The Scoop

Partners for Progress

Libraries form external collaborations for social, economic, and ecological sustainability
By Terra Dankowski | January 23, 2021
More Family Time with Ziggy Marley

Reggae icon talks children's music
By Sallyann Price | January 23, 2021
The Power of Language

Ethan Hawke links new novel to acting roots
By Sallyann Price | January 23, 2021
Navigating Fictional Worlds

Author Max Brooks talks video games and monsters
By Phil Morehart | January 23, 2021
Meeting Digital Challenges

Academic, public, and school librarians adapt to digital lending with OverDrive | Sponsored
By Carrie Smith | January 23, 2021

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Midwinter 2021 Top Tweets—Day 2
By Heather Cho | January 23, 2021
I Love My Librarian Awards Goes Virtual

Highlights from the livestreamed ceremony
By Amy Carlton | January 23, 2021
400 Years of Black American Life

Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain reflect on new volume
By Phil Morehart | January 23, 2021
Adapting Outreach

ABOS discusses how COVID-19 has altered bookmobile and outreach services
By Terra Dankowski | January 23, 2021
Shaping “The After”

Five library leaders on a year of challenges
By Sanhita SinhaRoy | January 23, 2021
Senator Jack Reed Talks Library Advocacy

Lawmaker sits down with ALA President Julius C. Jefferson Jr. at ALA's Midwinter Virtual
By Julie Holden | January 23, 2021
Making Better Myths

Expanding comics to include unheard voices
By Carrie Smith | January 23, 2021

Latest Library Links

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Register to attend the Presidential Candidates Forum at ALA Midwinter Virtual on January 23 at 1 p.m. Central and engage in real time with ALA’s presidential candidates Stacey Aldrich, Ed Garcia, and Lessa Pelayo-Lozada. Renew your membership by January 31 to ensure that you receive a ballot for the election. The 2021 Virtual Membership Information Session takes place January 23 from 11–12:30 Central. Register to attend. Members are also invited to attend ALA Council sessions beginning January 24. These sessions offer a chance to learn more about the work of ALA’s governing body. For other Governance events, please check out the listings in the program scheduler. You do not need to register for the conference to attend these events.

ALA Governance Office
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After the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, Fox Sports analyst and former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho felt compelled to do something. By June, Acho decided to channel this discourse into a YouTube series called Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. American Libraries caught up with Acho ahead of his January 24 appearance at the ALA 2021 Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits Virtual to discuss his series and book, as well as equity in professional sports and the power of libraries.

American Libraries Trend, Jan. 20
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ALA Treasurer Maggie Farrell writes: “Last year started off as a productive but worrisome one for ALA finances, as evidenced by critical conversations held at the 2020 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. Since then, additional circumstances—including the pandemic—have aggravated ALA finances as libraries struggle with their own budget declines. Despite everything, member leaders remain committed to addressing ALA’s ongoing budget concerns and to creating a path toward a healthy financial future.”

American Libraries column, Jan./Feb.
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How many times has ALA held Midwinter Meetings? What year was the ALA Code of Ethics adopted? When are this year’s Youth Media Awards? We’ve got the stats on the history and happenings of ALA’s Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in By the Numbers.

American Libraries Trend, Jan./Feb.
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Sarah Mangiola writes: “On January 20, 2021, Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president, respectively, of the United States. It’s a historic moment for the country, as Kamala Harris will be the first female, first Black, and first Indian American vice president. The kids in your life can join in the celebrations with these stories, including books written by Kamala Harris, a new picture book about White House dogs Champ and Major, and more.”

Brightly, Jan. 16
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As shared by the official Twitter account of Ursula K. Le Guin’s estate, the author is getting her own commemorative stamp from the United States Post Office. The stamp, the 33rd in USPS’s Literary Arts series, features a portrait of Le Guin in front of an illustration from a scene in The Left Hand of Darkness, her 1969 novel.

Gizmodo, Jan. 16
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The Food Timeline is an obsessively catalogued, exhaustively comprehensive resource on the history of what humans have been eating from from 17,000 B.C. onward. The site was the life’s work of reference librarian Lynne Olver, and it languished after her death in 2015. A profile in Eater last summer revived interest in the site from archivists, and now the Special Collections and University Archives department at Virginia Tech University has acquired Olver’s 2,300 books (right) and management of the site.

Eater, Jan. 12