Like many other countries, the United Kingdom has experienced a series of financial shocks, including a severe banking crisis. The home nations in the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) are funded differently, and each has its own unique financial and legal circumstances (and its own parliaments). Consequently, this article will focus on … Continue reading England’s Libraries and the Funding Crisis
The week of August 22 was anything but your typical end-of-summer week on the East Coast. Truth being stranger than fiction, the events foreshadowed the beginning of National Preparedness Month in September, and increased the usefulness of the American Library Association’s disaster preparedness and recovery fact sheet. First, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Virginia on August … Continue reading East Coast Libraries Endure Hurricane Irene
I’m working on a new house project. It’s one of the most complicated projects that I’ve ever taken on. There are a million details from the size of the window jambs to the energy rating of the glass in the windows. The construction universe is filled with a diversity of people. There are designers, architects, … Continue reading Networking without Pity
As librarians, we support freedom of speech and freedom of access to information. In early 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that increased these freedoms. Known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the decision declared unconstitutional some statutory restrictions on political speech—restrictions that carried the threat of fine or imprisonment for … Continue reading Librarians and the Threat to Free Political Speech
The new library of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago has a simple goal. “The mission of the library echoes that of the foundation: To place the best poetry in front of the most people,” explains Librarian Katherine Litwin. But poetry can have a reputation for inaccessibility. “Even people with a deep relationship to poetry can … Continue reading A Library Home for Poetry
I’ve never been on a surfboard, never even seen one up close, but after finally getting around to reading Don Winslow, I’m starting to dream about being able to hang 10, if only I was 40 years younger, and my twenty-something self was endowed with far more agility and upper-body strength than that wimpy-looking kid … Continue reading Surf’s Up
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed suit August 15 on behalf of four gay-rights organizations whose websites are blocked by the Camdenton (Mo.) R-III School District. The plaintiffs are Campus Pride; DignityUSA, a Catholic organization in support of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender; PFLAG National (Parents, … Continue reading ACLU Files Suit in Missouri over Blacklisted LGBT Sites
In April, we conducted an online survey of our readers, in order to find out what American Libraries is doing right and what we could be doing differently. A big thank you to the nearly 3,600 participants, who represented all types of libraries (public, academic, school, and special). You answered 31 questions about your preferred … Continue reading What You Told Us
Librarianship is a profession with a strong tradition of mentorship. At some point in grad school, every future librarian has the daunting assignment to “find a librarian and interview him or her about his or her job.” You groan, you sigh, you poke around on the internet, you start sending e-mails or making calls, hoping … Continue reading Mentorship from Both Sides
Now that the debate over raising the debt ceiling is over and the smoke is beginning to clear, the question remains: What does this really mean? And, more specifically, what does this mean for libraries? First, a recap: With little time to spare, Congress finally passed on August 2 the Budget Control Act of 2011, … Continue reading A Librarian’s Primer on the Debt-Ceiling Deal
At the request of the FBI, Brighton (Mich.) District Library Director Nancy Johnson is spreading a cautionary word to library colleagues about a series of illegal attempts to hack credit card accounts by testing them on her library’s online-donation website. Here’s the scam, according to Johnson: Someone has been using our library online donation option … Continue reading Credit-Card Hackers Target Library’s Online Donation Page
For the last four years, Marshall Breeding has conducted an online survey to measure the satisfaction rate with multiple aspects of the automation products used by libraries. The results of four editions of survey data, along with brief interpretive narratives, have been published on Library Technology Guides. The May/June 2011 issue of Library Technology Reports … Continue reading Librarians’ Assessments of Automation Systems
