Cited

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Martha Hendricks, director of Clarksville-Montgomery County (Tenn.) Public Library, received the Tennessee Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award April 25. Hendricks allowed Equality Clarksville to use the library’s meeting space in August 2018 to hold a drag queen storytime despite protests and personal attacks.
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In June the University of West Georgia in Carrollton named Ingram Library Head of Special Collections and Associate Professor Blynne Olivieri Faculty Member of the Year for the 2018-2019 academic year.
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Owen Intermediate School Library Media Center in Belleville, Michigan, won the state’s Model 21st Century School Library award in June in recognition of its innovative collaborations with local educators.
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Sandy Hester, director of Coastal Plain Regional Library System in Tifton, Georgia, was named Public Librarian of the Year by Georgia Public Library Service.
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Kim Howell, librarian at Stockwell Place Elementary School in Bossier City, Louisiana, was named School Librarian of the Year at the Louisiana Library Association conference March 14.
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Sherry Noon, youth and family services manager at Anderson Public Library in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, received the Kentucky Library Association’s “Miss Pickle” Award for excellence in developing and providing children’s library services.
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Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library and San José (Calif.) State University School of Information named Stephanie Ann Rawlins, director of Pike County (Ind.) Library, winner of their inaugural Innovative Librarians Award March 7.
6m

Chi Wang, head of the Chinese and Korean section of the Library of Congress until his retirement in 2004, received a tribute in the Congressional Record January 15 in recognition of his work to expand the library’s Chinese collection and improve mutual understanding between the two countries.
8m

December 12 Melanie Huggins, executive director of Richland Library in Columbia, South Carolina, received One Columbia Arts and History’s 2018 Stephen G. Morrison Visionary Award, recognizing Columbians who support the growth and vitality of the city.
10m

In October Jennifer Gordon, librarian at Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received the 2018–2019 Milken Educator Award, which recognizes early- and mid-career education professionals.
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The Jefferson County (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce named Jennifer Cesta, public relations coordinator for the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County, as Ambassador of the Year in October.
12m

Rebecca Wisniewski, interlibrary loan manager at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, received a campus Outstanding Work Performance award.

Latest Library Links

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The four-week ASGCLA web course, “Library Services for People Living with Alzheimer’s,” will cover the basics of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, including the variety of specific needs those living with the disease might bring to a library: medical, legal, financial, ethical, and emotional. The course begins on October 28. The instructor, Timothy J. Dickey, is an adult public service librarian with Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Libraries. Register online.

ASCGLA, Oct. 18
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No deal had been reached late October 17 as negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools continued and thousands of striking teachers marched downtown. Teachers say 1,300 classrooms are overcrowded. They also want more librarians, nurses, and counselors. Mayor Lori Lightfoot did say, in a 2018 Chicago Sun-Times article, that she would “provide each school with basic educational support positions like librarians, nurses, and social workers.” That is still a point of contention now. Andrea Park, teacher at Robert Fulton Elementary, said, “My school does not have a librarian. We have a library with books, but there is no librarian. So guess what. I have to be the librarian.”

WBBM-TV, Chicago, Oct. 17
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A former Florida police officer who fatally shot a 73-year-old retired librarian during a demonstration for the public on August 10, 2016, will not serve jail time. Then-officer Lee Coel was performing in a “shoot/don’t shoot” exercise with the Punta Gorda Police Department when he shot Mary Knowlton, who had volunteered to participate. She was struck by the fatal bullet in front of about three dozen people, including Knowlton’s husband of 55 years, who were at the citizen police academy watching the drill about police use of firearms. The gun was loaded with bullets instead of blanks.

NBC News, Oct. 17
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As the 2020 US Census approaches, Americans overwhelmingly are aware of it, and 84% say they definitely or probably will participate, a new Pew Research Center survey finds. Still, 16% express at least some uncertainty about responding, with higher shares among some demographic groups. Black and Hispanic adults, as well as those with lower income levels, are more likely to say they probably or definitely will not participate in the census, or that they might or might not. Young adults—those ages 18 to 29—are least likely to be on board of the four age groups included in this analysis.

Pew Research Center: Fact Tank, Oct. 18
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The ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table has been working on the criteria and structure for a new Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List. Eligible graphic novels for the 2020 list will include all fiction and nonfiction titles published between September 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020, that appeal to adults age 19 or older. Nominations can be made by all members of the public, including committee members and ALA members, through an online form that will be available in January 2020 on the GNCRT website.

Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table, Oct. 18
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In Michigan, the state levies a fine every time a weigh station determines a truck is overweight. Most of the money goes to a local public library. But penal fines administered by courts—and they go well beyond overloaded semis—have been decreasing in recent years. This means libraries across the state are losing out on thousands of dollars that would pay for books, programs, even utility bills. In FY 2019, Pinckney (Mich.) Community Public Library received $23,787 in penal fine revenue, $8,108 less than it received in 2018. An annual fundraiser held the last few years has helped, Director Hope Siasoco said.

Livingston (Mich.) Daily, Oct. 17
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To shed light on the software that has tilted the world on its axis, the editors of Slate polled computer scientists, software developers, historians, policymakers, and journalists. They were asked to pick: Which pieces of code had a huge influence? Which ones warped our lives? About 75 responded with all sorts of ideas, and Slate has selected 36. It’s not a comprehensive list—it couldn’t be, given the massive welter of influential code that’s been written. Like all lists, it’s meant to provoke thought—to help us ponder anew how code undergirds our lives and how decisions made by programmers ripple into the future.

Slate, Oct. 14

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