The rabbit-warren days are over. Since ALA headquarters moved in 2020 to its present location at Chicago’s 225 North Michigan Avenue, Barbus has presided over a completely reimagined in-house library. Visitors step off the elevator to find a large, open, bright area that’s home to not only the office’s main reception desk but also row upon … Continue reading Bookend: A Library for Librarians
These are just a couple of the 600-plus global variations of the Cinderella fable. You’ll find many of them at Jonesborough, Tennessee’s Storytelling Resource Place (SRP), a repository of books, recordings, costumes, instruments, and other items related to the storytelling performance tradition. “Much like libraries safeguard written knowledge, we safeguard the living traditions of oral … Continue reading Bookend: Once Upon a Time
A couple of years and many, many emailed requests later, Heaviside has collected hundreds of public library cards from every US state and several foreign locales, including the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Scotland, and South Africa. “It was like I couldn’t stop,” she says. Her persistence paid off: During … Continue reading Bookend: Up Her Sleeve
The caller wanted to donate his father’s collection—not of boards or game pieces, but of the literature of checkers. “I’m thinking, ‘How much can this be?’” Sleasman remembers. The answer? Twenty-seven storage tubs. It’s all in a day’s work for Sleasman, who (along with two catalogers and two archivists) wrangles 260,000 library holdings, 3,000 linear … Continue reading Bookend: Playing Along
That’s just one of many intriguing tidbits to be learned while visiting the Beltsville, Maryland–based archive, which traces Smokey’s 81-year-and-counting career as the Forest Service’s wildfire prevention mascot. Created in 1944, the now-iconic bear—named after “Smokey Joe” Martin, assistant chief of the New York City Fire Department—was originally depicted so realistically that he scared children, … Continue reading Bookend: The Original Happy Camper
Clockwise from top left: Tiwanna Nevels, assistant state librarian at State Library of North Carolina in Raleigh, sits with some of her favorite challenged books in the Big Chair (sponsored by Sage, the Banned Books Week Coalition, and ALA’s Unite Against Book Bans); Amy Hermon, librarian at Royal Oak (Mich.) High School and host of … Continue reading Bookend: Speaking Out
Welcome to Edible Alphabet, the flagship series of Free Library of Philadelphia’s (FLP) Culinary Literacy Center. Since 2015, the program has convened those learning English as a second language (ESL)—many from the Caribbean, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia—to practice conversation and cook a recipe under the direction of an ESL … Continue reading Bookend: Eat and Greet
“There’s just so much surrounding the whole story,” says Jennifer Beals, assistant dean and director of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), who curated the library’s exhibit commemorating the trial’s centennial. UTK’s Scopes trial archive includes transcripts, photos, and ephemera from locals and attorneys involved in the … Continue reading Bookend: On the Origin of Scopes
“When I was a kid, my great-aunt was the buyer at [famous New York bridal boutique] Kleinfeld’s, so I used to go over and look at all the dresses,” she says. “Other people were buying Seventeen; I was buying Brides.” Decades later, Puccio’s passion now manifests itself in a rotating collection of vintage and modern … Continue reading Bookend: The Wedding Dress Whisperer
“You can learn so much … from plays written for, with, and by youth,” says Ross, performing arts librarian at Arizona State University (ASU) Library in Tempe, noting that young imaginations allow for more “interesting and experimental” presentations. Ross oversees ASU’s Theatre for Youth and Community Collection. Founded in 1979, the university says it is … Continue reading Bookend: Curtains Up
From the iconic to the incendiary, political messages like these have emblazoned buttons and pins since the start of US elections. Since 2012, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (HKS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been archiving political buttons. The collection now includes thousands of items spanning a century’s worth of campaigns and causes. “Pre-internet, this … Continue reading Bookend: Put a Pin in It
Hewitt C. Wells, the library’s architect, wanted to build it in a park. When that plan fell through, he decided to build “a park in the library,” Ryan says. Completed in 1966, it won the 1968 Industrial Landscape Award (presented by Lady Bird Johnson) and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in … Continue reading Bookend: Lushness in the Library
