Martell, Charles | American Libraries Magazine

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Charles Martell, 79, dean and university librarian at California State University Sacramento (CSUS) until his 2000 retirement, died April 23. Martell had previously been an associate librarian at several universities. He wrote more than 85 articles on library science and served as associate editor of the Journal of Academic Librarianship and editor of College and Research Libraries. He also established CSUS’s Friends of the Library group, its Japanese American Archival Collection, and its Cambodian Oral History Collection.

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Adaeze Uche writes: “Even if you’ve never written one yourself, you’ve probably seen a formula that stretches so far across Excel’s formula bar that you don’t even bother trying to make sense of it. With so many moving parts, it’s easy to lose track of what the formula is actually supposed to achieve. I’ve found LET to be the best fix for this. It’s an Excel function borrowed from programming that makes complex formulas significantly easier to read, write, and maintain, and it hasn’t failed me yet.”

MakeUseOf, June 22
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Christin Monroe, Cameron Pilato, and Ari Weinshenker write: “Have you ever had a student fail to submit a research assignment—even though you’re fairly certain they spent a great deal of time working on it? Have you worked with a student who asks what feels like too many questions, or none at all? Have you seen students dramatically undershoot—or overshoot—the expectations for an assignment? Too often, these moments are interpreted as signs of low motivation, poor time management, or disengagement. But our shared experience suggests something else: Many students aren’t underthinking their academic work. They’re overthinking it.”

Info Literal, June 17
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Jane Friedman writes: “Last week, I received a press release from the Authors Guild about their latest study on why authors’ incomes are declining, a story that’s been making the rounds in the media. At the Authors Guild website, in the report’s key findings, libraries are strongly implied to be a factor in declining author incomes. I urge caution in drawing such a conclusion from this particular study. Here’s why.”

JaneFriedman.com, June 17; Author’s Guild, June 9
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Beatrice Downey, Courtney Shareef, and Natalia Umaña write: “With the recent rise of anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion legislation across state and federal levels came the sunsetting of many initiatives intended to increase underrepresented demographics in various industries. As early as 2024, resident librarians worried about the longevity of diversity residency and fellowship programs, which were designed to recruit and train Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) librarians. During the 2025–2026 academic year, we confirmed what others suspected: A large number of library residency and fellowship programs were ending or pausing their programs.”

WOC+lib, June 17
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Jennifer Chapman writes: “Efficiency is one of the main selling points for new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools, but efficiency is oftentimes the result of the AI tool and invisible human labor. Reading a white paper from Glean’s Work AI Institute about AI’s hidden human labor made me think about the invisible labor librarians are doing. This post looks at some of the ways law librarians are performing this labor and creating an illusion of efficiency for primary users.”

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, June 19; Glean Work AI Institute, June 10
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Judith L. Silva and Zachary Voras write: “Academic libraries face the challenge of what Melissa Tedone and Rosie Grayburn called ‘poison books.’ Researchers at large institutions are conducting studies of library holdings, testing books for heavy metals, identifying health and safety guidelines, and sharing new knowledge via published case studies. Small- to mid-sized academic libraries, however, may lack equipment, expertise, funding, or time to investigate their holdings, or the space to safely segregate such items, and must develop their own strategies to address health and safety issues surrounding bibliotoxicology. This case study explores activities at a medium-sized public university.”

RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring
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Macy Kinney writes: “Playwork, according to the Play Foundation, is ‘an approach to working with children that aims to support and facilitate the play process—and the profession that practices this approach.’ Playwork has its roots in the adventure playground of the UK and Europe, so is less familiar to those of us in the US. Playwork professionals, like children’s librarians, include reflexive practice, audits of their space, and critically examining the rules of a space as they impact children. We can apply tools we already use to looking at how play functions in our libraries.”

ALSC Blog, June 22

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