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“As ICE has raided homes, businesses, and public facilities in communities across the country, public libraries are grappling with how to prepare staff, protect patrons, respond to incidents, and develop resources for in-the-moment de-escalation and long-term recovery. In February, the Public Library Association (PLA) convened a webinar called ‘Responding to ICE at the Library: Real-World Approaches’ to address these timely concerns.
The session will also be provided at the
PLA 2026 Conference in Minneapolis on April 3, at 11:45 a.m. Comments below are paraphrased from their presentation.”...
American Libraries Online, Mar.
26
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ALA will confer honorary membership, its highest honor, on
Barbara J. Ford and
Robert R. Newlen in recognition of outstanding contributions that have made a lasting impact on libraries, librarians, and the communities they serve.
Ford is a former ALA president, and director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Newlen is acting Librarian of Congress with more than 40 years of service to LC, and a former ALA Executive Board member.
Honorary membership will be officially conferred at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in June....
ALA Communications and Media Relations Office, Mar.
26
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Jessica Brownley writes: “Libraries are often places of learning, but they can also be spaces of joy, creativity, and playful mischief.
Celebrating April Fools’ Day with a lighthearted program invites kids into the library for an afternoon filled with fun and laughter in the library.
Last year, I hosted an ‘April Fools’ Fun’ program with a simple goal: Create a space where kids could laugh, be goofy, and enjoy the library in a new way.
The program included a mix of games, crafts, and playful challenges that encouraged participation and creativity.
Here are some highlights.”...
ALSC Blog, Mar. 30
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Ella McDonald writes: “On May 14, 1969,
Carrie Coleman Robinson, a Black school librarian in Alabama, brought a landmark case to the US District Court.
After being passed over for a promotion, Robinson sued Alabama’s Department of Education alleging that she had been denied equal protection as a department employee because of her race.
Robinson’s case, and long career as a librarian, reveals much about the Jim Crow South and librarianship in the civil rights era.”...
ALA150, Mar. 27; AL: The Scoop, Oct. 6, 2020
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Robin Naughton writes: “’Document everything, and I mean everything!’ is the advice constantly given to tenure-track faculty. Tenure-track faculty librarians are no exception to this mantra.
That advice rarely comes with a how-to guide or any meaningful suggestion on how to do it.
This article is an attempt, based on my experience, to provide an approach that can help academic librarians on the tenure track implement that advice by creating a tenure tracker and folder structure that are simple and easy to use.”...
College and Research Libraries News, vol.
87, no. 4, Apr.
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Patsy Montesinos writes: “Rutherford County (Tenn.) Library Board voted in an 8–3 decision to fire library director Luanne James March 30. The controversy began when James refused to comply with a board order to relocate 132 children’s books to the adult section of the library.
Public records showed that ahead of the March 30 meeting, the board worked to hire a new attorney.
Internal emails showed some board members raised concerns about legal risks as the situation escalated.”...
WTVF-TV (Nashville), Mar. 30
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the research and information environment in consequential ways.
To help research library leaders think strategically about those changes, the Association of Research Libraries and the Coalition for Networked Information have released
the report from their Strategic Implications Workshop, “Futurescape Libraries: Mapping Possibilities for Tomorrow’s Information Hubs.” The report is designed to support leaders as they consider how advances in AI may affect the roles, responsibilities, and future direction of research libraries.
Priorities identified included workforce investment, leveraging unique collections, leading on governance and ethics, and building partnerships....
Association of Research Libraries, Mar.
26
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Benjamin Fincher writes: “I love comic books. HeinOnline announced their new legal research graphic novel, and I stumbled upon a series of other legal focused works.
I became intrigued and wondered what else is out there that blends the world of comic books and the law.
I found a series of fairly new works that cover a wide range of legal, political, and informational issues.
I believe the comic medium to be underdeveloped and underexplored within the legal information landscape, and that providing these works to students as a means of gaining visual clues has great potential.”...
RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Mar.
24
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Robbie Barber writes: “As a school librarian, I send what feels like hundreds of messages every day.
Yet I feel like I reach only a few people at most and only if they are not distracted by other messages.
What am I doing wrong? Maybe nothing. Effective communication is about relationship-building. Everyone has their preferred method of communication and you can’t provide one-on-one support to over 1,000 people each day. It’s not about whether they read my email, but whether they trust me to help them out.”...
Tickling Tech, Mar. 28
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Carrie Schwier et al.
write: “Primary sources offer a transformative approach to education that enhances critical thinking, fosters engagement, promotes historical inquiry, and, when used thoughtfully, promotes social justice.
Furthermore, by their nature, many primary sources are accessible freely in digital repositories across the world, offering instructors the opportunity to incorporate unique and diverse perspectives into their curricula, enriching student learning experiences.
As outlined in this article, teaching faculty are already choosing to use primary sources to either replace or supplement their course readings to alleviate concerns about cost in addition to addressing textbook ‘shortcomings.’”...
portal: Libraries and the Academy, vol.
26, no. 2, Apr.
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Megan Mabee writes: “Now that the Andy Weir novel Project Hail Mary has been adapted for film, I have dived into the audiobook. I’m determined to finish it while the movie’s still in theaters, so I can go see it. The further I get into reading Project Hail Mary, though, the hungrier I become for more space books. If you’re like me and craving more books like Project Hail Mary, I’ve got you covered below.”...
Book Riot, Mar. 31
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Artie Beaty writes: “If you've been using your old Gmail account that you created before you knew your username would matter, or with a name you want to forget, your day is here.
Google has announced that you can finally change your Google Account username without losing any of your account data.
Evidence of the ability to do this started surfacing
several months ago, but the option is now here for everyone.”...
ZDNet, Mar. 31, Jan. 3
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