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ALA President Sari Feldman released a statement on June 13 regarding the tragic mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. “The library community is deeply saddened by the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando,” said Feldman. “Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends, and the GLBTQ community. We will work collaboratively with the leaders of ALA’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Round Table; ethnic caucuses; and Executive Office to discuss our expressions of support.”...
AL: The Scoop, June 13 |
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Peter D. Coyl writes: “The GLBTQ community has been rocked by this past weekend’s horrific act of violence in Orlando, Florida. It is troubling and scary to know that our community was singled out in a place where we gather. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Round Table has been working closely with ALA in response to this tragedy, and it is of paramount concern to ALA that its members and conference attendees are safe. ALA is working with our conference venue to ensure the safety and security of those who attend. Libraries can and should be safe places. Even if you are far from Orlando, there are those you serve who are affected by this tragedy.”...
AL: The Scoop, June 14; American Libraries feature, Dec. 11, 2012 |
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Misty Jones writes: “It all started with a chance encounter between a San Diego (Calif.) Public Library employee and a teen sleeping in a study room. The employee talked with her to see if something was wrong. There was: The teen had run away from home and had been lured into prostitution by a boyfriend-turned-pimp. It’s no secret that sex trafficking has been prevalent in San Diego, but the idea that these victims were right here in the library shook us. We designed a public awareness campaign to address the issue.”...
American Libraries Spotlight, June |
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Debra J. Knoll writes: “Babies, toddlers, and care providers are only one set of many populations served by children’s librarians. Nevertheless, baby brain research has galvanized the profession to do more. Librarians now realize that the impact they have on a baby’s development can influence a developing brain for a lifetime, and they are doing whatever it takes to make these early years happy and positive. The stakes here are high. After all, these are human lives growing and developing very quickly.”...
American Libraries feature, June |
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A federal appeals court on June 14 upheld a White House–supported effort to make internet service providers treat all web traffic equally, delivering a major defeat to cable and telephone companies. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the FCC’s latest net neutrality rules, which consumer groups and President Barack Obama had backed as essential to preventing broadband providers from blocking or degrading internet traffic. The court decision also upheld the FCC on the historic declaration of broadband as a utility, the most significant aspect of the rules. ALA President Sari Feldman issued a statement on the ruling....
Politico, June 14; New York Times, June 14; ALA Washington Office, June 14
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On June 13, the House passed the FOIA Improvement Act (S.337), sending the comprehensive reform bill to the president’s desk. The bill will update FOIA by codifying the “presumption of openness” established in President Obama’s Open Government Memorandum. It also requires that information be made available in an electronic format, limits to a period of 25 years the time that agencies can keep internal deliberations confidential, and creates a centralized online portal for FOIA requests....
American Association of Law Libraries: Washington Blawg, June 14 |
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Kevin Maher writes: “The Senate Appropriations Committee on June 9 delivered good news for libraries by increasing funding for LSTA Grants to States and National Leadership Grants to Libraries, while also providing level funding for Innovative Approaches to Literacy. The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee approved the bill on June 7 with no amendments or controversial policy riders.”...
District Dispatch, June 9 |
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Amy Koester writes: “Libraries are stepping in to combat summer food insecurity in their communities. Many work with established organizations to serve as a summer lunch site—an approved site for distributing nutritional meals to youth during the summer. Different libraries have aimed to adopt this approach in ways that meet the needs of their community and are viable for the library. For information on acting as a summer food service site, take a look at this informative toolkit from the USDA.”...
ALSC Blog, June 13 |
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Tim Challies writes: “Imagine if ebooks came first. Imagine if Gutenberg had not created the printing press but the Kindle. Now, hundreds of years later, we are beginning to experiment with this new medium of paper and beginning to acclimate ourselves to printed books. Though on one level this little scenario is absurd, it can also be an interesting thought experiment. Stick with me for just a few moments and I’ll show you.”...
Challies.com, June 8
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Adam Gopnik writes: “The New York Society Library, founded in 1754, not only still keeps records of all the books that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton borrowed (and, mostly, returned) but also has many of the books themselves—the exact same books that Hamilton and Burr handled and thumbed and read and learned from. Hamilton’s borrowings were relatively modest, but Burr turns out to have been a voracious, monumental reader, the kind of guy libraries are made for.”...
The New Yorker, June 10
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Patricia A. Wand writes: “This study offers a metric by which information centers (libraries, archives, museums) in the Middle East and North Africa may be correlated to the social and economic advancement of a developing nation. It concludes with reflections about information-related components of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the need to gather specific data and establish and enhance information centers in order to achieve socioeconomic development.”...
IFLA Journal 42, no. 2 (June)
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Pat Borzi writes: “By 1980, General Mills had accumulated so much brand memorabilia that the company established an archive at its headquarters in Golden Valley, Minnesota. The archive grew with the 2001 purchase of Pillsbury. Several years ago, General Mills moved the archive to a former Pillsbury building in Minneapolis near the Mississippi River, not far from the site of its first flour mill. The archive houses thousands of artifacts in about 3,000 square feet of temperature- and humidity-controlled space.”...
New York Times, June 12
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