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ALA President Jim Neal released the following statement regarding the weekend’s tragic violence in Charlottesville, Virginia: “The ALA expresses our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those lost and injured during this weekend’s protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. We will not forget their efforts to enlighten and safeguard their communities from bigotry while opposing racist, anti-immigrant, anti-GLBTQ, and anti-Semitic violence. We stand in solidarity with the people of Virginia as well as anyone who protests hate and fights for equity, diversity, and inclusion.”...
AL: The Scoop, Aug. 15 |
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Hanako Maki writes: When animals fall silent, the temperature drops, and a 70-mile-wide strip of land spanning 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina goes dark in the daytime, it can mean only one thing: a total solar eclipse. August 21 marks the first time since 1918 that a total solar eclipse will pass over the US from coast to coast, and many libraries are gearing up for the cosmic event.”...
AL: The Scoop, Aug. 15 |
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Amanda Davis writes: “The National Conference of African American Librarians kicked off in style August 10, as drummers from the Giwayen Mata ensemble led a processional of library professionals and honored guests toward the main stage for the opening session. In this 10th gathering coordinated by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, hundreds of librarians gathered in Atlanta to discuss innovative ways to engage with their communities both inside and outside the library.” Highlights included a presentation from award-winning author Jason Reynolds (pictured), ignite sessions, and a closing keynote address from Bernice King challenging librarians to come together “to organize [their] strength into compelling power” and teach their communities to use information to fight oppression....
AL: The Scoop, Aug. 11, 14, 15 |
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Larra Clark writes: "On Friday, the FCC announced it would extend the public comment period on its proposal to roll back a 2015 order protecting net neutrality for an additional two weeks. This phase of the process is supposed to allow for ‘replies’ to arguments raised by other commenters. With close to 20 million comments in the public record so far, any additional time is useful." Submit comments via ALA’s action alert.”...
District Dispatch, Aug. 15; The Verge, Aug. 11 |
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Emily Wagner writes: “For a third year, ALA is planning for Austin’s annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. As in years past, we need your help to bring our programs to the SXSW stage. Public voting counts for 30% of SXSW’s decision to pick a panel, so please join us in voting for two ALA programs: Ready to Code: Libraries Supporting CS Education and Free Speech or Hate Speech? Become a registered voter and get your votes in before August 25.”...
District Dispatch, Aug. 11 |
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Forty-three ALA chapters (state library associations) are partnering with ALA to offer students the opportunity to join both the chapter and ALA for $38, now through August 31. New program partners in 2017 are the Colorado Association of Libraries, Nebraska Library Association, and New Hampshire Library Association. The dues will increase by $2 after August 31....
ALA Membership Blog, Aug. 11 |
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Whe Brighton (Mich.) High School senior Alea Krasiewich started visiting Bennett Elementary School in Detroit last summer, it had a room called the library, but many of the bookshelves were bare. Krasiewich said the room did not look the way she thought a school library should look. She collected more than 2,000 used books, raised around $1,400 to purchase leather chairs and an area rug, and installed tropical-themed reading nooks in two classrooms. The efforts earned her a Gold Award, the highest achievement in the Girl Scouts....
Livingston (Mich.) Daily, Aug. 14 |
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Librarians at Burbank (Ca.) Public Library's Buena Vista branch have a recurring problem with bedbugs in the main reading area and in staff offices. After sprays and deep cleans have failed to fully eradicate the tiny menaces, library staffers decided on a novel approach—Burbank's Library Services Director Elizabeth Goldman says they've hired a bedbug-sniffing dog service to track down the pests.....
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 13
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Brian Fung and Hamza Shaban write: “The Walt Disney Co. secretly collects personal information on some of its youngest customers and shares that data illegally with advertisers without parental consent, according to a federal lawsuit filed in California. The class-action suit targets Disney and three other software companies—Upsight, Unity and Kochava—alleging that the mobile apps they built together violate the law by gathering insights about app users across the internet, including those under the age of 13, in ways that facilitate ‘commercial exploitation.’”...
Washington Post: The Switch, Aug. 7 |
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Phyllis Richardson writes: "In my research into houses in British literature, I wanted to find out what drove authors, from Austen to Alan Hollinghurst, to home in on a particular house or type of house as the focus of their fictional worlds. The British may not have the monopoly on house-centered stories, but the literature is filled with thinking, writing, and imagining houses in ways that betray a particular consciousness of house and home. Some of the most celebrated novels, such as Howards End or Brideshead Revisited, signal this from the title, while others sneak us in through the back door, as it were....”
The Guardian (UK), July 29
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