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August 13, 2019 750 × 500 2019 Library Design Showcase

Schools of All Sizes

Palo Alto (Calif.) High School

HED gave Palo Alto High School’s outdated library a dramatic facelift. Built in the 1970s, the original library was dark, disjointed, and uninviting. HED transformed the space by adding large windows for natural light; a flexible instruction room; silent and group study rooms; a productivity center; reading nooks; and a mezzanine level, accessible via a spiral staircase, to house the library’s 125-year-old journalism archive.

Project: Renovation
Architect: HED
Size: 26,600 square feet
Cost: $10.1 million
Photo: Tim Maloney

Schools of All Sizes

Palo Alto (Calif.) High School

Project: Renovation
Architect: HED
Size: 26,600 square feet
Cost: $10.1 million
Photo: Tim Maloney

Latest Library Links

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Michelle N. Amponsah and Joyce E. Kim write: “More than 12 pro-Palestine student protesters were banned from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they staged a silent ‘study-in’ protest. Roughly 30 activists staged an ‘emergency study-in’ at Widener on September 21 to protest the Israeli military’s airstrikes in Lebanon. For an hour, students donned keffiyehs and studied with posters taped to their computers. The demonstration was silent, and other students in the Widener reading room continued to study alongside the protesters. During the study-in, library staff passed out sheets of paper stating that libraries are not permissible spaces for student protests.”

Harvard Crimson, Oct. 3, Sept. 23
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ALA President Cindy Hohl participated in an October 8 discussion with White House officials and national leaders about efforts to save lives from overdose. ALA is one of more than 250 organizations and businesses that have committed to the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose. The Challenge, launched earlier this year, is a nationwide call-to-action to increase training on, and access to, life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone. ALA, led by its Public Library Association division, has developed resources to help libraries respond to the overdose crisis.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Oct. 8
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National Book Foundation, Oct. 1; The New Yorker, Sept. 13
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Paula Mauro writes: “While Banned Books Week ended on September 28, writer, director, producer—and Banned Books Week honorary chair—Ava DuVernay stresses the importance of continuing the work of amplifying marginalized voices. ‘This banned book effort is an agenda by people who want to make some of us less free, to silence the voices of some of us,’ DuVernay tells American Libraries. ‘We can overcome this, but we have to work together.’ DuVernay recorded a video conversation with Banned Books Week Youth Honorary Chair Julia Garnett.”

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