Cited

4d

Ann Ewbank, associate professor and head of the Department of Education at Montana State University in Bozeman, received the university’s Anna K. Fridley Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Teaching Award January 19.
4m

The Better Business Bureau of Dayton and Miami Valley’s Women in Business Network named Rachel Gut, deputy director of Dayton (Ohio) Metro Library, one of its Top 25 Women of Impact.
4m

Lydia Tang, special collections archivist and librarian at Michigan State University in East Lansing, received the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists.
6m

State University of New York at Morrisville presented Angela Rhodes, associate systems and electronic resources librarian, with its Distinguished Librarian Award in August.
8m

Brianna Buljung, teaching and learning librarian at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, has been awarded a Fulbright US Scholar Grant to lecture at China University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou in spring 2021.
8m

Roberta Koscielski, deputy director of Peoria (Ill.) Public Library, was named Librarian of the Year by the Illinois Library Association in July.
8m

Santi Thompson, head of digital research services at University of Houston Libraries, is the inaugural recipient of the Eva Digital Research Endowed Library Professorship.
10m

Chad Hutchens, associate librarian and head of digital collections at University of Wyoming Libraries in Laramie, received the university’s 2020 Agnes Milstead Distinguished Librarianship Award April 27.
10m

Nichelle M. Hayes, leader of Indianapolis Public Library’s Center for Black Literature and Culture, received the Indianapolis Center for Leadership Development’s Achievement in Arts and Entertainment Award May 7.
10m

In May Rebecca Jefferson, curator of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at University of Florida in Gainesville and a joint faculty member of the university’s Center for Jewish Studies, was named to the Florida Commissioner of Education’s Task Force on Holocaust Education.
10m

Deborah Margolis, Middle East Studies Librarian at Michigan State University, received a Fulbright US Scholar Program award to conduct research in partnership with Tomorrow’s Youth Organization in Palestine and University of Jordan Libraries American Corner to encourage youth development and relationships among college-age youth and professionals around the world.
10m

Christine Morris, deputy director of OhioNET in Columbus, and Tracee M. Murphy, director of Wellsville Carnegie Public Library, were selected as members of the Leadership Ohio Class of 2020.

Latest Library Links

2d

Kim Bellware writes: “A 5th-grade classroom has become the latest collision point for America’s cultural reckoning with racial bias, police violence, and academic freedom after Florida’s second-largest school district temporarily pulled an award-winning youth novel over a police complaint that the book was ‘propaganda’ against law enforcement.”

Washington Post, May 10
2d

In Closing the Impact Gap, a survey conducted by the UK’s Emerald Publishing, researchers say they’re not satisfied with how academic publishing presents their work to a world that needs to understand it. A total of 1,500 academics in an international pool drawn from more than 100 countries were queried for this study—45% say they agree that research papers are too long, 57% say they feel that research summaries could help to more effectively present findings to decision-makers outside of academia, and 64% say that videos, podcasts, and infographics could help when presenting research.

Publishing Perspectives, May 11
2d

Amy Dodson has been named the 2020 recipient of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. Dodson, director of the Douglas County (Nev.) Public Library, faced enormous public criticism last year for posting a diversity statement on the library’s Facebook page that included the line, “We support #BlackLivesMatter.” The Douglas County sheriff perceived it as support for violence against law enforcement and said library staff should no longer call 911 for help with disturbances, which led to national media coverage and protests.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign iSchool, May 11
2d

Starting May 12, families and households struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic can get help from a new federal program. The $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, provides a discount up to $50 per month for broadband service (or up to $75 per month on qualifying tribal lands) and a one-time discount up to $100 for a laptop, desktop, or tablet computer purchased through a participating provider. Library staffers in all settings and other broadband equity advocates can help raise awareness of this new emergency funding.

AL: The Scoop, May 11
2d

Mercedes Rutherford-Patten and Nicki Viso write: “Across the country, the makeup of university student populations is changing. First-generation students are organizing on campuses and prompting MLIS programs—such as the one we were enrolled in at San José State University iSchool—to rethink how they are engaging with students. As representatives of the first generation of college graduates in our families, we face a distinct set of challenges entering grad school.”

American Libraries column, May 11
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Author Carmen Maria Machado writes: “I have teamed up with Margaret Atwood, Jodi Picoult, Jacqueline Woodson, and many other authors whose works have been targeted for removal from class reading lists in Leander, Texas. In conjunction with PEN America, a group that promotes free literary expression, we wrote a letter to the school district demanding that our books remain available to students. While our books may contain passages that are potentially uncomfortable, challenging, or even offensive, exposure to our books is vital to expanding minds, affirming experiences, creating appreciation for the arts and building empathy—in short, respecting the adults that the students in Leander, Texas, will soon become.”

New York Times, May 11
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Queens (N.Y.) Public Library Assistant Director Fatma Ghailan writes: “Libraries have long been seen as safe havens for students, providing homework assistance and summer reading programs. Over the last decade, libraries have continued to embrace their role in training adults as well, offering them ways to learn digital skills that employers desperately need.”

American Libraries column, May

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