For daily ALA and library news, check the American Libraries website or subscribe to our RSS feed.
|
|
|
ALA President Jim Neal invites library advocates to apply for participation in the inaugural ALA Policy Corps initiative. The initiative is grounded in the ALA’s four strategic directions and its National Policy Agenda for Libraries. Its goals include developing policy experts available to ALA and the ALA Washington Office. The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy has partnered with AASL, ACRL, PLA, and United for Libraries to create the program. Applications will be accepted through November 3....
Office for Information Technology Policy, Oct. 3 |
|
In Episode 18 of its Dewey Decibel podcast, American Libraries steps onto the international stage. AL Associate Editor Phil Morehart talks to authors Sandra Uwiringiyimana and Kwame Alexander about books and libraries in Africa, and AL Associate Editor Terra Dankowski reports from the 2017 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Wroclaw, Poland....
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 4 |
|
|
Teen Read Week is October 8–14, but don’t panic. If you need some inspiration for programs, visit the 2017 TRW Pinterest board. There is even more information available on the website. If you haven’t downloaded the Teen Read Week Manual, it is still available. Let everyone know what you are doing for Teen Read Week on social media by using @yalsa and #TRW17. Stay calm, and have a great 2017 Teen Read Week!...
YALSA Blog, Oct. 5 |
|
The Eudora Welty Library in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, closed October 5 after a state fire marshal inspection the previous day revealed multiple violations of safety standards. At 5 p.m. sharp, patrons were shuffled out of the building and the doors locked. State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney found there weren’t any working fire sprinklers, and that there was no key for fire officials to get inside. He said that his inspectors found the building in a crumbling state. Condemning the building is an option....
Mississippi News Now, Oct. 5 |
|
|
English novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (right), known for his spare, elliptical prose style and his inventive subversion of literary genres, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on October 5. Ishiguro is best known for his novels The Remains of the Day, about a butler serving an English lord in the years leading up to World War II, and Never Let Me Go, a melancholy dystopian love story set in a British boarding school. The Nobel Prize in Literature is given in recognition of a writer’s entire body of work rather than a single title....
New York Times, Oct. 5 |
|
Comedian Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, was awarded the 2017 Thurber Prize for American Humor at an October 2 ceremony in New York City. The prize is presented by the Thurber House, the nonprofit literary center housed in the Columbus, Ohio, boyhood home of humorist James Thurber. The book focuses on the difficulties Noah faced as the son of an African mother and Swiss-German father....
Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Oct. 3 |
|
Sania Zaffar and Armeen Sayani write: “After three years within our undergraduate program, we noticed the lack of South Asian literature in the classroom libraries we were observing during our clinical experiences. And we noticed the lack of South Asian experiences and narratives in the curriculum being taught, so we settled on creating a South Asian booklist to be used by teachers and librarians alike for Pre-K through 8th grade. We want our South Asian children to hear, see, and connect with similar narratives.”...
ALSC Blog, Oct. 6 |
|
|
Somerset County (N.J.) Library System’s Warren Township branch began offering programs for adults with developmental disabilities in September 2016. The branch has offered over half a dozen programs and plans to expand the initiative. The participants have enjoyed such programs as bingo, yoga, jewelry making, music, dancing, and gardening. Planned by Adult Services Librarian Catherine DeBerry to encourage socialization, the programs provide the opportunity to meet new people, discover the library, and have fun....
Somerset County Library System of New Jersey, Oct. 5
|
|
“What if we didn’t have a space program?” Redstone Arsenal Post Librarian Heather Kaczynski Morris (right) answers that question in her debut young adult novel, Dare Mighty Things, released nationwide October 3 by HarperCollins Publishers subsidiary HarperTeen. Morris’s book was inspired by her workplace near Huntsville, Alabama, and proximity to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The book tells the story of 18-year-old Cassandra Gupta and her lifelong dream to travel in space....
The Redstone Rocket, Oct. 4 |
|
|
Emily Temple writes: “I’ve collected 10 stories of the destruction of unpublished works, diaries, and letters by notable authors—texts of interest to the world. Some prove immortal, others are duly destroyed, and some others live on in ghost-like forms, recreated imperfectly by their makers. We may be seeing the end of stories like these, given the cloud, and that makes them feel more resonant. I doubt that even in the future anyone will be reading 10 stories of the epic hard-drive failures of famous authors. But then again, who knows?”...
Literary Hub, Oct. 4 |
|
Facebook users will soon start seeing a small information button on news articles that appear in the News Feed. When users click the button, they’ll see a panel with information from the source site’s Wikipedia page, content related to the article in question, and details about where and how the article is being shared. Facebook says that the goal is to give people tools to make more informed decisions about which stories to read, share, and trust....
Nieman Lab, Oct. 5; Facebook Newsroom, Oct. 5 |
|
On October 5, Executive Producer Dean Devlin and stars Christian Kane and John Harlan Kim unveiled a new promo for the upcoming Season 4 of TNT’s supernatural drama The Librarians. The video features footage of Noah Wyle and Rebecca Romijn taking part in a Tethering Ceremony that grants them immortality by bonding them to the Library forever. It’s just another reminder that the life of a Librarian is far from normal....
Entertainment Weekly, Oct. 5; TNT YouTube channel, Oct. 6; TV Insider, Oct. 5
|
AL Direct is a free electronic newsletter emailed every Tuesday and Friday to personal members of the American Library Association.
|
Send news and feedback: aldirect@ala.org
Direct ad inquiries to: mstack@ala.org
AL Direct FAQ: americanlibrariesmagazine.org/al-direct
All links outside the ALA website
are provided for informational purposes only. Questions about the
content of any external site should be addressed to the administrator of
that site.
AL Direct will not sell your email to outside parties, but your email may be shared with advertisers in this newsletter should you express interest in their products by clicking on their ads or content. If the advertisers choose to communicate with you by email, they are obligated to provide you with an opportunity to opt-out from future emails in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act of 2003. Read the ALA privacy policy.
American Libraries
50 E. Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611
800-545-2433, ext. 4216
ISSN 1559-369X
|
