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May 21, 2018 120 × 165 An Overdue Discussion

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A child who fell and needed stitches, stolen iPads, a group fight in front of the glass building, racial slurs to staff, indecent exposure, a person having suicidal thoughts, youths using hard drugs, and a man who urinated on the floor: These are just some of the things that staff have had to manage at Halifax (Nova Scotia) Central Library, according to incident reports from January 2018 to April 2019. To deal with all of this, staff receive training in customer service, mental health first aid, and nonviolent crisis intervention two to three times a year. Chief Librarian Åsa Kachan said she works closely with community police officers, a mobile street health team, and an in-house social worker.

CBC News, Aug. 19
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The 2019 Hugo Awards for best science fiction or fantasy works were presented August 18 at a ceremony at the 77th World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by Afua Richardson and Michael Scott. The winners included The Calculating Stars (Tor) by Mary Robinette Kowal for best novel and Wayfarers (Hodder & Stoughton/Harper Voyager) by Becky Chambers for best series. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt) won the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book and Jeannette Ng won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Hugo Awards, Aug. 19
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Justin Azevedo writes: “How do you sneak complicated and seemingly unrelated intellectual freedom concepts into your youth book clubs? Just like sneaking healthy food into a kid’s meal, these techniques will enrich the work you already do as a librarian without disrupting your programming routine. For this post, we’ll focus on tips for including important intellectual freedom concepts into a book club for tweens or younger teens, ages 11–14, along with two sample discussion themes you could try out.”

ALSC Blog, Aug. 17
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When Hilary Severyn decided on her capstone project for her graduate degree at the University of Michigan School of Information, she chose to archive and digitally preserve a unique cultural treasure—the handcrafted marionettes, props, correspondence, and papers of Michigan puppeteer Meredith Bixby (1909–2002), who staged shows for school groups and libraries all over the US from the 1930s to the 1980s. The entire collection has been in a storage area of the Saline (Mich.) Chamber of Commerce since 2008. Severyn used X-ray and CT scanning to create 3D photographs of each of the marionettes and in the process discovered some secrets used by the showman.

University of Michigan School of Information, Aug. 14
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People aged 10 to 25 make up almost one-fourth of the US population. According to a new research report, The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth, the connections between brain regions strengthen during these ages and become more efficient, while unused connections “are pruned away.” The brains of young people are adaptable and become more specialized, based on what demands are placed on them by their schools and social environments. At the same time, the adolescent brain is “vulnerable to detrimental exposure,”such as alcohol, drug use, and growing up in a dangerous neighborhood. This is where inequity plays an outsized role.

THE Journal, Aug. 13
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Amelia Lush writes: “In November 2018, following the United Nations Climate Change Conference, then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg initiated the school strike for climate movement, which saw over 50,000 people from 100 countries rally together in a call for action. Four months later, 1.4 million students from around the world participated in school strikes. Children are participating in protests and carving out their own platforms to demand a voice. Greta’s speeches have now been collected in a single volume titled No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Here are 10 other books for younger readers that reflect her tenacity.”

The Guardian (UK), July 8
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Libraries and Autism will again award a total of $5,000 in “Autism Welcome Here: Library Programs, Services, and More” grants, either for one proposal or to be divided among several applicants. All types of libraries in the US and Canada are encouraged to apply. Applicants may propose to initiate a new program, bring an established program to the library for the first time, or enhance a program already offered. Applications will be accepted from September 1 to December 1.

Libraries and Autism

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