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Marley Dias (right), the girl wonder who started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign, interviews Patrisse Cullors (left), cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement, to learn what determining factors and mindset led each of these activists and motivated them to take action. Discover these answers and more when two generations tackle issues of inequality and strive for grassroots-level solutions. They will appear at the Opening Session of the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver on February 9....
ALA Conference Services, Oct. 23 |
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In our next episode of American Libraries Live, you’ll have a chance to discuss fake news with our expert panel. Tune in to this free 60-minute webcast on November 1 to learn how we can maintain our professional obligation to ensure equal access to information in a politically charged time where it seems like not all information is created equal. Panelists will be Nicole A. Cooke, Donald Barclay, and Joanna M. Burkhardt. Register online....
American Libraries Live, Oct. 24 |
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Diana Rendina writes: “Although your Instagram account does a great job of reaching digitally connected students while it’s in the cloud, don’t you want all students to be able to benefit? That’s where a physical Instagram display comes in. The idea is to create a display with images from your Instagram rotated out periodically. If you include your Instagram handle in the display, it promotes your account and encourages students to follow. And it allows anyone in your library to see what’s been going on.”...
Knowledge Quest blog, Oct. 24 |
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New survey data from YouGov shows that the majority of Republicans (55%) feel that books with homosexual or transgender characters should be banned from all elementary school libraries, and 2 in 5 (21%) think that they shouldn’t be present in public libraries either. In comparison, a quarter of Democrats (26%) agree that this sort of literature should not be accessible to grade school students, while just 13% would consider public libraries an improper place to house LGBT-related reading materials....
YouGov, Oct. 23 |
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In one of their odder and more chilling moves, the Nazis occupying Lithuania once collected Yiddish and Hebrew books and documents, hoping to create a reference collection. To select the choicest items for study, they appointed Jewish intellectuals who managed to hide thousands of books and papers. Some months ago curators at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in Manhattan heard of a trove, totaling 170,000 valuable and compelling pages, that had been uncovered in St. George’s church basement in Vilnius....
New York Times, Oct. 18 |
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Nate Hoffelder writes: “We all know how to use the rice trick to recover a waterlogged gadget (hint: oatmeal works better), but have you ever had to revive a book from a watery demise? The Syracuse University Libraries released this visual primer (2:39) in which they share a few of the tricks they use to repair library books that have been returned in less than pristine condition—including blotting with paper towels or air-drying to using a freezer or a dehumidifier.”...
The Digital Reader, Oct. 20; July 12, 2015; Syracuse University Libraries Preservation YouTube channel, Apr. 22, 2016 |
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Andrew Hart writes: “I will tell anyone: Being a prison librarian is the hardest, most rewarding, saddest, happiest, challenging, eye-opening, frustrating, and interesting librarian position around. I would tell myself, ‘If you can survive this library, you can survive any library.’ Prison libraries come with their fair share of challenges, but on the other hand, they present opportunities not found anywhere else in the library profession.”...
Public Libraries Online, Oct. 20 |
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Kelly Jensen writes: “It was only a few years ago, but we’ve all seemed to have forgotten. nina de jesus and Lisa Rabey, known as Team Harpy, spoke out against a male colleague who had been making female colleagues uncomfortable for years at librarian conferences and events. But little to nothing has been done in terms of starting a dialogue about the magnitude of sexual harassment and misconduct that occurs in the library. Librarians are still not taught what to do when they become the victims of harassment.”...
Book Riot, Oct. 24; Librarian in Black, Oct. 1, 2014
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The Follett Challenge has launched its seventh annual contest. The 2018 Follett Challenge, open for entries through December 15, will reward $200,000 in products and services from Follett to schools or districts with innovative educational programs that teach 21st-century skills to students. All public and private K–12 schools or districts in the US, Canada, and Australia are eligible to apply....
Follett, Oct. 23 |
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Nathan Heller writes: “Kirkus Reviews has been criticized recently for its decision to remove a star from a YA title and revise the accompanying review. At first, it praised American Heart by Laura Moriarty. The novel, to be published this winter, is about a 15-year-old white girl from Missouri who supports Muslim-detainment camps until she meets a Muslim woman whom she helps escape to Canada. Kirkus took down the review in response to public concern that the novel was a ‘white savior’ narrative.”...
The New Yorker, Oct. 23 |
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Karen Wickre writes: “Google just turned 19. Facebook is 13. Twitter is 11 and a half. (None, in other words, out of their teens.) Until recently, widespread digital malfeasance was relatively rare on these young platforms. But in a world that increasingly seems dystopian, we now expect security breaches, hacks, purposeful fakery, more or less constantly. Whether the aim is financial or political, the fact that so many of us live and work online means we are, collectively, an attractive and very large target.”...
Wired: Backchannel, Oct. 11 |
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Michael Crider writes: “Spammers and other unscrupulous advertisers are always looking for new ways to get you click on their pages. One of the latest tactics is to steal popular and useful stock images—like the kind you sometimes see in news articles—and re-upload them elsewhere. If part of your job is finding and using images, and more importantly, making sure it’s legal to use them and to properly attribute them, this can be a serious problem. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself.”...
How-To Geek, Oct. 20 |
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