Blog | American Libraries Magazine

2020 Voting and Census Timeline
December 2, 2019
2019 Holiday Gift Guide for Librarians and Book Lovers
By Lara Ewen | December 2, 2019
Newsmaker: Debbie Harry

Blondie bandleader faces the music in new memoir
By Amy Carlton | November 21, 2019
Referenda Roundup 2019: Final Report

How states performed on library measures
By Anne Ford | November 12, 2019
How the CPS Strike Affected Chicago School Librarians

What the 11-day strike could mean for the city’s school librarians going forward
By Timothy Inklebarger | November 8, 2019
Unauthorized Practice of Law in the Library

Considerations for librarians facing legal questions
By Anthony Aycock | November 6, 2019
Special Report: Democracy in Action

Prepping your library for the 2020 elections
November 1, 2019
Connecting with Congress

How libraries can build relationships with elected officials through year-round advocacy
By Lara Ewen | November 1, 2019
Discourse for Democracy

Promoting civic literacy with forums
By Greg Landgraf | November 1, 2019
Civic Involvement

By the numbers
By Diana Panuncial | November 1, 2019
Countdown to the Vote

Libraries ramp up engagement and outreach efforts for 2020
By Emily Udell | November 1, 2019
Check Your Facts

Libraries use tech tools to fight fake news
By Jessica Cilella | November 1, 2019

Latest Library Links

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The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section invites new and emerging special collections professionals to submit proposals for “The Power of New Voices,” a panel session to be held at the upcoming RBMS 2020 Conference in Bloomington, Indiana, June 23–26. The session will consist of approximately eight lightning round talks (7 minutes each) by students, recent graduates, new professionals, or past RBMS scholarship recipients. Talks must address the theme “Power, Resistance, and Leadership” and should relate to special collections or archives practice and related research.

RBMS blog, Dec. 3
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Brandi Bowers writes: “Providing readers’ advisory is an art that librarians are skilled at. However, sometimes you just can’t reach every student for one-on-one help finding the perfect book. To combat this issue, I try to make my library more accessible by providing passive readers’ advisory in a variety of ways. In my four years as a school librarian, I have made a number of changes to the library collection and library space with passive readers’ advisory in mind. For example, I started by adding genre labels to all of my fiction titles. I also added series number stickers to the spines of books so it is clear which volume in a series each book is.”

Knowledge Quest blog, Dec. 4
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YALSA has selected five books as finalists for its 2020 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award, which honors the best nonfiction books written for young adults between November 1, 2018, and October 31, 2019. YALSA will name the 2020 award winner at the Youth Media Awards on January 27 in Philadelphia during the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting.

YALSA, Dec. 5
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Choice publishes its Outstanding Academic Titles list each December. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice during the previous calendar year and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic community. The complete list for 2019 features 521 books and digital resources from 132 publishers. Visit the Choice website each week for a new, themed carve-out of the 2019 OATs—featuring themes such as top 10 titles, subject-specific titles, or timely collections.

Choice, Dec. 2
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PLA has announced two additional #eBooksForAll webinars in December. The first, “#eBooksForAll Campaign Update,” will be held December 17, and the second, “Applying Trauma-Informed Concepts to Reduce Harm,” will be held December 18. Registration will close the day before each webinar.

PLA, Dec. 2
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AASL invites school library researchers to apply to attend “Research Practitioner Partnerships (RPPs) in School Library Research: The Third CLASS Summit” in Philadelphia on January 23 prior to the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Anna-Ruth Allen will be the keynote speaker for the Third CLASS Summit. Early-, mid-, and late-career school library researchers are invited to apply. The deadline for applications is December 20.

AASL, Dec. 2
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Content-Area Collaborations for Secondary Grades, published by AASL and ALA Editions, demonstrates ways to use the Shared Foundations and Domains in your instructional design. Incorporating contributions from secondary school librarians across the country, this resource by Liz Deskins contains 20 units rooted in the AASL Standards and tailored to foster collaboration with content areas.

ALA Editions, Dec. 3