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Megan Roberts writes: “When kids in LGBTQ families read stories that reflect their experiences, it helps them create connections with literature and develop positive self-esteem. In addition, children who hear stories about people who are different from them—those who have two mommies or are from another part of the world, for example—develop empathy and an understanding about themselves and others. June is a perfect time to celebrate the voices and experiences of the LGBTQ community.”...
American Libraries feature, June |
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Karen Muller writes: “There are several moments in the year when many of us feel an urge to reflect on personal goals, assess skills, and make resolutions toward professional growth. For me, the ALA Annual Conference has always been among my restarting points. Presentations are inspiring. New products shine in the exhibit hall, and conversations with colleagues spark ideas for new ways to address old challenges. Here, then, are some recent titles to encourage professional reassessment.”...
American Libraries feature, June |
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The ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment has published a comprehensive Career Development Resource Guide. It is intended to assist library staff at all levels—new graduates, mid- or senior-level career—in their job search and career journeys. The guide includes sections on job search strategies, self-marketing, résumés and CVs, cover letters, interviewing strategies, and tips on negotiating and accepting job offers....
Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, June 19 |
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Public libraries are invited to apply to receive a programming kit for The Vietnam War, a 10-part documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that will air on PBS stations beginning September 17. Fifty public libraries will be selected through a competitive application process to receive the kit, which will include a programming guide and a copy of the full series on DVD, with public performance rights. Applications must be received by August 1....
ALA Public Programs Office, June 16 |
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A former punk illustrator and a refugee’s daughter from the US have performed an American double, taking two of the UK’s most prestigious children’s literary awards. Lane Smith’s There Is a Tribe of Kids won the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration and Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea received the Carnegie Medal for best children’s writing. The medals are administered by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals....
The Guardian (UK), June 19 |
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Avram Iancu (right), a librarian at the Municipal Library of Petrosani, who in 2016 managed to swim across the English Channel without a neoprene suit, will take on a new challenge on June 20: He wants to swim the Danube River’s length of 2,860 kilometers in 60 days, without thermal protection. The long journey will start in Donaueschingen, Germany, and is expected to end two months later in Sulina Port, Romania. During this period, Iancu will cross 10 countries and four European capitals....
Romania Insider, June 19; Business Review (Bucharest), Aug. 31, 2016 |
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Hailley Fargo writes: “A continuing trend for colleges and universities is to sponsor a Common Reading Program for incoming freshman. These programs aim to connect new students around a shared experience that promises to build community. Every freshman (in theory) reads the book, so when they arrive in August, they have something to talk about. In my current job, I sit on a campus-wide programming committee for the Penn State Reads. This year we are tackling It’s What I Do by Lynsey Addario.”...
YALSA Blog, June 16; Peer Review 8, no. 3 (Summer 2006) |
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BMO Harris Bank is giving $1 million and Allstate is donating $250,000 to an extremely popular and heavily used just-for-teens program in the Chicago Public Library system: YOUmedia. With 12 participating branches, four of which are geared towards tweens, while the other eight are for high school students, CPL is planning to add YOUmedia centers to five more branches by 2018 with this additional funding. This groundbreaking program focuses on the Connected Learning model....
Public Libraries Online, June 16
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Ed Madison writes: “Research in 2016 out of Stanford University revealed that students—from middle schoolers to undergraduates—are easily duped by false information they find online. The study goes on to describe this as ‘dismaying,’ ‘bleak,’ and a ‘threat to democracy.’ These same students are the primary consumers of social media, and many of them will be eligible to vote in 2020. How are we to prepare them to become informed citizens in an era where anyone can publish?”...
The Conversation, June 15; Stanford Graduate School of Education, Nov. 22, 2016; Pew Research Center, Apr. 9, 2015 |
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The Chinese government has recently banned the sale of an award-winning novel, Soft Burial, written by Fang Fang about land reform in the 1950s. The novel tells the story of an old woman who suffered from amnesia after she witnessed her husband’s entire family driven to take their own lives during the Chinese Communist Party’s nationwide land reform. The suicides were not an invention of the novel. Originally published in 2016, the book won the 2016 Lu Yao Literature Award, a tribute to its historical realism....
The News Lens, June 10
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Chloe Waryan writes: “ALA states that the LIS student’s choice to specialize depends on ‘an assessment of [the students’] past experiences, education, personal strengths and interests, geographic mobility, intended career path, and future plans.’ While assessing these factors, I found that my ‘future plans’ are difficult to confidently predict. But an unspecialized transcript is not time wasted, and there are many benefits to choosing unspecialization in your LIS education.”...
Hack Library School, June 19 |
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Ashley Bowen-Murphy writes: “A search on the LC Prints and Photographs’ online catalog brought me to a series of images of Farm Security Administration libraries in the 1940s. These were working libraries that served Americans displaced by the Dust Bowl, moving to work in war industries, or following the crop season. The libraries were plain but amazing architecturally: They popped up in tents, repurposed buildings, and modular buildings. They were designed to move with America’s laborers.”...
Book Riot, June 20
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