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ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall writes: “In this third and final installment of my columns on the pervasiveness of adult low literacy, I feel an urgent need to call out how race, gender, and class coincide—and collide—when it comes to reading ability. This topic is especially critical at a moment marked by de facto and de jure attacks on women’s bodies and economic autonomy. The nonprofit ProLiteracy, one of ALA’s longtime partners, makes
the connection between reading and health care agency. It points out that women with low literacy skills are at higher risk of ‘financial, health, and partner vulnerabilities throughout their lives,’ potentially limiting their independence. That cyclical relationship—limited education and reading ability leading to limited economic opportunity leading to limited health care options and outcomes—is something women in the US and globally experience acutely, and it has only worsened since the pandemic.”...
American Libraries column, July/Aug.; ProLiteracy Blog, Nov. 10, 2020
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ALA President Lessa Kanani‘opua Pelayo-Lozada writes: “Over the past few years, we have been asked to be brave as we do things that once would have been unthinkable. We have had to be brave while defending intellectual freedom and the right to read. We have had to be brave taking on the role of disaster workers in response to COVID-19. Being brave has not been easy, but we have done it and have faced the unknown for ourselves and our communities. This bravery inspired me to run for president of the American Library Association in summer 2020. I wanted to be brave for our library community, and I also wanted to center our stories. Everyone needs to understand how essential libraries and library workers are to our communities and our world.”...
American Libraries column, July/Aug.
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Inspired by his experiences living in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots following the Rodney King verdict, actor John Cho has written Troublemaker (Little, Brown and Company, March), his debut middle-grade novel. It follows 12-year-old student Jordan in the wake of the riots while he balances school and complicated family dynamics. American Libraries interviewed Cho before his
June 25 appearance at the American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., to talk more about his inspiration for the novel, Asian American representation in the media, and what books influenced him as a kid....
AL: Online, July 14; AL: The Scoop, June 25
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ALA’s Nominating Committee is soliciting nominees to run for the offices of ALA president-elect and councilor-at-large in the 2023 spring election. The committee will select candidates to run for president-elect and no fewer than 50 candidates to run for the 33 at-large council seats. The president-elect will serve a three-year term: as president-elect in 2023–2024, as president in 2024–2025, and as immediate past president in 2025–2026. Councilors-at-large will serve a three-year term, beginning after ALA’s 2023 Annual Conference and ending at the adjournment of the 2026 Annual Conference. For more information or
to nominate a candidate, visit the
ALA Election Information page. Nominations and biographical candidate forms must be received by September 30....
ALA Governance, July 1
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On July 15, ALA President-Elect Emily Drabinski called on members to volunteer to serve on ALA, Council, and joint committees for the 2023–2025 term. Members can shape the future of the Association by contributing to committees that address such topics as accreditation, awards, rural and tribal libraries, intellectual freedom, sustainability, and professional ethics. Members interested in volunteering
must fill out the committee volunteer form by September 30. Drabinski will make committee appointments in consultation with the Committee on Appointments and Committee on Committees. Appointed individuals will be notified in spring 2023 and begin their term July 1, 2023....
ALA Governance, July 15
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Ty Rushing writes: “The doors of the Vinton (Iowa) Public Library have been open to the public since 1904, but were shuttered on July 8, while the Vinton Library Board tries to sort out staffing issues seemingly brought on by local dalliances with the national culture wars. Residents [had] criticized the library’s LGBTQ staff and their displaying of LGBTQ-related books until most of the staff quit. Since summer 2021, the library has gone through two permanent directors and an interim director who has served in that role twice. According to the [Cedar Rapids] Gazette,
the library reopened with limited hours and service on July 18, with members of the library board filling in as volunteers. But how did things get to this point?”...
Iowa Starting Line, July 13; The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), July 14
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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced the appointment of Ada Limón as the nation’s 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2022–2023. Limón will take up her duties in the fall, opening the library’s annual literary season on September 29 with a reading of her work in LC’s Coolidge Auditorium. “Ada Limón is a poet who connects,” Hayden said in a July 12 statement. “Her accessible, engaging poems ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.” Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976 and is of Mexican ancestry. She is the author of six poetry collections—including The Carrying (2018), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry—and is host of The Slowdown podcast....
Library of Congress Newsroom, July 12
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Tre Ward reports: “Organizations are joining forces to make it easier for immigrants who were affected by the [July 4] Highland Park parade shooting to seek help. ‘We want to have this conversation to make sure that they feel safe,’ said Carmen Patlan, executive director of Highwood (Ill.) Public Library. Several Latino community leaders from Highland Park and Highwood came together Monday to speak about the many resources and mental health services available at the library. ‘We have heard and witnessed many families who were victims during this horrible event that have not sought out services because they don’t have immigration status,’ Patlan said.”...
WLS-TV (Chicago), July 18
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Chelsey Roos writes: “The public might think of libraries as calm and gentle, but library workers know the truth: Library work can cause trauma. Most of us have had at least one experience—if not many experiences—that broke our hearts, wore us out, or left us feeling alone and unsupported.
A groundbreaking new study from Urban Librarians Unite has sought to dig deep into that trauma and explain why it’s happening. The report also proposes four changes to help mitigate library staff trauma and make sure that library staff do not feel alone in their experiences.”...
ALSC Blog, July 18; Urban Librarians Unite, June 21
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Lindsay Hansen Brown writes: “If you have ever applied for an academic librarian position and gotten nowhere, you might have wondered why. I grew up in an academic family, had a strong mentor in library school, and still did not understand fully what a hiring committee would be looking for when I applied for my first librarian position. Now that I have served on several hiring committees, I am giving you a peek behind the curtain.”...
Inside Higher Ed, July 15
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Emily Temple writes: “One of the best things about having an extensive personal library is the ability to lend books to my loved ones. Of course, ‘lend’ is a stretch—they very rarely come back, probably because I have neglected to invest in a set of fancy personalized bookplate with which to identify them. (Or because my loved ones are wanton thieves.) It seems a little indulgent now, but the use of bookplates used to be
much more common among serious readers, many of whom were—you guessed it—writers themselves. Below you’ll find a few personalized bookplates used by famous writers, sourced from around the internet; may they inspire you to create your own, or at least to return that book you borrowed from me.”...
Lit Hub, July 19, Sept. 27, 2019
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