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On October 11, Booklist announced that 43 books have been selected for the longlist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The list, which includes 22 fiction and 21 nonfiction titles, can be viewed on the
awards’ website. The six-title shortlist—three each for the fiction and nonfiction medals—will be chosen from the longlist titles and announced on November 15. The two medal winners will be announced at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards at
LibLearnX in New Orleans on January 29. The medals are funded through a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York....
Booklist, Oct. 11
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On October 6, ALA and its American Association of School Librarians division welcomed the bicameral
introduction of the Right to Read Act (S. 5064 and
H.R. 9056) by US Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and US Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz). The Right to Read Act is designed to ensure all students, including low-income and minority students, children with disabilities, and English language learners, have access to an effective school library staffed by a certified school librarian. The Right to Read Act would increase student access to fully staffed and appropriately resourced school libraries and authorizes funding to meet these urgent needs....
ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Oct. 6
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ALA members who wish to donate funds for libraries affected by Hurricane Ian can do so via the
ALA Disaster Relief Fund. (At checkout, select “Add a tribute or memorial to my donation,” then select “Tribute,” then type “Florida” in the top line.) Funds collected will assist libraries in their rebuilding efforts so that they can help their communities recover. ALA has been in contact with Florida Library Association leadership about relief efforts;
Lee County (Fla.) Library System, which had been shut down completely by the hurricane, will begin reopening select branches October 12....
ALA Disaster Relief Fund, Oct.
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The Unite Against Book Bans coalition is urging candidates for elected office to sign a pledge supporting the freedom to read and opposing book bans. Introduced October 3, the first day of National Voter Education Week, the
candidate pledge is a public document that advocates can request their candidates sign and promote. The pledge is being released amid a sharp rise in book bans; recently, ALA released preliminary data showing
attempts to remove books in 2022 are on track to exceed the record number of challenges in 2021....
ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Oct. 3, Sept. 16
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Susan D’Agostino writes: “Wiley, a publisher that
scrambled fall courses at many institutions with its late-August withdrawal of approximately 1,380 digital books from a large subscription collection used by many libraries, has reversed course and now says it will restore access to the ebooks ‘as soon as possible.’ Once the books are reinstated to ProQuest Academic Complete, the multidisciplinary subscription collection, they will remain there through June 2023, according to a
statement on Wiley’s website.”...
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 6, Sept. 28; Wiley, Oct. 5
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Chase DiBenedetto writes: “The majority of social media users are standing behind Big Tech companies’ efforts to curb misinformation, even as users of ‘alternative’ social media sites find community in the unregulated media environments fostered by ‘free speech’ advocates. According to a
new study by the Pew Research Center, while 64% of alternative social media news consumers favor the protection of free speech even if it fosters misinformation, ‘the majority of all US adults (61%) prefer that tech companies take steps to restrict this kind of content even if it limits freedom of information.’”...
Mashable, Oct. 7; Pew Research Center, Oct. 6
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The Internet Archive is collecting content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), an online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The library will be a free online resource that combines digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the public....
Internet Archive Blogs, Oct. 4
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New Orleans Public Library is seeking submissions for
Crescent City Sounds, a new locally sourced music streaming service that aims to give up-and-coming musicians an avenue to increase their exposure. Crescent City Sounds’ music library will be chosen by a team of library staffers and community curators who represent different facets of New Orleans’ diverse music scene. Selected artists will be compensated and maintain the copyright to their work. Increasingly, public libraries across the US—including those in Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; and Lawrence, Kansas—are creating
streaming platforms as a way to advocate for local artists and build community connections....
New Orleans Public Library, Oct. 3; American Libraries Trend, Sept./Oct. 2021
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Roger C. Schonfeld writes: “The
White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy’s public access policy guidance [which requires taxpayer-supported research to be available open access] has caused quite a stir in scholarly communication circles. Many publishers are understandably concerned about how an accelerated US transition to open access will impact their revenue and bottom line. Some library leaders are confident that they have the right frameworks already in place for their institutions. For others, even though the library community lobbied heavily for this very outcome through SPARC, there appears to be substantial uncertainty about how academia will adapt. How will academia handle the zero embargo?”...
The Scholarly Kitchen, Sept. 27; White House Briefing Room, Aug. 25
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Richard Byrne writes: “The
Smithsonian Learning Lab allows teachers to create and search for documents, images, videos, interactive animations, and lesson plans from a wide range of Smithsonian-hosted resources. It also lets you create collections to share with others as well as create assignments to give to your students. To start the new school year, the Smithsonian published a collection of new tutorial videos that teach you how to collect, customize, and share collections of resources in the Smithsonian Learning Lab.”...
Free Technology for Teachers, Oct. 5
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Melanie Walsh writes: “After the first lockdown in March 2020, I went looking for book sales data, only to find that most of it is proprietary and purposefully locked away. What I learned was that the single most influential data in the publishing industry—which, every day, determines book contracts and authors’ lives—is basically inaccessible to anyone beyond the industry. And I learned that this is a big problem. If we want to understand the contemporary literary world, we need better book data. And we need this data to be free, open, and interoperable.”...
Public Books, Oct. 4
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Jes Gafkowitz writes: “Are you excited for Halloween? For my October book display, I want to highlight spooky and thrilling reads with LGBTQ+ characters. So without further ado, here are 10 of the books I will have on display throughout the month.” Titles include Burn Down, Rise Up; Over My Dead Body; and The Taking of Jake Livingston....
Teen Services Underground, Oct. 7
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