10h
Actor Sarah Jessica Parker is asking fellow New Yorkers to battle looming budget cuts that could slash hours and programs at libraries in all five boroughs. In an email released on May 20, Parker urged people to post sticky notes about why they love their libraries on the investinlibraries.org website. It’s a clever nod to her Sex and the City character, Carrie Bradshaw, whose boyfriend dumped her via Post-it Note. The email is the latest part of a campaign by the New York Public Library, the Queens Public Library, and the Brooklyn Public Library, to fend off budget cuts and ask for a boost in funding.
AM New York, May 20
10h
Terry Weech writes: “Librarianship is a distinct and autonomous profession. And it’s the central role of the ALA Committee on Accreditation to ensure that accredited programs are qualified to prepare individuals for careers as librarians. The accreditation process serves the profession and the public, including students and consumers of library services. Let’s look at two trends in detail: the iSchool movement (the expansion of library school curricula to encompass the growing information, technology, and knowledge sectors) and the expansion of the definition of information professionals.”
American Libraries column, May 20
10h
As libraries move from legacy Integrated Library Systems to next-generation Library Services Platforms, soft skills—such as team building, project management, and leadership skills—become as essential as technology skills. “Techniques in Managing a Library Services Platform,” a 90-minute webinar on May 30 presented by Hong Ma, head of library systems at Loyola University Chicago, will provide practical techniques for managing this change through the exploration of a case study. View details and register online.
LITA, May 20
12h
Daniel Cox and Ryan Streeter write: “As trust in both our institutions and one another has plummeted, local places such as libraries, markets, and coffee shops can help. A new study by the American Enterprise Institute shows that living near community-oriented public and commercial spaces brings a host of social benefits, such as increased trust, decreased loneliness, and a stronger sense of attachment to where we live. Americans living in amenity-rich communities are much less likely to feel isolated from others, regardless of whether they live in large cities, suburbs, or small towns.”
The Atlantic, May 20
14h
An event at the Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library that organizers said was meant to be focused on the positive was met with protests on May 18. Demonstrators didn’t want the rescheduled Drag Queen Storytime at the Main Library to happen. To show their objection to the event, several stood just down the stairs, coming face-to-face with counterprotesters. Homemade signs suggested kids shouldn’t be exposed to the lifestyle. Library Director Lee Burchfield disagreed, saying, “The public library’s mission is to provide the broadest possible range of information and ideas to the community, so we really strive to offer something for everybody.”
WAVE-TV, Louisville, Ky., May 18
15h
Corey Weberling believes Bike to Work Week gave him the “kick in the pants” he needed to get rolling. The 30-year-old communications specialist at the Mansfield–Richland County (Ohio) Public Library, who likes to keep active, cycled to and from work on a Trek Verve 1 bicycle loaned from Y-Not Cycling and Fitness during Bike to Work Week, celebrated this year on May 13–19. “It feels good to just start my day off active instead of waiting to get home from work,” he said. “It definitely woke me up. I was more alert when I first got there.”
Richland (Ohio) Source, May 19
15h
Barbara Fister writes: “We’re just wrapping up the semester for our new short course with a long title, ‘Clickbait, Bias, and Propaganda in Information Networks.’ It was inspired by a history professor, who asked a couple of us librarians to talk to her first-term seminar about what we were innocently calling ‘fake news’ before that term was co-opted to mean the established press. She thought students needed more, so we designed a seven-week course to introduce Mike Caulfield’s ‘four moves’ heuristic and explore how the information networks we use daily circulate and shape the information we encounter.”
Inside Higher Ed: Library Babel Fish, May 19
