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Tom Berger writes: “In a vibrant, multicultural society, representing the richness of students’ lives in a class or school library takes a conscious effort. No book shelf will represent the fullness of this nation. From the descendants of people who arrived here more than 15,000 years ago to the newest immigrants, we’re simply too many. But this inclusive set of books—recommended by teachers—spans all grade and Lexile levels up to 1140L.”...
Edutopia, Feb. 15 |
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This week is National Entrepreneurship Week. As community hubs and incubators, libraries are perfectly positioned to help new businesses get off their feet and thrive—whether it’s by offering resources and books to spark ideas or hosting programs on the ins-and-outs of business management led by local business leaders. In Episode 35, Dewey Decibel looks at libraries that are leading the charge. The podcast features Amy Fisher, information readers services manager, and Morgan Perry, business outreach specialist, at Mid-Continent Public Library in Missouri; and Roosevelt Weeks, director of Austin (Tex.) Public Library....
AL: The Scoop, Feb. 15 |
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A New Mexico teenager convicted of opening fire and killing two people at Clovis-Carver Public Library on August 28, 2017, will spend decades in prison before being eligible for parole under a sentence imposed February 15 by a state district judge. Judge James Hudson made his decision after hearing emotional testimony during a three-day proceeding. He sentenced Nathaniel Jouett (right) as an adult to two life sentences that will run concurrently plus 40 years in prison for carrying out the shooting. Jouett pleaded guilty to 30 felony counts, including two first-degree murder charges for the deaths of library employees Wanda Walters and Krissie Carter. He seriously wounded four other people....
Associated Press, Feb. 15; AL: The Scoop, Aug. 29, 2017 |
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North Dakota lawmakers have yet to act on Gov. Doug Burgum’s proposal for a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library at Medora, seeing a coming revenue forecast as key for the session’s second half. Burgum has proposed using $50 million in Legacy Fund earnings with $100 million in private donations to build the facility at the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit. Because of a rule change in how lawmakers budget for the new biennium, Burgum’s proposal must enter through an amendment to House Bill 1018, the budget bill for the state Department of Commerce....
Bismarck (N.Dak.) Tribune, Feb. 18 |
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Gothenburg City Library in Sweden currently has two mobile libraries in operation, visiting about 70 mobile library stops and 110 preschools. In 2019, the city library decided to invest in more modern and environmentally friendly vehicles by purchasing two new all-electric Volvo buses. They are scheduled to replace the existing mobile libraries in July 2020. The vehicles can keep going for more hours than the current bookmobiles. The new electric bookmobiles will operate all around the city, accessing even the Gothenburg inner-city green zone....
The Mayor EU, Feb. 18 |
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Jamaican Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport Olivia Grange announced that a new digital Reggae Film Archive will be established at the National Library of Jamaica in an effort to preserve the country’s cultural heritage and reggae history on film. Grange made the announcement at the screening of the film Legends of Ska at Emancipation Park in Kingston on February 15. More than 200 films collected during the staging of the Reggae Film Festival between 2008 and 2013 will be donated by film festival organizer Barbara Blake-Hannah to begin the archive....
Jamaica Observer, Feb. 19 |
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In November 2018, the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France launched a joint project, putting 800 manuscripts decorated before the year 1200 available freely online on two websites. Both institutions provided 400 manuscripts each for digitization. One website, “France-England: Medieval Manuscripts between 700 and 1200,” has been created by the BnF based on the Gallica marque blanche infrastructure. The other, “Medieval England and France, 700–1200,” is aimed at a wider public audience and was developed by the BL to showcase a selection of manuscripts, as well as articles, essays, and video clips....
Open Culture, Feb. 15; British Library, Nov. 26, 2018 |
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Kaitlin Frick writes: “Did you know February 26 is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day? Don’t be embarrassed if you didn’t; fairy tales are my favorite, and even I wasn’t aware until very recently. In fact, my love of fairy tales dates back to long before I became a librarian. It turns out such love isn’t uncommon among children; a recent Brightly article includes quite a bit of anecdotal evidence attesting to children’s passion for magic, escapism, even the ‘twisted and bizarre,’ while this ALSC post from 2015 highlights the universality of these stories. Beyond this love lies an entire world of literacy development.”...
ALSC Blog, Feb. 17; May 8, 2015; Brightly |
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The University of Oklahoma Libraries invite higher education institutions to share their artificial intelligence projects in a new online registry. OU’s Projects in Artificial Intelligence Registry is an online database that supports collaboration and grant funding across higher education institutions involved in AI research. OU Libraries announced the registry during the December 2018 meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information. Three other universities (University of Utah, University of California Irvine, and Indiana University) have joined the PAIR registry....
University of Oklahoma Libraries, Feb. 19 |
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Douglas Fraser writes: “A group of financiers set up a gem of a library in 2013, dedicated to learning from financial fiascos and failures. The Library of Mistakes opened in Edinburgh five years after Royal Bank of Scotland experienced a record £24.1 billion loss for 2008. Its mission: to learn how things went wrong in the past and, in particular, how things went terribly wrong with money. Its motto is Mundum mutatu errore singillatim—changing the world one mistake at a time. I’d expected something academic and dry. Far from it. This venture is at risk of celebrating failure rather than examining it, and the more spectacular the better.”...
BBC News, Feb. 16 |
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Actor Will Smith (right) may have sort of vandalized some DVDs at the Buckhead branch of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System—but they probably won’t mind it too much. Smith, who is in Atlanta filming Bad Boys for Life alongside actor Martin Lawrence, apparently had a few scenes to film at the library in February, so he left a few surprises on the DVD shelf. Starting with movies he was in, moving into others he was involved with, and then signing a few that were related to ones he was in, Will Smith signed several DVD cases. The moments were caught in a quick montage shared on his Instagram account....
WXIA-TV, Atlanta, Feb. 16 |
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Emily Temple writes: “Whenever I see a character on screen reading a book, I squint and peer and rewind and pause and google until I have figured out what book, exactly, they are reading. Sure, it’s probably not important to the plot (though sometimes it is), but I can’t help it: I want to know. So, what do people read in movies? Lots of things, of course. To narrow it down for this list, I decided to look at only a small segment of the fictional reading public: those reading their books in 1990s movies. Just enjoy this stroll down literary and cinematic memory lane.”...
Literary Hub, Feb. 19 |
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