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Appointments & Retirements

Benningfield, Tony

Tony Benningfield became director of Jefferson County (Mo.) Library April 1.

June 1, 2021
Diede, Charles

Charles Diede became executive director of Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville in New York in December.

June 1, 2021
Dumas, Emily

Emily Dumas started as director of Troy (Mich.) Public Library February 22.

June 1, 2021
Duvernay, Jina

April 5 Jina DuVernay became coordinator of African American studies and primary resource literacy at Atlanta University Center Library.

June 1, 2021
Heilman, Katherine

Katherine Heilman joined University of North Carolina at Greensboro Libraries February 8 as electronic resources librarian and assistant professor in the Department of Technical Services.

June 1, 2021

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At ALA

Castle, Lainie

Lainie Castle, deputy director of the Public Programs Office, left March 8.

June 1, 2021
Jackson, Ni’Shele

Ni’Shele Jackson, program assistant for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), left April 8.

June 1, 2021
Lam, Anna

YALSA Communications Specialist Anna Lam left March 12.

June 1, 2021
O’Connor, Nichole

Nichole O’Connor, YALSA program officer for conferences and events, left April 2.

June 1, 2021
Carrazco, Crystal

Crystal Carrazco, social media manager in the Communications and Marketing Office, left ALA January 22.

May 10, 2021

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Cited

Ewbank, Ann

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.

May 10, 2021
Gut, Rachel

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.

January 8, 2021
Tang, Lydia

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.

January 8, 2021
Rhodes, Angela

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

November 4, 2020
Buljung, Brianna

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.

September 1, 2020

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Obituaries

Carty, Margaret

Margaret Carty, 82, executive director of the Maryland Library Association (MLA) since 1999, died February 4. During her tenure, she revitalized MLA, building a sustainable conference and forging partnerships with NASA and the Delaware Library Association. Carty was recognized as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2013 by the Maryland Daily Record.

June 1, 2021
Eggers, Loretta

Loretta “Lolly” Eggers, 91, died February 26. She worked at Iowa City (Iowa) Public Library from 1969–1994, including 20 years as director. During her tenure, Eggers helped to modernize the library, and in 1980 it became one of the first in the country to have computerized checkout and catalog systems. She wrote the books A Century of Stories: The History of the Iowa City Public Library, 1896–1997 and Iowa City’s Irving Weber: A Biography.

June 1, 2021
Ellenberger, Jack

Jack Ellenberger, 90, former president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), died November 21. He started his career as law librarian at the US Department of Health before working at several law firms. He received AALL’s Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1994 and is a member of the AALL Hall of Fame.

June 1, 2021
Hedin, Mena

Mena Hedin, 83, librarian at Marlborough (Mass.) Public Library until retiring in 2012, died January 14. She started as a page and worked for the library for 58 years.

June 1, 2021
Howard, Margaret

Margaret Howard, 96, retired librarian at Cherokee Lane and Seabrook elementary schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland, died January 10.

June 1, 2021

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Send notices and photos to Amy Carlton, acarlton@ala.org.

Latest Library Links

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ALA invites all library users to nominate their favorite librarians for the I Love My Librarian Award. The national award recognizes librarians working in public, school, college, community college, or university libraries for their outstanding public service contributions. ALA member leaders will select 10 librarians from thousands of nominations, and each will receive $5,000 in recognition of their outstanding public service. The Association will honor award recipients at the I Love My Librarian Award ceremony on January 22, 2022 at LibLearnX in San Antonio, Texas. Winners also will receive complimentary LibLearnX registration as part of their award packages as well as a $750 travel stipend. Nominations are accepted online now through September 27.

ALA Communications and Marketing Office, June 23
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Christine Frascarelli writes: “Our July 2021 Uncorked Reading Challenge theme is books set on an island. I couldn’t think of a more perfect summer prompt. Of course, you could travel via a good book to gorgeous islands like Hawaii and Santorini. In one of my new favorites, Ariadne, get tipsy with Dionysus on Naxos. Or pick up a book set on an imaginary island, books based loosely on real destinations, or books set on larger island countries like Indonesia or Japan. In the process, let Jamaica Kincaid school you on conscious tourism. So, what are some of the best books set on islands to take you there?”

The Uncorked Librarian, June 13
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A pair of Christian parents in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, are suing the East Penn School District, claiming their children should be exempt from lessons concerning the Black Lives Matter movement. Macungie residents Maureen and Christopher Brophy say in their lawsuit that topics discussed in their children’s classrooms such as “systematic racism,” “white fragility,” “religion,” “white privilege,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “police brutality,” are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. They claim those topics are anti-Christian and discriminate against their religion. The lawsuit was filed June 14 in federal court.

Pittsburgh (Penn.) Post-Gazette, June 16
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AASL has released its annual list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning. The recognition honors electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators. These user-friendly tools are recognized for fostering the qualities of innovation/creativity, active participation, collaboration, exploration, and information/reference. The technology resources are also evaluated for their application of AASL’s “National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries.”

American Association of School Librarians, June 22
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Betsy Ladyzhets writes: “In the spring of 2020, the first versions of COVID-19 exposure notification systems were released to the public. These systems promised to slow the disease’s spread by providing automated warnings to people who came into contact with the virus. Now, over a year later, residents in more than 50 countries—including half of US states—can opt into these systems. But the big question remains: how well did this technology work?”

MIT Technology Review, June 16
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Zac Ginsburg writes: “Whether you’ll keep working from home or return to the office, the pandemic has shown us the importance of a safe, comfortable workspace. For many of us forced to do our jobs where we lived, that meant creating a makeshift station out of whatever space or supplies were available. After nine months of remote teaching, I had back and neck pain, chronic stomach aches, a high baseline of anxiety, and, worst of all, agony in my shoulder that woke me up at night.”

Wired, June 22
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In Episode 63, Call Number with American Libraries looks at outdoor-related activities with conversations about bugs (most notably the Brood X cicadas) with Ohio County (W.Va.) Public Library, this summer’s best beach reads with Booklist’s Senior Editor of Collection Management and Library Outreach Susan Maguire, and Delmont (Pa.) Public Library’s new outdoor learning center.

AL: The Scoop, June 22

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