American Libraries Magazine

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Learn Skills for a New Career for Free with Skill Forward

July 16, 2024

Skill Forward, in partnership with Verizon and edX, is here to help answer that question. Skill Forward is designed to provide in-demand skills across a variety of industries, including business, communications, leadership, information technology, and artificial intelligence. With no prior work experience or college degree required, Skill Forward is a comprehensive and 100% free online … Continue reading Learn Skills for a New Career for Free with Skill Forward →

Call Number Podcast: For the Love of Music

July 15, 2024

Some libraries offered programs, hosted listening parties, and transformed into mini concert venues to celebrate their favorite musician’s latest release. American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Kafi-Ayanna Allah, adult services program coordinator at Orange County (N.C.) Public Library; Yesenia Baltierra, assistant library director at Placentia (Calif.) Library District; and … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: For the Love of Music →

Lightening the Librarian’s Load

July 9, 2024

At OpenAthens, we’re all about connecting people to information. And we’re focused on supporting librarians, which is why the OpenAthens complete solution offers you a tool that provides your patrons with smooth access to high-quality digital content from trustworthy sources—regardless of where they start their search journey. It is a fully managed service that provides … Continue reading Lightening the Librarian’s Load →

Five Things Public Libraries Should Know about Open Access

1. OA helps combat social media misinformation and bias. Social media is the most popular news source for American millennials, with more than 43% of TikTok users reporting daily news consumption from that app alone. Thanks to social algorithms, information is easier to find than ever before, and it often comes with the bias and … Continue reading Five Things Public Libraries Should Know about Open Access →

Conversations with Holocaust Survivors

By Sally Stieglitz | July 2, 2024

In 1993, director Steven Spielberg told the story of Oskar Schindler, a German factory worker who became an unlikely hero. Spielberg’s experiences working with survivors on set served as the genesis for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which today is the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. It is … Continue reading Conversations with Holocaust Survivors →

Nobody’s Perfect

By Terra Dankowski | July 2, 2024

The Tony Award–winning actor, singer, and storytime series host—perhaps best known for voicing Princess Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog—has written Tiana’s Perfect Plan (Disney Hyperion, October), a picture book that teaches kids the importance of self-forgiveness. “Things don’t always go the way you want them to go, and yet they still turn … Continue reading Nobody’s Perfect →

Leading the Change

By Diana Panuncial | July 2, 2024

When people asked about the caution tape, she and the other campaign participants had a flier handy with information about their cause. “By the end of the week, there were at least 100 kids at my school who had participated in the caution tape campaign,” she shared. “That’s what allowed us to expand.” Goodman-Bhyat, co-president … Continue reading Leading the Change →

A Space Away from Home

By Terra Dankowski | July 2, 2024

“Across the nation, there’s been a significant increase, with New York State and California among the highest,” said Deborah Hempe, coordinator for outreach services at Middle Country Public Library (MCPL) in Centereach, New York. Public libraries can be a place that meets the educational and social needs of this growing demographic, said Hempe and her … Continue reading A Space Away from Home →

Council III: Update on Filling President-Elect Vacancy

By Megan Bennett | July 2, 2024

Council approved the meeting’s agenda (CD#8.6), and Drabinski announced memorial resolutions for: Joseph John Harzbecker, Jr. (M#7) Nancy E. Gwinn (M#8) Karen Crane (M#9) William Noel (M#10) Carole J. McCollough (M#11) Phyllis Jean Fisher (M#12) Linda Anne Dougherty (M#13) Delaine Andree Eastin(M#14) Jodie Gambill (M#15) Carolyn V. Neal (M#16) Marcia Goodfellow Schatz (M#17) James (Jim) … Continue reading Council III: Update on Filling President-Elect Vacancy →

Presenter Candice Benjes-Small at a podium gesturing as she speaks

It’s Not Okay

By Sanhita SinhaRoy | July 2, 2024

Benjes-Small addressed dozens of attendees at “‘It’s Not Okay. It’s Not Normal’: Sexual Harassment of Librarians and Implications for the Field,” a July 1 program held at the American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego. Spurred by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, Benjes-Small and Jennifer Resor-Whicker, university librarian at Radford (Va.) … Continue reading It’s Not Okay →

Bringing Civility Back to Civic Life

By Terra Dankowski | July 1, 2024

That was the question Tara Susman-Peña, senior technical expert at IREX, posed to attendees at the outset of “Bridgebuilding: Fostering Community Engagement, Dialogue, and Interactions in Libraries,” a July 1 session at the American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego. The US is enduring a period marked by division, social isolation, … Continue reading Bringing Civility Back to Civic Life →

(From left) Angela Watkins, Kathleen Nubel, and Christina Gavin participate in the American Library Association's President's Program during June 30 during its Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.

