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Marshall Breeding writes: “Developers and librarians are working together to create a radically new, open source library services platform (LSP) aimed at transforming the technology academic libraries rely on. Backed by a multimillion-dollar contribution from EBSCO Information Services, the participants plan to fast-track production of the software, with early versions available by early 2018.”...
American Libraries feature, Apr. 22 |
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Larra Clark writes: “It was a standing room only crowd at the April 20 confirmation hearing for Carla Hayden, President Obama’s nominee to serve as Librarian of Congress, with the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The hearing was the first step in the Senate review process. Former Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes (and current Enoch Pratt Free Library board member) joined Hayden and Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) at the microphone to open the hearing.”...
District Dispatch, Apr. 20; Washington Post, Apr. 20; C-SPAN, Apr. 20 |
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At issue was nearly $3.5 billion in spending for basic operations of the House for the next fiscal year. But the bulk of an hour of debate in the April 20 appropriations bill markup was devoted to a two-word phrase the Library of Congress is trying to excise from its lexicon: ‘illegal alien.’ (Watch the video, beginning at 13:12.) A new rider to the bill could force LC to continue using “illegal alien” as a subject heading, a practice it canceled in March....
Roll Call, Apr. 20; Huffington Post, Apr. 21; US House Commmittee on Appropriations, Apr. 20 |
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The Department of Education issued a notice in the April 21 Federal Register clarifying that 50% of all Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant funds, more than $13 million, are reserved for use by school libraries. The department stated categorically that the 2015 Consolidated Appropriations Act committee report directed DOE to “ensure that no less than 50% of IAL funds go to applications from LEAs (on behalf of school libraries).” IAL grant applications are due by May 9....
District Dispatch, Apr. 21; Federal Register, Apr. 21 |
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Charlie Wapner and Alan S. Inouye write: “With a new presidential administration and Congress looming on the horizon, library policy wonks are laser-focused on one question: How can the library community position itself to ensure that our issues are on the national agenda for 2017? The ALA held its first-ever National Policy Convening in Washington, D.C., April 12–13, to explore these issues and cultivate possible collaborators. ALA President Sari Feldman chaired the event.”...
AL: The Scoop, Apr. 19; District Dispatch, Apr. 4
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Tennessee will not become the first state in the nation to make the Holy Bible its official book. An effort to override Gov. Bill Haslam’s veto failed to receive enough support in the House of Representatives on April 20. With a 43–50 vote, the House failed to give the Senate a chance to vote to override Haslam’s veto. The discussion on the bill was one of the longest of the session and featured four failed attempts to end debate, several references to Bible verses, one lawmaker citing slavery, and another mentioning Joseph Stalin....
The Tennessean (Nashville), Apr. 14, 20 |
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Author-illustrator Maurice Sendak’s only known extant mural has been given a new home in the Free Library of Philadelphia’s new South Philadelphia branch, which will reopen this summer in a new building at Broad and Morris Streets. Painted in 1961 in the bedroom of New York City’s Chertoff children and moved to the Rosenbach Museum several years ago, the Chertoff mural now promises to catch the eyes of visitors to the library starting on June 11....
Philadelphia Daily News, Apr. 22 |
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Melissa Chipman writes: “As if we needed another reason to mourn the death of music legend Prince on April 21, it turns out he helped preserve some Louisville history. Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library confirmed to Insider that in 2001 the musician donated $12,000 to support the library’s Western branch, which over the years had faced threats of closure. He asked that the award be kept silent.” The Western branch, which opened in 1905, was the first branch of any US public library system to offer service exclusively to African Americans....
Insider Louisville, Apr. 21 |
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The University of Connecticut signed a $4 million agreement April 21 to renovate and lease space at the Hartford Public Library for its new downtown Hartford campus. The center of the $140 million campus will be at the former Hartford Times property on Prospect Street, where construction is well underway. The nearby library will provide space for classrooms, a library collection, and study areas. UConn’s lease at the library will run 15 years and include annual payments to cover maintenance, security, and other operating expenses....
Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Apr. 20
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, artist Shepard Fairey, City Librarian John F. Szabo, and Cultural Affairs General Manager Danielle Brazell were joined by students from the Downtown Magnets High School on April 19 for the unveiling of the Los Angeles Public Library’s first-limited edition, artist-designed library card. Designed by artists Shepard Fairey and Cleon Peterson, the new library card features an illustration of the Central Library, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2016....
Los Angeles Public Library, Apr. 20
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Cat Johnson writes: “User-generated content is a growing focus for libraries, as tech platforms make self-publishing and alternative distribution easier than ever. ‘A library has become more than a place that purchases commercial books from standard publishers,’ said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. ‘Increasingly, a library is a place where people can create content and share it with other community members.’”...
Shareable, Apr. 6
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Roy Tennant writes: “OCLC has been working a lot with linked data in recent years, and we have described some of that work at a very high level in this space before. That work continues, but now we are also adding an educational component to that work. Since we want our member libraries to be able to take advantage of all of the linked data that is becoming available—both from us and from the world at large—we want to help library software developers understand the tools and strategies for consuming linked data.”...
OCLC Next, Feb. 8, Apr. 21
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