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On October 29, ALA’s new public awareness campaign, Libraries Transform, will launch in Washington, D.C., and in communities and libraries around the country. Its purpose is to increase public awareness of the ways that libraries of all types transform people’s lives and our communities, shift perception of the library from obsolete to essential, and energize library professionals and advocates to influence local, state, and national decision-makers. Watch the video (0:44)....
ALA President Sari Feldman, Sept. 17 |
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Irene Ke, Kristine Greive, and Porcia Vaughn (right) write: “Academic librarians are well positioned to play an important role in retaining underrepresented and nontraditional students at our institutions. The University of Houston has more than 40,000 students from 137 nations. But with our six-year graduation rate currently at 48.1% and four-year graduation rate at 22.7%, we need more ways to help students. That’s where our library stepped in.”...
American Libraries column, Sept./Oct. |
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Sponsored Content
Banned Books Week celebrates YA books in 2015
Banned Books Week is the annual celebration of the freedom to read and will be observed in libraries, schools, bookstores, and other community settings across the nation and around the world.
Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading or listening to a banned book. See a list of some banned books available on audio from Recorded Books and check out these links on censorship.
Here are two additional resources:
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 Bailey Brewer writes: “Makerspaces, which have grown wildly popular in public libraries and now are appearing in academic spaces, give students affordable access to expensive tools such as laser cutters, sewing machines, and virtual reality technologies. Workshops are often offered to teach users a new craft or how to use a piece of machinery. In recent years the spaces have begun to appeal to larger audiences; at colleges, this means students coming from many fields of study.”...
American Libraries trend, Sept./Oct. |
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Terra Dankowski writes: “As many Americans reflect on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship on this Citizenship Day and Constitution Day, September 17, American Libraries takes a look at the role public libraries have had in the lives of immigrants seeking information, referrals, or a pathway to citizenship. A few libraries are going beyond the scope of traditional services, taking advantage of a unique provision under federal law that allows people who aren’t attorneys to administer legal services to immigrants.”...
AL: The Scoop, Sept. 17 |
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Alison Marcotte writes: “Some Iowa patrons who are visiting their local libraries can now come home not only with books and DVDs but also a renewed or replaced driver’s license or ID card. After a successful two-year pilot project to make driver’s license renewals easier for state residents via public kiosks, the Iowa Department of Transportation began implementing similar kiosks in 11 libraries in late May.”...
American Libraries trend, Sept./Oct. |
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Emily Rhodes writes: “Sikander and I are sitting at a small table in a small shed. The shed is filled floor-to-ceiling with books: chick lit, thrillers, and a neat set of Agatha Christies line the shelves, alongside a large atlas, a few dictionaries and grammars, and the thin green spines of children’s learning-to-read books. We are in Jungle Books, a library that British volunteer Mary Jones set up a few weeks ago in the migrant camp near Calais, France, known as ‘The Jungle.’”...
The Spectator (UK), Sept. 19; VersoBooks blog, Aug. 27 |
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The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, which fosters children’s love of reading and creative expression, celebrates the 28th year of its Mini-Grant program—and Keats’s 100th birthday—with a call for proposals that reflect the work and vision of the program’s namesake. Approximately 60 grants of up to $500 each will be awarded to qualifying teachers and librarians at public schools and libraries across the country. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2016....
Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, Sept. 15 |
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Abigail Phillips writes: “At the moment, I’m in the final months of working on my dissertation. This means writing and crying and writing. When I entered the PhD program, I had the lofty goal of becoming LIS faculty. Now, I’m uncertain. Indeed, I’m wondering how or even if I can go back to public libraries. What do PhD holders offer public and academic libraries? How do we apply to librarian positions?”...
Letters to a Young Librarian, Sept. 17 |
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Molly Wetta writes: “I’ve noticed a trend: There is more mature content in some YA books. Many books are being labeled with a 14 (or even 15 or 16) and up target audience, instead of 12 and up, the entire span of the traditional age designation of young adult literature. I sometimes worry that with the growing popularity of YA fiction for adult audiences, there will be a push to market YA to adult readers and the category will cater to them. YA literature should first and foremost be for teens.”...
YALSA The Hub, Sept. 18
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Dian Schaffhauser writes: “Faculty and librarians don’t see eye to eye. While nearly every single academic librarian (98%) thinks there needs to be better communication between the library and faculty, only 45% of faculty think the same. They even disagree on whether or not they work together to coordinate course reserves. While 57% of faculty say they do, 69% of librarians say they don’t. The only place they appear to agree with each other is on the preferred mode of communication—email.”...
Campus Technology, Sept. 15 |
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September 18 is International Read an Ebook Day, an annual celebration sponsored by OverDrive to raise awareness for digital reading. As with most other aspects of our lives, the ways in which we read books have undergone radical changes in the past few years. International Read an Ebook Day honors this digital shift in partnership with libraries across the world....
Digital Book World, Sept. 16 |
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Brady Dale writes: “With ebooks rising and print’s share declining, there’s a fierce debate about what ebooks should cost. The publishers recently won the right to raise their prices on Amazon at will, but signs suggest it’s not paying off. At least, if you measure the payoff in dollars. Evidence suggests higher prices may not be the best way to make more money in the digital literature market, but publishers may have other reasons for jacking up costs.”...
New York Observer, Sept. 14 |
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Paul St. John Mackintosh writes: “The sophistication, variety, and integration of in-car entertainment and operating systems is ever-growing. For eager consumers of audiobooks, in-car book listening will arise as an almost natural choice at some time. But how to do it safely? And is it safe in the first place? Overall guides on safe setup of Android and Apple systems for in-car use are widely available. When it comes to the specifics of audiobooks, Audible is the audiobook app of choice across all platforms.”...
TeleRead, Sept. 18; CNET, Dec. 25, 2014; Macworld, Nov. 11, 2014 |
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John Biggs writes: “If you’re like me, you have a lot of Mad Magazine books from the 1970s, a classic copy of Oui from 1979, and three Hungarian cookbooks. In other words, you’re a well-read individual. But how do you get those books onto your reading device? Shelfie, that’s how. Created by Peter Hudson and Marius Muja, Shelfie allows you to take a picture of your bookshelf and return a list of discounted or free ebooks for download.”...
TechCrunch, Sept. 18 |
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