EDITOR'S NOTE
AL Direct is off for the next two weeks for the holidays. Look for our next issue January 8.
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Chase Ollis writes: “On December 16, ALA announced 10 recipients of the 2025
I Love My Librarian Award, nominated by library users for their expertise, dedication, and impact in their communities. Four academic librarians, three public librarians, and three school librarians were selected to receive the 2025 award. ALA received nearly 1,300 nominations from library users across the country. Nominations highlighted librarians’ outstanding service in expanding access to literacy and library services, outreach to their communities, and supporting the needs of the most vulnerable. Each honoree will receive a $5,000 cash prize and complimentary registration and a travel stipend to attend ALA’s
LibLearnX conference in Phoenix.”...
AL: The Scoop, Dec. 17
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Rosie Newmark writes: “On a Wednesday in February 2023, anyone stopping by the North Branford Senior Center in Northford, Connecticut, might have expected to hear big-band music or golden oldies, not Disney songs. But that was before the 4th-graders got there. ‘There’s so much that we share / That it’s time we’re aware / It’s a small world after all,’ several older adults sang along with students, who were visiting from nearby Totoket Valley Elementary School as part of an intergenerational book club.”...
American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
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Rachel Rosenberg writes: “Inclusivity requires intention and planning. More and more, library leaders are acknowledging that staff members and patrons benefit when our programs, hiring practices, and trainings are inclusive and community-led. These six guides provide support for libraries looking to make thoughtful and service-transforming changes.”...
American Libraries column, Nov./ Dec.
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Urszula Lechtenberg and Helene Gold write: “Libraries take the call for accessibility very seriously. However, our web content can still fall short of the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines first developed in 1999 and continuously updated through the present day. In April 2024, the Department of Justice finalized a rule updating regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The final rule dictates that public entities’ web content [including LibGuides and licensed content from libraries that receive federal funding] meet the technical standards of the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.1, level AA.”...
Information Technology and Libraries, Dec. 16
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The Public Library Association (PLA) has selected more than 130 libraries as the third cohort to host digital literacy workshops through the
PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive and the new
PLA Digital Navigator Workshop
Incentive. The workshops, funded by a $2.7 million contribution from AT&T, are designed to support public libraries in their efforts to boost digital skills for everyone in their communities. The workshops leverage online digital literacy courses, created by PLA in collaboration with AT&T, that are available to anyone through
DigitalLearn.org and AT&T ScreenReady....
Public Library Association, Dec. 10
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Catherine Hollerbach writes: “Much has been written about the US Surgeon General’s
2023 report on loneliness, which explicitly names libraries as part of the social infrastructure poised to make a difference in addressing the epidemic. Concurrently, since COVID, many public libraries have embraced their role in public health initiatives. Social prescribing, a new trend in health care that connects patients with nonclinical experiences to improve their health, gives libraries another opportunity to make a difference in the lives of their customers.”...
Public Libraries Online, Dec. 12
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Rebecca Bryant writes: “In 2021, the University of Calgary Libraries in Alberta launched a multilingual reference chatbot by leveraging a commercial product that combines a large language model with retrieval-augmented generation technology. The chatbot is trained on the library’s own web content, including LibGuides and operating hours, and is accessed from the library’s website. Before launch, the implementation team estimated that the chatbot could answer 14%–24% of reference chat questions, but today the chatbot answers about 50% of all questions with a rating of at least 4/5.”...
Hanging Together, Dec. 12
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Despina Gerasimidou and Maela Rakočević Uvodić write: “Displaced persons are scattered all over the world looking for the safest place for them and their families to settle and when they move to a new country are faced with legal, cultural, educational, and economic challenges, while in need of information, guidance, and support. The new International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
Guidelines for Libraries Supporting Displaced Persons showcase how libraries can champion their core mission for universal and equitable access to information, ideas, and works of imagination, aiming at social, educational, cultural, democratic, and economic well-being.”...
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Dec. 16
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Olivia Olander and Jeremy Gorner write: “Starting this year, public libraries in Illinois had a choice: Adopt principles against book banning or give up state grants. [About 40] school districts, many of them in deeply conservative areas of south and central Illinois, appear to have taken the latter option. Administrators at some of those districts acknowledged being concerned about giving up any measure of control on what books are allowed on their schools’ library shelves. Some 700 school districts statewide have regularly applied for state library grant funding in the last two years.”...
Chicago Tribune, Dec. 8
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Douglas Soule writes: “To support some of Gov. Ron DeSantis' most prominent and controversial K–12 education laws, Florida has agreed to spend millions of dollars on a service it says is a tool for transparency. But free expression advocates warn it could be a vehicle for censorship. In a contract signed this September, the Florida Department of Education agreed to pay up to $15.6 million over four years to Maryland-based education technology company Trinity Education Group. The company has been tapped to develop a ‘statewide, centralized, easily accessible’ system for people to review and even object to instructional materials and library books in Florida school districts.”...
Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat, Dec. 12
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The Library of Congress announced 25 additions to the
National Film Registry December 17. The new selections date back nearly 130 years and include a diverse group of films, filmmakers, and Hollywood landmarks. The selections range from Annabelle Serpentine Dance, a silent film created to entice audiences at the dawn of cinema in 1895, to the 2010 film The Social Network. Films are selected for their cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance, and this year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 900....
Library of Congress, Dec. 17
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Year-end “best of” lists are a common phenomenon, and many libraries have created lists of staff or patron picks of their favorite reads of the year. See staff picks from
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh,
Seattle Public Library,
Kent (Mich.) District Library,
Los Angeles Public Library,
New York Public Library,
Chicago Public Library,
Farmington (Conn.) Libraries, and
King County (Wash.) Library System.
Seattle Public Library and
Kent District Library have also released lists of patron favorites...
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Dec. 11; Seattle Public Library; Kent (Mich.) District Library, Nov. 20, Dec. 13; Los Angeles Public Library, Dec. 16; New York Public Library, Nov. 26; Chicago Public Library, Nov. 18; Farmington (Conn.) Libraries, Dec. 6; King County (Wash.) Library System; Seattle Times, Dec. 17
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