Page 858 – American Libraries Magazine

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on GLBT Employment Rights

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Kenton Oliver responds to Karen Schneider’s question on enforcing ALA policy on GLBT rights. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org. Question: Question: Karen Schneider: Hi, Im Karen Schneider. I blog at freerangelibrarian.com. Ive been an ALA member since 1992. I served on ALA Council three times. And Ive served on numerous task forces, … Continue reading ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on GLBT Employment Rights →

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on Why Librarians Should Join ALA

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Kenton Oliver responds to Genevieve Grove’s question on why librarians should join ALA. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org. Question: Question: Genevieve Grove: Hi, my name is Genevieve Grove. And Im a student at Dominican University. I am an ALA member, but the question I get a lot from my friends at school … Continue reading ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on Why Librarians Should Join ALA →

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Stevens on Why Librarians Should Join ALA

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Roberta Stevens responds to Genevieve Grove’s question on why librarians should join ALA. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org. Question: Genevieve Grove: Hi, my name is Genevieve Grove. And Im a student at Dominican University. I am an ALA member, but the question I get a lot from my friends at school is: … Continue reading ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Stevens on Why Librarians Should Join ALA →

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Stevens on Social Media

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Roberta Stevens responds to Carolyn Wood’s question on how ALA can harness the power of social media for library advocacy. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on Social Media and Advocacy

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Kenton Oliver responds to Carolyn Wood’s question on how ALA can harness the power of social media for library advocacy. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org.

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Oliver on E-participation

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Kenton Oliver responds to Tom Peters’s question on how ALA can enable participation without travel. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org. Question:

ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Stevens on E-participation

March 12, 2009

ALA Presidential Candidate Roberta Stevens responds to Tom Peters’s question on how ALA can enable participation without travel. More ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org. Question:Tom Peters: Hi, ALA presidential candidates. Tom Peters here, coming to you from the eastern slope of Monkey Mountain, Missouri, nestled between Oak Grove and Grain Valley its really just a hill, … Continue reading ALA Presidential Candidate Question Responses: Stevens on E-participation →

Playing Games in Nebraska

March 6, 2009

People have been commenting about the ironic juxtaposition of the two top stories in this week's edition of American Libraries Direct: #1 Nebraska Auditor Cries Foul on Gaming: A 10-minute YouTube video posted by the Nebraska Library Commission to announce the purchase of Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution resulted—roughly a year later—in an audit … Continue reading Playing Games in Nebraska →

Ann Brashares interview

March 4, 2009

Booklist sat down with author Ann Brashares to talk about her new book “3 Willows” and how it compares to her bestselling “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” series. Brashares opens up about the chances of the new book expanding into a series, how hard it is to let go of beloved characters, and how she … Continue reading Ann Brashares interview →

LJ Index: Too Much Too Late

March 3, 2009

Back in January 1999, American Libraries published the first installment of Tom Hennen's HAPLR Index, ranking America's public libraries using statistics collected by the Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS). We made the decision to publish Hennen's study based on our assessment of his research and the conclusion that the rankings would be useful to the libraries that … Continue reading LJ Index: Too Much Too Late →

Freedom to Read Foundation Midwinter Author Event Featuring Lauren Myracle

February 18, 2009

Author Lauren Myracle was the featured speaker at the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Midwinter Author Event, held January 25 at the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver

2009 Midwinter Meeting Overview

February 17, 2009

From Denver comes coverage of ALA’s 2009 Midwinter Meeting. Included are the announcement of this year’s Newbery Medal-winning book, sights from the exhibit hall, the annual “View from the Top” discussion panel, conversations with former ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano and former Colorado State Senator Ken Gordon, and ALA Immediate Past President Loriene Roy discussing the … Continue reading 2009 Midwinter Meeting Overview →

Latest Library Links

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Angela Dennis writes: “Young scholars, parents and staff from the East Tennessee Freedom Schools program, a local summer enrichment program, marched in downtown Knoxville July 17 to protest literary censorship in public schools and libraries across the country. Recent legislation in Tennessee has fueled concerns about literary censorship. In May, Governor Bill Lee signed into law an expansion of the Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Opponents fear the new law might exclude the perspectives of marginalized groups in educational materials. The Knox County Schools Board recently revised its library policy to align with the new state law, further fueling debate.”

Knoxville News Sentinel, July 18
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Daniel Pfeiffer writes: “‘Information literacy’ has become a watchword for librarians—not merely a pedagogical aim but a moral obligation in a digital and political landscape riddled with misinformation. The clear necessity of information literacy in society belies a more difficult question: Should librarians be the ones to take on the full weight of this mantle?” Pfeiffer interviewed Amber Willenborg and Robert Detmering, librarians at the University of Louisville (Ky.) and authors of a new paper examining this question through interviews with 20 academic librarians.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, July 17
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Jennifer Nardine writes: “I recently finished a second master’s degree, an MaEd in Counseling from Virginia Tech’s School of Education. Shortly after graduating, I was startled when a colleague asked, ‘How are you going to show that [mental health] counseling is related to your work?’ Her implication: even though I’d put in the work to earn the degree, it wouldn’t serve me when it came time to apply for promotion. My response: It’s obvious to me that education, librarianship, and counseling are related.”

ACRLog, July 18
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Willem Marx writes: “Sometimes it’s not about catching up on the newest news or the hottest debut. Sometimes it’s about taking a bath with a cup of tea on a Sunday morning and listening to famous writers laugh about their MFA students while going nuts about their favorite short story writers. Sometimes it’s about taking a plane across the Atlantic just to visit a bookstore and pretend it’s still 1922 and Ulysses is all the rage. The book life is about a lot of things and these podcasts cover every single one.”

Electric Literature, July 19
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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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