Newsmaker Archives | Page 2 of 8 | American Libraries Magazine

Ron Charles is wearing a full suit sitting on an inflatable dragon pool toy.

Newsmaker: Ron Charles

By Jordan Sarti | July 5, 2018

What do you do to make literary criticism approachable? I try to pick books that I think people would enjoy reading, so that’s a start. I try to write about them with enthusiasm and clarity, and I do a few odd things to try and bring in people who are sick and tired of book … Continue reading Newsmaker: Ron Charles →

Hasan Minhaj at the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia on March 24. Photo: Laura Kinser

Newsmaker: Hasan Minhaj

By Terra Dankowski | June 1, 2018

You share some intensely personal experiences in Homecoming King about being the child of an immigrant. Was it hard deciding what to codify into comedy? In a comedy special you have only 70 minutes, so a lot of times you’re working with coffee and you need to boil it down to comedy espresso. I’m trying to … Continue reading Newsmaker: Hasan Minhaj →

Newsmaker: Junot Díaz

By Phil Morehart | May 1, 2018

Islandborn is your first book for kids. What was its inspiration? There were multiple inspirations. A lot of it was being a writer with godchildren, nephews, and nieces always saying, “Hey, will you write us a story?” And knowing that I should write them a story, because when I was growing up a kid of … Continue reading Newsmaker: Junot Díaz →

Newsmaker: Jason Reynolds

By Alison Marcotte | April 12, 2018

This year’s theme for School Library Month is “Making Connections at Your School Library.” You’ve said reading the lyrics to Queen Latifah’s 1993 album Black Reign changed your life and inspired you to start writing poetry. When students connect with and see themselves in the music, multimedia, and books they read, it changes their relationship with reading completely. … Continue reading Newsmaker: Jason Reynolds →

Newsmaker: Emilio Estevez

By Phil Morehart | March 1, 2018

What was the inspiration behind The Public? I was inspired by a moving 2007 essay called “Written Off” by Chip Ward, now-retired assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library System, published in part in the Los Angeles Times (and in full at tomdispatch.com under the title, “What They Didn’t Teach Us in Library … Continue reading Newsmaker: Emilio Estevez →

Newsmaker: Misty Copeland

By Amy Carlton | February 1, 2018

Copeland is author of Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (Simon and Schuster, 2014); Firebird (Putnam, 2014), with illustrator Christopher Myers, which won the 2015 Coretta Scott King Book Illustrator Award; and Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Grateful You (Grand Central Life and Style, 2017). She spoke with … Continue reading Newsmaker: Misty Copeland →

Newsmaker: Dolly Parton

By Amy Carlton | January 2, 2018

There are so many ways to promote reading and literacy. How did you decide to set up Imagination Library this way so that children get free books in the mail that they can keep? It started out with a simple dream, and a very personal one, 22 years ago. My father was a brilliant man, … Continue reading Newsmaker: Dolly Parton →

Newsmaker: Emil Ferris

By Amy Carlton | November 1, 2017

You worked on this story for several years while recovering from West Nile virus, getting a master’s at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and raising your daughter. Then this nearly 400-page book comes out, and cartoonist Art Spiegelman is calling you “one of the most important comics artists of our time.” How … Continue reading Newsmaker: Emil Ferris →

Newsmaker: Margarita Engle

By George M. Eberhart | September 1, 2017

A Cuban-American, Engle is the first person of Latino descent to receive the honor. She was also the first Latina to be awarded a Newbery Honor in 2009 for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom. What poets have had an influence on your writing? This is such a challenging question, because I … Continue reading Newsmaker: Margarita Engle →

Newsmaker: Reshma Saujani

By Terra Dankowski | July 19, 2017

Girls Who Code has seen exponential growth since its founding. To what do you attribute to the nonprofit’s success? We have this amazing, authentically girl-led movement. We started with 20 girls in 2012; now we’ve reached more than 40,000 girls in all 50 states through our summer immersion programs and after-school clubs. We’ve met girls … Continue reading Newsmaker: Reshma Saujani →

Newsmaker: Nikki Giovanni

By Anne Ford | June 1, 2017

When you were growing up, what was your relationship to libraries like? We went to the Carnegie library that Andrew Carnegie had built for black Americans—Knoxville, Tennessee, was still segregated—and my librarian was Mrs. Long. I remember her getting books for me: “Well, Nikki, would you like to read this?” Some of the books I … Continue reading Newsmaker: Nikki Giovanni →

