Latest Library Links, January 16, 2015

News from ALA and the profession

January 26, 2015

Submit Your Architectural Project to the 2015 Library Design Showcase

Latest Library Links, January 15, 2015

News from ALA and the profession

Latest Library Links

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Visiting the library remains the most common cultural activity Americans engage in, by far. The average of 10.5 trips to the library that US adults report taking in 2019 exceeds their participation in eight other common leisure activities. Americans attend live music or theatrical events and visit national or historic parks roughly 4 times a year on average and visit museums and gambling casinos 2.5 times annually. Trips to amusement or theme parks (1.5) and zoos (0.9) are the least common activities on this list. Women report visiting the library nearly twice as frequently as men, and adults aged 18–29 visit the library much more than all older age groups.
Gallup, Jan. 24
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The Cleveland Public Library and the union representing library workers said January 23 they reached a tentative deal to resolve their simmering labor dispute, avoiding a potential strike that would have shut down some library branches and services. About 400 librarians, library assistants, clerks, maintenance workers, and custodians have been without a contract since December 2019. Contract talks between the library system and the union, the Service Employees International Union District 1199, have been ongoing since September, but broke down around the new year. Workers will vote on the contract on January 29.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 23
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Natasha Lomas writes: “Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week—thinking there must be some kind of weird bug messing up the browser’s page rendering because suddenly everything looked similar: a homogenous sea of blue text links and favicons that, on such a large expanse of screen, come across as one block of background noise. I found myself clicking on an ad link rather than the organic search result I was looking for. This is Google’s latest dark pattern: The adtech giant has made organic results even more closely resemble the ads it serves against keyword searches.”
TechCrunch, Jan. 23
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Katie Quirin Manwiller writes: “For those of us who face mental and physical exhaustion as part of daily life, attending conferences can be a battle. It takes me a lot of extra effort to manage my health during professional events. Having navigated various national and regional conferences, I’ve developed a few tricks that make it possible for me to conference while chronically ill. Best of all, my experience at the ACRL conference in 2019 led me to a community of other librarians with illness and disability for which I am deeply grateful.”
ACRLog, Oct. 27, 2019
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ACRL has announced the recipients of its 2020 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award: Nevada State College Marydean Martin Library in Henderson, Nevada; Santa Rosa (Calif.) Junior College Libraries; and University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, Maryland. Sponsored by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO, the award recognizes the staff of a college, community college, and university library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution. Each library will receive $3,000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each recipient’s campus.
ACRL, Jan. 23
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Kelly Jensen writes: “It’s been making the rounds in every single library publication and social media outlet: Reese Witherspoon is looking for a librarian-in-residence and as long as you’ve worked in a library, that could be you. Sounds great, right? How fun to work with Reese and her team at Hello Sunshine to talk about and promote books and stories by and about women. You just need to submit a 90-second video. To say it’s surprising how quickly this story spread without any critical examination is an understatement. This is a contest—not any sort of job, internship, or position. The winner will receive nothing financial in exchange.”
Book Riot, Jan. 23
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Michael Crider writes: “There’s a lot to be excited about if you’re looking for something new in the world of smartphones. And if you happen to be in the market for a new phone this year, you’re probably wondering what’s on the horizon. Likely features include folding phones, sorta-folding phones, crazy camera arrays, high refresh rate displays, facial recognition, and 5G expansion.”
Review Geek, Jan. 22