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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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George Takei (right) is known for his role in the television series Star Trek, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the Starship Enterprise. From a childhood spent with his family wrongfully imprisoned in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II to becoming one of the country’s leading figures in the fight for social justice, LGBTQ rights, and marriage equality, Takei remains a powerful voice. He is currently preparing a graphic memoir about his life in the internment camps, They Called Us Enemy. He will be an Auditorium Speaker at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 24....
ALA Conference Services, Feb. 7 |
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The Library Bill of Rights, first adopted in 1939 and last amended in 1980, has been updated to include an article focused on the concept of ensuring privacy and confidentiality for library users. The new section, Article VII, states: “All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.” ...
Office for Intellectual Freedom, Feb. 7 |
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John Price Wilkin (right), Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson dean of libraries and university librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named the 2019 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Wilkin will receive a cash award and citation during an ALCTS event at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management. Wilkin was cited for his participation in the Mellon-funded Making of America project and the launching of JSTOR and HathiTrust....
ACRL, Feb. 5 |
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The Silver Spring branch of the Montgomery County (Md.) Public Library recently got a surprise in the mail: a book that was 73 years overdue, along with a letter of apology. It all started in 1946. Two-year-old Mora Gregg fell in love with a 1929 picture book by Charlotte Kuh titled The Postman. It showed how postal workers did their jobs in the 1920s, horses and all. When Gregg’s family moved to Canada, the book went with them. Gregg recently found the book, stamped with “Property of Silver Spring Library,” and mailed it to the library with a typed letter....
WRC-TV, Washington, D.C., Feb. 7 |
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International graduate enrollment and applications have declined for the second year in a row, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools. The slump shows that President Trump’s travel ban and changes in visa policies may have had an impact on international applications and first-time enrollment, leading to a “troubling” downhill trend. In the fall of 2018, the final application count for prospective international graduate students declined by 4%, bringing the overall decline to 6% over the past two years. First-time graduate-student enrollment declined by 1%, making for a total 2% drop since 2017....
Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 7; Mar. 6, 2017; Council of Graduate Schools, Feb. 7 |
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A group of European funders, cOAlition S, has released implementation guidelines for a bold vision—called Plan S—to make full and immediate open access a reality. The coalition has requested public feedback on the guidelines. The Association of Research Libraries welcomes the bold vision of Plan S—a near-term world without paywalled journal literature, in which scholarly discovery is accelerated through free and open access to all published findings. ARL is committed to achieving equitable and barrier-free access to information, and therefore is in full support of the vision....
Association of Research Libraries, Feb. 8 |
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Jonathan Dolce writes: “Smartphones, tablets, laptops, and netbooks have all revolutionized the world for every age group. For tweens and teens, the effects of hours of utilizing these devices has made a real impact on their vision and literacy levels. Ralph Chu remarks on one condition called dry eye disease, saying, ‘you see dry eye disease commonly in people who are in their 50s and 60s. But now with children who are using their smartphones a lot, we’re seeing this more and more.’ So, let’s read up on how large print can make all the difference.”...
ALSC Blog, Feb. 8; Women in Optometry, Feb. 2017 |
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Chelsea Price writes: “We’ve all been there: The crafts are set up, the snacks are out, and you’ve got your programming director hat on. You’re prepared for a great turnout, and then nobody shows up. It’s a huge letdown to be excited about a program only to have zero attendance. You wonder what you did wrong, why no one was interested. Programs are going to fail sometimes. But it’s important to try to turn unsuccessful programs into something from which you can learn and grow. Here are some ways I’ve grown from my most cringe-worthy programming flops.”...
Programming Librarian, Feb. 7 |
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Alastair Macaulay writes: “Those who claim New York to be the world’s dance capital have few grounds better than the dance division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: the largest, most eclectic, and most enterprising collection of dance materials anywhere. A visit to New York should include time on the third floor of that library, located at Lincoln Center, to view its dance films. Curious how Balanchine’s Serenade looked when it was danced in skirts ending at the knee? You can watch clips of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo’s 1940 and 1944 performances. The library also has Anna Pavlova’s ballet shoes, Vaslav Nijinsky’s diary, and other treasures.”...
New York Times, Feb. 7 |
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After the death of her husband Charles in 1817, an American woman named Nancy Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft moved to the Cuban province of Matanzas and began studying the island’s plant life. In the mid-1820s, she compiled that research into a stunning and extensive manuscript titled Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba. Nearly two centuries after her own death in 1828, her work has been digitized and made available for download at the HathiTrust digital library, by way of Cornell University’s Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections....
Atlas Obscura, Feb. 5 |
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Vlad Savov writes: “Over the course of the past year, especially as I was reviewing Huawei’s P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro cameras, a portmanteau kept surfacing to the top of my mind: ‘fauxtography.’ It’s a term that’s been used to describe images that are manipulated to factually misrepresent a situation as well as sloppy but innocuous Photoshop chop jobs. We’ve had a seemingly clear dividing line between shots straight out of the camera and examples of fauxtography where the shooter has indulged in applying some after-effects like filters, vignettes, recoloration, or masking and inserting objects in the frame. Phones are now stampeding over that line.”...
The Verge, Feb. 7 |
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Katie McLain writes: “It wasn’t until I started working in a library that I realized that stories that use animal or inanimate narrators can be extremely polarizing. I’ve had several people come to the desk looking for a reading recommendation, but when I ask them if there’s anything they don’t want, they say, ‘Just don’t give me anything with talking animals.’ To each their own. However, there are some intriguing novels that use animals or inanimate objects as point-of-view characters.”...
Book Riot, Feb. 7 |
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