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In a unanimous decision, the Killeen, Texas, city council on September 13 voted to amend its budget and maintain the Copper Mountain Library, one of only two branches in Killeen’s library system. ALA and PLA coordinated with the Texas Library Association and local library supporters to urge the city council to reverse a proposal to close this branch that serves hundreds of residents daily. ALA President Julie Todaro and PLA President Felton Thomas submitted a letter September 13, noting the high daily use of the library and its resources....
ALA Office for Library Advocacy, Sept. 16; KCEN-TV, Temple, Tex., Sept. 8, 13; Texas Library Association, Sept. 12 |
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Booklist is once again working with the Women’s National Book Association for its National Reading Group Month in October, including the special Great Group Reads initiative that highlights recommended titles. National Reading Group Month celebrates shared reading by promoting reading groups. Great Group Reads are a key element of the event, with 21 titles selected in 2016 for their appeal to reading groups by a panel of writers, reviewers, librarians, booksellers, publicists, and committed readers....
The Booklist Reader, Sept. 19 |
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The Office for Intellectual Freedom has announced the talented authors who will be contributing their thoughts and perspectives for Banned Books Week on ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Blog: Chris Crutcher, Alex Gino, Pete Hautman, Ellen Oh, Gayle Pitman, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and N. H. Senzai. Their pieces will be posted September 25 through October 1....
Office for Intellectual Freedom, Sept. 16 |
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Vamos a Cuba! Join the ALA-sponsored tour of Cuba during the International Havana Book Fair, February 10–27, 2017. In addition to the Havana Book Fair and the unique sights and sounds of Cuba, this year’s tour will have a half-day professional program with Cuban colleagues and a volunteering opportunity to assist a library in need. The deadline is October 20, and the trip is limited to 30 people....
ALA International Relations Office |
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Jonah Heath is a 5-year-old from Iowa City who loves to read, especially with his mom. However, because Jonah is autistic, he doesn’t feel comfortable in the Iowa City Public Library, with its large number of people and distractions. The library is taking steps to ensure these members of the community have the same opportunity to use their services as everyone else. On Saturdays, the library will open at 9 a.m., an hour before usual opening time, exclusively for those on the autism spectrum and their families....
Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, Sept. 15 |
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The IBM Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair presented visitors with an innovative, multiscreen, multimedia experience titled Think, a landmark production by Ray and Charles Eames. The Library of Congress is in the process of restoring it, but after Robert Anen, a student intern at Indiana University’s Moving Image Archive, discovered a 1964 home movie in the Edward and Naomi Feil Collection depicting the production, it helped solve some puzzles the LC team was encountering....
Indiana University Bloomington, Sept. 19 |
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At its April 2016 meeting, the Center for Research Libraries Council of Voting Members endorsed removal of all restrictions on public domain materials digitized by CRL. Restrictions now in place make some 65% of those materials accessible only to researchers at member institutions. As of January 1, all digital materials that are hosted on the web by CRL, deriving from sources in the public domain or for which CRL has secured the requisite rights and permissions, will be available without restriction....
Center for Research Libraries blog, Sept. 19 |
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Four months after launching on Kickstarter, a children’s book that tells the stories of 100 inspiring women has raised more than $1 million, making it the biggest publishing project in the crowdfunding site’s history. Almost 20,000 backers from 71 countries around the world have signed up to order Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which introduces young readers to role models from the Brontë sisters to Serena Williams. Last year’s tally of 2,967 literary projects puts Kickstarter up among publishing’s “Big Four.”...
The Guardian (UK), May 25, Sept. 14 |
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Mike Sturm writes: “The internet has created an environment where not only is it easier to push out information than ever before, but an entire industry depends on more content being published and shared every minute of every day. That content is growing exponentially. As with food, the easier it has become to publish information, the more the quantity has increased and the quality has decreased. I fear our information diet is mirroring our food diet: With information overabundance comes cognitive obesity.”...
Extra NewsFeed, Sept. 13; Contents, issue 3 |
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David Stuart writes: “LIS professionals have a long history in the development of controlled vocabularies. Ontologies (formal representations of knowledge with rich semantic relationships between terms) are one type of controlled vocabulary, suitable for a distributed web and a higher level of granularity. So why do librarians need to know about ontologies?”...
CILIP blog, Sept. 13
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Laurel Norris writes: “If you have modern library skills like taxonomy development, web system management, data analytics, information architecture, and information literacy, you are qualified to work in many marketing departments. People with MLIS degrees are managing content, shaping marketing strategy, and organizing digital assets for companies around the world. The best advice for librarians looking to get into marketing, or any role, comes from Etsy taxonomist Jenny Benevento.”...
CMS Wire, Sept. 16
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Tegan Anclade writes: “In much of current YA literature, readers will find the that the main character is well off, does not have to work, travels often, and has everything designer (car, clothes, electronics). This does not reflect the reality of most teenagers or new adults today. While it can be nice to read about something that is different from one’s daily life, characters should also be relatable. The main characters in these eight books all have to work to help support themselves and their families.”...
YALSA The Hub, Sept. 20
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