After 12 years, the American Library Association (ALA) returns to Orlando, Florida, for its 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition, and one could say the city has changed almost as much as our dynamic profession has since 2004. With more than 5,300 restaurants, 100 parks, 120,000 hotel rooms, and one of the fastest population growth rates … Continue reading 2016 ALA Annual Conference Preview
Nathalia Holt gives a voice to the seldom-recognized female mathematicians and scientists who shaped NASA in its earliest years and beyond, in her new book, Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us from Missiles to the Moon to Mars (Little, Brown & Company, April 2016). American Libraries recently spoke with Holt, herself … Continue reading Newsmaker: Nathalia Holt
As a kid, she read the newspaper with her Cheerios in the morning. She wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan about the Bitburg Cemetery controversy, stamped with rainbow and heart stickers “as a gesture of goodwill,” she says. Her grandmother Dorothy was an influence, particularly when it came to education access issues. And she cites … Continue reading Chelsea Clinton Inspires at Closing Session
Introduced by ALA President Sari Feldman and Trevor Dawes and Martin Garnar of the Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, which cosponsored the event, Booker was on hand to talk about themes from his forthcoming book United (Penguin Random House, February 2016), including ideas for coming together, improving our country’s access to information and … Continue reading Cory Booker Headlines President’s Program
This is how Koh kicked off the “YALSA Trends Impacting YA Services: Competencies Needed to Provide Teen Library Services of the Future” program at ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits on Saturday, showcasing the research she and June Abbas, an associate professor also at OU SLIS, conducted on informal learning and community learning centers in libraries. … Continue reading YALSA Session Provides Learning Lab Insights
23 million Number of items contained within the Boston Public Library (BPL) system. BPL is ranked second only to the Library of Congress in collection size. 3 Rank of Harvard University, another Boston-area institution, on the same list of the nation’s largest libraries by volumes held. 1721 Year that the New-England Courant, considered the first independent … Continue reading By the Numbers: Boston
In many ways, Boston and librarians are a lot alike. They are innovators, educators, and revolutionaries. They are creators and curators, abetting progress, expanding services for their communities, and standing on the front lines when change is brewing—whether it’s taxation without representation or legislation that threatens how we use and share information. And they like … Continue reading 2016 ALA Midwinter Preview
Concurrent to the tour, Libraries Transform street team members went around D.C. to bring the message of the transformative impact of libraries to the public. American Libraries followed the Libraries Transform street team and tour, and here’s what we saw. 8:25 a.m. – Dupont Circle The Libraries Transform street team had an enticing proposition for … Continue reading Seeing How Libraries Transform
Across D.C.
Many libraries are celebrating Back to the Future Day—October 21, 2015—with screenings of the Back to the Future trilogy and programming related to the films. The date, which is featured prominently in Back to the Future Part II, has been incorrectly depicted in internet hoaxes and memes for years. “We actually have a super fan … Continue reading Marty, We’ve Got to Go Back—to the Library!
1968 Year that Congress passed a joint resolution, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, establishing Hispanic Heritage Week. 20 Years later, under President Ronald Reagan, that Congress passed an act to extend the observation to Hispanic Heritage Month—starting September 15 and ending on October 15. 1943 Year to which the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape … Continue reading By the Numbers:
Hispanic Heritage Month
11,300 Number of books that have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association. The Banned Books Week campaign launched the same year, in response to the surge in challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries across the country. 60 Years ago, this September, that Vladimir Nabokov first published Lolita in Paris—after … Continue reading By the Numbers: Banned Books Week
“We realized we had to go for accreditation because there’s a fine line between legal advice and helping someone on the computer,” says Homa Naficy, chief adult learning officer for Hartford (Conn.) Public Library (HPL). Naficy is referring to Board of Immigration Appeals Recognition and Accreditation (BIA R&A), granted by the Department of Justice (DOJ), … Continue reading Librarians as Immigration Lawyers
