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Satia Marshall Orange, who led ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services from 1997 to 2009, died May 13. Edith Campbell writes: “I’ve come to realize that when really good librarians die, we lose a library. We lose their professional knowledge, access to their personal and communal historical knowledge as well as to their memorabilia. Our network becomes incomplete. We lose all the things they were yet to do. We lose their joy, confidence, and voice. With Satia’s death, we’ve lost a bridge, a pathway, and a fountain.” Share your memories of Satia on
ALA’s Facebook page. An
endowment benefiting ALA’s Spectrum Scholarship
was established in her honor in 2022....
Cotton Quilts, May 15; Facebook, May 16
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Rosie Newmark writes: “Liz Kristan wanted to bring four-legged friends to patrons who needed them the most. Kristan, outreach services coordinator at Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich, Illinois, knew that the presence of pets has been associated with health benefits like reductions in stress and blood pressure. In 2022, she introduced robotic pets to the library’s collection, taking them on visits to assisted living and memory care facilities to entertain older adult residents.”...
American Libraries Trend, May
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Harrison W. Inefuku writes: “The current backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is playing out in libraries and legislative buildings, on campuses, and at the ballot box, with many efforts targeting the works of authors of color and members of the LGBTQ community. Efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives on college campuses create a chilling effect that silences and erases the perspectives, experiences, and histories of marginalized communities. The fight has come to academic librarians’ front doors. With the recent targeting of education, it’s critical to amplify the voices of those most likely to be censored.”...
American Libraries column, May
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Charlee Evans and Whit Gillenwaters write: “After a year of virtual programming and social distancing, staffers at Christian County (Mo.) Library were ready to return to in-person events. As videos of people cleaning headstones began popping up on Instagram and TikTok, we thought we could replicate the practice with our patrons. To ensure our cleaning techniques would not be harmful, we consulted a local historian and archaeologist from a nearby university. Our first headstone cleaning meetup was held in October 2021. After the last brush was dried and the final participant left, we knew we had created something special.”...
American Libraries Trend, May
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Christy Kepler writes: “Summer Reading is almost here and for some who are reading this, it has already started! The last couple weeks before kickoff day are often chaotic and filled with the stress of preparing for big events, numerous programs, decorating the department and organizing materials for all the checkins. Many children’s librarians are feeling lost in this mountain of work amidst numerous outreach visits. Here are some ideas and inspiration collected by the Association for Library Service to Children Managing Children’s Services Committee to get you and your staff to your kickoff day with a smile.”...
ALSC Blog, May 21
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Justin Fuhr writes: “Being a working parent is challenging; there’s a lot to manage and prioritize. You have limited time as an academic librarian parent. I’ll admit that on occasion I work in the evenings. Sometimes it’s something time-sensitive, sometimes I didn’t have enough time at work to finish or work on something. It’s not common, though, and I prioritize my to-do items during the workday so this doesn’t become more common. You have to prioritize what needs to get done, and what can be left for another day.”...
ACRLog, May 21
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Jeremy Schwartz writes: “Weeks after winning a Granbury (Tex.) Independent School District board seat [in 2021], Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren. After taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found—and didn’t find. The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism.”...
Texas Tribune and ProPublica, May 15
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David DiMolfetta writes: “The Library of Congress (LC) was targeted in a cyberattack that occurred in parallel with a high-profile intrusion into the British Library (BL) in London in late October, but the hackers failed to access the US library’s systems. The attempted breach occurred around Oct. 28, the same day BL began reporting technical issues on its website. The cybercriminals were unsuccessful because LC had multifactor authentication—a method that digitally verifies a user logging into a system—enabled at the entry point of the hackers’ incursion. LC also quickly shuttered targeted services once the attack was detected.”...
NextGov/FCW, May 8
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Kelly Jensen writes: “A public library in Idaho will be restricting their entire facility to those 18 and older beginning July 1. Donnelly Public Library is unable to comply with the state’s newly-passed House Bill 710 due to the tiny size of their facility, their small budget, and their lack of an attorney on retainer to handle potential litigation.
A post on the library’s Facebook page stated that the ambiguity of the bill, coupled with the fact their entire library is a mere 1,024 square feet, makes implementing the law impossible.”...
Book Riot, May 20; Donnelly (Idaho) Public Library, May 14
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“The internet is an unimaginably vast repository of modern life, with hundreds of billions of indexed webpages. But even as users across the world rely on the web to access books, images, news articles, and other resources, this content sometimes disappears from view. A new Pew Research Center analysis shows just how fleeting online content actually is: A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible, as of October 2023.”...
Pew Research Center, May 17
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Khamosh Pathak writes: “Google is going to be adding more artificial intelligence (AI) features to the Search page going forward. This includes the ability to ask longer, more complex questions, or even to organize the entire Search page in different sections using AI. While releasing all its new AI features, Google has also introduced something that will help you go back—way back. If you switch to the new ‘Web’ button, Google will only show you text links from websites.” Meta’s AI assistant can’t be disabled, but it can be
muted in Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp....
Lifehacker, May 15; MakeUseOf, May 17
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San Diego Comic-Con announced the nominees for the 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on May 16. Nominees in 32 categories represent more than 150 print and online comic and graphic novel titles from over 60 publishers, produced by creators worldwide. Kelly Thompson has the most individual nominations, including Best Writer, Best Continuing Series for Birds of Prey, Best Limited Series for The Cull, Best New Series for Black Cloak, and Best Humor Publication for It’s Jeff. Winners will be named during Comic-Con at a July 26 ceremony....
San Diego Comic-Con, May 16
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