Author Archive: Sallyann Price

How to Be Queer in Texas

January 24, 2022

The state climate can be openly hostile to queer people: The nonprofit Movement Advancement Project has ranked Texas “low” when it comes to policies relating to sexual orientation and “negative” on policies related to gender identity. How, then, has the lived experience of queer librarians and library workers compared with expectations? Arro Smith, technical services … Continue reading How to Be Queer in Texas


Headshots of panelists at Curating for Inclusion session at LibLearnX

The Public Interest

January 23, 2022

What are the obligations of a public or private university to its local and global community? How have public libraries extended a sense of welcome to their patrons while safeguarding their rarest and most special collections? A panel of two public librarians and one academic librarian (moderated by architect Sindu Meier) discussed these questions during … Continue reading The Public Interest


Photo of actor and comedian Molly Shannon, who spoke at LibLearnX.

Molly Shannon: Superstar

January 23, 2022

“I have so much respect for what you do and for writers in general,” Shannon told Sweeney. “I think it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, ever. Way harder than performing.” The hardest chapter to write, she said, was the one detailing the tragic car accident that defined her childhood, claiming the lives … Continue reading Molly Shannon: Superstar


Headshot of actor, playwright, and author Harvey Fierstein

Newsmaker: Harvey Fierstein

January 3, 2022

He spoke with American Libraries about his librarian mother, what he’s learned from playwriting, and his recent $2.5 million gift to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts campus at Lincoln Center, which will fund a new laboratory space. How did your mother become a school librarian? My mother had a great love … Continue reading Newsmaker: Harvey Fierstein


T-Kay Sangwand, digital collection development librarian at UCLA Library and host of radio show The Archive of Feelings.

Bookend: The Right Track

November 1, 2021

Sangwand’s monthly show on nonprofit internet station dublab features curated sets that often highlight albums from countries she has visited; she started her record collection while studying in Brazil in 2007. One of her favorite sets kicks off with “A Dream of Los Angeles with Clear Blue Skies” by the Life Force Trio—a quintessential local … Continue reading Bookend: The Right Track


Silhouette of mosque on gold background (Illustration: green2/AdobeStock)

Understanding the Other

September 1, 2021

Ghada Kanafini Elturk, a Lebanese American who was then working as community and cultural outreach librarian at Boulder (Colo.) Public Library, described the hostility against Muslims and Arab Americans in the months after the attacks. “Those Americans who are not familiar with my culture do not show respect,” she told American Libraries reporter Ron Chepesiuk … Continue reading Understanding the Other


Photo of a children's birdwatching backpack, available for checkout from Henrico County (Va.) Public Library, which contains binoculars and bird guides.

Programming on the Fly

September 1, 2021

During this year’s migration season, billions of birds will cover millions of square miles in their annual southbound journey across North America—and new and avid birdwatchers will reach for their binoculars, guidebooks, and smartphones and head outdoors. Birdwatching has exploded in popularity during the pandemic, with The New York Times last year observing record participation … Continue reading Programming on the Fly


Barack Obama

Hope and Harmony

June 29, 2021

Interviewed by Lonnie Bunch III, the first African American secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and introduced by ALA President Julius C. Jefferson Jr., Obama talked about A Promised Land (Crown, November 2020)—the first of two memoirs spanning his paradigm-breaking presidency—and the role of libraries in shaping the story of American democracy. “A Promised Land chronicles … Continue reading Hope and Harmony


Amy Franco

The Struggle Is Real

June 29, 2021

“Nurses and social workers get the support that they need to recognize and cope with compassion fatigue, but in the world of libraries it’s a relative unknown,” she said. “We generally do not do a good job of promoting our own health and well-being.” Franco introduced attendees to the body’s major stress chemicals—adrenaline and cortisol—and … Continue reading The Struggle Is Real


Confronting the Myth of Neutrality

The Myth of Neutrality

June 28, 2021

“The act of education is an act of vulnerability, the willingness to open up to the possibility of a new worldview or at the very least be exposed to it even if it doesn’t shift your own,” said Stacy Collins, research and instruction librarian at Simmons University in Boston. There are those who arrive at … Continue reading The Myth of Neutrality


Katie Gambone and Sarah Seddon

Deciphering Colonial History

June 26, 2021

“Settlement, Slavery, and Empire, 1624–1832” is the first of three modules and will be published this year. “Colonial Government and Abolition, 1833–1849” and “Economic Change and Indentured Labor, 1850–1870” are forthcoming over the next two years. “This digital initiative will allow users to explore and research the economic and social conditions across the islands and … Continue reading Deciphering Colonial History


Judy Tyrus and Paul Novosel

Choreographing a Movement

June 25, 2021

Tyrus started volunteering in DTH’s marketing department in the late 90s after retiring from dancing. There she found scrapbooks, programs, photos, and other archival gems. She was eventually hired to sort it all out, and brought in Novosel—a pianist for company classes—to help her organize scores. “I always dreamed of using the archives to tell … Continue reading Choreographing a Movement