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For daily ALA and library news, check the American Libraries website or subscribe to our RSS feed.
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The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect May 25, and is likely to have a significant impact on the way libraries around the globe manage personal data. Several major US media websites were immediaterly blocked to Europeans. In short, any company that holds the data of any EU citizen must provide data controls, no matter where the company or the data is located. To help libraries consider what they need to do in response to the GDPR, the Association of Research Libraries has published an issue brief on the topic by Anne T. Gilliland, scholarly communications officer for University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
Association of Research Libraries, May 24; CNBC, May 25; ACRL TechConnect, May 24 |
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Jim Neal and Steven Yates write: “The scene described in the opening of Robert Nott’s March 4 article (‘Librarians Fear Schools Are Turning the Page on Them’) seems to beautifully capture a moment of New Mexico enchantment: The young students of Gonzales Community School earnestly engaged in both group learning and self-directed inquiry. A closer look, however, reveals that it is not enchantment after all, but the skillful and deliberate coordination of the school’s librarian.”...
Santa Fe New Mexican, Mar. 4, May 20 |
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The Library Copyright Alliance—consisting of ALA, ACRL, and the Association of Research Libraries—applauds the introduction on May 23 of the Accessibility for Curators, Creators, Educators, Scholars, and Society Recordings Act (“ACCESS to Recordings Act”) by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.). The bill would provide full federal copyright protection to sound recordings fixed prior to 1972, which currently receive protection only under state copyright law....
District Dispatch, May 23 |
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ALA and hundreds of libraries will celebrate June as GLBT Book Month, a nationwide celebration of the authors and writings that reflect the GLBT experience. Originally established in the early 1990s by the Publishing Triangle as National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, the event is coordinated through the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table....
Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, May 22 |
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Actor Ethan Hawke writes: “Just last night, my 16-year-old son asked me, ‘Do people really still use libraries?’ I was happy to be able to tell him yes. It’s a fact: More people than ever are visiting their neighborhood branches and using the myriad free resources the library provides. They’re downloading music, checking out books, and viewing the Criterion Collection’s films—for free. They’re also enrolling in ESOL classes, improving their digital literacy, and taking their toddlers to storytime—also for free. The public library is a more vital community center than ever before.”...
New York Public Library Blogs, May 24 |
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Su Epstein writes: “In today’s world, civility is imperative. I have also expressed a belief that librarians have a responsibility to lead tolerance. In response to these expressed beliefs, some have challenged that civility is a silencing tool of oppression and that tolerance is an unacceptable dodge of acceptance. I believe these responses indicate experiences in which civility or tolerance have not been practiced. Civility is about presentation, not about content or disagreement.”...
Public Libraries Online, May 22 |
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Scott Koenig writes: “Provocative behavior on social media draws a seemingly disproportionate social punishment. The architecture of social media exploits our sense of right and wrong, reaping profit from the pleasure we feel in expressing righteous outrage. The algorithms that undergird the flow of information are, like the sensationalist print media and incendiary talk radio that came before them, designed to maximize ad revenue by engaging consumers’ attention to the fullest extent possible.”...
Nautilus blog, May 15 |
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John Boyd and Beth Cramer (a former ALA International Relations Round Table chair) are librarians at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, who like to ride bicycles. They are on their way from Washington, D.C., to Astoria, Oregon, from May through August, visiting libraries, taking photos, and making notes of services for bicycle tourists and other non-resident patrons. On May 23 they made it to the Morgan County Public Library in Martinsville, Indiana. The trip is “part library advocacy, part adventure, all fun.”...
Librarians on Bikes; Public Libraries Online, June 19, 2013 |
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Samantha Mairson writes: “If you’re like most MLIS candidates that I know—or you’ve graduated with the degree—you’re quietly obsessed with watching job opportunities in the field of librarianship. You track hybrid jobs that pop up because of your background or current employment. You’ve inventoried your transferable skills, scanned the job boards and discussion lists, kept your LinkedIn up to date, and finessed your résumé to the brink of madness. If you’re looking for nonlibrarian library jobs right now, here is a list of 45 job titles to inspire you.”...
Syracuse University iSchool: InfoSpace, Mar. 19, May 24 |
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Donna Bryson writes: “Fantasy fiction was largely dominated by white men in decades past, but today diverse writers are bringing new voices to the conversation, imagining futures based on more inclusive readings of the past and creating multiethnic worlds that can help people understand their own. Certainly, speculative fiction writers since at least Octavia Butler have looked beyond Europe for inspiration. But no longer can they be dismissed as niche. Audiences and readers are flocking to well-drawn worlds inspired by African and Asian countries.”...
Christian Science Monitor, May 21
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Susan LaTempa writes: “The two most beautiful words in the English language this month are ‘summer reading.’ They conjure up a delicious season of reading exactly what you want, when you want. Some people see vacation reading like the road-trip diet—guilty pleasures that are not only permissible but at the top of the menu. As a uniseasonal reader-in-the-sun (because I live in Los Angeles) and former travel writer/vacation expert, I’d like to share some hot tips for outdoor reading.”...
Literary Hub, May 24 |
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David Nield writes: “You’re probably used to bookmarking your favorite sites for easy access, but the web goes much deeper than the top domains you’re familiar with—from your social networks to your email inbox, having the right URL at hand can enable you to jump right into the page, feature, setting, or search you need. Here are 10 of the most useful ones.”...
Gizmodo: Field Guide, Apr. 9 |
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