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On January 28, ALA announced the top books, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Printz awards—at its Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington. The Newbery Medal went to Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina; the Caldecott Medal was awarded to Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall; and the Printz Award went to The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. A list of all the 2019 award winners follows. See all of American Libraries’ coverage of the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits at The Scoop....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 28 |
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ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo’s President’s Program at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle featured Robin DiAngelo (right), a longtime diversity and antiracism educator and author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Beacon Press, 2018), as keynote speaker. White fragility, a phrase DiAngelo coined, refers to the inability of white people to tolerate racial stress. She also calls it “weaponized hurt feelings” and considers it a form of bullying and dominance that allows white people to maintain racial control....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 28 |
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“Do I really need to use this microphone?” Kate Deibel (right) opened her session, “Pushing on the Frontier: Disability Access and the Future of Libraries” at the ALA Midwinter Meeting with this all-too-common question to make a point: “Always use the microphone. It’s one of the most important and easiest things you can do.” It helps people with auditory and attention issues, and is the first step needed for live captioning. Unfortunately, solutions to disability access issues are not all so straightforward....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 28 |
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Rick Steves (right) is on a mission. The author, television host, and travel guide behind Rick Steves’ Europe wants to inspire and equip Americans to venture beyond Orlando. “The book that beats mine [in sales] all the time is the guidebook to Disney World,” Steves told attendees at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. “Our country has never been more fearful,” he said. “Fear is for people who don’t get out very much. The flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding when we travel.” Steves maintained that meeting people along your travels—and discovering their interests—fosters this understanding and “carbonates” the experience....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 28 |
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There are more than 600,000 podcasts worldwide. Should you start one for your library? Phil Morehart, host of the Dewey Decibel podcast and senior editor of American Libraries, assembled a panel of librarian podcasters to tackle this question and others at ‘So You Want to Podcast…,’ a PopTop Stage program at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle on January 26. Joining Morehart in the discussion were Gwen Glazer, Joseph Janes, and Adriane Herrick Juarez....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 27 |
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At its first meeting on January 27, ALA Council passed resolutions on sustainability as a core value of librarianship, on the creation of a task force for online deliberation and voting for Council, and on changes to the language in ALA Policy B.8.10 to make it more inclusive and use person-first terminology. At its second meeting, ALA Council passed a resolution on eliminating library fines as a form of social inequity, voted to change the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity to the Penguin Random House Library Award for Innovation Through Adversity because of new sponsorship, and agreed to make proposed changes to the Library Bill of Rights....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 27–28 |
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ALA has selected The Great Believers (Viking) by Rebecca Makkai as the winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Heavy: An American Memoir (Scribner) by Kiese Laymon as the winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The selections were announced January 27 at the RUSA Book and Media Awards, sponsored by NoveList, during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 27 |
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The third floor of Seattle’s Central Library, with its soaring glass-and-metal-curtain wall, furnished a dramatic backdrop for ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo’s ‘Rally for Libraries’ at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on January 26. An estimated crowd of 150 vociferous library supporters, many holding signs supporting public and school libraries, gathered about the podium as Garcia-Febo fired up the crowd with a stirring call to action on behalf of libraries of all types....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 26 |
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Rose Hopkins-LaRocco writes: “When I was a child, I was a huge Emilio Estevez fan. My brother and I would rush home after school to watch his movies on VHS. When I first saw the trailer for The Public, I was thrilled someone I admired as a child had made a film about libraries. Last night I was able to see that film at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and I was impressed. In the discussion afterward, Estevez mentioned this film was 12 years in the making. As a public librarian, I recognized a good number of my own patrons in the film. I also recognized a lot of the attitudes of people unfamiliar with libraries.”...
ALSC Blog, Jan. 27 |
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On January 28, ALA and Google launched a national tour of libraries as part of the Grow with Google initiative. The Grow with Google tour will consist of free, one-day events hosted at local libraries in cities and towns across the US, where experts will deliver in-person workshops for job seekers, small businesses, and library staff. Google is also investing $1 million in libraries. Following each state’s workshops, ALA will open applications through Libraries Lead with Digital Skills for microfunding to libraries throughout that state to address the digital skills gaps of job seekers and small businesses....
ALA Washington Office, Jan. 28: Google: The Keyword, Jan. 28 |
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The International Connections Committee of the ALA International Relations Round Table invites you to contribute a photo from your library that best demonstrates this year’s ALA initiative, Libraries = Strong Communities, and help build the “2019 Best Practices from World Libraries” virtual photo gallery. The photos will be displayed via our websites, publications, and social media outlets. Selected submissions will be physically displayed at the 2019 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., June 20–25. Email your submissions by February 15....
International Relations Round Table Blog, Jan. 28 |
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Less than a week after the murder of Fort Myers Beach (Fla.) Library Director Leroy Hommerding, a community came together to celebrate his memory. He was stabbed to death January 20 in front of the library. Lee County deputies said a homeless man named Adam Soules was responsible. But on January 26, the service at the library was to remember Hommerding. It was standing room only in the library garage, a packed house in which the local community and beyond came to pay their respects. The community center that Hommerding had dedicated his life to now mourns his untimely passing....
WBBH-TV, Fort Myers, Fla., Jan. 26 |
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