What made you want to write this book? Being both a yoga teacher and a former children’s librarian, I have a unique understanding of how naturally yoga and storytime can fit together to provide children with opportunities for embodied play. I wrote this book to share how fun and simple it can be to use … Continue reading A Conversation with Author Katie Scherrer
I knew visiting immediately after the hurricane made landfall on September 20 was not the best strategy—the libraries were still closed, and library workers were grappling with conditions in both their homes and their workplaces. But as soon as I heard that some libraries were opening, I told my colleagues at the American Library Association … Continue reading Rebuilding Puerto Rican Libraries
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
Featured Speakers Opening Session Friday, February 9, 4–5:15 p.m. Marley Dias, who started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign as a 6th grader, will have a conversation with Patrisse Cullors, artist and cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement, to reveal the determining factors and mindsets that motivated each of them to take action and how different generations … Continue reading 2018 Midwinter Preview
The Mile High City has emerged as a hot spot for chef-driven, farm-to-table restaurants. Numerous standout eateries have hung a shingle and earned one rave review after another. As author of the Frommer’s EasyGuide to Colorado, I was lucky enough to take my taste buds on a tour of Denver’s rising restaurants and enjoy every … Continue reading Mile-High Bites
Saving Federal Funding Thanks to extensive grassroots efforts by ALA members, in September the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an increase of $4 million in funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, all of which would go to the formula-based Grants to States program. The bill also included increased funding in FY2018 for a … Continue reading 2017 Year in Review
It may be difficult for us to remember as adults, but for young children, movement is a learning process that requires intense concentration. A child’s early physical and sensory experiences help build pathways that will shape how he or she thinks, learns, and views the world. Movement is among the brain’s top priorities. Eventually, many … Continue reading Stories, Songs, and Stretches
But are these seemingly wholesome book boxes helping or hurting staffed libraries? And how are librarians and communities across the country leveraging the presence of these outposts? Little Free Library Capital of the World When Pam Weinstein first noticed the school bus parked outside her home in Detroit’s Rosedale Park neighborhood and her lawn crowded … Continue reading The Question of Little Free Libraries
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
American Libraries spoke with five leading African-American librarians about their careers, the changes they have witnessed over the decades, and the current issues in librarianship. While no two people have the same story, all five interviewees note inclusivity as an important theme. They discuss libraries as safe havens, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the … Continue reading Blazing Trails
This didn’t make sense—the books had been in an area of the library considered very dry by Hawaii standards (relative humidity in the 40s and sometimes 50s) ever since a temperature and humidity data logger was deployed there in late 2008. Mold is commonplace in Hawaii and is something UHM library has battled for years. … Continue reading The Mysterious Case of White Film on Old Books
Sixteen years ago, American Libraries published Mark Y. Herring’s essay “Ten Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library” (April 2001). Technology has improved exponentially since then—social media didn’t even exist yet. But even the smartest phone’s intelligence is limited by paywalls, Twitter trolls, fake news, and other hazards of online life. Here … Continue reading Ten Reasons Libraries Are Still Better Than the Internet