Newsmaker: Roxane Gay

By Amy Carlton | May 1, 2017

You have published work in so many formats: novels, books of essays and short stories, a comic book (Marvel’s Black Panther: World of Wakanda, with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Yona Harvey), plus an upcoming memoir and a screenplay. What are the different challenges and rewards of working in each medium? Storytelling is storytelling, I have learned, … Continue reading Newsmaker: Roxane Gay →

Latest Library Links

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Applying an informal and practical approach, Mona Kerby’s new second edition of An Introduction to Collection Development for School Librarians, published by AASL and ALA Editions, provides beginning librarians with the essential steps to effectively manage a vibrant school library collection. Kerby argues that building a quality collection is no longer enough and offers strategies to ensure that learners actively engage with the materials. Supported by the National School Library Standards and ALA/AASL/CAEP standards for university preparation programs, this resource introduces the key collection development components.

ALA Editions, June 19
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Hillsborough County (Fla.) Public Library is hoping to cater to the bookworms who may not have access to materials. Its mobile library program, Library2Go, makes it easy for avid readers to borrow books and rent movies without ever leaving their homes. The service, once known as the Bookmobile, was recently revamped, making it accessible to everyone. “Our mission is to go to those who normally can’t get to the branch, whether it be physical needs, disabilities, or monetary,” said Deshaun Johnson, a Library2Go staffer. The service has expanded to provide wireless printing, provide library cards, and mobile hot spots.

WTVT-TV, Tampa, Fla., June 16
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Haroon Janjua writes: “The tribal district of Darra Adam Khel, located about 85 miles west of Islamabad, Pakistan, is best known for its sprawling weapons bazaar. But a local book lover, Raj Muhammad, hopes it becomes known as the home of the Darra Adam Khel Library. Located near a gun shop that his father built 12 years ago, the library opened in August 2018, and Muhammad considers it a labor of love as well as a message to the area and the wider world. Uninterested in his father’s firearms business, he opened the library to give people in the area better access to books and education.”

New York Times, June 18
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Michael Kozlowski writes: “Penguin Random House comprises the vast majority of ebooks published, and Macmillan and Hachette comprise nearly all the rest. These companies have recently revised their contracts with the public library. Libraries will now have to purchase ebooks that are only good for two-year contracts and then will have to devote the resources to see what books they want to buy again and which ones they do not. This is a far cry from the old policy which only had the library make a one-time purchase for every ebook they wanted. Publishers don’t want to devalue their front-list books and want people to buy them, instead of borrow them.”

Good e-Reader, June 19
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Scientists who study specific types of animals or plants can be challenged by the fact that species information is often limited to only one or two libraries in faraway places. The Biodiversity Heritage Library, headquartered in the Smithsonian Libraries in Washington, D.C., was formed in 2007 as a consortium of institutions dedicated to making taxonomic information openly available through its digital portal. Martin R. Kalfatovic, BHL’s program director, estimates that its 20 member libraries and 22 affiliates have scanned upwards of 147,000 titles, ranging from the 15th century to the present, with information on more than 180 million species.

American Libraries Bookend, June
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A committee has ruled that nine books challenged by the Florida Tea Party and Citizens Alliance should remain, at the very least, on high school library shelves in Ocala, Florida. The committee included three parents, one of whom was a School Advisory Council president. The committee also featured a secondary school librarian, a high school principal, a district curriculum administrator, and three high school staff members. Superintendent Heidi Maier believes that only two of those nine, Killing Mr. Griffin and Angela’s Ashes, should be allowed in middle school libraries.

Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, June 18
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The Schenectady (N.Y.) City School District’s summer bookmobile made its debut June 15 at the 19th annual Juneteenth festival in the city’s Central Park. Kristina Graves, a Schenectady school librarian and media specialist, said the selection of books offered by the bookmobile fits in perfectly with the Juneteenth theme of celebrating cultural diversity. Some of the titles on display at the bookmobile spoke to the themes of racial and religious oppression and equality. Kerri Messler, K–12 English language arts and library coordinator for the district, said it’s important for the district to curate its book collection with selections acknowledging diversity.

Schenectady (N.Y.) Daily Gazette, June 15

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