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For library news, check the American Libraries website or subscribe to our RSS feed.
The 2019 Midwinter Meeting scheduler is now open! |
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Amy Wyckoff and Marie Harris write: “If you tell teens you are hosting a career workshop where they can meet a professional and learn about a specific job, you may see some eye-rolling. The workshop is not an automatic sell, but it can be turned into a huge success as a series with a little effort. It thrives when teens are given partial ownership by helping to choose the professions featured. Library staffers can use this feedback to sculpt the series and market it.”...
American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec. |
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Judith A. Downie (right) writes: “‘Who’s collecting San Diego’s beer history?’ This question—asked by Char Booth, California State University San Marcos Library associate dean, during a brewing science certificate proposal review in 2016—launched what would become the Brewchive at CSUSM Library. In 2018, the archive received the ALA John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award. Brewchive planning began in 2016 with a small advisory group of local brewing-industry professionals. We decided to focus on evidence of personal and business brewing activity in San Diego County from the 1980s to the present.”...
American Libraries Spotlight, Nov./Dec. |
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Read a blog post about women’s poetry from WWI and learn how a multidisciplinary mix of content types can evoke deeper analysis on the impact of war across subject areas. |
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Alison S. Ricker writes: “‘On our campus there lives a microbe that can poop gold,’ says Danica Lewis, collections and research librarian for life sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. ‘We just don’t know where it is.’ That’s how, last spring, Lewis enticed NCSU students into joining a Wolfpack Citizen Science Challenge, the university’s periodic call for student engagement in ongoing research, which saw them looking for samples of Delftia acidovorans, a bacterium known for its curious ability to produce tiny pellets of 24-karat gold after feeding on a solution of gold chloride.”...
American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.; Michigan State University, Oct. 2, 2012 |
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David Lee King writes: “Are you ready to create fresh and engaging promotional content about your library that doesn’t involve typing on a laptop or printing out posters? If so, consider making videos. According to Cisco, video comprised 73% of global IP traffic in 2016, and by 2021 it is expected to increase to 82%. Your patrons are already consuming videos, so it makes sense for your library to create video content for them. Making videos can be an effective way to share what your library does, and thankfully, it’s easy. Here are seven simple steps to help you get started.”...
American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.; Cisco, Sept. 15, 2017 |
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County officials have hired Costa Mesa law firm Woodruff, Spradlin & Smart to investigate allegations of cultural censorship at the La Quinta branch of the Riverside County (Calif.) Library System in September. County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said he hopes a thorough investigation will help the public understand what happened at the library during a September 16 presentation by students from Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Coachella. The children were ordered to remove the Mexican flag and not present an essay about Mexican history during their performance....
Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun, Oct. 29, Nov. 15 |
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Ashly Horace (right), a graduate student studying library science at Columbia University, has been to libraries across the Houston area to observe storytime activities. But she was met with resistance when she tried to attend a storytime at the West University branch of the Harris County (Tex.) Public Library recently. After sitting in for a few minutes, an employee approached and told her the library manager said she had to leave. Five policemen arrived in response to a call from the library. Horace believes she was targeted because she is black, but HCPL officials say it was because she did not have a child with her....
KTRK-TV, Houston, Nov. 15 |
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A white school media specialist in Maryland was caught on camera November 12 admitting to using a racial slur. The video, posted on Facebook by Dawn Tolson-Hightower (right) under the name Dawn Nichelle Lennon, was taken in a Walmart parking lot in La Plata, Maryland. She can be heard: “Did you call my husband the n-word?” The woman, said to be Darlene Sale, librarian at Potomac Landing Elementary School in Prince George’s County, said: “Yes I did.” Tolson-Hightower said Sale apparently used the slur “because [her husband] didn’t move out of the parking spot the way she wanted him to.” Sale has reportedly been reassigned by the school district, pending an investigation....
The Independent (UK), Nov. 14; Newsweek, Nov. 15; Dawn Nichelle Lennon Facebook video, Nov. 12; WRC-TV, Washington, D.C., Nov. 14 |
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Anythink, the public library system for Adams County, Colorado, has signed on to implement OCLC Wise, a community engagement system for US public libraries. Anythink joins Allen County (Ind.) Public Library as an early adopter for Wise. The Wise system transforms traditional library management with a holistic people-centric approach. It combines the power of customer relationship management, marketing, and analytics with such standard functions as circulation, acquisitions, and discovery. Wise is a customizable service that is currently used by more than 75% of public libraries in the Netherlands....
OCLC, Nov. 15 |
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3D printing is the way of the future, and in some cases it can even save lives. Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff uses the technology to help injured animals. When Daisy, a 75-pound tortoise, was left with two holes in her shell after being hit by a car, doctors at Canyon Pet Hospital teamed up with the Maker Lab at Cline Library to print implants for Daisy’s shell with its 3D printer. Kathleen Schmand (right), library director of development and communication, said she never imagined the lab being used for something like this, but now that it has and it’s been this successful, she knows they will be able to help other injured animals....
KSAZ-TV, Phoenix, Nov. 12 |
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Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for fiction for The Friend (Riverhead) at a November 14 ceremony in New York City. The 69th annual National Book Awards were sponsored by the National Book Foundation. Diversity was once again in the spotlight throughout the evening. The young people’s literature award went to slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo for The Poet X (HarperTeen), featuring an Afro-Latina heroine. The nonfiction winner was Jeffrey C. Stewart for The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke (Oxford), and Justin Phillip Reed won the poetry prize for Indecency (Coffee House Press)....
USA Today, Nov. 14; AL: The Scoop, Feb. 11 |
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Adrienne Gillespie writes: “I laughed, cried, and marveled at Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the documentary about Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I didn’t grow up watching the show and was amazed by the thought Fred Rogers put into each episode and the range of current topics he addressed. He was very concerned about people’s feelings and making personal connections with his viewers, speaking directly to them and looking into the camera as if looking into their eyes. I think a teen Fred Rogers would enjoy these books that do the same sort of thing.” Oleg Kagan writes that Mr. Rogers and public libraries have much in common....
YALSA The Hub, Nov. 15; Medium, June 30 |
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Pierce Alquist writes: “The first time I read Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, I was blown away. Kurlansky manages to turn a book about an everyday object—one that you and I have seen in every kitchen, every restaurant, and on every table we’ve ever sat down to eat at, throughout our lives—into an utterly fascinating page-turner. I was hooked and moved on to his other microhistory books. There are many good microhistories, ranging from subjects like butter and cotton to champagne and the color indigo. Check out this list of 50 must-read books for hours of enjoyment.”...
Book Riot, Nov. 14 |
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