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The American Libraries 2016 International Supplement is now live. Read the whole issue or browse article by article. The issue features coverage of talks at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ 82nd World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio, August 13–19, which welcomed 3,200 delegates from 137 countries. This year’s WLIC theme was “Connections, Collaboration, Community,” and these concepts recurred in many of the conference sessions....
American Libraries, Sept. 23 |
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ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels announced September 20 that he will retire in July 2017. Fiels has led ALA since 2002, making him one of the longest-serving executive directors in the Association’s history. ALA President Julie B. Todaro and the other officers have been working with Fiels to ensure a smooth transition and expect the selection process for the next executive director to take through next summer....
AL: The Scoop, Sept. 20 |
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Jennifer Ferguson and Annie Erdmann write: “For traditional undergraduates of the Class of 2020, YouTube, Netflix streaming, and the first iPhone have all been around almost as long as they can remember. This generation expects its media to be easy to access and easy to use. Streaming video makes library materials available on any device, at any time, and in any location. For academic libraries, a wide array of streaming video content, platform, hosting, and licensing options is available. What are the choices?”...
American Libraries feature, Sept./Oct. |
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Karen Muller writes: “October is Family History Month. With websites offering a range of suggestions on how to observe this month, from exploring your family tree to starting a personal genealogy website, libraries are sure to be listed as a stop for information gathering. Here is a guide full of tips to support library users hoping to explore their family history, plus several books to assist with the larger issues of planning or the more detailed issues of technical support.”...
American Libraries column, Sept./Oct. |
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Forty-seven books (24 fiction, 23 nonfiction) have been selected for the longlist for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The list is now available on the awards’ website. The six-title shortlist—three each for the fiction and nonfiction medals—will be chosen from these 47 titles and announced on October 26. The two medal winners will be announced by Donna Seaman at the RUSA Book and Media Awards event at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta on January 22. Becky Spratford explains why the Carnegie Medals are different from other awards....
RUSA, Sept. 21; RA for All, Sept. 21 |
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The ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services is launching Intersections, a blog that highlights the everyday work of library and information science workers as they advocate for equity and inclusion. Edited by John Amundsen, it will emphasize issues of diversity, literacy, and access among the ALA membership, the field of librarianship, and the communities libraries serve. ODLOS welcomes submissions for Intersections....
Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, Sept. 20 |
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A Banned Books Week voting campaign at the Rochester (Minn.) Public Library is getting plenty of attention—but maybe not the kind of attention librarians anticipated. The Vote to Ban campaign invites library patrons to enter a voting booth and cast a vote to ban certain books. Campaign posters are mounted in the library’s skyway entrance. Among the candidates: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Little House on the Prairie, and the Bible. However, not everyone is catching the irony, said librarian Katherine Stecher....
Rochester (Minn.) Post-Bulletin, Sept. 23 |
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More than half of public schools in Boston do not have libraries, leaving thousands of students (the majority of them in distressed neighborhoods) without a safe place to study and access to resources so they can learn more, according to a new Boston Public Schools report. Forty percent of students start high school without ever using a school library, according to the report, a serious disservice that officials say puts poorer kids at an even greater disadvantage....
Boston Herald, Sept. 23 |
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The New York Public Library has installed a state-of-the-art conveyor system in its Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to transport requested research materials from newly-expanded storage under Bryant Park to researchers throughout the library. The conveyor will begin delivering requested materials to two locations in the building during the week of October 3. One of the locations—the iconic Rose Main Reading Room on the third floor—is reopening on October 5 after more than two years of repairs and restoration....
New York Public Library, Sept. 21; DNAinfo New York YouTube channel, Sept. 21 |
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Deborah Smith writes: “Earlier in 2016, a survey commissioned by Man Booker International found that translated fiction is punching well above its weight. The same survey also noted that UK sales of Korean books shot up, from 88 copies in 2001 to 10,191 in 2015, and many of those will have been for Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. This breakout success, which has been many people’s first encounter with Korean literature, means readers, booksellers, and publishers are clamoring for the next thing from South Korea.”...
The Bookseller (UK), Sept. 21
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When architectural photographer Elizabeth Felicella was not working for clients, she spent her free time photographing all 210 branches of the New York Public Library system. Five years later, her Center for Architecture exhibition “Reading Room” is a catalog of over 2,000 images of libraries in all five boroughs. Felicella writes, “I borrowed metaphors from the library and began thinking of my photography in terms of reading and writing. The library offered a reprieve from the often strict conventions of architectural photography.”...
Literary Hub, Sept. 22
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Alexandra Alter writes: “Sales of paperback books are up. Independent bookstores are thriving again. The threat of a digital apocalypse has subsided, as ebook sales have tumbled. So why did publishers have a wobbly first quarter of 2016? Revenue was down 2.7% in the first three months of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015, according to a recent report from the Association of American Publishers, which tracks sales data from more than 1,200 publishers.”...
New York Times, Sept. 23; Association of American Publishers, Sept. 20
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