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Sanhita SinhaRoy writes: “On May 20, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which addresses the increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic. Three ALA member leaders who have helped blaze the trail for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander library workers—Maria Taesil Hudson McCauley, Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, and Patricia ‘Patty’ M. Wong—discussed with American Libraries their goals for the Association, their experiences with bigotry, and what libraries and library workers can do to counter hate.”...
AL: The Scoop, May 26
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Marshall Breeding writes: “On May 17, research information company Clarivate announced it will acquire ProQuest for $5.3 billion—the largest transaction in the library sector to date. The acquisition means a change of ownership for ProQuest but will not substantially affect the products and services purchased by libraries since Clarivate’s products and services do not typically compete in the library market. As part of Clarivate, ProQuest and its technology businesses Ex Libris and Innovative Interfaces potentially gain access to resources that will strengthen its capacity in product development and support.”...
AL: The Scoop, May 25
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Jessica Cilella writes: “The wipers on the bus—or rather, car—did indeed go swish, swish, swish at the drive-in storytimes hosted by Hoover (Ala.) Public Library last summer. Though its building was closed because of the pandemic, HPL staffers performed these innovative storytimes in parking lots where children watched the readers from the safety of their caregivers’ cars and listened along on the radio.”...
American Libraries Trend, May
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Carrie Smith writes: “From housing former military installations to settling neighborhood squabbles over lighthouse design to becoming overpopulated with wild peacocks, Palos Verdes Peninsula, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles, is full of history. Monique Sugimoto, an avid bicycle commuter—and archivist and librarian for Palos Verdes Library District’s Local History Center—enjoys pairing her expertise in the region’s past with her rides to work. Thus, Pedal PV—a series of four-minute videos—was born.”...
American Libraries Bookend, May
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Denver Public Library’s Plaza program has existed for more than a decade. Its initial aim was to help Spanish speakers find the resources they needed. Over the years, the program has expanded, now representing more than 15 languages spoken in Denver. Before COVID-19, the 11 branches supporting Plaza provided 48 total hours of programming each week: English conversation tables, naturalization support, immigration legal help, job search assistance, and computer help, as well as activities for kids that allowed families to work and play in the same space. Then, the entire program shut down overnight because of the pandemic....
American Libraries feature, May
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Queens (N.Y.) Public Library Assistant Director Fatma Ghailan writes: “Libraries have long been seen as safe havens for students, providing homework assistance and summer reading programs. Over the last decade, libraries have continued to embrace their role in training adults as well, offering them ways to learn digital skills that employers desperately need.”...
American Libraries column, May
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OCLC REALM Project Director Sharon Streams writes: “When the
REALM [REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums]
project began in April 2020, little was known about the COVID-19 virus. Now, more than a year later, REALM has completed eight laboratory tests, synthesized emerging research findings, and produced toolkit resources for archives, libraries, and museums. In this next phase, REALM is exploring additional questions as vaccines have become available, SARS-CoV-2 variants are on the rise, and local guidelines and restrictions change. Here, I’ll discuss what the REALM project has learned over the past year and outline our next phase of work.”...
Hanging Together, May 20; American Libraries feature, Jan./Feb.
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Wanda Whitney writes: “This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, in which a mob of whites invaded and burned to ashes the thriving African American district of Greenwood, also known as Black Wall Street. I had heard about the Greenwood massacre before but didn’t know much about its history. Then late last year, a patron contacted our Ask a Librarian service with a question about racial massacres. That spurred me to investigate the library’s collections to see what I could find out about the Tulsa massacre and similar events that occurred in the United States in the post-World War I era.”...
Library of Congress blog, May 26
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Matthew Gault writes: “It can be hard to access scientific articles, which are often hidden behind expensive paywalls. For 10 years,
Sci-Hub, the ‘Pirate Bay of Science,’ has hosted scientific papers free for anyone who wanted them. But it hasn’t uploaded anything new since December 2020 and is facing prosecution in America. Now, determined activist archivists are working to make a decentralized backup of the website that can never be erased from the internet.”...
Vice Motherboard, May 20; American Libraries feature, June 2016
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Arianne Cohen writes: “Publicly correcting misinformation on Twitter is not the thing to do. This is
the conclusion of MIT researchers who attempted to politely correct flagrantly false posts on social media. The researchers targeted 2,000 Twitter users from a range of political persuasions who had tweeted 11 overtly false news articles.”...
Fast Company, May 21; Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May
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A trove of Brontë family manuscripts—virtually unseen for a century—will be auctioned by Sotheby’s as part of what the auction house is calling a legendary “lost library” of British literature treasures. The Honresfield Library includes a handwritten manuscript of Emily Brontë’s poems with pencil edits by Charlotte, letters, inscribed first editions, and the family’s heavily annotated copy of Bewick’s History of British Birds (which features in the opening scenes of Jane Eyre)....
New York Times, May 25
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Hillary Bird writes: “Supporting an LGBTQ child or finding guidance for diverse families can come in all forms. Children’s book authors have put kids with varying identities at the forefront to help kids, allies, and parents answer questions and drive acceptance. These titles help shine a light on different families and, above all, serve as tools to help parents, teachers, relatives, and kids to accept themselves, their friends, and their families.”...
Chicago Parent, May 19
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