Cited

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Kathryn Ash, president of Friends of Georgia Libraries and trustee of Piedmont Regional Library System in Jefferson, was named Georgia’s 2015 Public Library Champion of the Year by the Georgia Public Library Service.
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In November Scott A. Bruner, director of Chino Valley (Ariz.) Public Library, received the Arizona Library Association’s Library Leadership Award.
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Ginny Moore Kruse, director emerita of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin School of Education in Madison, has been named a 2016 fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
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In March Betty Waznis (left), director of Chula Vista (Calif.) Public Library, was named as one of 16 Women of the Year by California 80th District Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.
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Lynn Baird, dean of libraries at the University of Idaho in Moscow, received the Idaho Library Association’s Librarian of the Year award October 1.
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In October the Daily Record (Maryland) named Howard County Library System President and CEO Valerie J. Gross as one of its Innovators of the Year.
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Maine Library Association named Gardiner Public Library Director Anne Davis as its 2015 Outstanding Librarian in November.
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October 25 the Independent Living Resource Center of Northeast Florida presented its Spirit of the ADA Jack Gillrup Award to Chris Eaton, talking books special needs librarian at Jacksonville Public Library, for his and the library’s leadership role in the disability community of Northeast Florida.
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Leticia S. Leija, library and cultural arts director at Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, Texas, has received the Ohtli Award, presented by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute for Mexicans Abroad to Mexican, Mexican-American, or Latino leaders whose efforts contribute to the well-being of Mexican communities abroad.
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Michael Mark Noga, collections strategist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries in Cambridge, received the Geoscience Information Society’s Mary B. Ansari Distinguished Service Award November 2.
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Jay Ziolko, former executive director of Mississippi County (Ark.) Library System, received the Frances P. Neal Award for career service from the Arkansas Library Association.
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William H. Mischo, head of the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named the inaugural holder of the Berthold Family Professorship in Information Access and Discovery at the university.

Latest Library Links

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Robin Camille Davis writes: “So you want to hear from real people who use your library! There are many user research methods to choose from. Interviews let you get at the why and the how, not just the what. You could easily use surveys to ask a large number of your users which library services they use. But only an interview can tell you why your patrons seem to use virtual references services often but never the in-person information desk.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Jan. 6
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Katherine Knox writes: “Linked data is a system of organizing information with the goal of making it easier to share and find new information, something which is very appealing to libraries. But methodologies for cataloging library materials are very slow to change. Converting libraries to a linked data system is complicated. Catalogers typically don’t have the capacity, authority, or software to test out new cataloging methods. Not all integrated library service discovery platforms used by public libraries have incorporated linked data into their search results. Nevertheless, libraries around the world are converting to linked data, especially archival repositories.”

Public Libraries Online, Jan. 6
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Chris Perez writes: “The Louisiana Supreme Court is allowing a defamation lawsuit filed by Amanda Jones, a Livingston Parish librarian accused of promoting pornography and ‘erotic contents’ to children, to be reheard, saying she has a right to have the ‘very specific allegations’ hurled against her two years ago proven in court by her accusers after the case was tossed out due to a late appeal. Jones sued Citizens for a New Louisiana, the group that brought the allegations forth, in 2022. Jones says she was attacked after speaking up at a public meeting about library censorship that year.”

Law & Crime, Dec. 30; American Libraries feature, Sept./Oct. 2023
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Andy Peters writes: “A recent trend in mixed-use developments is to center the project on a distinctive property to provide a sense of character and place, be it a sports stadium or a historic structure. One Texas town is taking a different page from that book. In the growing Austin suburb of Cedar Park, city leaders and their private development partner chose a new library as its central focus. Other cities are considering whether to make a library a central point in redevelopment efforts.”

CoStar News, Dec. 31
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The US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas declared Arkansas Act 372 unconstitutional December 23 in an opinion indicating that the law is overbroad and void for vagueness. The law would have subjected librarians and bookstore owners to criminal prosecution for making materials available on library and bookstore shelves that could be deemed harmful to younger minors, and mandated a procedure in public libraries whereby individuals may challenge books based on “appropriateness” (an undefined term). The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition that included Arkansas libraries, ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation, authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and readers. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he will appeal the ruling.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Dec. 23; Associated Press, Dec. 23
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Cindy Hohl writes: “A tradition of many Native American tribes is to observe the winter count—a visual record that depicts the important events of the year. An elder acts as a historian, chosen by the people to act as the recorder of the year’s activities as they select the top memory that will tell the story of their people. We as library workers may also recall the many special memories experienced by our staff members and patrons. What favorite memory—personal or professional—would you add to the list?”

American Libraries column, Jan./Feb.
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In Episode 99, the Call Number team presents exclusive clips from conversations with authors we interviewed this past year, including Hanif Abdurraqib, Kwame Alexander, Connie Chung, Kate DiCamillo, Max Greenfield, Vashti Harrison, Maggie Nichols, and Jesús Trejo. They each talked to us about the role that books, libraries, and library workers have played in their lives.

AL: The Scoop, Dec. 18

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