Given the care that librarians bring to this task, the recent explosion in unverified, unsourced, and sometimes completely untrue news has been discouraging, to say the least. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of US adults are getting their news in real time from their social media feeds. These are often uncurated spaces … Continue reading Fighting Fake News
Gifts Under $20 Banned Books Matchbox Set ($8) For the librarian who appreciates banned books—and has a dark sense of humor—Out of Print’s Banned Books Matchbox Set includes the regularly challenged classics Slaughterhouse-Five, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Song of Solomon, and, of course, Fahrenheit 451. Each tiny matchbox has a message on the back about … Continue reading 2016 Holiday Gift Guide for Librarians and Book Lovers
Hayden didn’t use any privileges of her new position to access Parks’s notes, however, because LC has digitized the collection and posted it online. “I pulled it up on my iPad,” she says. “To think that a kid in Baltimore who just experienced the unrest there could look at Parks’s handwritten thoughts about unrest, that … Continue reading America’s Librarian
As libraries face cloudy funding forecasts and stagnant budgets, innovation and creativity become driving forces to increase a community’s access to library materials, programs, and services. With uncertainty comes an opportunity to reinvent and find new ways to serve a growing population of patrons. Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library (GCPL) used that opportunity to partner … Continue reading A Self-Service Experiment
The end of the James H. Billington era has prompted an outpouring of advice from scholars and pundits on a new agenda for LC, from mass digitization of the library’s book collections and wholesale archiving of websites to relaxing copyright restrictions. Yet many of these prescriptions align poorly with the realities of the digital present … Continue reading Rethinking the National Library
That’s a great story, true or not, with an even better punch line. It likely produced a few knowing nods and wry smiles just now, and it’s also quite effective with people unfamiliar with what actually goes on libraries. They think we sit around all day shushing people and reading Good Books, as opposed to, … Continue reading In the Trenches
One technique I tried was putting all of the comments into Wordle, a tool that creates word clouds showing by size the relative frequency of each word. One of the largest terms in the cloud was quiet. Our library had been focused on building and enhancing collaborative spaces, so the word cloud provided a valuable … Continue reading Worth a Thousand Words
As director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Evans is the first African-American woman to be appointed as a presidential library director. The Carter Library receives almost 100,000 visitors per year, catering strongly to K–12 students. In fact, the former president requested that admission be free to those 16 or under … Continue reading Bookend: Hail to the Librarian
Ultrafine particles and volatile organic compounds Several studies have shown that 3D printers produce high amounts of ultrafine particles (UFPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while in use, and that these particles and vapors are detectable for many hours after the printers have been shut off. UFPs have been linked to adverse health conditions, such … Continue reading The Health Effects of 3D Printing
The Opening Session celebrated its host state with appearances from Cleveland Cavaliers announcer Olivier Sedra and some animal ambassadors from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. It also recognized the state’s history as the “birthplace of aviation” with an aerialist tribute to the Wright Brothers and a video message from astronaut and former US Senator John … Continue reading Connections, Collaboration, and Community
As ALA’s most ambitious international professional development collaboration to date, the library conference will be hosted at the 35th SIBF, November 8–10 at the Sharjah Expo Centre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The shared location provides an opportunity for attendees to combine professional development with exploring and acquiring materials for their libraries. In 2015, … Continue reading SIBF/ALA Library Conference Turns Three
More than 4,000 librarians from Germany and other countries participated in the largest library event in Europe. The US was the honored country, and Kent Logsdon, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Berlin, joined Feldman in thanking BID President Heinz-Jürgen Lorenzen and the German library community for the distinction. The US–German partnership … Continue reading ALA and Germany Unite
