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Donald W. Crankshaw writes: “Traditional professional development plans in libraries may satisfy organizational or certification needs but do not necessarily satisfy employees’ needs, wants, and interests.
What if we put employees’ needs and wants center stage by looking at professional development through the lens of an employee well-being program? A well-being program is an investment in the whole person, not just the part that is an employee, and therefore the concept of professional development can easily be built into a well-being program.”...
American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
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ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) announced in April its second cohort of classic titles—games that are more than 10 years old—to be included in the Classics Hall of Fame for its
Platinum Play Award (the “Platy”). GameRT’s Awards Committee chose these titles based on their historical and ongoing excellence for library use, whether in collections or programs.
Board games, card games, videogames, tabletop games, and games in other formats are eligible.
2025 inductees include Car Wars, Ticket to Ride, Zork, ESPN Fantasy Sports, Madden NFL, and Uno....
American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
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Award-winning librarian, author, and new host of the children’s program Reading Rainbow Mychal Threets will serve as honorary chair of ALA’s 2026 National Library Week, a weeklong celebration of the important role libraries and library workers play in schools and communities across the US.
The 68th annual event, to be held April 19-25, will have the theme “Find Your Joy,” an invitation for people of all backgrounds to explore and discover what sparks joy in them at the library.
National Library Week posters and bookmarks and a new
READ poster featuring Threets are available for purchase in the ALA Store....
ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Dec.
4
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ALA celebrated the December 3 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
announcement that it had reinstated all the agency’s grants, including those to libraries and library organizations across the country.
The grant reinstatements come as a direct result of a
November 21 federal court decision in a lawsuit brought against President Trump by 21 states. Citing the benefits of IMLS-funded research, ALA President Sam Helmick said, “Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states.
We are breathing a sigh of relief, but the fight is not finished.”...
ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Dec.
3; Nov. 21
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Steve Tetreault writes: “There are a growing number of reasons to be concerned about Google’s products and services.
But many schools are Google schools, with Gmail and Google Drive accounts for everyone.
So you, like I, might be stuck with Google for a while.
A friend was recently trying to access some items in her state library organization account from her school Chromebook.
She was having all kinds of difficulty, and I realized she didn’t know about Chrome Profiles.
The Chrome browser, and most Chromebooks, allow you to log in to multiple Google accounts at once and toggle between them.”...
Knowledge Quest, Dec.
8
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Annaliese Melvin writes: “As librarians, it is essential to highlight individuals with disabilities in our programs and our collections.
However, it is also necessary to critically evaluate titles that are in your collection or that you are considering adding to the collection to ensure that they portray people with disabilities in an appropriate manner.
Here is a list of ideas for evaluating books from several different sources and further resources for deeper research.”...
ALSC Blog, Dec. 6
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Jan Wolfe writes: “On December 8, the US Supreme Court opted not to hear an appeal by a group of residents of Llano County, Texas, of a
judicial decision allowing local officials to remove 17 books that these officials deemed objectionable from public libraries.
The justices let stand the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision allowing the removal of books, including ones dealing with themes of race and LGBT identity, from its public library system.
The decision applies to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, but does not set a nationwide legal precedent.”...
Reuters, Dec. 8; United Press International, May 24
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Claire Woodcock writes: “As prices for streaming subscriptions continue to soar, people are turning to the unexpected last stronghold of physical media: the public library. Films and TV shows on streaming also become more vulnerable when companies merge.
Some streaming platforms just outright remove their own intellectual property from their catalogs if the content is no longer deemed financially viable, well-performing, or is no longer a strategic priority.
The data-driven recommendation systems streaming platforms use tend to favor newer, more easily categorized content, and are starting to warp our perceptions of what classic media exists and matters.”...
404 Media, Dec. 3
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Mike Masnick writes: “Companies that used to provide real value are now focused on extracting more value from users.
There was a time when many people felt more fulfilled after using new innovations that helped them do new things.
We’ve replaced that with engagement metrics, growth hacks, and artificial intelligence (AI) slop. The tech industry spent the last decade optimizing for shareholder value and calling it innovation.
A group of us decided to articulate what the alternative actually looks like.
We’re calling it the
Resonant Computing Manifesto, and it’s an attempt to reclaim what innovation should mean.”...
Techdirt, Dec. 5
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Nick Tanzi writes: “When libraries encounter an emerging technology, we seek to identify both the threats and opportunities for our organizations. AI presents a significant communication challenge for libraries, requiring engagement with multiple audiences.” This post discusses the information about AI that libraries should be communicating to their staff, users, and vendors....
The Digital Librarian, Dec. 4
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Kelly Jensen writes: “It was never a question whether the
end of Moms for Liberty’s BookLooks in March would be the end of parental rights groups taking up the mantle on reviewing, rating, and targeting books on library shelves.
RatedBooks.org is now developing its own ‘new’ resource of reviews, The National Book Rating Index, [which will] put the reviews done by actual experts in the field beside those done by parents with an agenda.
It attempts to elevate those biased reviews to the same level of professionalism and authority as those done by experts.”...
Well Sourced, Dec. 6; BookRiot, Mar. 10
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Benjamin Charles Germain Lee and Kyle Deeds write: “We are excited to share
GovScape, a public search system for 10+ million government PDFs.
GovScape is built upon the
End of Term Web Archive, an incredible multi-institutional effort to document the federal government’s online presence at the end of each presidential administration going back to 2004. GovScape currently includes all renderable PDFs from the 2020 crawl that are 50 pages or under in length.
We are already working to incorporate PDFs from the other crawls in the End of Term Web Archive, including the 2024 crawl once it is fully uploaded.”...
Data Rescue Project, Dec.
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