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The American Library Association selected Deacon King Kong (Riverhead Books) by James McBride as the winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Fathoms: The World in the Whale (Simon & Schuster) by Rebecca Giggs as the winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The selections were announced February 4 at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards virtual event, sponsored by
NoveList....
AL: The Scoop, Feb. 4
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Media specialist and school librarian Anne Amrhein writes: “In 2019, Batesville (Ind.) Intermediate School began a book club using selections inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the organization’s blueprint for addressing global challenges like poverty and climate change by 2030. Batesville’s students use lessons they glean from the club to engage with their community and the world, earning the school ALA’s 2020 Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Excellence in Humanities Programming.”...
American Libraries Trend, Jan./Feb.
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In the latest Librarian’s Library column, reference and technology librarian Anna Gooding-Call rounds up resources for librarians serving diverse populations, from using folktales to support diversity and inclusion through story to essential readings on social justice for school librarians to teaching strategies for academic librarians....
American Libraries column, Jan./Feb.
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Across the country, school librarians are adapting their teaching and outreach to support students in remote-learning and hybrid-class models and meet shifting demands. They are turning to technology to promote their libraries, supplement instruction, and distribute physical resources. Here are just a few case studies from school librarians—and the tools they’re using—as they adjust to these times and keep students engaged with their libraries beyond the school’s walls....
American Libraries column, Jan./Feb.
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Following reports of internet shutdowns and other restrictions on access to information in Myanmar, IFLA President Christine Mackenzie and Secretary General Gerald Leitner issued a statement on February 9 that read in part, “At the heart of the work of libraries is the conviction that access to information is a driver of rights and development.”
Read the full statement....
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Feb. 9
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Mapping the New Politics of Care has released a new interactive map that helps to visualize how vaccines could have been allocated in counties during Vaccine Allocation Phase 1a. Do your neighbors want to get vaccinated? is a choropleth map that shows the percentage chance that a person in each county in the USA will want to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Bloomberg’s
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker uses data gathered from government websites and public statements to map the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations around the world....
Google Maps Mania, Feb. 6
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Barbara Fister writes: “As the denouement of the 2020 presidential race presented voters with wildly different claims about the validity of election results, feeding an eruption of violence as Congress convened to complete the work of the Electoral College and confirm Joe Biden as president, many stunned observers demanded to know where we went wrong. How could so many people believe things that are obviously untrue? Why don’t kids learn about this in school? Shouldn’t being able to navigate information and separate truth from lies be a standard part of education? It is. It has been, for a long time. It clearly hasn’t worked.”...
Project Information Literacy, Feb. 3; Post Reports podcast, Jan. 15
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Librarian Jacqui Higgins-Dailey writes: “I recently found myself down a rabbit hole while researching fanfiction and copyright. I was hoping to clarify what is and isn’t legal, but clarity was not my result. I ended up with a headache and more questions. I assume most people who wade into the world of fanfiction go forth without considering copyright. It seems like a real downer to think about legalities when you’re about to create the ending your favorite story deserves. Am I about to be the buzzkill? I hope not.”...
OIF Blog, Feb. 4
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Jodi Helmer writes: “During the pandemic, Alicia Serratos has spent countless hours assembling kits containing organic vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, envelopes, and plant markers to help communities establish seed libraries. Seed libraries maintain stocks of seeds that the public can check out to plant in their gardens. Boxes stocked with packets of seeds are often housed in public libraries, but businesses and homeowners have also started creating mini-libraries in an effort to boost food gardening and seed saving while promoting food access and security.”...
Modern Farmer, Feb. 8
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Andrew Silow-Carroll writes: “There is zero evidence that Florence Mendheim was the inspiration for Batgirl. But the real-life Jewish woman from the Bronx and the fictional daughter of Gotham City’s Commissioner Gordon were both librarians who led secret double lives fighting bad guys. In Mendheim’s case, the villains were German-American Nazi sympathizers, who met in taverns and beer gardens throughout New York City in the mid-1930s.”...
New York Jewish Week, Feb. 8
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Mistaken identities, one-night stands, forbidden love, fake engagements—oh my! There’s no denying it: The romance genre has got some of the best tropes in the book biz. To celebrate the myriad paths to love and to match you with your next hot read, Goodreads has made a list of recent highly rated romances organized around these popular tropes....
Goodreads, Feb. 8
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