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On February 10, the Trump administration released details from its budget request to Congress for FY 2021. The White House has requested $23 million in funding for the orderly closure of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, effective October 1. As the primary source of federal funding for museums and libraries, IMLS invests in communities of all sizes, from rural to urban, in every US state and territory. IMLS ensures public library services for all Americans, helps preserve the heritage of our nation, and provides critical funding for literacy and workforce development programs. The White House budget is largely a messaging document that reflects the administration’s spending priorities and has little chance of being enacted in full by Congress. However, ALA has issued a statement by ALA President Wanda Brown in response to the proposal. ALA encourages everyone to email their members of Congress and urge their support for libraries....
Institute of Museum and Library Services, Feb. 10; New York Times, Feb. 10; ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Feb. 10 |
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Julie Holden (right) and Ed Garcia write: “On February 3, the Rhode Island Library Association hosted US Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I., left) at a round table discussion with library staff and patrons on ebook availability and pricing. RILA was inspired to reach out to Cicilline when the US House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law asked ALA to contribute to its bipartisan investigation into the state of competition in the digital marketplace. RILA gathered key library staffers and patrons from across the state and met with Cicilline for a conversation about the harm these practices have on Rhode Islanders.”...
AL: The Scoop, Feb. 11 |
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On Safer Internet Day 2020, February 11, libraries in many countries are joining the campaign to raise awareness and help youth develop the skills for safe and responsible internet use. The initiative was launched by the European Union Safe Borders project in 2004 and has since grown to a large-scale campaign that many countries around the world from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe participate in. More and more libraries take part in Safer Internet Day by organizing activities, working together with different stakeholders, and raising awareness. Here are some examples....
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Feb. 10; Better Internet for Kids |
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ALA has released a set of free professional development materials to help library workers in small and rural communities develop the facilitation skills they need to thrive. Offered through Libraries Transforming Communities: Facilitation Skills for Small and Rural Libraries, the materials are designed to help library workers lead discussions and overcome common challenges in group interactions. Tools include Leading Conversations in Small and Rural Libraries (a practical 30-page guide) and a five-part e-course available on ALA’s eLearning platform....
ALA Public Programs Office, Feb. 10 |
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A group of “First Amendment auditors” has reached out to at least one branch of the Onondaga County (N.Y.) Public Library, threatening to test the library’s free speech policies and possibly provoke a showdown on citizens’ rights to film in public. The auditors are a loose group of YouTube activists who enter public places like libraries, post offices, or police precincts and film employees and patrons. In an email to Onondaga County Library staff, Executive Director Christian Zabriskie outlined options for dealing with these people if they come into a library. Zabriskie said he doesn’t want the threat of a few YouTube filmers to have a chilling effect on patrons....
Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard, Feb. 7; American Libraries Trends, Jan./Feb. |
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Storytime took a snarky turn thanks to RuPaul, who hosted the February 8 Saturday Night Live. RuPaul stopped by the San Diego (Calif.) Public Library to teach children how to read (5:20). The first book on his reading list was Eloise. He continued on to point out Madeline’s cover design (“The Eiffel Tower is not in the woods. Girl, you betta draw France right”) and shared a theory about what Nancy Drew’s secret really was in Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock. Hint: it had nothing to do with the clock. Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race are familiar with the reading challenge, where the queens take turns throwing shade at each other while wearing librarian’s glasses....
Refinery29, Feb. 9; Saturday Night Live YouTube channel, Feb. 9 |
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Jeremy Braddock writes: “Libraries’ historic role in combating propaganda and supporting civic practice is easily neglected. To examine it requires going back to another time when the ongoing status of the US as a democracy was not foreordained—to Archibald MacLeish’s tenure as Librarian of Congress, when, in response to fascist propaganda, this mission for American libraries was most clearly articulated. MacLeish delivered a lecture in 1945 titled ‘Libraries and the Nation’ in which he reviewed some of his activities to build LC’s collections for the purpose of antifascist national security defense and to promote democratic institutions and the liberties they guaranteed.”...
Los Angeles Review of Books, Jan. 28 |
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Rebecca Rego Barry writes: “Avid Reader Press published on February 11 Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote by Craig Fehrman, a journalist and historian who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and (full disclosure) Fine Books. In the book, Fehrman offers a decade of painstaking research boiled down into a supremely engaging narrative about presidents and their relationship to reading and writing. Fehrman agreed to answer a few questions about his research and how to collect in this genre, and he weighed in on the best presidential prose.”...
Fine Books and Collections, Feb. 11 |
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Kelly Hincks writes: “In 2017, I wrote a blog post titled ‘12 (Mostly Cheap) Teacher Tricks that Work in an Elementary Library.’ What I did not expect was the positive response it would receive. The goal was to share simple but effective strategies that I have found helpful when working with students in an elementary library. So after reflecting on what I have added or changed over the last three years, here are 12 more tips and tricks. Some of these you might already know about and some are really simple, but these are things I can rely on to make my job easier. Many are not original ideas, but ones I have borrowed from many other brilliant minds.”...
Knowledge Quest blog, Feb. 11; Feb. 28, 2017 |
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Ellen Gutoskey writes: “One of the many reasons Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century magnum opus The Canterbury Tales is considered a groundbreaking collection of stories is because he chose to write it not in a highbrow language like Latin or French, but in the common tongue of the people: Middle English. To give us a chance to hear The Canterbury Tales in its original, lyrical glory, an international team of researchers (including the late Terry Jones of Monty Python) based at University of Saskatchewan developed an app that reads it aloud in Middle English. Download the app for free on Google Play or iTunes, or use the desktop version.”...
Mental Floss, Feb. 4 |
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Dave Johnson writes: “There was a time on the internet when no one would know if you were a dog, but those days are long gone. It’s now incredibly easy to find deeply personal information about someone online thanks to data brokers, more commonly known as ‘people-finder’ sites. People-finder sites are a treasure trove of information. They often have your address, phone number, email, and age. They even include data from court documents and other public or government records. You can delete your personal information from these sites, but depending on your approach, it can be either cumbersome or expensive.”...
How-To Geek, Feb. 11 |
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Lance Whitney writes: “Finding a specific app, file, or setting buried in the depths of Windows 10 can be challenging. If you’re having trouble tracking down specific items across the Start menu, File Explorer, and Windows Settings menu, use the search feature. Windows 10 offers a powerful and flexible search tool that can help you find exactly what you want, no matter where it is. With the November 2019 update, Windows Search is now integrated into the search function in File Explorer. That means you can type or select a keyword in the search field, and File Explorer suggests files based on your search term. Let’s check out how to use the search tool.”...
PC Magazine, Feb. 10 |
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