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Lorelle Swader (right) has held five different positions in her 25 years with ALA. On March 26, she began her latest role: associate executive director of ALA Offices and Member Relations, as well as AED of the ALA–Allied Professional Association. As AED, Swader will provide leadership and management for eight different ALA offices. She will also help coordinate and liaise with ALA round tables. Swader answered our “11 Questions” to reintroduce herself to ALA members....
AL: The Scoop, Apr. 2 |
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Nominate a stellar worker for National Library Workers Day, April 10. NLWD is a day for library staff, users, administrators, and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers. Nominations may come from library users, students, children, colleagues, faculty, or management. Visit the Galaxy of Stars to see your nomination....
Public Awareness Office, Apr. 3; ALA–Allied Professional Association |
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Sponsored Content
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Delve into results, comparisons to 2008, and how library leaders and advocates can act on these findings in a free webinar on April 17 from OCLC’s WebJunction program. |
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Helen Adams writes: “The Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Intellectual Freedom Committee have started the process for revising the 9th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual published in 2015. Why is a revision needed? Several events trigger the need for a new edition. First, OIF staff began to see trends and issues not included in the current edition or twists on some long-standing issues. Second, there are recently created Library Bill of Rights interpretations and related guidance documents.”...
Knowledge Quest blog, Apr. 2 |
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LLAMA is launching a new series of four-week online courses that will train librarians to become better leaders. The first course, “Evidence-Based Decision Making,” will be offered April 16–May 11. Registrants will learn what evidence-based decision making is and why it has become a popular method for decision-making in libraries. Instructors will be Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Beth S. Woodard. Upcoming topics include conflict resolution (May 14–June 8) and change management (July 9–August 6)....
LLAMA, Mar. 29 |
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Gretchen Kaser writes: “#TimesUp. #MeToo. In recent months, these hashtags have exploded in popularity and brought more attention to the sexual harassment that many individuals face. This is especially true in libraries, where staff are often seen as captive audiences to the public. Unfortunately, our job duties of being helpful to the public sometimes make us sitting ducks for harassment. When are we going to do something about it?”...
Public Libraries Online, Mar. 30 |
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Want emails or other documents from former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration that should have been obtainable under open records law while he was in office? Get ready to wait. Chad Owen, a spokesman for the Library of Virginia, said that “all of the records of Gov. McAuliffe and his administration are awaiting cataloging and are therefore exempt from FOIA.” No one is happy about the backlog, which is the product of an increasing avalanche of electronic information and decreasing budgets and staff....
Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, Mar. 31 |
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On March 15, University of Toronto Libraries, in collaboration with the Family Care Office, opened a family study space at Robarts Library, the first of its kind in Canada. Designed for current students, faculty members, visiting scholars, and staff with children aged 12 years and under, the space is intended to foster equity, diversity, and inclusivity by addressing the unique needs of student parents. Student parents often find it difficult to fully benefit from a postsecondary education due to time constraints....
The Varsity, Apr. 2 |
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French research organizations and universities have cancelled their subscriptions to Springer journals, due to an impasse in fee negotiations between the publisher and Couperin, a national consortium representing more than 250 academic institutions. After more than a year of discussions, Couperin and SpringerNature, which publishes more than 2,000 scholarly journals, have failed to reach an agreement on subscriptions. The proposal includes an increase in journal prices, which the consortium refuses to accept....
The Scientist, Mar. 31; Couperin, Mar. 31 |
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Carli Spina writes: “Fables and fairy tales are some of the oldest types of stories around and they continue to be an important part of the literary world. With their combination of art and story, comics and graphic novels are a particularly great medium for this sort of storytelling. These are just a few of the multitude of great options that are out there for fans of fables and fairy tales.”...
YALSA The Hub, Apr. 3 |
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Oliver Vestal writes: “People don’t always think about libraries in comic books. Despite this, a library has earned its place as one of the most famous spots in the world of comics. This building houses the history of an entire planet in one location. It also helps define one of the most famous superheroes ever to exist as we know him today. This amazing library is the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman learned about his planet, his parents, and himself. And it even comes with holographic librarians.”...
ComicsVerse, Apr. 1
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Nick Douglas writes: “If you ever tried to get into tabletop role-playing games—the kind where you sit around with character sheets, describing your actions, and rolling dice—it was probably through Dungeons & Dragons. And if you’re sick of medieval fantasy or you don’t care about fighting monsters or you hate looking up stats on different charts, you might have walked away thinking ‘I guess I don’t like RPGs.’ Which is a shame, because there are thousands of other RPGs. Here’s a guide to searching for something better.”...
Lifehacker, Apr. 3 |
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Joe Barnhart writes: “Subject: Never run with nitroglycerin or a bucket of camel snot. Seriously, using humorous subject lines just might be a way to engage students being taught with technology; more specifically, students in online courses. Humor doesn’t always mean jokes that start, ‘A priest, mountain goat, and ballerina enter a bar.’ It can be a subtle way of looking for a student’s funny bone and tickling it enough to spark motivation to finish a course.”...
Campus Technology, Mar. 28 |
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Richard Byrne writes: “Google’s advanced search tools can help students find useful information that doesn’t necessarily appear at the top of search results pages. Unfortunately, students often forget about the advanced search options or don’t even know where to find them. Fast Advanced Google Search is a Chrome extension that puts a shortcut to the advanced search tools right next to the URL field in Chrome.”...
Free Technology for Teachers, Apr. 2 |
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Cameron Summerson writes: “The Galaxy S9 is here, and it’s better than the S8 (even if only marginally). It’s not perfect, though, and there are a handful of things you can do right out of the box to make it better. Real talk: Bixby isn’t good. Google Assistant is a far more powerful assistant, and it’s a core part of Android. That means it’s already part of the S9, whether Samsung likes it or not. To make matters even worse, Samsung insists on pushing Bixby with a dedicated hardware button. Here’s how to turn it off.”...
How-To Geek, Feb. 26, Apr. 2; PC World, Apr. 2 |
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