|
Taylor Hartz writes: “At antiques appraisals, appraisers examine rare and collectible items and determine their historical and monetary value. When held at the library, these events are an opportunity for patrons to engage with their community and get a history lesson. With many people spending the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns tidying their homes and purging old belongings tucked away in dark storage spaces or attics, antiques appraisals also give patrons a platform to showcase long-lost gems.”...
American Libraries Trend, Sept./Oct.
| |
|
Kathleen Daniels writes: “In March 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that, beginning this year, has had far-reaching implications for public school librarians in the state. The law, known as
House Bill 1467, required the state’s department of education to develop what is now known as the Library Media and Instructional Materials Training. It is mandatory for all public school library media specialists and instructs library staffers to ‘err on the side of caution’ when choosing materials. This direction allegedly encourages censorship.”...
American Libraries column, Sept./Oct.
| |
|
Grab your spell books, get those cauldrons bubbling, and ready your broomsticks. In Episode 88, Call Number delves into the world of witchcraft. American Libraries Associate Editor Megan Bennett speaks with Dan Lipcan of Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library in Salem, Massachusetts, about the library’s collection of materials related to the 1692 Salem Witch Trials; Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with KL Pereira about the tarot classes she has taught at libraries; and Troy (Mich.) Public Library staffers share spine-tingling snippets from winning entries in the library’s 2022 Scary Story Contest....
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 16
| |
|
|
|
New York Public Library, in partnership with ALA, launched the “Books for All” campaign during Banned Books Week to underscore the importance of reading and access to knowledge. The campaign includes a teen banned book club with free access via the SimplyE app to young adult titles that have been subjected to bans or challenges, as well as a national teen writing contest. New
downloadable tool kits offer flyers, book discussion guides, promotional materials, button maker templates, and more to enable libraries nationwide to participate....
ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Oct. 12
| |
|
Anna White writes: “In 2022, my institution entered a season where we lost, or were not able to immediately fill, the equivalent of six full-time instruction librarian positions. Our instruction program met to discuss how we would handle instruction requests in the coming year. The outcome of that conversation was that we all—supervisors included—agreed that we could say ‘no’ to an instruction session for a variety of reasons. Most members of the group also admitted that they rarely or never say no to instruction even when they think they should, and that conversation led me to these questions....
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Oct. 11
| |
|
Forty-five books (21 fiction, 24 nonfiction) have been selected for the longlist for the
2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and
Nonfiction, cosponsored by Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. A six-title shortlist, with three fiction and three nonfiction titles, will be announced November 14, and the fiction and nonfiction medal winners will be announced at RUSA’s Book and Media Awards livestreaming event, held during ALA's 2024 LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore on Saturday, January 20, at 9:45 a.m. Eastern....
Booklist, Oct. 17
| |
|
|
|
Kelly Jensen writes: “From mid-July through mid-September, bomb threats rattled public libraries[, schools and businesses] throughout the Chicagoland area. This week, 23-year-old Jacob Spiro was arrested in connection with several of those bomb threats. Spiro had a preliminary court appearance October 11. Prosecutors in the case stated that Spiro admitted to the threats and did them because he enjoyed being excited.” The current charges are connected to threats made at only two libraries, but more may be added....
Book Riot, Oct. 12
| |
|
Chela Scott Weber writes: “One of the cool things about reaching mid-career is that I’ve now been around long enough to see patterns of change in the profession. I was struck by how much allowing researchers to use cameras in reading rooms has changed both their practice and ours. The work of reading and developing initial understanding of material has shifted away from being something that happens in real time as the researcher interacts with the physical collections, to something that happens after they leave the repository.”...
Hanging Together, Oct. 11
| |
|
ALA received the 2023 Barbara Bush National Literacy Honors Award at this year’s
National
Celebration of Reading, hosted by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy October 11. The award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions toward the Foundation’s vision of an America in which everyone has “the opportunity to read, write, and comprehend in order to navigate the world with dignity.”...
ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Oct. 11
| |
|
|
|
Jaime Mears and Sahar Kazmi write: “For the past year, Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren worked with Library of Congress (LC) staff, collections, and community members to develop
‘Seeing Lost Enclaves,’ an open source ‘relational reconstruction’ toolkit, to share his methodology and inspire the public to reconstruct other lost enclaves from LC collections and other sources. The intention with the toolkit is to offer a method for deepening one’s connection to a space that’s meaningful for their own story, with a special focus on communities of color. Though sourced maps, photographs, and oral accounts, reconstructions of erased historic spaces are intentionally imaginative as well as authentic....
Library of Congress: The Signal, Oct. 12
| |
|
Jörn-Erik Burkert writes: “Good software is the basis of all PC use, but many professional programs are too expensive for private use. This is where free applications, available on the internet, step in. Open source software is often a real competitor to professional products. In this guide, we present the best open source tools for typical areas of application—from office, to media editing, to file management and backup.”...
PC World, Oct. 12
| |
|
“A spooky chill settles into the air. Crows take flight, and black cats jet across your path. If you’re looking to create a spooky gaming experience at your library, the Games and Gaming Round Table has some scary good recommendations for you.” Titles include a cooperative mystery, a solo journaling experience, roleplaying games, and a large-group social deduction game. Several options are suitable for teen audiences as well as adults....
Games and Gaming Round Table, Oct. 13
| | |
|
|
|
American Libraries Direct is a free electronic
newsletter emailed every Wednesday to personal members of the American Library Association.
Editor, AL Direct: Greg Landgraf
Direct ad inquiries to: Melissa Carr
Send news and feedback: AL Direct
All links outside the ALA website are provided for informational purposes only. Questions about the content of any external site should be addressed to the administrator of that site. AL Direct FAQ.
American Libraries will not sell your email to outside parties, but your email may be shared with advertisers in this newsletter should you express interest in their products by clicking on their ads or content. If advertisers choose to communicate with you by email, they are obligated to provide you with an opportunity to opt-out from future emails in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation of 2018. Read the ALA privacy policy.
To manage your American Libraries email preferences, please click here.
To unsubscribe from all American Library Association communications, click here.
American Library Association, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
