Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg and coauthors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, who wrote one the most-challenged books in the United States in the 21st century, And Tango Makes Three, were part of the Virtual Read-Out of banned and challenged books that took place on YouTube as part of the 30th annual Banned Books Week … Continue reading Banned Books Week Read-Outs and More
Are your website visitors doing what you expect them to do or what you want them to do? Are they following the path you thought they would follow when you designed your menu system? Are visitors to your digital-library page finding the link to historical photos of your city or the university’s archival images? These … Continue reading Using Web Analytics Well
Most sports novels, especially the kind that follow a team or an individual through a season of play, face a built-in problem: The drama and suspense usually rides on the team’s success or failure as it moves through the season and plays the inevitable Big Game. Thus, there can only be one of two endings. … Continue reading The Problem with Sports Novels
After shutting its doors in 2008 following years of declining enrollment, Antioch College is on the verge of reopening, and the Olive Kettering Library on the Yellow Springs, Ohio, campus stands to play an integral role in the school’s recovery. In 2009, an alumni-led group purchased the campus and other college assets and began efforts … Continue reading As Antioch College Reopens, Its Library Stands Ready
I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed … Continue reading Open Source, Open Mind
With over 11 million articles and loans moving through the cooperative resource sharing processes of libraries each year, this updating of the Interlibrary Loan Practices Handbook is welcome. In preparing this third edition, editors Cherié L. Weible and Karen L. Janke have built on the pioneering work of Virginia Boucher, author of the first two … Continue reading New from ALA Editions
Returning to New Orleans for the 2011 American Library Association Annual Conference this year was both rewarding and emotional for many of us. Five years earlier, we traveled to Louisiana less than a year after the devastating hurricanes and massive flooding from failure of the levies. At that time, we were welcomed with much more … Continue reading The Big Easy Revisited
This month we’re examining the library literature for tips on how to manage our libraries better. Improvements may come from analyzing each step of a task and its impact on the bottom line, or from incorporating new standards and practices consistent with the diversity of materials now part of our collections. Pay Attention to Standards … Continue reading Manage Best with Best Practices
A library-museum partnership has resulted in a 60% jump in summer-reading participation at the Indianapolis–Marion County Public Library’s infoZone branch, which is located inside the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. “All of our library locations were buzzing with activity, but the Children’s Museum exceeded our expectations,” IMCPL Director of Programming and Project Development Chris Cairo said … Continue reading Summer Reading Stats Skyrocket in Indianapolis infoZone
Each week I have at least one conversation about how schools and libraries are working to support teaching and learning in STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. I’ve discovered that some librarians are struggling to figure out what their role should be in the STEM universe. I’m here to give you a few pointers. First, … Continue reading The Lowdown on STEM
“Remind me how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull?” “What music should I play for a piece about polar bears?” “David Hasselhoff—singing at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Can you find tape?” Welcome to a typical day at the National Public Radio library in Washington, D.C., where over 10,000 such requests come in each year from staff, … Continue reading Broadcast Collaboration
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ezra Jack Keats’s groundbreaking picture book The Snowy Day (Penguin, 1962), The Jewish Museum has created the first major United States exhibition for the Caldecott-winning illustrator. “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats” show features over 80 original works, from preliminary sketches to final paintings … Continue reading Recognizing the Impact of Ezra Jack Keats
