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Hundreds of families received food packages after Cobb County, Georgia, residents donated produce and shelf-stable food items to help those in need. The items were distributed to 370 families a drive-through pantry at the Stratton branch of Cobb County Public Library System. Agencies including Atlanta Community Food Bank, the teamwork of CCPL staff with colleagues from Cobb Parks, Cobb Water, Cobb State Court, and Cobb County Sheriff’s Office assisted with organizing the donations.
WGCL-TV Atlanta, Dec. 2
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Librarian Abby Johnson writes: “A few years ago, our library restructured and created our first collection development librarian position. I was hired for the position of doing all collection development for my library. Children’s, adult, teen, print, digital, periodical—you name it, it was my job. In June, while our library’s doors were closed due to COVID, I started our Grab Bag program and began taking patron emails myself and filling the grab bags. And it completely changed how I was doing collection development.”
ALSC Blog, Nov. 30
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Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” is one of America’s most popular holiday tunes. That recording, along with more than 3,000 record albums and CDs, are part of the Bing Crosby Collection recently acquired by the University Library System’s Center for American Music, housed at the Stephen Foster Memorial.
PittWire, Dec. 1
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A former city library has been tentatively declared historic—which could stop plans to demolish it for a new Children’s Wisconsin clinic on Milwaukee’s south side. The city Historic Preservation Commission voted November 30 to permanently designate the former Forest Home Branch Library. The petition to designate the building was filed after plans surfaced for a $5.4 million medical office building at the site.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 30
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A crowdfunding campaign has been started to purchase and restore the longtime home of author J. R. R. Tolkien and turn the property into a museum. Project Northmoor, as the group effort is called, began a three-month campaign on December 2 to raise at least $5.3 million to buy the house on the outskirts of Oxford, England, where he wrote The Hobbit and much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
New York Times, Dec. 2
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Star Wars fans, book lovers, and collectors from around the universe can use their powers to help libraries this holiday season. The Child (a.k.a. Grogu or Baby Yoda), the breakout star of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, is featured in a new poster and bookmark from ALA Graphics. All proceeds will fund advocacy, awareness, and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide.
ALA Graphics, Dec. 3
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Sarah Schwartz writes: “As students search for news online, it’s increasingly likely that they’ll come across the steady stream of disinformation on the web: conspiracy theories like QAnon, manipulated images and videos, false claims that the coronavirus is a hoax. Online spread of disinformation and rumor like this has posed new challenges for civics teachers. Confronting it requires a different kind of news literacy education in the social studies classroom, experts say—one that goes beyond the common practices of encouraging students to see both sides of an issue and provide evidence to back up their claims.”
EdWeek Teacher, Nov. 25
