Smart returns The new Smart Bin from FE Technologies uses RFID technology to speed up the returns process for patrons and staffers. The bin uses a reading algorithm that can simultaneously receive multiple items, allowing patrons to drop several items into the bin at the same time. The Smart Bin has a capacity of approximately … Continue reading RFID to the Rescue
Initiated in 1997 as a one-year program under former ALA President Mary R. Somerville and revived in 2006 under former ALA President Leslie Burger, Emerging Leaders recognizes the best and brightest new leaders in our industry. It’s open to librarians under 35 years of age or those new to the library profession of any age … Continue reading Emerging Leaders: The Class of 2015
Ruth Baleiko, the Miller Hull Partnership Odegaard Undergraduate Library, University of Washington, Seattle “Digital downloads, ebooks, personal content, and live programming compete for space with books, periodicals, microfilm, audio, and video in today’s libraries. The library of the future will be shaped in ways that support and enhance navigation and exchange of these new forms … Continue reading The Future, Today
The decision to pull the book two years ago prompted criticism and complaints from the media, CPS parents, and the American Library Association, and sparked student protests at Chicago’s Lane Technical College Prep High School. The FOIA documents reveal that the decision came from the highest levels of CPS administration, with directives issued by CPS … Continue reading Persepolis Rising
Marshall Breeding, an independent consultant and editor of Library Technology Guides and the Smart Libraries Newsletter, Carli Spina, emerging technologies and research librarian at the Harvard Law School Library, Willie Miller, librarian for informatics and journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Casey McCoy, program coordinator at Lincolnwood (Ill.) Public Library District, and Todd Carpenter, director … Continue reading Library Leaders Talk Tech
Segel is the co-author with writer Kirsten Miller of Nightmares!, the first entry in a new book series for kids. Nightmares! follows a young boy named Charlie as he battles the witches, goblins, and more that inhabit his nighttime dreamworld. Segel spent much of his very funny Saturday morning talk at Midwinter, part of the … Continue reading Welcome to Jason Segel’s Nightmare
“It’s a natural partnership,” Lissa Staley, public services librarian at Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library (TSCPL), tells American Libraries. “We have everything you need to write a novel.” TSCPL offers two four-hour “write-ins” in November, allowing NaNoWriMo participants to work surrounded by others writers. A fiction-writing workshop and a kick-off event are held … Continue reading A Novel in 30 Days
What led you to write about growing up in Iran in the late 1970s and the period after that? The first time I left Iran for Austria I was 14 (that was 1984), and I heard people with all kinds of prejudices—especially about countries like mine. It was really the most sensational stuff. They were … Continue reading Newsmaker: Marjane Satrapi
Welcome to the 2014 Library Design Showcase, our annual celebration of new and newly renovated libraries. These libraries are shining examples of innovative architecture that address user needs in unique, interesting, and effective ways. Open Spaces Frederick E. Berry Library and Learning Commons, Salem (Mass.) State University The new learning commons at Salem State is … Continue reading The 2014 Library Design Showcase
You’ve been working on adapting The Giver into a movie for almost two decades. Why do you think this book has such potential as a film? Well, I was looking for a project to do with my father, Lloyd Bridges, and I wanted to make a children’s movie. So I started to look through some … Continue reading Newsmaker: Jeff Bridges
Steve Leggett, program coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress (LC), laughs as he retells this Hollywood urban legend. Nevertheless the story contains truth. Scores of films were destroyed during cinema’s early years by studios that viewed silents as obsolete. These silent classics were not seen as works of art … Continue reading Saving Our Celluloid Past
Comic book production, presentation, and distribution are evolving. Digital comics are on the rise, and the comic book industry is struggling to adapt its traditional print models to the new form. This struggle impacts libraries and their patrons as much as it does the average comic consumer. “The Continuing Evolution of Digital Comics in Libraries,” … Continue reading The Evolution of Digital Comics in Libraries
