Appointments & Retirements

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June 1, Michael Baird became manager at Edson (Alberta) and District Public Library.
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July 6 Jenny Benedict started as director of Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at New York Public Library named Joy Bivins associate director of collections and research services June 23.
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Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, appointed Polly Boruff-Jones dean of university libraries, effective July 1.
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries appointed Emily Brassell associate head of the software development department June 1.
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July 1 Tressie McMillan Cottom joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science as associate professor.
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Amherst (Mass.) College named Martin Garnar library director, effective August 1.
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Alexandra Glenn joined University of Florida Marston Science Library in Gainesville as student success librarian June 2.
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In August Chad Helton became director of Hennepin County (Minn.) Library.
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April 13 Emily Jones joined University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries as health sciences librarian.
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July 1 Kaetrena Davis Kendrick joined Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, as dean of its Dacus Library and Pettus Archives.
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Jessica Koshi-Lum became associate dean of the library at Renton (Wash.) Technical College July 1.

Latest Library Links

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Escape rooms in libraries are popular activities for families, providing free, interactive entertainment for people of all ages. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has put most in-person library programs on hold. Some librarians have found creative ways to safely continue the fun during the pandemic. McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, has set up a no-touch, outdoor escape room that community members can enjoy while maintaining social distancing.

I Love Libraries, Sept. 18
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Susan Shapiro writes: “Despite spiking coronavirus cases on university campuses across the country, everyone I knew hated remote learning. I could see why. It has certainly been my weirdest work experience in a quarter-century teaching college. I worked on a computer all day, so I’d taken the professorship to interact with live humans. What changed the tone was asking everyone to say where they were now and how they were holding up during the turmoil.”

Wired, Sept. 22
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The National Coalition Against Censorship is urging the Burbank (Calif.) Unified School District to retain several books in its curriculum and allow teachers to teach the books while they are under review. The challenged books include Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Cay, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

National Coalition against Censorship, Sept. 17
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A new report from Project Information Literacy examines US media coverage about COVID-19 and its visual representation across time and digital space during the early months of 2020. The report includes interactive data visualizations showing the results of a computational analysis of 125,696 articles from 66 news websites; a content analysis of 532 randomly selected news images from the top 12 outlets; and teaching and learning resources for librarians, educators, students, and journalists.

Project Information Literacy, Sept. 15
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Burkely Hermann writes: “Two years ago, the animated series Hilda premiered on Netflix, and a minor character called ‘The Librarian’ (voiced by Kaisa Hammurlund) quickly became a fan sensation. Although she only appears in about three minutes of the show’s first season, this feisty librarian has been mentioned in 20 fanfiction stories on Archive of Our Own and has a Tumblr blog dedicated to her. She has also been a subject of a lot of chatter among the fanbase, from Twitter to Reddit. The official Hilda Twitter account has described her as a mysterious librarian who has an unmatched, and extensive, ‘knowledge of cemetery records and mystical items.’”

I Love Libraries, Sept. 21
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In a first for IFLA, the 2021 World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) will be held online. Faced with continued uncertainty about the health, economic, and travel situation into 2021, it already seems clear that business-as-usual is not an option, the organization said in a September 22 statement.

IFLA, Sept. 22
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Rare books worth more than £2.5 million that were stolen from a warehouse in west London in a daring Mission Impossible-style heist have been found buried under the floor of a house in rural Romania. The recovery of the 200 books, which include first editions of significant works by Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton, is the culmination of a three-year police operation that involved raids on 45 addresses across three countries and led to charges against 13 people.

The Guardian (UK), Sept. 18

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