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After two years of pandemic-imposed social distancing and virtual meetings, librarians will once again gather in person at the profession’s largest event. ALA’s 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition returns to Washington, D.C., June 23–28. In addition to the face-to-face networking opportunities that so many have missed, Annual will offer a full slate of programs, including educational sessions, author talks, exhibit hall attractions, and new ideas to shape the future of libraries. Also available is the Digital Experience, a virtual option for those who cannot attend the celebration in the nation’s capital....
American Libraries feature, June
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Newbery Medal, the world’s first children’s book award. Three AL stories celebrate the award’s history and impact: In “100 Years of the Newbery Medal,” former and current Newbery Award Selection Committee members discuss the honor and the responsibility of selecting the award, and its legacy, challenges, and future. “Newbery Firsts” explores important milestones for the award, with historic photographs. In “Winner’s Circle,” four Newbery-winning authors talk about their momentous wins....
American Libraries feature, June
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ALA President Patricia “Patty” M. Wong writes: “The 1953 Freedom to Read Statement remains a rallying cry for all information professionals, and it’s just as apt and prescient today as it was when it was released. It is foundational text that I find myself returning to as I consider the state of the Association and the profession, and as I prepare to close my term as president. I’m struck by how much (and how little) has changed since the statement was adopted.”...
American Libraries column, June
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ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall writes: “When the younger son of a family I had grown up with was incarcerated, I sent him three books. I had picked out each carefully: autobiographies written by Black men who’d similarly gone to prison in their youth and used that experience to turn their lives around. I was shocked when prison officials returned all three, saying the titles were not allowed. Shouldn’t a prison, of all places, welcome opportunities for learning—especially given the connection between low literacy and incarceration, and conversely, the role of reading as a deterrent of recidivism?”...
American Libraries column, June
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ALA announced on June 1 that it will distribute $20,000 grants to 77 libraries that continue to experience substantial economic hardship because of the coronavirus pandemic, totaling more than $1.5 million in funds. The ALA COVID Library Relief Fund grantees are academic, correctional, public, school, and tribal libraries from 32 states and Puerto Rico. The fund is one of the largest nonfederal grant opportunities for libraries. A complete list of grant recipients and project proposals is available at
ALA’s COVID Library Relief Fund webpage. The ALA COVID Library Relief Fund is supported by Acton Family Giving as part of its ongoing response to the pandemic....
ALA International and Chapter Relations Offices, June 1
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Jennifer Jarson writes: “Hindsight is 20/20, right? In this collaborative post from our ACRLog team, we’re reflecting on the lessons and truths about libraries, librarianship, and higher ed that we wish we had come to understand sooner—the stuff we didn’t know to ask about earlier on in our careers, the stuff we didn’t know that we needed to know—and how our current understanding can perhaps help us to more clearly see the things we need to do differently.”...
ACRLog, May 27
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Mike Hixenbaugh writes: “Initially Mendell Morgan, the director [of El Progreso Memorial Library in Uvalde, Texas], thought about closing on Wednesday, out of respect for those who’d lost their children. Ultimately he decided to keep the library open. At a time when
librarians across the country have faced
baseless allegations and threats of criminal charges from parents who’ve accused them of providing pornography to children, Morgan wanted to show the community what, in his view, a library really is. A refuge. A safe space. An escape.”...
NBC News, May 25, May 12, Feb. 1
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Jessica Luna writes: “One of my projects this semester was exploring personalized information retrieval (PIR) methods using collaborative tagging, also known as folksonomies. Folksonomies are used on social media websites like Flickr, Twitter, and Instagram to help users search for topics of their interests. Content creators on platforms like YouTube and Twitch use folksonomies to make their content more searchable and reach a broader audience. This made me wonder, are PIR recommender models the future of next-gen library catalogs?”...
Hack Library School, May 25
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Caralee Adams writes: “For librarians who specialize in caring for music collections, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest technology and resources in the profession. The Music Library Association (MLA) recently helped address this problem by making many of its
publications openly available online. The MLA donated 21 of its monographs to the Internet Archive for digitization and worked with authors to make the material free to the public under Creative Commons licenses.”...
Internet Archive blogs, May 25
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Kyle K. Courtney writes: “If a
pending lawsuit by major American book publishers challenging its legal limits succeeds, controlled digital lending’s absence might be a lot more noticeable to a lot more people. It will be harder to borrow digital books and other materials from the growing number of libraries that practice controlled digital lending or some form of it. Alleging ‘piracy’ and suppression of their book sales, America’s biggest book publishers have sued the Internet Archive for its use of controlled digital lending.”...
The Hill, May 24
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Suzi McAlpine writes: “Well-being at work is a hot topic right now—and rightly so. It’s estimated that 1 million workers are absent every day globally due to stress, causing losses for larger companies of more than $3.5 million per company, per year. I’ve seen a proliferation of mindfulness exercises and resilience courses, yoga classes and tips for employees on what they need to do to avoid burnout. None of these are bad initiatives. But when it comes to well-being at work, they should be the icing on the cake. On their own, they simply won’t cut it.”...
The Art of Leadership, Apr. 5
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Martin Pengelly writes: “Amid political firestorms over books deemed by right-wingers to be unsuitable for school libraries, the author Margaret Atwood has announced an ‘unburnable’ edition of her most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. The Canadian author appeared in
a short YouTube video to announce the project, attempting to flambé the one-off tome with a flame-thrower.” The
unburnable book is being auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York (bids close June 7), and proceeds will support PEN America....
The Guardian (UK), May 24; YouTube, May 23
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