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The ongoing war in Ukraine has affected people globally, including American librarians and their work.
In Episode 74, the Call Number podcast team interviews Kristin Parker, lead curator and manager of the arts at Boston Public Library and part of a network of first responders working to preserve Ukraine’s cultural history; Michael Dowling, director of ALA’s International and Chapter Relations Office, about the Ukraine Library Relief Fund; and Millicent Mabi, director of community engagement and programming at Regina Public Library in Saskatchewan, Canada, about helping Ukrainian refugees....
AL: The Scoop, Aug. 12
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With more than $1 million in contributions from AT&T, the Public Library Association (PLA) has selected 160 public libraries to host digital literacy workshops across the country.
The PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive is designed to support public libraries in their efforts to boost digital skills for all members of their communities. The workshops leverage online digital literacy courses—from technology basics to how to avoid online scams—created by PLA in collaboration with AT&T. They are available to anyone through
DigitalLearn.org and
AT&T ScreenReady....
ALA, Aug. 16
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ALA Past Presidents Julius C. Jefferson Jr. and James G. Neal were among 11 new appointees to the National Museum and Library Services Board. The five-year appointments were
announced by President Biden. The board advises the Institute of Museum and Library Services on policy as well as the annual selection of National Medals honorees. ALA President Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada congratulated the two past presidents on their appointments, saying, “Their commitment to ALA’s core values has been demonstrated time and again over the years.”...
ALA, Aug. 19; White House, Aug. 12
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On August 23, PLA published the
Public Library Staff and Diversity Survey Report. The national survey updates information on beginning librarian and library director salaries; documents traditional and emerging staff roles; explores staff diversity, recruitment, and retention efforts; and captures information about public library equity, diversity, and inclusion goals and activities. The survey is the second in a rotating series of three national surveys exploring public library roles, services, and resources to provide actionable data for decision-making and advocacy....
ALA, Aug. 23
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Tyler Kingkade writes: “Amanda Jones, a librarian at a middle school in Denham Springs, Louisiana, and president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, has filed a defamation
lawsuit against two men who accused her of advocating to keep ‘pornographic’ materials in the parish library’s kids’ section. The accusations came on Facebook pages run by Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames after she spoke against censorship at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting. She said she’s suing the two men because she’s exhausted with the insults hurled at educators and librarians over LGBTQ materials.”...
NBC News, Aug. 13
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Liza Purdy writes: “I just finished reading the
Urban Library Trauma Study and wanted to offer a little reflection. The Trauma Study made it clear that, in no uncertain terms, public libraries are places where trauma happens. Patrons’ behavior is often informed by trauma brought on by societal and familial issues like homelessness, racism, violence, and homophobia. Moreover, our society is suffering from ‘endemic incivility.’ Library workers regularly experience primary and secondary trauma at work, and we don’t really have a method of dealing with it systematically. Eventually, we burn out. It’s a bad cycle.”...
ALSC Blog, Aug. 18
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Lindsay Wasko writes: “At its core, design communicates through a hierarchy of information (sounds familiar, right?) and strives to make the complex more digestible and memorable. As librarianship strives to improve information-seeking, it makes sense that these disciplines could and should cooperate. Both library school and design fundamentals share a learning approach rooted in best practices that, once understood, can then be interrogated and improved in response to new ideas or new technologies.”...
Hack Library School, Aug. 15
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Jenna Ingham writes: “One of the things I miss the most from the pre-COVID era was partnering with the local school librarians and doing outreach to the schools. While I was able to do a little bit of this virtually over the past two years, I had to drop my favorite outreach offering—visiting the middle school library during the lunch periods. This idea, created in collaboration with the school media specialist
Beth Thomas, affectionately came to be known as ‘Lunch Bunch.’”...
Teen Services Underground, Aug. 15
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Steven Walker writes: “Hundreds of dictionaries earmarked for donation from a Venice Rotary Club sit collecting dust, precluded from being given to Sarasota County students. Ahead of the 2022–2023 school year, the
Sarasota County School District stopped all donations and purchases of books for school
libraries while it waits for additional guidance from the Florida Department of Education about how to navigate the effects of new education laws. The freeze comes as HB 1467 took effect July 1, requiring all reading material in schools to be selected by an employee with a valid education media specialist certificate.”...
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Aug. 12, Aug. 19
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Kelly Glass writes: “Golden State Warriors superstar basketball player Steph Curry found out that an elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area had been without a functioning library for 10 years. Because one of the major areas of focus of his foundation Eat. Learn. Play. is literacy, he felt called to take action—so he donated everything Garfield Elementary School needed to reopen its library.” Curry’s foundation
teamed up with Rakuten to provide funding and support for the library....
Parents, Aug. 19; Twitter, Aug. 17
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Amanda Halprin writes: “The rise in popularity of remote work means you can pick anywhere in the world as your home base. The problem is, it’s hard to pack up your home office and take it with you. Luckily, you don’t need a home office to work remotely; you just need these five types of tools.”...
MakeUseOf, Aug. 19
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Katie Moench writes: “As a middle school librarian, I get the opportunity to read a lot of books that let me relive the painful, awkward, and fun years of middle school. For many students in the US, the move to middle school brings about big changes. In my experience, middle grade readers are especially eager for realistic fiction books, since seeing characters confront some of the same new experiences helps them feel less alone. In this list, you’ll find a great group of kids ready to help middle grades take the next step into a new school year.”...
Book Riot, Aug. 19
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