Author Archive: Mark Lawton

Speaking at Trexler Library, Chrysan Cronin, assistant professor and director of public health at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, discusses the dangers of vaping. Photo: Photo: Paul Pearson/Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

By Mark Lawton | March 2, 2020

“A friend of mine is a [high school] teacher,” says NHML Library Technical Assistant Melinda Landino. “One of her students vaped in the bathroom, [then] flatlined in class. They had to bring in EMTs.” NHML is one of many libraries across the US addressing the vaping scare that gained momentum in summer 2019. As of … Continue reading Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire →

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The Library History Round Table announced that this year’s Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award winner is Julie Park for her paper “Infrastructure Story: The Los Angeles Central Library’s Architectural History.” Park is assistant curator and faculty fellow at the Special Collections Center, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library in New York. Her essay uses written contracts, board meeting minutes, floor plans and renovation reports to show “how, as infrastructure, the library’s architecture and its spatial priorities were deeply ‘relational’ [which] required adaptation to changing contingencies over time, despite features that seemed permanent and immovable.”
LHRT, June 30
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ProQuest announced the first winner of a scholarship presented in collaboration with the ALA Film and Media Roundtable and the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Valeria Estefanía Dávila Gronros, a master’s candidate at University of Alabama, was selected to receive the deg farrelly Scholarship from a group of online applicants by a panel of FMRT and AMIA members. The scholarship has two parts—a $1,000 education grant for tuition and books and another $1,000 cash award to be used for other education-related expenses like workshops and conference fees.
FMRT, June 30
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Denice Adkins, associate professor; Jenny Bossaller, associate professor; and Heather Moulaison Sandy, associate professor and director of graduate studies, all at the University of Missouri’s School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, are the recipients of the 2020 ALA Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table David Cohen/EMIERT Multicultural Award for their article “Exploring Reader-Generated Language to Describe Multicultural Literature.” The David Cohen/EMIERT Multicultural Award recognizes recent articles that include significant new research related to the understanding and promotion of multiculturalism in libraries in North America.
ODLOS, June 30
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The American Association of School Librarians has released equity, diversity, and inclusion resources created by the 2019–2020 Presidential Initiative Task Force. Advised by AASL President Mary Keeling, the committee hosted office hours, designed informative bookmarks, and presented a webinar on EDI in the school library. The resources can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/all/EDI.
AASL, June 30
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Mirela Roncevic writes: “With the COVID-19 crisis forcing a rapid shift to remote and distance learning around the world, the issue of the accessibility of digital resources becomes even more prominent. This year, however, marks a turning point in what is required of universities and colleges across the US on the matter of accessibility. All institutions of learning that receive federal aid are now legally required to make their digital learning materials accessible to students, including those with disabilities.”
No Shelf Required, June 24
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Starting July 8, AL Direct, the e-newsletter of American Libraries magazine, will change to a weekly schedule and showcase an updated design. The newsletter, which is currently mailed on Tuesdays and Fridays, will mail every Wednesday. AL Direct, created in January 2006, is sent to personal members of the American Library Association. It provides summaries and links to news, announcements, and other information of interest to library and information science professionals. The newsletter is supplemented daily by other news on the American Libraries website widget, Latest Library Links, and the AL news blog, The Scoop.
American Libraries, June 30
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Wendi Maloney writes: “People chatting in the sun beside a taco truck in Oakland, California. A woman peering warily over a surgical mask in a Newark, New Jersey, bus line. A sign reading ‘no gloves, no mask, no service’ taped on the entrance to a Royal Chicken and Biscuit restaurant in Newark. What do these images have in common? They’re all by Camilo José Vergara, noted for photographing urban communities where life is often hard. They are also among the very first items the library acquired documenting the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. And they will be far from the last: The library anticipates a collecting effort that exceeds its coverage of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”
Library of Congress Blog, June 24

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