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Marcus Banks writes: “Getting information on the go is now an everyday reality for most people in the US. According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of Americans own a smartphone, and 50% own a tablet. If your library’s website looks good only on a wide desktop monitor, you could be frustrating an increasingly large swath of patrons. For this reason the large majority of libraries have now made some effort to make their websites mobile friendly. Building mobile-responsive websites is a straightforward process.”...
American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.; Pew Research Center, Jan. 12 |
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Candice Benjes-Small and Rebecca K. Miller write: “Teaching is certainly a huge part of any instruction librarian’s job, but to be effective, he or she must move beyond the classroom and into different spheres of library life. Our work is multifaceted. We can shift from teacher to learner to leader in a matter of moments, participating in our own brand of library superhero action. But to do this well, we need to identify these additional roles and build skill sets that support them.” Listen in on a conversation with the authors....
American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec. |
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Sponsored Content
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther is said to have posted his famed 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Germany. Many scholars suggest that the dissident monk benefited directly from the emergence of a European print industry and its profound impact on the dissemination of ideas. Among the researchers who make this claim is Professor Pettegree, director of the Universal Short Title Catalog (USTC), curating Early European Books with ProQuest. Read the blog post and case study. |
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Linda W. Braun writes: “Teens sometimes talk loudly, run around the library, or harass peers and those younger or older than themselves. They may get into fights or act carelessly with library materials. One way schools and libraries are working to help teens effectively manage these behaviors—and lessen behavior problems overall—is through restorative justice. Restorative justice techniques may be used, for example, when teens bully a peer in the library.”...
American Libraries column, Nov./Dec. |
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How is the second iteration of the Every Child Ready to Read initiative being applied and approached in public libraries? The answer can be found in a November 17 report, Bringing Literacy Home: An Evaluation of the Every Child Ready to Read Program. The report is a joint effort of ALSC and PLA, and was compiled by lead researcher Susan B. Neuman (right). American Libraries spoke to Neuman about the roles and challenges of librarians and caregivers in making sure every child is ready to read....
AL: The Scoop, Nov. 17 |
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Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the Caribbean, and libraries were not spared. In addition to its fundraising efforts, ALA is partnering with Reforma in an Adopt a Library Program to bring together damaged libraries in the region with libraries in the US and elsewhere that would like to assist in their recovery. Adopting libraries and organizations can help through fundraising, donating books, offering supplies and equipment, and providing advice and volunteers....
International Relations Office, Nov. 17 |
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Karen Muller writes: “The ALA mission statement says that we ‘provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.’ Ensuring access to information for all is at the core of many library services that were revolutionary when they started but are now routine: children’s rooms, bookmobiles, interlibrary loan.”...
American Libraries column, Nov./Dec. |
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In early November, Maricopa County’s Southeast Regional Library in Gilbert canceled a drag queen storytime event. Almost immediately, significant controversy ensued. A library professional who helped plan the canceled event has resigned. A drag queen scheduled to participate in the reading as part of the annual LibraryCon has gathered more than 1,100 signatures from people who want the storytime reinstated. Another library has offered to host the storytime instead. And ALA weighed in....
Phoenix New Times, Nov. 14, 17 |
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Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, a surreal and poetic novel about a struggling family in Mississippi, on November 15 won the National Book Award for fiction. It was the second time Ward received the fiction prize: She won in 2011 for Salvage the Bones. Masha Gessen’s The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia received the nonfiction prize and Robin Benway’s Far from the Tree won for young people’s literature. The poetry prize was given to Frank Bidart for his career anthology Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016....
Associated Press, Nov. 15
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Ayoola White writes: “I have recently begun questioning what roles food and cooking can play in the realms of libraries and archives. For this article, I wanted to go beyond examining the common practice of making a library display of popular cookbooks. Although it is true that resources related to cooking constitute the largest portion of circulating nonfiction books in public libraries, I wanted to focus instead on the methods that LIS organizations use to engage more actively with patrons on the subject of food.”...
Hack Library School, Nov. 16 |
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Liam Tung writes: “Google is rolling out a new look for the driving, navigation, transit, and explore views in Maps to display information more prominently according to each mode. When you’re driving, Maps will highlight gas stations, while train stations and bus stops will be more visible in transit mode, and points of interest are more prominent in exploring mode. New color-coded icons will help users quickly identify places of interest: cafés, churches, libraries, hospitals, and many other points of interest have their own icon.”...
ZDNet, Nov. 16; Google: The Keyword, Nov. 15 |
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James Vincent writes: “Chatbots. They’re usually a waste of your time, so why not have them waste someone else’s instead? Better yet: Why not have them waste an email scammer’s time. That’s the premise behind Re:scam, an email chatbot operated by New Zealand cybersecurity firm Netsafe. Next time you get a dodgy email in your inbox, says Netsafe, forward it on to me@rescam.org, and a proxy email address will start replying to the scammer for you, doing its utmost to waste their time.”...
The Verge, Nov. 10 |
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Jer Thorp writes: “Two weeks ago I asked Twitter if anyone had favorite obscure or delightful library or archival words. Here are some of the best replies. Wimmelbilderbuch: A kind of large-format picture book, characterized by full-spread drawings depicting scenes richly detailed with numerous humans, animals, and objects. Xylotheque: A wood library—a special form of herbarium that consists of a collection of authenticated wood specimens. Frisket-bite: A missing part of printed matter, caused by the frisket moving, stretching, or otherwise intervening between inked type and the paper.”...
Medium, Nov. 10
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