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Greg Landgraf writes: “Expanding access to library materials has long been one of Carla Hayden’s professional passions—equity of access was the theme of her 2003–2004 term as ALA president—and using technology to achieve that is one of her priorities as Librarian of Congress. ‘At the Library of Congress, with the largest collection in the country, using technology to make sure that more collections are digitized and more materials are available online would be a wonderful way to expand access,’ she said.”...
American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec. |
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Gayle Osterberg writes: “The Library of Congress launched its first website in 1994. Over the past three years, LC’s web team has been transitioning its vast online collections into a new format that is mobile friendly, enables faceted search across all formats, and applies consistent information and presentation. On November 1, we present a new home page that we hope will give visitors an ever-changing window into all this updated content.” The event marks the 119th anniversary of the opening of LC’s Jefferson Building in 1897....
Library of Congress Blog, Nov. 1; Politico, Nov. 1 |
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Kaitlin Throgmorton writes: “Books-to-prisoners programs across the country are doing their best to address the need for reading by taking book requests from prisoners by mail, then having volunteers match those requests to books that have been donated by the public or purchased with monetary donations. Volunteers also prep books for shipment, assess and sort donations, keep track of the types of books each prison will allow inside, and assist with organizational tasks such as fundraising.”...
American Libraries feature, Oct. 31 |
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Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family and most recently “Most Blessed of Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (with Peter S. Onuf), will be an Auditorium Speaker on January 22 during the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta. Her persistent investigation into the life of an iconic American president dramatically changed the course of Jeffersonian scholarship....
ALA Conference Services, Oct. 31 |
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PLA has launched the first Project Outcome Annual Report. Access the report to analyze survey results, learn what patrons benefited from most, and see what Project Outcome and participating libraries did in the first year to make Project Outcome a success. PLA’s Project Outcome is a free toolkit designed to help public libraries understand and share the true impact of essential library services and programs by providing simple surveys and an easy-to-use process for measuring and analyzing outcomes....
PLA, Oct. 31 |
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Carl Straumsheim writes: “Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on October 31 provoked the ire of academic librarians after she suggested on Twitter that their institutions are ‘vanity projects’ and that the services they provide—from acquiring scholarly journals to preserving materials and training faculty members and students—‘are on our smartphones.’ Librarians and patrons of libraries quickly criticized Van Susteren for her comments. This is not the first time she has attacked libraries.” Joe Hardenbrook offers some statistics....
Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 1; Twitter, Oct. 31; Facebook, Sept. 10; Mr. Library Dude, Oct. 31 |
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Are you involved in an interesting project or in an area of work that you would like to discuss with or show to others? Why not present your work in the IFLA Poster Sessions? The World Library and Information Congress organizers are now calling for applications to hold a poster session at the congress that will be held in Wroclaw, Poland, August 19–25, 2017. Presenters are expected to be on hand August 21–22. The deadline for applications is February 1....
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions |
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Jennifer Cummings writes: “Are you familiar with Swedish stickhandling balls? I wasn’t either until I immersed myself in the planning process for the Frisco (Tex.) Public Library’s new early-literacy, active-learning center, The Ready to Read Railroad. The railroad offers activities that are designed to encourage reading, writing, vocabulary, letter and number recognition, and narrative skills, as well as age-appropriate hands-on offerings that introduce STEM skills.”...
ALSC Blog, Nov. 1
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Helen Adams writes: “At an AASL Every Student Succeeds Act information session during the 2016 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Kent Oliver, director of the Nashville (Tenn.) Public Library, spoke to attendees about an extraordinary partnership between NPL and Metro Nashville Public Schools that benefits all students in his community. Limitless Libraries aims to ‘improve the school libraries, foster resource sharing between the two institutions, and increase student access to learning materials.’”...
Knowledge Quest blog, Oct. 31
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Hundreds of postage stamp enthusiasts from around the country were in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, October 28–29 for the grand opening ceremonies of the American Philatelic Research Library, the world’s largest library devoted to the hobby of stamp collecting. The $4 million, 19,000-square-foot renovated space offers an additional 60% of the floor space to house the one of the world’s largest and most accessible collections of philatelic literature....
Centre County (Pa.) Gazette, Oct. 28
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Sam Machkovech writes: “The National Videogame Museum has been open since April in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, and it houses an incredible collection of gaming memorabilia. The rarest cartridges, systems, and prototypes are all here, protected as if they were the Mona Lisa (and for some game collectors, they may as well be). Come here to marvel at one-of-a-kind finds like a Nintendo World Championship cartridge, a mint-condition Ultra Hand toy, or the only known white-molded Atari 2600 in the world.”...
Ars Technica, Oct. 30
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Flourish Klink writes: “People say a lot of things about fanfiction readers. We can see what individual stories people like most: which ones have the most views, the most comments, and the most kudos. But that doesn’t tell us what elements of those stories readers like. Not every story engages with fandom’s popular tropes, but many do: Tropes can serve as shorthands for themes and plot points across fandom at large. So what do fanfic readers get excited about? Conversely, what makes them click the back button?”...
Medium, Oct. 27
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