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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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ALA is still accepting applications for the 2020 class of Emerging Leaders. The deadline to apply is August 30. Emerging Leaders is a leadership development program that enables newer library workers from across the country to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity....
ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Aug. 7 |
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Understanding US copyright law is important, but also complex. This glossary of copyright terms will help promote informed discussions about copyright policy. Copyright troll: An entity that aggressively enforces copyrights for the purpose of making money through mass litigation or the threat of litigation. Similar to a patent troll, copyright trolls do not advance the constitutional intent of copyright, which is to promote the progress of science and arts. Content filtering: The practice of companies employing automated or human controlled filtering systems to take down or prevent upload of content that is believed to be infringing on a creator’s copyright....
Re:Create Blog, Aug. 6 |
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Brooke Morris-Chott writes: “How can archives counteract historical discrimination and bigotry with inclusive collections? At the Archives*Records 2019 Conference in Austin, Texas—sponsored by the Society of American Archivists and the Council of State Archivists—presenters from Texas A&M University discussed this topic in ‘Building New Traditions: Advocating for Diversity and Inclusion at Texas A&M University Special Collections and Archives’ on August 4.” Read other SAA coverage on archiving controversial digital materials and creating accessibility within LGBTQ collections....
AL: The Scoop, Aug. 8 |
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A northwest Iowa man who burned four LGBTQ-themed children’s library books in 2018 was found guilty of fifth-degree criminal mischief on August 6 in Sioux County District Court. Paul Dorr (right), who runs the Christian group “Rescue The Perishing,” was fined $65 plus a 35% criminal penalty surcharge and court costs during his sentencing. The $65 fine is the minimum for his charge, a simple misdemeanor. Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle, who represented the state of Iowa, had requested Dorr be fined the maximum penalty of $625, a 35% surcharge, and court costs for destroying the library’s property....
Iowa Public Radio, Aug. 6; Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, Oct. 21, 2018 |
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A group of prominent University of California faculty say they will step away from the editorial boards of scientific journals published by Elsevier until the publisher agrees to restart negotiations, which stalled in February and left the 10-campus system without subscriptions to some of the world’s top scholarly journals. A letter circulating since July 12 throughout the UC system and already signed by 30 faculty from four UC campuses warns Elsevier that the signatories will suspend their editorial board posts on 28 Cell Press journals, denying them what they have always gotten for free: prestige names and guaranteed peer review....
Berkeley News, Aug. 7 |
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The Broward Public Library Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, put on its third annual Cocktails for Humanity event on July 27. Guests had wine, beer, and cocktails served by volunteer bartenders, among them (pictured, left to right) photographer Kara Starzyk, Broward County Libraries Director Kelvin Watson, WFEZ-FM radio personality Jeff Martin, Ryder transportation company CMO Karen Jones, Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, and Hollywood City Commissioner Caryl Shuham. Funds raised from drink sales and tips will go toward SAT/ACT Workshops for College-Bound Students Program at Broward County Library....
Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel, Aug. 8 |
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Abby Hargreaves writes: “I may be young, but I know for certain that this era is one of the most difficult in world history—particularly for people of color, for LGBTQ folks, for women, for people with disabilities, for people in poverty, and for anyone who is other than a white, cisgender, heterosexual, able, wealthy man. It’s hard not to feel as if we must be actively resisting at all times. Every time I pick up a book, I feel this. The thing is, resistance fatigue is a real thing. If we’re going to be any good at fighting the good fight, it’s imperative we take breaks. Reading is protest. Reading for pleasure is protest. Read for the future—our children will thank you.”...
Book Riot, Aug. 7; HuffPost, Jan. 30, 2017 |
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Emily Bayci writes: “Library cards might be one of my favorite aspects about libraries. I appreciate the the fun designs, the smooth plasticky feeling, and everything that they represent—access, the right to read, and a place to be. So, when I saw an idea rolling around Facebook about people collecting library cards for displays, I could not pass up the opportunity to start my own collection. I ended up with 88 cards from 38 states and 45 different libraries. Looking at all the amazing card designs, I noticed a few trends. Let’s take a look.”...
ALSC Blog, Aug. 7 |
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Geoff Nunberg writes: “Letter-for-letter, no part of speech gets people more worked up than pronouns do. Linguistic history is dotted with eruptions of pronoun rage. Right now, the provocation is the gender-neutral pronouns that some nonbinary people have asked to be called by, so that they won’t have to be identified as ‘he’ or ‘she.’ There are several of these in circulation. Some are new words, like ‘ze’ and ‘co,’ but people have been proposing new gender-neutral pronouns for 150 years, though none has ever caught on. But the most popular choice, and probably the most controversial one, is the familiar pronoun that people describe as the singular ‘they.’”...
NPR: Fresh Air, Aug. 6; Dennis Baron, “The Words That Failed,” 2015 |
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Rebecca Hill writes: “Libraries have always been the number one source for facts. So, when one of the first fact-checkers for Time magazine, Nancy Ford, needed to verify dates, names, and facts for magazine articles in 1923, she turned to the New York Public Library public information desk as her primary source of information. In 2018, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies took over PolitiFact from the Tampa Bay Times; it now serves as an independent, nonpartisan fact-checking organization under editor and former librarian Angie Drobnic Holan (right). I spoke with Holan about PolitiFact and her experience as a fact-checker.”...
Intellectual Freedom Blog, Aug. 6; American Libraries Bookend, May 2015 |
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Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe writes: “Like many other people, I often find myself trying to figure out which articles are likely to be most relevant for a project I am working on. My interest was piqued immediately when I heard about Paper Digest. Others might find this technology as promising and intriguing as I do, particularly if they are—like me—often frustrated that abstracts are not as useful as they should be. My thanks to Yasutomo Takano, co-founder of Paper Digest, for answering my questions about the app.”...
The Scholarly Kitchen, Aug. 7 |
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Jessica Plummer writes: “It’s never the first question I’m asked about comics. But eventually my new-to-comics friends, family members, and business associates will ask: ‘So why is the text in comics Like That?’ The short answer is usually that it’s tradition inherited from when comics were printed on the cheap and intended to be read by young children. The long answer, though… Why is it in all caps? And why do older comics have random words bolded and italicized, especially the names of characters? Well, a few reasons. Comic books inherited the all caps thing from their predecessor, the newspaper comic strip.”...
Book Riot, Aug. 9 |
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