‘In this Work Together’

By Megan Bennett | July 1, 2024

“That [memory] still moves me to want to help others, especially children in our community,” said Watkins, director of Aztec (N.Mex) Public Library. “There’s nothing like watching the joy on the face of a person when they learn to read.” At the American Library Association’s (ALA) President’s Program, held during ALA’s 2024 Annual Conference and … Continue reading ‘In this Work Together’ →

Latest Library Links

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Stephanie Buffamonte writes: “Altamonte Springs (Fla.) residents came together to save their local library. In an Altamonte Springs City Commission meeting July 18, commissioners voted to keep the city’s local library after the city announced it would close. The city held a special meeting to discuss the library shutting down, and residents came out in droves. Most argued to commissioners that the library should not shut down and is vital to the city.” Commissioners voted at the meeting to raise the city’s property tax rate from 3.01 mills to 4 mills.

WRBW-TV (Orlando), July 19; WESH-TV (Orlando), July 9; Orlando Sentinel, July 19
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ALA applauded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s July 18 vote allowing libraries and schools to use federal E-Rate funding to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots for lending. The new policy is a keystone of FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s Learn Without Limits proposal, announced at ALA Annual Conference in June 2023, to meet increasing connectivity needs nationwide by expanding and modernizing the E-Rate program. The move comes amid concerns about the impact of recently sunset pandemic-era programs, including the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which helped more than a thousand libraries provide Wi-Fi hotspots during the past three years.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, July 18
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$Sheep doing math wrong$ Heather Kelly writes: “Anyone with an internet connection can watch breaking news unfold in real time, or at least some version of it. Across social media, posts can fly up faster than most fact-checkers and moderators can handle, and they are often an unpredictable mix of true, fake, out of context, and straight propaganda. The risk is higher immediately after politically charged incidents such as the Trump rally shooting, which has already flooded social media with incorrect information and spawned a number of conspiracy theories. Here are some basic tools everyone should use when consuming breaking news online.”

Washington Post, July 15
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Martin Appel writes: “Sometimes small news can reveal big truths. When Microsoft released its annual sustainability report in May, the numbers hid something interesting: the company has increased its emissions by 30% since 2020. Why? One key explanation can be summarized in two letters: AI. Microsoft’s massive investment in artificial intelligence (AI) has led to proportionally massive climate emissions. AI and cloud computing are here to stay and there’s nothing we can do to stop that. In that case, how long can we—the consumers and people of the world—continue to use them without paying?”

PC World, July 10
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Brown University’s John Hay Library in Providence, Rhode Island, has acquired the contemporary papers of poet, musician, playwright, author, and activist Joy Harjo, the 23rd US poet laureate. Harjo, who served in that role from 2019–2022, was the first Native American to hold the position. The acquisition primarily includes materials from 2021–2024, and Harjo will continue to send materials to the library throughout her life. Harjo received an honorary degree from Brown in May, and had been mentored by Brown’s late Professor of Literary Arts and English Michael S. Harper.

Brown University, July 11
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Kyle Pfannenstiel and Mia Maldonado write: “House Bill 710—which passed in April, following years of similar attempts by the Idaho Legislature—requires Idaho public and school libraries to move materials deemed harmful to children, or face lawsuits. Libraries across Idaho are reworking policies to comply with the new law that some call vague. But many are waiting to see if there’d be a formal challenge to books in their collections, which they said community members have rarely filed before the law. Some libraries planned and then canceled new policies limiting access.”

Idaho Capital Sun (Boise), July 15, Apr. 10
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Alvin Wanjala writes: “The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots has popularized the term large language model (LLM), the underlying AI tech working behind the scenes. LLMs generate output based upon a predicted set of language in response to the user input, making it appear as if the AI is capable of thinking for itself. But LLMs aren’t the only large models in town; large action models (LAMs) could be the next big thing in AI. An LAM is an artificial intelligence system capable of understanding human input and performing a corresponding action.”

MakeUseOf, July 11

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