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On October 3, the ALA Executive Board
released a statement on what library professionals can do to support communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The full statement highlights opportunities to donate to local relief efforts and the
ALA Disaster Relief Fund, which will distribute funds in cooperation with ALA chapters. It also urges supporters to volunteer time to local libraries and relief organizations and advocate for policies and funding to ensure libraries can continue critical work during and after disasters....
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 4
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Paula Mauro writes: “While Banned Books Week ended on September 28, writer, director, producer—and Banned Books Week honorary chair—Ava DuVernay stresses the importance of continuing the work of amplifying marginalized voices. ‘This banned book effort is an agenda by people who want to make some of us less free, to silence the voices of some of us,’ DuVernay tells American Libraries. ‘We can overcome this, but we have to work together.’ DuVernay recorded a
video conversation with Banned Books Week Youth Honorary Chair Julia Garnett.”...
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 2
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Diana Panuncial writes: “This October, NASA will launch its Europa Clipper spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Engraved into the craft’s side is the poem ‘In Praise of Mystery’ by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón. Limón has created You Are Here, an anthology (Milkweed Editions, April) and installation project in partnership with the National Park Service that explores the connection between poetry and nature. Limón spoke with American Libraries about her signature project, the role libraries have played in her life, and how she feels about sending a poem into the solar system.”...
American Libraries Trend, Sept./Oct.
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Toni Lombardozzi writes: “There are a lot of moving parts and milestones to consider before starting a construction project. It may be difficult to determine where to begin. Predesign is all the preparation and planning that needs to happen before you even start thinking about design and construction implementation. Predesign may be the most difficult stage for staff because the project is still abstract, but the project will progress more smoothly if you can articulate your wants and needs. Predesign is split into four areas: needs assessment, program development, budget development, and project delivery preparation.”...
American Libraries column, Sept./Oct.
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ALA President Cindy Hohl participated in an October 8 discussion with White House officials and national leaders about efforts to save lives from overdose. ALA is one of more than 250 organizations and businesses that have committed to the
White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose. The Challenge, launched earlier this year, is a nationwide call-to-action to increase training on, and access to, life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone. ALA, led by its Public Library Association division, has developed
resources to help libraries respond to the overdose crisis....
ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Oct. 8
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Christina J. Steffy and Meg Massey write: “The profession engaged in heated debate about the need for an MLS during the rather contentious search for an ALA Executive Director in 2017. This discussion acknowledges that there is a group of library professionals that believe someone can successfully enter the profession with other relevant experience and acquire the specialized library knowledge through work in the field. While we understand the value of the MLS (after earning it to advance in our respective library careers), we question the insistence that it is necessary for all professional or administrative positions.”...
College & Research Libraries News, Oct.
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Michelle N. Amponsah and Joyce E. Kim write: “More than 12 pro-Palestine student protesters were banned from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they
staged a silent ‘study-in’ protest. Roughly 30 activists staged an ‘emergency study-in’ at Widener on September 21 to protest the Israeli military’s airstrikes in Lebanon. For an hour, students donned keffiyehs and studied with posters taped to their computers. The demonstration was silent, and other students in the Widener reading room continued to study alongside the protesters. During the study-in, library staff passed out sheets of paper stating that libraries are not permissible spaces for student protests.”...
Harvard Crimson, Oct. 3, Sept. 23
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Sonny Albarado writes: “A federal judge on September 30
ordered Crawford County (Ark.) officials to stop placing certain library materials, mostly on LGBTQ+ themes, in a separate section with color labels. US District Judge P.K. Holmes III ordered the defendants to move the materials in those sections to ‘appropriate sections in general circulation without consideration of whether they approve or agree with the viewpoints expressed in such materials, and without consideration of whether the viewpoints expressed in such materials are unpopular or controversial.’” County parents
filed the lawsuit regarding the books’ relocation in May 2023....
Arkansas Advocate, Oct. 1; May 26, 2023
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Charlie Barlow writes: “Roger Schonfeld’s latest piece in Scholarly Kitchen,
‘Lessons Learned from a Fair
Use Defeat,’ feels unnecessarily defeatist in assessing libraries’ controlled digital lending (CDL) efforts. From my perspective, CDL has significant potential. The recent
Second Circuit Court ruling against the Internet Archive marked a setback for one interpretation of CDL, but as the
Authors Alliance explains, it does not prohibit CDL universally. It leaves room for future implementations that could better meet fair use standards, especially given the lack of a digital first-sale doctrine.”...
Library Futures, Oct. 7; Scholarly Kitchen, Sept. 30; Authors Alliance, Sept. 5
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Jeannette Boner writes: “After eight years, Teton County (Wyo.) Library has been forced to cancel its free Harry Potter-inspired programming for children and adults. This year’s events—A Night at Hogwarts, Harry Potter Trivia for Adults, and Harry Potter Family Day—had all been scheduled for later this month. The library
said in a press release October 3 that it acted in response to a cease-and-desist letter from legal representatives of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., the owner of copyright and other intellectual property rights related to the films featuring child wizard Harry Potter.”...
Jackson Hole News & Guide, Oct. 4
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Charles Q. Choi writes: “Artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and other applications powered by large language models have found widespread use, but are infamously unreliable. A common assumption is that scaling up the models driving these applications will improve their reliability—for instance, by increasing the amount of data they are trained on, or the number of parameters they use to process information. However, more recent and larger versions of these language models have actually become more unreliable, not less,
according to a new study,” largely because recent models are less likely to acknowledge if they don’t know an answer for certain....
IEEE Spectrum, Oct. 3; Nature, Sept. 25
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“The 25 Finalists for the 2024 National Book Awards for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature were announced with the New York Times October 1. The five finalists in each category were selected by a distinguished panel of judges, and were advanced from the
longlists announced in September with The New Yorker. Winners will be announced November 20 and broadcast on
YouTube,
Facebook, and the
Foundation’s website.”...
National Book Foundation, Oct. 1; The New Yorker, Sept. 13
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