Author Archive: Peter Hepburn

ALA Finances on Track

By Peter Hepburn | January 3, 2023

As the new calendar year begins, I am carrying that optimism forward. We are approximately one-third of the way through the American Library Association’s (ALA) fiscal year, which runs from September 1, 2022, to August 31. The most uncertain days of the pandemic seem to be behind us. Like many of our libraries and, indeed, many … Continue reading ALA Finances on Track →

Meet the Candidate for ALA Treasurer: Peter Hepburn

By Peter Hepburn | March 1, 2022

In recent years, ALA has experienced declining membership and conference attendance. Publishing, another key revenue stream, has struggled to meet its projections. ALA sold its Chicago headquarters, trading the expense of maintaining and upgrading that building for the obligation of a long-term lease. And there have been changes in key personnel in the Finance office. … Continue reading Meet the Candidate for ALA Treasurer: Peter Hepburn →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Peter Hepburn

By Peter Hepburn | March 1, 2018

To thrive, libraries and library workers need a strong and healthy professional association that advocates for us and for those who come to our facilities or who use our online resources, enabling them to benefit from the wide range of services we offer. Within our library community, we must have an association that is itself … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Peter Hepburn →

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ALA has selected 50 participants for its 2024 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. Emerging Leaders will take part in a virtual day-long session during LibLearnX in January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at the ALA Annual Conference in San Diego where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Nov. 27
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Stephi Smith writes: “Celia Hamilton wanted to identify further with her Chinese heritage. Her adoptive parents are not Chinese, and she says this left her feeling like she missed out on some aspects of her cultural background. To connect with that part of her identity, Hamilton crafted a traditional garment—inspired by the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e—as one of three teens selected for Carmel Clay (Ind.) Public Library (CCPL)’s teen artists-in-residence program. CCPL is one of a handful of libraries across the US that have created teen artist-in-residence programs with a goal of bolstering youth interest in the arts.

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
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Carrie Russell writes: “Why do librarians and teachers—the very professionals who specialize in information literacy, equitable access to information, and the advancement of learning—have so many anxieties and misconceptions about copyright? Many of us harbor an unfounded fear of copyright litigation. ‘Better safe than sorry’ is a frequent assertion. But that attitude can keep users and creators of copyright-protected content from engaging in personal and educational activities that are unlikely to infringe copyright law. That excess caution is, consequently, contrary to the values of librarianship, teaching, and the goals of copyright.
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ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Round Table is seeking nominations for the 2024 Eli M. Oboler Award. The award honors a literary work or series of works in the area of intellectual freedom, including matters of ethical, political, or social concerns. The article must have been published on the local, state, or national level in English or English translation in the 2022 or 2023 calendar years. The submission deadline is January 2, 2024.

Intellectual Freedom Round Table
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Maya Pontone writes: “A rare manuscript featuring 2,500 pages of detailed illustrations and text documenting the history and culture of 16th-century Mexico is now available online. The Digital Florentine Codex, a seven-year project by Los Angeles’s Getty Research Institute, features new transcriptions and translations, updated summaries, searchable texts and images, and more. Although Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún is frequently credited as the primary author, the manuscript was created with the help of numerous elders, grammarians, artists, and scribes from the Nahua community. As a result, the codex maintains an important Indigenous perspective.”

Hyperallergic, Nov. 9
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Sam Wineburg and Michael Caulfield write: “Recent headlines warn of sophisticated, AI-driven deepfakes. But low-tech, cheap fakes are the Swiss army knife in the propagandist’s tool belt. Changing a date, altering a location or even repurposing a clip from a video game and passing it off as battlefield combat require little know-how yet effectively sow confusion. The good news is that you can avoid being taken in by these ruses—not by examining the evidence closely, which is liable to mislead you, but by waiting until trusted sources verify what you’re looking at. This is often hard to do, however.”

The Conversation, Nov. 16
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Amanda Melcher writes: “Wayfinding is a fundamental aspect of effectively using a multi-function space. Libraries, with their complicated classification systems, multiple service points, and varying number of distinct collections housed in different areas/floors, exemplify the complex job that signage must accomplish. The University of Montevallo (Ala.) Carmichael Library’s partnership with a graphic design class to modernize library wayfinding was a win-win: it provided a user-centered design for the library and a real-world graphic design job for the students.”

The Journal of Creative Library Practice, Nov. 20

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