Author Archive: Donna Seaman

Newsmaker: Dave Eggers

By Donna Seaman | June 3, 2024

Eggers has received many prestigious awards, among them the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Education, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and, most recently, the Newbery Medal for The Eyes and the Impossible (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2023), an honor Eggers will celebrate at ALA’s 2024 Annual Conference in San Diego. American Libraries caught up … Continue reading Newsmaker: Dave Eggers →

Newsmaker: Hanif Abdurraqib

By Donna Seaman | March 1, 2024

You explore basketball from many perspectives throughout your new book. Can you sum up the game’s meaning to you? Growing up, we had a basketball hoop on our garage, and people I loved, thought about, and cared for would gather around. As a kid, obviously, I was not thinking about basketball as a fully encapsulating … Continue reading Newsmaker: Hanif Abdurraqib →

Newsmaker: Rebecca Makkai

By Donna Seaman | January 3, 2023

Your first novel, The Borrower, features a children’s librarian and a bright, book-loving 10-year-old. What are your thoughts on the current spate of book challenges in libraries? I’m always so flummoxed by the book-banning discussion because, first of all, what does someone think is going to happen when they try to ban a book? It … Continue reading Newsmaker: Rebecca Makkai →

Reading Ukraine

By Donna Seaman | March 15, 2022

Nonfiction All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin, by Mikhail Zygar (PublicAffairs, 2016) Russian journalist Zygar portrays four Putins—“Putin I the Lionheart,” “Putin II the Magnificent,” “Prince Dmitry,” and “Putin the Terrible”—while presenting a thorough accounting of his many crimes against humanity. What Zygar discovered is that Putin’s inner circle has been … Continue reading Reading Ukraine →

Colson Whitehead (Black man with braided hair pulled back, wearing leather jacket, looking just up and to the right)

Newsmaker: Colson Whitehead

By Donna Seaman | September 1, 2021

Will the experience of having The Underground Railroad turned into a 10-episode miniseries for Amazon affect your writing? No, I don’t think it will affect my writing. It felt very separate. They optioned it five years ago, so it was always on the backburner, and occasionally I would talk to Barry Jenkins, the director, but … Continue reading Newsmaker: Colson Whitehead →

A Q&A with Winners of the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

By Brad Hooper and Donna Seaman | August 19, 2013

Timothy Egan received the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher. Richard Ford received the Medal for Excellence in Fiction, for Canada. The following excerpts are from interviews with Egan and Ford conducted by Booklist editors Brad Hooper and Donna Seaman, respectively. TIMOTHY EGAN, SHORT NIGHTS OF … Continue reading A Q&A with Winners of the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction →

A Conversation with Alice Walker

By Donna Seaman | May 8, 2013

Walker’s books have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and 15 million copies have been sold. A world-traveler and tireless and courageous activist as well as a bestselling author, she has been recognized with numerous honors, including a National Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lennon/Ono Grant for Peace, which she donated … Continue reading A Conversation with Alice Walker →

First Winners of Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Nonfiction

By Brad Hooper and Donna Seaman | July 30, 2012

Anne Enright, author of The Forgotten Waltz, and Robert K. Massie, author of Catherine the Great, were the first winners of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction respectively. The winners were announced at ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, on June 24. Booklist Editors Donna Seaman and Brad Hooper … Continue reading First Winners of Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Nonfiction →

Latest Library Links

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John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
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Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
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Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
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Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
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ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14
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Emily Weak writes: “Something I always hear from hiring managers is that they want to build a resilient, diverse workforce. Sometimes we say we want a resilient workforce, but what we mean is that we want staffers who are willing to go above and beyond, or to do more with less. These concepts are deeply entrenched in librarianship, but I think we’re beginning to see how they can cause problems. Instead of trying to hire people who will do more with less and who will thrive amid adversity, let’s think about resilience as an organizational feature.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Elisabeth B. White writes: “How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the ‘why’ of learning), representation (the ‘what’ of learning), and action and expression (the ‘how’ of learning). However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.