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Marshall Breeding writes: “ALA’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition brought 13,532 registrants to sunny San Diego for educational programs, featured speakers, business meetings, and celebrations. The conference attracted more than 550 vendors to the Library Marketplace, the largest commercial exhibition aimed at the global library community. Vendors displayed a near-comprehensive range of products and services available to libraries, both physical and digital. Representatives were on hand to demonstrate solutions for use in the library, as well as services that can be offered virtually to patrons or deployed beyond building walls.”...
American Libraries feature, July/August
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ALA has opened applications for volunteers for
ALA standing committees for the 2025–2027 term, and the 2025 class of Emerging Leaders. Committee membership offers members opportunities to gain leadership experience, make an impact on key issues and policies, engage with colleagues nationwide, and build their resume. Submit an
ALA volunteer form by September 30.
Emerging Leaders is a leadership development program that enables early-career library workers to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity.
Apply by September 6....
ALA Governance Office, July 29; ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, July 29
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Lisa Campbell and Brittany Kester write: “In April, the Department of Justice updated its regulations to
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The update ensures web content will be accessible for people with disabilities in libraries.
Under this rule, all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic
documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA) by 2026. While this may be a lengthy but necessary undertaking for many libraries, there are several easy things you can start doing now to ensure your web content is accessible.”...
Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Aug. 5
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A Follett Book eFair is a fun and easy way to get the book fair experience without the hassle of setting up and running a physical event. Available to all PreK-8 schools in the US, our Book eFairs offer the best selection of titles, no sales minimum, hassle-free distribution, and fantastic rewards! Fall 2024 and spring 2025 dates are now available—don’t miss out!
Book Your eFair.
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Steve Tetreault writes: “I am an Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education skeptic. I think there are ethical, legal, and environmental issues with the use of AI that need clarification, at the least, before schools start promoting the use of AI. I realize folks will say, ‘It’s already out there, so we have to prepare students for how to use it.’ But there’s a lot of stuff we don’t take school time to prepare students for.” Relevant to Tetreault’s concerns, Aaron Tay
discusses ways that large language models are using library content....
Knowledge Quest, Aug. 1; Musings about Librarianship, Aug. 2
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Raina Tuakoi writes: “As a children’s librarian, I am asked a variety of questions. Most are eagerly looking for the next book in a popular series or in need of the Dewey Decimal call number for their research project. And then there are a few that need a little more time and care. Books can be an essential tool when addressing significant life events and they can help little children understand their big emotions when they experience grief upon the loss of a loved one.”...
ALSC Blog, July 31
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Ella
Creamer writes: “A fundraising campaign has raised [more than £190,000 ($207,000 US)] to help repair a Liverpool (England) library and community hub that suffered severe fire damage after being targeted by anti-immigration rioters on August 3.” Spellow Hub Library is located
near a mosque where right-wing groups gathered and clashed with police. The riot was one of many in England prompted by false online claims that the suspect in the July 29 killing of three young girls in the town of Southport was a Muslim asylum seeker. The fundraising campaign was created by local manicurist Alex McCormick....
The Guardian, Aug. 6; Liverpool Echo, Aug. 3
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Matt Wilson writes: “Mission (Tex.) Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) in the Rio Grande Valley says it won’t remove or review 676 books the school system’s former superintendent
committed to purging earlier this summer. In May Mission CISD, like other Rio Grande Valley districts, received an email from local representatives of a conservative advocacy group. Former Superintendent Carol G. Perez unequivocally agreed to remove all the books on the group’s list minutes after receiving their email. Perez, however, left her position as the district’s chief last month and Mission’s new superintendent says no books were removed or are going to be removed based on the group’s request.”...
Progress Times, July 28; June 13
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Samantha LaFrance writes: “A new
spate of state laws and policies is giving lie to the idea that banning books is about families making decisions for their own children. In Utah, Tennessee, Idaho, and South Carolina, state lawmakers have moved away from so-called “parental rights”—and into government-mandated book bans. In Utah, for example,
House Bill 29 will require all schools in the state to remove a book that is deemed to be ‘objective sensitive material’ by just a few school districts in the state. [The Utah State Board of Education
ordered
13 books removed from public schools in the state August 2.] In effect, the law will make the objections of just a handful of parents the law of the land.”...
PEN America, July 29, July 18; New York Times, July 29; Salt Lake Tribune, August 2.
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Michelle Kraft writes: “I have been a librarian for over 25 years. As someone who has been in a leadership position for a few of those years, one of the areas that concerns me are the challenges regarding educating and training the new generation of medical librarians. Students are graduating from programs with few skills or knowledge that would be considered applicable for even entry level positions. I have interviewed new graduates for medical librarian positions who have never heard of some of the largest most heavily used resources in the medical library world.”...
Krafty Librarian, July 30
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Hanaa’ Tameez writes: “When news sites shut down, those sites’ owners often don’t prioritize the preservation of the content.
MTV pulled down MTV News in June. After Deadspin was sold, many of its archives
temporarily disappeared. In 2021, the authors of a
Reynolds Journalism Institute report found that just seven out of 24 newsrooms they interviewed were fully preserving their news content. Readers aren’t the only ones who lose out—there are all kinds of personal and professional challenges for journalists, too. They’re left to archive their work on their own.”...
NiemanLab, July 31; Variety, June 24; Wired, May 15; Reynolds Journalism Institute, Apr. 19, 2021
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David Nield writes: “We’ve been living with social media for a long time now—Facebook opened up to the public in 2006—and that means a lengthy trail of posts stretching back through the years. While this does let you take a nostalgic trip into the past with just a few clicks, it can also bring up some embarrassing and awkward memories. Whatever the reason, you can find and delete ancient social media posts without too much difficulty using the web or mobile apps.”...
The Verge, Aug. 4
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Melina Moe and Victoria Nebolsin write: “What object might visually meld a couple into lovers, individuals into a family? In the early twentieth century, the subjects often chose books. Reading takes many postures. Performances of reading, perhaps even more. These portrait postcards present readers hunched over a book in a bar, reclined in a hospital bed, and seated stiffly on a front porch. There are groups sharing a newspaper in the breakroom and young people with disregarded books on a picnic blanket. Some portraits suggest engrossed readers, while others show sitters who hold their book limply, like an unwanted package.”...
The Public Domain Review, July 31
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