November/December 2015

Features & Trends

David Gibson. (Photo: Geo. Willeman/Library of Congress)

Bookend: Game On

David Gibson, a moving image technician, is LC’s videogame steward, and he earned the role by chance. “I was the youngest person in the office, so they gave me the job,” he says, laughing. He does credit gaming as a youth and while in graduate school with providing a background to archive the 4,000 videogame … Continue reading Bookend: Game On →

Solving the Self-Published Puzzle

By Greg Landgraf

“We used to have an event in Glen Ellyn called BookFest involving local merchants and the library,” says Susan DeRonne, adult department director at Glen Ellyn Public Library (GEPL). “[It] had a tent where self-published authors could sell their works, and it became more and more popular in its last years.” GEPL is one of … Continue reading Solving the Self-Published Puzzle →

Making the Most of Midwinter 2016

Speakers Kick off Midwinter with the ERT/Booklist Author Forum (January 8), an exciting panel moderated by a Booklist editor. Get inspired at the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture (January 9) where you’ll hear a talk by cyberbullying activist Lizzie Velasquez, best known for her TEDx talk viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube. Attend the … Continue reading Making the Most of Midwinter 2016 →

Wild Colorado Wildlife Discovery App
By Joseph Sanchez
Improving Health Literacy, One Public Library at a Time
By Lea Radick
The Stereotype Stereotype
By Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos
Building a Better Board of Trustees
By Maria R. Traska
When the Subject Is Death
By Timothy Inklebarger
Libraries Create Gender-Neutral Bathrooms
By Megan Cottrell
Newsmaker: Pharrell Williams
By Sanhita SinhaRoy
Coloring Book Clubs Cross the Line into Libraries
By Alison Marcotte

Columnists

Embracing the Future
By Carolyn Meier and Heather Moorefield-Lang and Rebecca K. Miller
The New ALA Strategic Directions
By Keith Michael Fiels
The Fee Library
By Joseph Janes
Everything Is Messy
By Linda W. Braun
Academic Tools
By Phil Morehart
More Important Than Ever
By Meredith Farkas
Scholarly Communication
By Karen Muller
Winds of Change
By Christina Sibley and Julie B. Todaro and Mary M. Carr
The Future of the MLIS
By Sari Feldman

Latest Library Links

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John Sharp writes: “Athens and Fairhope are two fast-growing cities in the fastest-growing areas of Alabama, and there is no mistaking their conservative bona fides. But according to early statistics about library card applications, their libraries appear to be bucking a trend embraced by conservative-leaning groups and the Alabama GOP: Their patrons appear to be trusting the libraries. More than 60% of parents at Fairhope Public Library and Athens-Limestone County Public Library have signed off on all-access passes for their children with no restrictions on library usage.”

AL.com, Nov. 17
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Katie Gaddini writes: “Book bans may have mushroomed in the Trump era of reactionary politics, but they have a well-established history in America. One woman in particular, Norma Gabler, redefined the current strategy and logic behind modern book bans. Called ‘education’s public enemy number one,’ by critics in 1980, Gabler led the crusade against the so-called secular trend in school textbooks throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Even though Norma and her husband Mel worked together, Norma was the public face of their efforts for decades.”

Time: Made By History, Nov. 13
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Many members know Bill Ladewski as executive director of the Reference and User Services Association, an ALA position he has held since 2019. In early September, Ladewski added another title to his CV: director of Member Relations and Services. In this role, he and his team are charged with providing service and information to the Association’s nearly 50,000 members. Ladewski answered our 11 Questions to reintroduce himself to the ALA community.

AL: The Scoop, Nov. 19
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John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
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Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
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Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
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Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15

View more Latest Library Links