Don’t Let It Stay in Vegas

June 2, 2014

lauriedborman4web_11.jpg

June means the ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition, and this year we’re going to Las Vegas. The conference program is packed with speakers and programs, so flip to our preview to get the latest information on what’s happening. While you’re in Vegas, you gotta eat, right? The city has morphed into a food lover’s dream, with restaurants that offer good grub to gourmet. Start planning your tummy time with our dining guide. And please, what happens in Vegas with programs, discussions, and networking, don’t let it stay in Vegas!

Have you watched American Libraries Live, our free, streaming library program? If you want to sample it, we have an excerpt in our June issue from our mobile technology in the library program. Hosted by Heather Moorefield-Lang, education and applied social sciences librarian for Virginia Tech, the expert panel included Bohyun Kim, digital access librarian at Florida International University Medical Library; David Lee King, digital services director at Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library; and Katherine Messier, managing director at Mobile Beacon. Once you read the excerpt, you’ll want to see the whole episode, which you’ll find at AmericanLibrariesLive.org, along with all our archived shows. You can’t participate in the live chat in an archive version, so plan on joining the conversation for our next program, “Going Beyond Google,” on June 12 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Hateful people: They’ve been around since time immemorial. Perhaps their extremist views, often hateful, started out verbal, and once the printing press made spreading the word easier, they began publishing their views in newspapers and tracts. These works—ranging from far-right to far-left political ideologies, and to anti-Semitic and racist materials—form the basis of extremist collections at several universities in the US. Find out more about how the materials are collected and used in our article by Chicago-based freelance author Maria Traska.

Former American Libraries editor Leonard Kniffel traveled to the oil-rich country of Azerbaijan to see accelerated changes since financial reform in 2008, and how this wealth has affected the state of libraries there. He found that investment in libraries is a good investment in business. Kniffel visited a state-of-the art library that opened in 2013 at Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy University, and a renovated National Library of Azerbaijan, among others. See his story.

Our final page, The Bookend, features librarian Linda Mehr, director of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. She develops the unique collection of the film research library, from original screenplays to posters, photos, and an oral history archive. Sounds like the library would make a good road trip after Vegas.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Clockwise from left: Linda Mehr; a page from the script of From Here to Eternity, with director Fred Zinnemann’s notes; Zinnemann directs actors Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed in the scene detailed in the script. (Photo: The Margaret Herrick Library)

Bookend: Star Power

Hollywood’s holdings

Barbara Stripling

Learners for a Lifetime

Reflecting on a year of work and inspiration