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Former President Barack Obama published an
open letter July 17 in support of America’s librarians in an era of increasingly frequent book challenges and sometimes politically motivated, highly personal attacks against those who resist them. “In a very real sense, you’re on the front lines—fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available to everyone,” he wrote. “Your dedication and professional expertise allow us to freely read and consider information and ideas, and decide for ourselves which ones we agree with.”...
AL: The Scoop, July 17; Medium, July 17
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On July 13, the ALA Executive Board issued a
statement in response to the Montana State Library Commission’s decision to discontinue the Montana State Library’s ALA membership. The statement notes that the Montana State Library’s annual funding from the federal government through Institute of Museum and Library Services grants has increased 24% since 2019 thanks in part to ALA advocacy efforts, and that ALA has awarded more than $218,000 to 23 Montana libraries through program grants in the past two years. The Montana Library Association has also issued
a response to the decision....
AL: The Scoop, July 13; Montana Library Association, July 11
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ALA invites library users nationwide to nominate their favorite librarians for the prestigious I Love My Librarian Award. The award recognizes the outstanding public service contributions of librarians working in public, school, college, community college or university libraries. Nominations are accepted online now through September 30. Ten librarians will each receive $5,000 in recognition of their outstanding achievements. Awardees will be honored at the 2024 LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore; honorees will also receive free full conference registration as part of their award packages....
ALA, July 11
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Episode 85 of Call Number dives into the colorful world of comics, graphic novels, and manga. American Libraries editors speak with Jenny Robb, head curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University in Columbus, which houses the world’s largest collection of print cartoon art, and Jillian Rudes, school librarian at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in New York City, who discusses the benefits of reading manga and her tips for manga collection development. Also included are rapid-fire interviews with graphic novelists Harmony Becker, Kazu Kibuishi, Pedro Martín, and Dave Scheidt from ALA’s 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition....
AL: The Scoop, July 17
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Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library (BPL) is hosting
The Book of HOV, an exhibition celebrating the life and work of rapper and producer Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, who was
born and raised nearby. The exhibit includes
thousands of objects from the rapper’s career spread over two floors of its Central Library.
Created and funded by Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment agency, the exhibition opened July 14 with Jay-Z,
Beyoncé, and
other celebrities in attendance. Since the exhibit opened, the library has seen its
average attendance figures triple. The library has created 13 limited-edition library cards featuring artwork from Jay-Z albums....
BPL, July 14; Variety, July 14; Untapped New York, July 18; Rolling Stone, July 14; Bossip, July 14; The Hollywood Reporter, July 14; The Source, July 18
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Ash Parrish writes: “With advancing console generations and the slow demise of both backward compatibility and digital game storefronts, the ability to play older games has always been tough. Through a new
study from the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network, we now have a better understanding of just how difficult accessing older games really is.” Despite their value to cultural history, nearly 90% of games published before 2010 are nearly impossible to play today, impeded by both technological and copyright restrictions....
The Verge, July 14; Video Game History Foundation/Software Preservation Network, July 10
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Ella Creamer writes: “Two authors have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, claiming that the organization breached copyright law by ‘training’ its model on novels without the permission of authors. Mona Awad, whose books include Bunny and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, and Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World, filed the class action complaint to a San Francisco federal court.”...
The Guardian, July 5
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Sophia Nguyen writes: “This year’s Asian American Literature Festival—the first since 2019—seemed destined to feel special. But just weeks before writers from across the world were due to land, the Smithsonian [Asian Pacific American Center] abruptly canceled the event, citing ‘unforeseen circumstances.’” An
open letter from festival partners and participants
criticized the decision for its negative impacts on authors and the Asian American community, and suggested “that a driving factor behind the festival’s cancellation might have been the Smithsonian’s desire to censor trans and nonbinary programming.”...
Washington Post, July 14; WTOP-FM (Washington, D.C.), July 18
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Kelly Jensen writes: “Before BookLooks, there was Common Sense Media. Nine major organizations banded together in May 2010 to issue a statement and letter against CSM and its content ratings, including the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN America, the Authors Guild, and more. [But] Common Sense Media is now seen as an authority in the media: they’re cited when the news talks about book bans. Common Sense Media even helped a librarian
win their book challenge of Melissa. Huh?”...
Stacked Books, July 17; We Need Diverse Books, May 11, 2022
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Christine Park writes: “Several months ago, I left my previous position, and my goal before leaving was to leave as much good documentation as possible. I wish I had dedicated more time to this type of task prior to leaving it all for the end. It had always been on my never-ending to-do list of things I would really like to finish eventually. Here are some lessons that I’ve learned or that I wish I learned before I began.”...
RIPS Law Librarian Blog, July 12
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Pamela Espinosa de los Monteros writes: “It is now rare to find a library that does not list diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a core value or a part of their strategic plan. However, LIS DEI initiatives continue to struggle to make meaningful advancement in building inclusive organizations. The challenge DEI poses is that many of its core elements like trust are more relational—closer to emotional intelligence and cultural humility, which require us to refine our human-to-human engagement skills. An intellectual approach to DEI will not instantaneously recalibrate other’s behaviors and existing systems, let alone our own.”...
The Librarian Parlor, July 14
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