Welcome to the 2017 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries. These are shining examples of innovative architectural feats that address user needs in unique, interesting, and effective ways. Renovations and expansions dominated this year, showing that libraries are holding on to and breathing new life into spaces already cherished … Continue reading 2017 Library Design Showcase
The following libraries are winners of the 2017 Library Building Awards, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association’s Library Leadership and Management Association. The biennial award recognizes the best in library architecture and design and is open to any architect licensed in the United States. Projects may be located anywhere … Continue reading AIA/ALA Library Building Awards
SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARDS Jen Bryant and Boris Kulikov Six Dots, written by Bryant and illustrated by Kulikov, won the award for young readers. Louis Braille, who became blind by age 5, didn’t allow his disability to prevent him from learning about the world around him. Unsatisfied with the options available, Braille tinkered with French … Continue reading 2017 ALA Award Winners
Concepts such as “cheap,” “grassroots,” and “local” are relative and open to interpretation. It costs almost nothing to scatter wildflower seeds into abandoned lots while walking or biking around your neighborhood. But it might cost upward of $5,000 to install a “parkmobile” consisting of a custom dumpster filled with tree ferns and yucca plants. You … Continue reading Tactical Urbanism
“She told me she got it for her birthday and it was a lot of fun, but one day, it just stopped working,” says Seltzer, an MIT-trained engineer and the U-Fix-It Clinic coordinator. “We took it apart together, and we were able to fix it. Pretty soon she was zipping around the parking lot on … Continue reading Libraries and the Art of Everything Maintenance
A natural fit “Librarians, by nature, curate resources,” says Jennifer Scotten, library media specialist at South Middle School in Lawrence, Kansas. Those curation abilities make librarians invaluable for implementing OERs, which can be overwhelming for first-time users browsing a seemingly endless catalog of online resources. For Kelly Hart, a 7th-grade English and language arts teacher … Continue reading Open Educational Resources
“Besides the entertainment value, we also wanted to impart some history—it’s not fake news; it’s reliable news,” says Anita Doering, archives manager at LCPL. LCPL—which also offers the by-demand Footsteps of La Crosse historic walking tour—is not the only library to recognize that sightseeing ventures are the perfect vehicle to get employees outside the building and … Continue reading Walking History
First-person shooter games. Military training exercises. Those are the applications most often associated with the words “virtual reality” (VR). But as new library offerings at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh demonstrate, VR represents an amazing, state-of-the-art resource that can enhance just about any discipline, from cartography to psychology, architecture to English. No recordings … Continue reading Making Virtual Reality a Reality
1988 The year then–Secretary of Education William Bennett issued the challenge: “Let’s have a national campaign. Every child should obtain a library card—and use it.” The following year, the American Library Association declared September as Library Card Sign-Up Month. 500 Number of children who attended the October 14, 1988, kickoff event on the National Mall … Continue reading By the Numbers: Library Cards
A Cuban-American, Engle is the first person of Latino descent to receive the honor. She was also the first Latina to be awarded a Newbery Honor in 2009 for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom. What poets have had an influence on your writing? This is such a challenging question, because I … Continue reading Newsmaker: Margarita Engle
One thing that has helped the 3D printing business take off is the availability of freely shareable models for just about anything. The most popular online library of 3D models is Thingiverse, a free resource owned by MakerBot Industries. Thingiverse allows anyone who has created a model to upload it to the website and make … Continue reading 3D: A Status Report
Haley Tricycles Book Bikes Haley Tricycles has been building book bikes for libraries and literacy organizations since 2008, when the company designed the bike for Gabriel Levinson’s Chicago Book Bike project, arguably the first modern book bike. The Haley Book Bike is based on a display bike format: It has two fold-out side tables with … Continue reading Pedal Power
