fire on a packed movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, on July 23. Both Jena Meaux (right), a teacher-librarian at Jeanerette (La.) High School for 21 years, and Ali Martin, an English teacher at the school, were shot in the leg, but Martin was able to drag her way to a fire alarm and pull it. Meaux’s son said his mother was recovering from her wound....
New York Daily News, July 24; Lafayette (La.) Daily Advertiser, July 24 |
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The French police have detained a low-level employee of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in connection with the disappearance of a collection of 43 engravings by 16th-century artists valued at up to $4.4 million. It was the second theft uncovered at the library this year. Earlier this summer, the library told the police that about twenty 300-year-old maps had vanished from its Richelieu-Louvois branch....
New York Times, July 22; Metro International (Paris), July 23 |
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A Qur’an manuscript held by the University of Birmingham in the UK has been placed among the oldest in the world thanks to modern scientific methods. Radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment on which the text is written to the period between 568 AD and 645 AD with 95.4% accuracy. The test was carried out in a laboratory at the University of Oxford. The result places the leaves close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between 570 AD and 632 AD....
University of Birmingham, July 22 |
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San Diego philanthropist Audrey Geisel has donated $3 million toward the renovation of UC San Diego’s Geisel Library, named after her and her late husband, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel. The renovation initiative will include a reconfigured lobby entrance, a significant upgrade to the existing Learning Commons, a new Research Commons, a cafe and lounge, new technologies, and significant enhancements to furniture, carpeting, and finishes....
San Diego (Calif.) Union-Tribune, July 22
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Each year, the Institute of Museum and Library Services presents select museums and libraries with the nation’s highest honor, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. IMLS is now accepting nominations for the 2016 award, which recognizes libraries and museums that make significant and exceptional contributions in service to their communities. Nomination forms are due October 1....
Institute of Museum and Library Services, July 22
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Jessamyn West writes: “The Librarian of Congress position is open. Most librarians don’t want this job, but we do care deeply about who is appointed to the position. The position comes with a lot of leeway to focus on various aspects of librarianship. Recent Librarians of Congress have accomplished many things in addition to the day-to-day work of managing a huge staff and what is arguably the world’s largest and most international library. Here are some examples.”...
Medium: The Message, July 17 |
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The Black Caucus of the American Library Association has announced the lineup of speakers and programs for its ninth National Conference, August 4–8 in St. Louis. Sociologist, filmmaker, and host of History Detectives Tukufu Zuberi will provide the opening session keynote, and bestselling author Walter Mosley (right) will be the closing-session speaker. Other highlights include an author luncheon on the African American experience in graphic novels and a jazz brunch after the closing session....
Black Caucus of the American Library Association, July 21 |
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The new OCLC Community Center offers a place for library staff to connect online, share best practices, stay up to date on new product releases, and contribute ideas to improve OCLC services. Introduced to user groups at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in June, the Community Center is now available to users of WorldCat Discovery Services, WorldShare Management Services, and other WorldShare services. More OCLC services will be added to the Community Center in the future....
OCLC, July 22 |
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Daniel Terdiman writes: “Americans want privacy online, and in the post-Edward Snowden/NSA era, we’re more vocal than ever about that, even if we may have no clue how to get what we want. It’s clear, though, that once we put information online, on banking sites, on medical sites, on dating sites, and on social media sites, we may lose that control. There is no clearinghouse for deleting data, and there are countless companies making fortunes by using people’s private information to target focused advertising at them.”...
Fast Company, July 22 |
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Doreen Sullivan writes: “Libraries in more than 138 countries organize their resources according to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Once upon a time and yet not so long ago, LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex) topics have variously been assigned to DDC categories such as Abnormal Psychology, Perversion, Derangement, as a Social Problem, and even as Medical Disorders. Is it any wonder that someone browsing ‘similar’ library items in this area could feel alienated?”...
Overland Literary Journal, July 23 |
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Keith Stuart and Jordan Erica Webber write: “Hundreds of game developers, publishers, and analysts recently descended on Brighton for the annual Develop conference. There were some interesting forward-looking sessions, concerned with where the games industry as a whole is heading and the way the sector will operate as a business. Some of it is pretty weird. Here are the major trends that we picked up on, all of which could completely change the way games are made and played in the near future.”...
The Guardian (UK), July 23 |
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