Author Archive: Diana Panuncial

Newsmaker: Paul Jones

By Diana Panuncial | July 16, 2019

Paul Jones, professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) School of Information and Library Science, is one of a few who worked on the Lunar Library, a 30-million-page archive in the size and shape of a DVD. The archive—which includes the English-language Wikipedia among nearly 200 gigabytes of content with 1.5 billion … Continue reading Newsmaker: Paul Jones →

Players unveil a clue at one of Lafourche Parish (La.) Public Library's Escape to Outer Space events. Photo: Skylar Shira

To Space Education … and Beyond

By Diana Panuncial | July 8, 2019

They’re some of the activities that thousands of libraries across the country are putting together to celebrate space exploration in their summer reading programs, with “A Universe of Stories” as the slogan. And the sky’s the limit. The umbrella initiative, Summer of Space, is a partnership among NASA, the Collaborative Summer Learning Program consortium, and … Continue reading To Space Education … and Beyond →

The Zine Pavilion at the 2019 ALA Annual Conference.

By the Numbers: International Zine Month

By Diana Panuncial | July 2, 2019

2009 Year that Alex Wrekk, creator of Brainscan Zine, created International Zine Month in July. 138 Number of libraries in the United States that have zine collections as of 2019, according to Barnard College Zine Library in New York City. 10 Number of minutes before Chicago Zine Fest sold out all of their artist tables … Continue reading By the Numbers: International Zine Month →

From left, Mikel Gonzales, Dominique Robinson, Sommer Kinsler, Kelsey Coston, Sade Wilkins, and Cade Langsdon are a few of this year's selected interns. Photo: Phil Daquila

Inclusive Internship Initiative Begins Another Chapter

By Diana Panuncial | June 18, 2019

“Libraries should be more inclusive, different-thinking, and innovative,” he said. “I want us to try and revolutionize libraries towards the better and change stereotypes.” Now in its third year, PLA’s III program offers summer internships designed to introduce students of diverse backgrounds to library careers. The III Kick-Off, a commencement where intern–mentor pairs attended sessions … Continue reading Inclusive Internship Initiative Begins Another Chapter →

Latest Library Links

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Gretchen Corsillo writes: “High school students around the country could now stand to lose even more as a result of the recent widespread efforts to ban and challenge books. Earlier this month, College Board, the nonprofit that administers testing and college readiness programs such as the SAT, Advanced Placement (AP) Program, and PSAT, released a new set of guiding principles. Titled What AP Stands For, the statement directly opposes censorship and clarifies that schools that remove essential topics or readings from AP classes could lose their official designation.”

Intellectual Freedom Blog, May 18; College Board
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Taylor Healey-Brooks and Michelle Lee write: “Research across many fields has shown that having a mentor can be crucial for people of color. Mentoring can lead to knowledge, experience, networking opportunities, and increased job satisfaction. One of the most important things mentoring offers is a sense of community and emotional support in one’s career. But it can be difficult for new librarians to find such a person with years of training. Because of the lack of diversity in librarianship (in 2020, approximately 83% of credentialed librarians were white) and problems retaining librarians of color, it can be challenging for new librarians to find a mentor with ample experience in the field. Peer mentoring—a relationship in which the participants are at similar points in their career—can help fill this gap.”

American Libraries column, May; AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, June 10, 2021
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On May 18, the American Library Association announced that actor, singer-songwriter, and philanthropist Idina Menzel and her sister, author and educator Cara Mentzel, have been named this year’s honorary chairs for Library Card Sign-Up Month. This September marks 35 years since the Library Card Sign-Up Month campaign began. Menzel and Mentzel are coauthors of the forthcoming picture book, Loud Mouse. For more information, visit the Library Card Sign-Up Month webpage.

ALA, May 18
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Adi Robertson writes: “For weeks, tech news has been dominated by billionaire Elon Musk’s attempts to buy (and subsequently avoid buying) Twitter. And since Musk announced his plans in April, people have debated whether it’s better for online social spaces like Twitter to remain publicly traded companies—where they’re under pressure from shareholders—or be owned by a single wealthy figure like Musk. But Ben Tarnoff, author of the upcoming book Internet for the People, believes there’s a better way. Tarnoff’s book discusses common proposals like lessening the power of internet gatekeepers with antitrust reform, but it also argues that promoting competition isn’t enough: there should also be a political movement advocating for local, noncommercial spaces online.”

The Verge, May 23
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Hannah Natanson writes: “On a hot, dusty Wednesday afternoon, 10 girls gathered in their high school library to talk about a book the adults said they weren’t allowed to read. The teens came complaining about tests and chattering about TikTok dances—but they quieted when Ella Scott, the 16-year-old cofounder and copresident of the Vandegrift High School (Tex.) Banned Book Club, cleared her throat. Ella looked at her notes for the club’s 14th meeting, convened to review I. W. Gregorio’s None of the Above. The book tells the story of Kristin, a high school student who discovers she is intersex, a condition in which people are born with atypical combinations of chromosomes, hormones, gonads, or genitals. In December, the Leander (Tex.) Independent School District had banned the novel from classroom libraries and from use in high school student book clubs—along with 10 other books.”

The Washington Post, May 22
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Austin Persinger writes: “Last November, our local police department wrote on Facebook that it had received complaints about misused and abandoned shopping buggies strewn about Hinton, our city of 2,800 people. The police, using the tools at their disposal, threatened disciplinary measures for what it referred to as the unlawful removal of buggies. I thought this was a knee-jerk reaction and not the best solution for the situation. I read this story through the lens of a rural librarian conducting a reference interview. The story that I heard was that there are lower-income people in our community who take these carts because they live in a food desert and lack reliable transportation.”

American Libraries Trend, May
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Annemarie Mannion writes: “When her son brought home speech cards from elementary school to help him better learn and articulate words, Jen Taggart could barely see what the cards depicted. The cards had been duplicated and the images were blurry, says Taggart, head of youth services at Bloomfield Township (Mich.) Public Library (BTPL). That experience more than 13 years ago inspired her to start BTPL’s Youth Accessibility Support Collection, a set of items designed to meet the needs of children with various types of disabilities and learning needs. Since 2009, families have been borrowing from the collection, which includes adaptive toys, sensory storytime boxes, speech therapy cards, and skills development sets.”

American Libraries Trend, May

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