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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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On April 1, ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo will give remarks at a public briefing in Washington, D.C., held by the US Census Bureau to mark a one-year-out milestone from the 2020 Census. Garcia-Febo said, “ALA is committed to helping our communities achieve a complete count because libraries serve everyone.” The news conference will be webcast live from the National Press Club. Census Bureau leadership will brief the public on the status of operations, discuss national hiring efforts, and highlight what partners and other stakeholders can do to ensure complete and accurate counts in communities across the country....
ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Mar. 27 |
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In his new film The Public, writer, director, and actor Emilio Estevez explores what happens when a cold snap hits Cincinnati and a downtown library’s homeless patrons refuse to leave. Estevez says his inspiration for the film came in April 2007, when he read an LA Times article written by a retiring Salt Lake City librarian named Chip Ward, who described a day in the life as a librarian dealing with the city’s homeless population who frequented the library as a de facto shelter. Estevez appeared on Chicago Tonight March 27, along with Chicago-based artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith and author and homeless shelter director Ryan Dowd....
WTTW-TV, Chicago, Mar. 27; Los Angeles Times, Apr. 1, 2007 |
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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on March 27 announced her selection of Karyn A. Temple (right) as the register of copyrights. Temple has been acting register of copyrights since October 21, 2016. Of the 13 registers of copyright in US history, Temple will be the first person of color to hold the position. Prior to her appointment as acting register, Temple had served since 2013 as associate register of copyrights and director of policy and international affairs for the US Copyright Office. In that role, she oversaw the office’s domestic and international policy analyses, legislative support, and international negotiations....
Library of Congress, Mar. 27; ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Mar. 28 |
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The ALA JobLIST Placement and Career Development Center will host a free webinar designed to help mid-career library workers reflect on what’s next for them. Should you try another path where your skills will be valued, though the type of work you’ll be doing may look a lot different from what you’ve done before? The webinar, “Mid-Career: A Time to Reflect and Envision a Future that Excites You” with presenter Caitlin Williams (right), will be held April 24. Register online....
Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Mar. 28 |
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The ALA International Relations Round Table invites you to join in a free webinar in which US-based librarians will share their experiences participating in the Librarians Without Borders Guatemala program. The webinar will take place April 8 and feature Joi Jackson, Karen García, and Allinston Saulsberry discussing their experiences preparing for the program, working in Guatemala, and the effect that the experience has had on their librarianship. Join the webinar via Adobe Connect....
International Relations Round Table, Mar. 28 |
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Thousands of historic documents—including the proclamation of the Louisiana Purchase, the Great Soulard Discovery Map used by Lewis and Clark, and a high school yearbook from Cuba when Fidel Castro was a student—were saved March 26 when a four-alarm fire hit the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in South St. Louis. But the fate of the heavily damaged historical building, a former church, that housed the pieces is less clear. Damage was extensive, but officials say it can be saved. The museum is owned by David and Marsha Karpeles, who made their fortune in Southern California real estate and have collected historic documents for decades....
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 28; KTVI-TV, St. Louis, Mar. 27 |
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Barbara Fister writes: “Perhaps the era of the Big Deal is ending. It hasn’t been sustainable for years, and now research libraries around the country are following the lead of the University of California and several European library consortia, walking away from deals that extract money from subscriptions and authors at an extortionate price. (Publishers argue they provide good value, but 35% profit margins are not normal.) Is the tide turning? Have we woken up at last? Or have we failed to learn our lesson? A colleague told me the other day that a library like ours, but with more money and staff, is no longer buying books in print.”...
Inside Higher Ed: Library Babel Fish, Mar. 28; Inside Higher Ed, Mar. 27 |
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Paige Bentley-Flannery writes: “In one week, I will be launching a rocket, watching out for rattlesnakes, dancing ballet, singing like animals, toasting marshmallows, and snapping like a shrimp. What? You guessed it: April is National Poetry Month! I’m excited to visit schools in central Oregon with interactive poems and introduce children to new children’s poets. Every year, I read and reread all of the new children’s poetry books and select a variety of poems that children can act out, make noise to, and repeat. Here are some 2019 children’s poems perfect for school visits, library programs, or storytime.” The Academy of American Poets is presenting Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invites students in grades 5–12 to write letters in response to poems written and read by award-winning poets....
ALSC Blog, Mar. 27; Academy of American Poets |
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In Episode 36 of the Dewey Decibel podcast, two librarians discuss different aspects of the weeding process. American Libraries Senior Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart speaks with Rebecca Vnuk, executive director of LibraryReads and author of The Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-By Shelf Guide (ALA Editions, 2015), about why weeding is necessary, how to get started, and what to say to naysayers about its importance. Also on hand is Brian Greene, a librarian at Columbia College in Sonora, California, who participated in a large-scale ebook weeding project....
AL: The Scoop, Mar. 29 |
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When teens and young adults are immersed on their smartphone, what do you think they’re doing? There’s a good chance they’re actually reading a book. Millennials are voracious readers—it’s just that their reading habits are different. The average millennial reads five books annually, and millennials are more likely than any other age group to visit public libraries. Besides upending a few misconceptions about millennials, the book industry is also probably in a healthier state than we give it credit for. Check out this infographic from The Expert Editor for more fun and surprising facts about the reading habits of millennials....
The Expert Editor blog, Mar. 23 |
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Richard Byrne writes: “I have long said (half jokingly) that YouTube comments are a lot like the graffiti you find on the walls of dive bar bathrooms. In other words, nothing good is found in them. There are some exceptions to that rule, but they are few and far between. It seems that Google agrees with me because they recently launched Tune, a Chrome extension designed to hide toxic comments on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Disqus. Once you have the extension installed, you can choose which networks you want to apply Tune to. Tune will then attempt to identify toxic comments and filter them from your view.”...
Free Technology for Teachers, Mar. 29 |
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Anyone who creates a free account at apstylebook.com can search PDFs of Associated Press stylebooks going back to 1900. The archives include the 1933 guide for filing editors, the 1939 “Wirephoto: Miracle of Modern Newsgathering,” and the first edition of the modern stylebook from 1953. “We shared a few select snippets from the historical guides at last year’s American Copy Editors Society conference and the reaction was so enthusiastic that we wanted to make them available,” said Colleen Newvine, AP Stylebook product manager. For example, in 1909: “The use of the word ‘phone’ for telephone and ‘phoned’ for telephoned and similar abbreviations are prohibited in the Associated Press.”...
Poynter, Mar. 28 |
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