“Georgia’s Archives are a showcase of our state’s rich history and a source of great pride,” Deal said. In September, following the announcement of the closure, ALA President Maureen Sullivan wrote a letter to Gov. Deal, expressing her concern and dismay. Calling the Georgia State Archives a “treasure trove of unique documents and official records,” … Continue reading Georgia Archives to Stay Open
With that data and other Census statistics in hand, Fred Gitner and Wai Sze Chan, librarians at the New Americans Program at Queens Library, talked on September 21 about the changing demographics of US communities and how libraries can analyze information to help create programming and develop collections for these new arrivals. “Welcome, Newcomers! Using … Continue reading Welcoming New Immigrants into Your Library
The Latino community, for example, “is constantly shifting and changing,” said Denice Adkins of Reforma, but the unifying group for advocacy within the Latino community of librarians is the association, she said. Because a variety of cultures make up the community, Adkins emphasized that Latino librarians need to “have a voice in librarianship.” Jerome Offord … Continue reading Ethnic Caucus Presidents Discuss Advocacy at JCLC
Bannon, who earned his MLIS from the University of Washington in 1999, joined CPL in March 2012, succeeding Mary Dempsey, who stepped down after nearly 18 years as commissioner. Now, several months into his new role, Bannon—who says he has “hit the ground running”—took a break from his whirlwind introduction to CPL and the city … Continue reading Newsmaker: Brian Bannon
At the University of Nevada, Reno, Donnelyn Curtis, head of special collections, turned to Facebook to connect the university’s archives with students who care about history and the school’s tradition. She began by creating Facebook pages for Joe McDonald and Leola Lewis—two students who attended the university in the 1910s, married a few years later, … Continue reading 8 Tips to Highlight History Using Facebook
Born in Manchester in 1959 but raised in the bleak working-class north England industrial town of Accrington, Winterson and her adoptive family had no phones, no cars, no indoor toilets, and lived in a community where few if any had job security. Her mother was an evangelical Pentecostal who was “apocalyptic by nature” and kept … Continue reading An Interview with Jeanette Winterson
Loeb grew up in Dallas and said that school was important to her and her family. During the summers, her mom would drop off young Lisa and a friend at the library “for fun,” she said, and Loeb would spend time reading Encyclopedia Brown books, among other favorites. She also looked back somewhat fondly at … Continue reading Lisa Loeb’s ALA Sing-Along
Cain began her professional career as a corporate lawyer on Wall Street but quickly realized that she possessed none of those traits. As a lawyer, she often used a constructive tone and thoroughly prepared for negotiations, types of approaches, she said, that were very different from other attorneys she knew. But those skills proved valuable—particularly … Continue reading The Value of Quiet in a Loudmouth World
Protesters, who included the local chapter of the NAACP, held a news conference at the main library on January 13 to voice their opposition, stating that the increasing shift toward digital media will leave behind traditional users and those without money or access to new technology. Members of the community-based initiative Save Our Library (SOL) … Continue reading Emphasis on Ebooks Stirs Community Outcry in Illinois
The notion that the research efforts of a group of people with varying opinions, when aggregated, can result in better information than a specific expert could come up with—aka “crowdsourcing”—has been around for some time. It’s one of the ideas on which the 10-year-old Wikipedia is based. So it seemed only natural when one of … Continue reading Libraries Tap into Crowd Power
