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May 22, 2024 970 × 647 2024 Annual Conference Preview

2024 Annual Conference Preview

Latest Library Links

10h

Terra Dankowski writes: “Sean Sherman, founder of the restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis, was not widely known in 2017, when he released his first cookbook. Since then, he has become perhaps the most recognizable Indigenous chef in the country, racking up James Beard Foundation and Julia Child awards for his food and advocacy. Sherman spoke with American Libraries about this extensive collection, his early influences, and his love for libraries. Sample a recipe from Sherman’s new cookbook, Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America (November, Clarkson Potter), written with Kate Nelson and Kristin Donnelly.”

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
14h

Anne Ford writes: “For David Sleasman, librarian at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play in Rochester, New York, receiving 27 storage tubs full of literature about checkers, is all in a day’s work. Sleasman, along with two catalogers and two archivists, wrangles 260,000 library holdings, 3,000 linear feet of physical archives, and nine terabytes of digital archives, all pertaining to the history of play. The library and archives are housed at the Strong National Museum of Play, where visitors romp through exhibits of toys through the ages, play pinball on vintage machines, and navigate a ropes course.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
18h

Donald W. Crankshaw writes: “Traditional professional development plans in libraries may satisfy organizational or certification needs but do not necessarily satisfy employees’ needs, wants, and interests. What if we put employees’ needs and wants center stage by looking at professional development through the lens of an employee well-being program? A well-being program is an investment in the whole person, not just the part that is an employee, and therefore the concept of professional development can easily be built into a well-being program.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
4d

Bobbi L. Newman writes: “I know many of us are struggling right now. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.”

Librarian By Day, Nov. 6
4d

Kristen Griffith writes: “Maryland’s school board is reversing Harford County’s removal of a book from public school libraries. The November 4 decision comes after the Harford County school board banned the young adult graphic novel Flamer by Mike Curato last summer. The local board had overruled the superintendent and a review committee who had decided to keep Flamer in middle and high school libraries. This is the first time the state board has ruled on a local book ban since the 2024 passage of Maryland’s Freedom to Read Act.”

Baltimore Banner, Nov. 5; Sept. 10; American Libraries feature, June
4d

Rodney Freeman Jr. writes: “We are living through a period of profound uncertainty and systemic challenge—where erasure of truth and history is not only possible but actively underway. History is protected by those who collect, preserve, and share the facts, and the archive becomes a battleground where every saved story is an act of resistance. The future will only remember what is preserved today, and the choice is between standing by as stories are diluted or destroyed—or fighting for the record, for the archive, and for the truth with steady, everyday work that anyone can participate in.”

Common Dreams, Nov. 2
5d

John Herrman writes: “Drawing on a new global survey of 250,000 adults in 50 countries by analytics firm GWI, John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times provocatively argues that, amidst all the fervor about artificial intelligence, another consequential story is unfolding more quietly: ‘In years to come, we may well look back on September 2025 as the point at which social media jumped the shark and began rapidly accelerating its transition from the place to be seen,’ he writes, ‘to a gaudy backwater of the internet inhabited by those with nothing better to do.’”

New York Magazine: Intelligencer, Nov. 10; Financial Times, Oct. 3

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