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September 22, 2016 970 × 647 SIBF/ALA Library Conference Turns Three

From left: Khaled Ahmad Halloume, Hassan Momani, ALA Past President Sari Feldman, Jassim M. Jirjees, Asmah Saad Assim, Muna Abdulla, and Azeyaa Ahmed at the 2015 SIBF/ALA Library Conference. Photo: ALA International Relations Office

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Applications are now being accepted for two ALA Endowment Trustee positions. All applicants must submit an electronic application, as well as upload a CV and three references. Applications will be reviewed by the current ALA Endowment Trustees, who will make recommendations to the ALA Executive Board, which will make final selections at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. The selected applicants will begin serving a three-year term, which will expire after the 2028 ALA Annual Conference, immediately upon notification of their selection. The deadline for submission of applications has been extended until Wednesday, April 30.

ALA Governance Office, Apr. 4
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Lisa Varga became associate executive director of ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office in Washington, D.C., on April 21. Before joining ALA, she spent 15 years as executive director of the Virginia Library Association. Varga has been an ALA member for 20 years and has served on the ALA Policy Corps, Intellectual Freedom Committee, Intellectual Freedom Summit steering committee, ALA Leadership Institute, and Chapter Relations Committee. She answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members.

AL: The Scoop, Apr. 21
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Rebecca Kheel writes: “A dozen students at Defense Department grade schools across the globe are suing the department after books were removed from libraries, school yearbooks were allegedly censored, and class curriculums were sanitized to implement President Donald Trump’s anti-diversity and anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders. Alleging First Amendment violations, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit April 15 against the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) and the Pentagon on behalf of 12 students in pre-K through 11th grade from six military families who attend schools on bases in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy and Japan. Trump administration book bans at Pentagon institutions have not been isolated to the DoDEA. The Naval Academy recently pulled nearly 400 books from its libraries, and the Associated Press reported that the libraries at West Point and the Air Force Academy have also been directed to review their collections for any books to remove.
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Marjorie Henderson and Taren Urquhart write: “Over the past few decades, the decline in bee populations worldwide from human activity and climate change has led to efforts to mitigate the threat. West Vancouver (B.C.) Memorial Library is making a beeline toward innovation with its unique Mason Bee House Lending Program. Since 2022, patrons have been able to support the health of the local ecosystem by borrowing colonies to care for at home.”

American Libraries Trend, Mar./Apr.
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Ada EZach Knippen writes: “In honor of National Library Week, teachers and staff [at Ada (Ohio) Exempted Village Schools] cooperated on a fun event for their students. Teachers volunteered to be a ‘Masked Reader’ and picked a book to read in their mask, and just like the show The Masked Singer, their voices were modified so the students couldn’t easily guess them. ‘I’ve heard kids of all ages, I’m saying kindergarten through 12th grade, who have just been chattering this week about the videos that they saw and guessing who they were,’ said District Librarian Chanda Smith.”

WLIO-TV (Lima, Ohio), Apr. 10
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Robin Camille Davis writes: “Are you the only person thinking about user experience (UX) at your library? Most libraries don’t have a whole team dedicated to UX, so you’re not alone, even if it feels like it! This post offers practical tips, moral support, and bite-sized UX wins for solo UX advocates trying to make change from within. When you’re flying solo, it’s all too easy to underestimate the amount of time, mental energy, and emotional labor that it may take to conduct just one study. So start small.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Apr. 14
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“Elton John’s monumental album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the original cast recording of Broadway’s Hamilton, and Microsoft’s reboot chime have been selected as some of the defining sounds of history and culture that will join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. On April 9, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage. The recordings selected for the National Recording Registry this year bring the number of titles on the registry to 675.”

Library of Congress, Apr. 9

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