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Kathi Kromer and Jody Gray write: “For many underserved communities, particularly in rural areas, libraries provide the only access to broadband. Tribal lands in many states are both rural and underserved. The lack of high-speed broadband means, for many tribal residents, that their ability to participate in today’s economy is a steep climb and becoming steeper. The Tribal Connect Act of 2017 would increase broadband and E-Rate access for tribal libraries.”...
AL: The Scoop, Dec. 12 |
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Ellen Satterwhite writes: “On December 14, the FCC is expected to vote on a proposal from Chairman Ajit Pai that would roll back the strong, enforceable net neutrality protections established in 2015. The meeting will be webcast, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Eastern time. As we’ve mentioned in the past, the vote this week will likely be a giant step backwards, but ALA and its allies will continue to vehemently advocate for a neutral net. Here are a few things going on this week.”...
District Dispatch, Dec. 12; Wired, Dec. 12 |
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The AASL National Conference in Phoenix, held November 8–11, served as the launch site for the updated National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries—a fascinating matrix of shared foundations and competencies. The Standards even infiltrated an unlikely place—an escape room. In Episode 20 of the Dewey Decibel podcast, we explore practical applications of the new Standards with Marcia Nardis, Terri Grief, and Patty Jimenez....
AL: The Scoop, Dec. 11 |
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The nearly 150,000 inmates in Texas prisons are barred from using Facebook, possessing cellphones, and receiving snacks in the mail. They are also prohibited from reading the pop-up edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Color Purple,and the 1908 Sears and Roebuck catalog. The publications are among the 10,000 titles banned in prison libraries by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a list that nonetheless does not include Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and books by such white nationalists as David Duke....
New York Times, Dec. 7 |
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The Toronto Public Library board voted December 11 in favor of changing its meeting-room policy following a controversial memorial at the Richview branch on July 12. The memorial was held for Barbara Kulaszka, a lawyer whose clients included Marc Lemire, the leader of the now-disbanded white supremacy group Heritage Front. Paul Fromm, a former teacher with ties to racist groups, was among those expected to speak. Under the changes approved by board members, library staff will be able to deny or cancel bookings when the purpose of the meeting is likely to promote hatred of any group....
CTV News, Toronto, Dec. 11; CBC News, July 13; Toronto Public Library, Dec. 11 |
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Every Cincinnati library board meeting or hearing since August has been packed with activists and protesters opposing the potential sale of the North Building of the Main Library Downtown. The last regular board meeting of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County scheduled this year on December 12 is expected to be same. The Our Library, Our Decision Coalition that opposes the sale, announced it would bring petitions signed by 3,000 people to present to the board....
Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 12 |
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The world premiere of Emilio Estevez’s The Public has been selected to open the Santa Barbara Film Festival, which kicks off January 31. Estevez wrote, directed, and stars in this feature film, which follows a group of homeless library patrons, who, after learning that emergency shelters are at capacity during a brutal Midwestern cold front, refuse to leave Cincinnati’s downtown public library at closing time. Watch the trailer (2:42). Filmed on location at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County....
Deadline Hollywood, Dec. 6; YouTube, Dec. 8 |
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The Library of Congress is offering film lovers a special gift during the holiday season. Sixty-four motion pictures, named to the National Film Registry, are now available online on the LC website and on YouTube. These films are among hundreds of titles that have been tapped for preservation because of their cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance. All of the streaming films in the new online collection are in the public domain....
Library of Congress, Dec. 12
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Maria Trivisonno writes: “In October 2016, members of the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group came to Cleveland, Ohio to offer a training on using hip hop as a gateway to coding with Scratch. They presented a two-day class with Progressive Arts Alliance, a local organization. The two days were intense but fun, teaching participants not only helpful features of Scratch, but details about hip hop culture. We recently had the opportunity to share some of the fun tricks we learned.”...
ALSC Blog, Dec. 8 |
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Liz Quakenbush, media specialist at Orchard Park Elementary School in Indianapolis, spends her free time collecting books, and for 19 years she held an annual book sale at the beginning of each school year to help boost her students’ home libraries. However, she felt that she could do more. Quakenbush collaborated with students to create a nonprofit bookstore called QuakenBOOKS that is open all year and offers books for 50 cents or less, with the money going back into the store....
Current in Carmel, Dec. 8 |
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Rebecca Bryant writes: “Research Information Management—RIM—is the aggregation, curation, and utilization of information about research. These activities already intersect with many aspects of your library’s services. But only recently have we been treating RIM as a new service category. Our position paper, Research Information Management: Defining RIM and the Library’s Role, identifies four major ways in which libraries can add value to this complex ecosystem.”...
OCLC Next, Dec. 12 |
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Michael Kan writes: “On December 11, Google unveiled three new imaging apps that make use of experimental technology. Google is calling the software ‘appsperiments,’ which tap into the power of smartphone cameras and computer vision algorithms to identify objects in a picture. Storyboard transforms videos into a single-page comic strip. Selfissimo! takes stylish black-and-white photos whenever you strike a pose. Scrubbies creates video loops of funny moments or actions.”...
PC Magazine, Dec. 11; Google Research Blog, Dec. 11 |
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