This preview offers a small sample of what to expect. For a complete listing of events, visit 2018.alaannual.org. Conference highlights ALA welcomes former First Lady Michelle Obama as its Opening General Session speaker. 4–5:15 p.m. on Friday, June 22. The lawyer, philanthropist, and author of the forthcoming memoir Becoming will reflect on social and political … Continue reading 2018 Annual Conference Preview
As author of numerous travel guides, including Frommer’s Easy Guide to New Orleans, I’m here to help. My customized dining guide lists a spectrum of selections, focusing on those in proximity to the convention center and some choice spots a short distance away. There’s something for everyone, so dive in with forks ablaze and laissez … Continue reading Big Easy Eats
The Moderator ALA President Jim Neal Are libraries neutral? Have they ever been? Should they be? Can libraries be neutral as part of societies and systems that are not neutral? Are libraries, through their processes, their practices, their collections and technologies, able to be neutral? ALA has long advocated for certain principles, detailed in the … Continue reading Are Libraries Neutral?
Though his moniker is absent from modern headlines, there’s one harasser whose name is known to librarians everywhere: Melvil Dewey. In the #MeToo era, how should the library profession handle Dewey’s legacy, tainted as it is by sexism and racism? Dewey—who was, of course, a founder of the American Library Association (ALA) and the inventor … Continue reading Bringing Harassment Out of the History Books
Can you imagine what this would feel like? My imagination is unable to conjure such raw terror. Somehow, the police found her and her children and drove them to Hesed House in Aurora, Illinois—the second largest homeless shelter in the state and the largest outside of Chicago. I am executive director of Hesed House, but … Continue reading The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness
Although the daily work of librarians and journalists differs, the vocations share many professional values. Brandy Zadrozny, who worked as a librarian for a decade before becoming a reporter and researcher for the Daily Beast and a reporter for NBC News, and Alice Crites, an MLIS-trained research editor whose work has helped earn six Pulitzers … Continue reading Our Vocation Is Information
Point: Jenny Paxson, readers’ advisory librarian, Webster (N.Y.) Public Library Does your library charge fines? We do charge fines at Webster Public Library. How are the collected funds used? We use the funds—$71,000 collected from fines annually—as part of our operating budget. Without them it would be difficult to run the library. Do fines discourage … Continue reading An Overdue Discussion
While the package contents were not limited to books, the proposed change hampered books-to-prisoners organizations in their mission to provide reading material to the incarcerated. A large part of the controversy stemmed from the initial five vendors’ limited selection of fewer than 100 books, many of which were coloring or puzzle books. Stories in The … Continue reading Restricting Books behind Bars
7 Years since the American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference was last held in New Orleans. 16,964 Number of Annual attendees in 2006, the year ALA was the first national group to hold a conference in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the convention center’s reopening. 1014 Dumaine Street address of the town house once … Continue reading By the Numbers: New Orleans
Hendzlik, a collection buyer for Anythink Libraries in Adams County, Colorado, helped lead a presentation on medical marijuana and libraries at the 2016 Public Library Association Conference in Denver. As part of the presentation, Hendzlik handed out rolling papers and oregano and taught attendees how to make their own joints—“just to take the fear out … Continue reading Getting Blunt about Medical Marijuana
It’s a question that Marisa Conner, manager of youth and family engagement at Baltimore County (Md.) Public Library (BCPL), says her staffers are often asked when doing outreach at Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) centers. She explains: Many WIC clients, particularly those originally from other countries, aren’t sure what a library is or whether it … Continue reading Bringing Libraries to WIC
County Librarian Todd Stephens says that he and his colleagues suspect the attack came through an infected email message opened by a staff member, though the exact mechanism is uncertain. The anonymous attacker demanded 3.6 to 3.8 bitcoins in payment—then valued at about $36,000. Ransomware, a form of computer malware that encrypts a victim’s data … Continue reading When Ransomware Attacks
