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ALA President Jim Neal has announced that former First Lady Michelle Obama will open the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 22. Her appearance at the conference is sponsored by Penguin Random House. Obama’s much-anticipated memoir, Becoming, will be published in the US and Canada on November 13 by Crown and will be released simultaneously in 24 languages....
AL: The Scoop, May 7 |
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Kathy Rosa writes: “Whether they address literacy, library design, open access, or another equally important topic, dissertations advance knowledge of the LIS field, spur interest in further research, and fuel the design of LIS learning experiences. Their authors use both qualitative and quantitative approaches, conduct interviews and surveys, analyze photos and floor plans, observe library activity, and interpret historical documents. Here are eight dissertations to inspire the work of school, public, special, and academic librarians.”...
American Libraries feature, May |
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Joseph Janes writes: “I remember with great clarity how this all started. I was sitting at the kitchen table in the summer of 2002, cleaning out my mother’s house after her passing, when the phone rang with an offer to take over the Internet Librarian column from Karen G. Schneider, who continues to write and think deeply about matters important to us all. Then in 2012, playing off the tagline I closed all my columns with, I transitioned to ‘Another Story,’ where I have happily written about broader matters for several more years.”...
American Libraries column, May |
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Lisa Lindle writes: “On May 7 we kicked off National Library Legislative Day in Washington, D.C., and we are inviting you to help spread the word about the importance of libraries in your own community. Progress on the FY 2019 appropriations bills moves forward toward the October 1 deadline. Take a few minutes to call or email your senators and representatives—just use the ALA talking points and email templates to craft your message. To learn more, check out the funding and broadband briefs for this year.”...
District Dispatch, May 2, 7 |
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On May 9, Senate Democrats will take the first legislative action in support of net neutrality, officially filing a petition to force a vote on the Senate floor to attempt to preserve the strong net neutrality protections passed in 2015. The Senate bill is a Congressional Review Act resolution from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that would block the FCC’s December repeal of net neutrality rules. You can join us and others on the internet May 9 for a coordinated “Red Alert” day of action....
District Dispatch, Apr. 22, May 4; Congressional Research Service, Nov. 17, 2016 |
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ALA’s Virtual Membership Meeting will take place on May 17. The VMM is an annual online forum where ALA leaders present information about topics of interest to the general membership. All ALA personal members can register for and participate in the meeting. VMMs are part of ALA’s ongoing efforts to reach out interactively to members about its strategic direction, budget priorities, the work of the Washington Office, and other subjects. Live captioning is provided for all participants....
Membership Development Office, May 8 |
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Cathay Reta writes: “At age 7, Efren Sanchez got separated from his mother in the crowd at a Mexico City festival and wound up living on the streets. He never went to school or learned to read. In his early 30s he moved to the US. Now, at age 52, Sanchez (right) has learned to read and write in Spanish. He was one of the first adults to enroll in the Leamos course at the Louis Robidoux branch of the Riverside County (Calif.) Library System.”...
American Libraries Spotlight, May |
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Jed Gottlieb writes: “Earlier this year, Somerville (Mass.) Public Library’s ‘Books & Brews’ book club selected comedian Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance as its next read. A week later, a woman accused Ansari of sexual misconduct. Without intending to, the library had inserted itself into the conversation about #MeToo, the movement that has exposed sexual harassment and abuse in a myriad of industries across the globe. The librarians running the group found it a perfectly natural conversation to be part of.”...
Quartz, May 6; Babe, Jan. 13 |
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Andrea Jamison writes: “Once considered inferior to traditional presses, self-publishing is gaining more attention and earning credibility as a viable way to access unique, and in some cases, quality content. Libraries have begun using self-publishing as a way to reconnect with communities by offering workshops and resources geared towards independent authors. Although this commitment is commendable, it still begs the question as to whether or not libraries are doing enough.”...
Intellectual Freedom Blog, May 3 |
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The Council on Library and Information Resources is now accepting applications from collecting institutions for the digital reformatting of audio and audiovisual materials in its fourth call for the Recordings at Risk grant program. Recordings at Risk is focused on digitizing at-risk materials of high scholarly value. Grants of $10,000–$50,000 are available for projects carried out between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019. The application deadline is June 29....
Council on Library and Information Resources, May 7
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Lindsay McKenzie writes: “Florida State University recently announced plans to cancel its ‘big deal’ with Elsevier, but it is far from the first university to do so. According to data from SPARC, in 2016 five US and Canadian institutions announced cancellations with big publishers such as Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Elsevier. In 2017, seven more North American institutions said they planned to cancel their big deals, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kansas State University.”...
Inside Higher Ed, Apr. 26, May 8 |
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Otto Penzler writes: “Writers of mystery fiction have produced some of the finest and most enduring literature of the 20th (and now 21st) century. It is with hard-boiled fiction that literature bloomed most eloquently and colorfully. James M. Cain, the quintessential hard-boiled writer, claimed he didn’t know what that meant, and he wasn’t alone. So what is it? Mainly, hard-boiled stories involve private investigators as the hero. They act tough and talk that way too.”...
Crime Reads, May 8 |
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