The era of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in American education carries both promise and peril. Pundits readily discuss varied perspectives about CCSS in everything from traditional journals to social media. While it is vital for school librarians to participate in this discussion, many are realizing how important it is to work with fellow educators … Continue reading Knowing What Readers Need
All around us, libraries are transforming as they adapt to broader changes in the communities they serve and the environment in which they now operate. In the process, librarians have discovered that as they better understand their communities and their aspirations, the more deeply they are “engaged”; the more impact they can have on their … Continue reading Libraries Transforming Communities
This issue (May 2014) we invited Marshall Breeding to give us a status and trends report on strategic products of the library technology industry. His detailed investigation begins here. He has been reporting on technology in the industry for more than a decade and regularly provides updates for us and on his own site. Breeding … Continue reading Now Trending: Tech and People News
If you have heard me speak this year, then you’ve heard me repeat this often-quoted saying: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” I thought every library worker already had that mindset, that all of us want to change the lives of those we serve through our actions. How dismaying … Continue reading Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Way back when, a library I worked at had a standard survey we gave to every student at the end of an instruction session. It included a bunch of Likert scale questions like “How satisfied were you with the session?” and “How useful was the session?” We dutifully collected the surveys and someone went through … Continue reading Asking the Right Questions
Above all, every library director with a standard seven-member board of trustees knows one fact of life: the rule of four. It takes only four votes to get you fired. If you’re unlucky, your board has only five members. Things can get very dicey when it takes only three votes to get you fired. So … Continue reading Fired Up for Retirement
I’m in a meeting as I write this. (It happens; don’t tell anybody I work with, okay?) Don’t get the wrong idea … all of our meetings are vital and gripping, and everybody looks forward to them. Just like yours, right? In all seriousness, though, as I sit here, I’m struck by the various roles … Continue reading Leading from All Sides
Can you provide excellent readers’ advisory without reading widely yourself? This question, posed to my Twitter followers (whose replies shared a refrain of “No way”), led me to rethink the way I train my staff on readers’ advisory. Of course there are ways to become familiar with books without actually reading entire works—reviews, first chapters, reliance on … Continue reading Reading Wildly
In 1887, the Newberry Library in Chicago opened its doors as a public research library, with ALA charter member William Frederick Poole at the helm. The Newberry 125: Stories of Our Collection highlights 125 objects in the collection. The array of objects—from beautiful illuminated medieval manuscript Psalters to Thomas Bewick print blocks to a photograph … Continue reading The More We Change
Terry Winograd, professor of computer science at Stanford University, is one of the top leaders in human-computer interaction. For a dozen years, he has collaborated with the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the D School) at Stanford University to present a course on the design of computer- and telecommunication-based applications. All of its courses are … Continue reading One Product, Many Users
ALA is in the process of reimagining itself. We have engaged in conversations with members, Council, the Executive Board, and division leadership to understand what we, as a profession, want from our Association. In a nutshell, we have found that we want a welcoming, inclusive, engaged, and supportive organization. Taken at face value, these attributes do not … Continue reading Creating a Participatory ALA
What’s it like to be selected an Emerging Leader? Find out about this year’s class of 56 up-and-coming librarians in our cover story. Once again this year we’re featuring each Emerging Leader on trading cards, which will be available at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. Not only are these leaders … Continue reading Emerging Leaders Poised for Action
