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Orle Tantillo, Astrida

December 31, 2023

Astrida Orle Tantillo became president and librarian of Newberry Library in Chicago December 1.

Romanosky, Neil

December 31, 2023

Neil Romanosky was named dean of Michigan State University Libraries in East Lansing effective September 11.

Polk, Loren

December 31, 2023

Loren Polk became director of Stowe (Vt.) Free Library June 19.

Munz, Tania

December 31, 2023

September 5 Tania Munz started as president and CEO of the Forest History Society in Durham, North Carolina.

Madler, Aubrey

December 31, 2023

Aubrey Madler became executive director of Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, in June.

Loeser, Katherine

December 31, 2023

June 16 Katherine Loeser became manager of Los Angeles County Library’s Claremont Helen Renwick branch.

Just, Melissa

December 31, 2023

University of Southern California in Los Angeles appointed Melissa Just dean of libraries effective November 27.

Drobnic Holan, Angie

December 31, 2023

June 22 Angie Drobnic Holan was named director of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Heyns, Erla

December 31, 2023

Erla P. Heyns became university librarian and vice provost at University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries January 1.

Giltrop, Jennifer

December 31, 2023

Jennifer Giltrop started as executive director of Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries in Vancouver, Washington, December 4.

Ghosh, Aparna

December 31, 2023

In August Aparna Ghosh was named assistant professor and technical services and collections librarian at Eckerd College Library in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Jackson Gavin, Andrea

December 31, 2023

October 11 Andrea Jackson Gavin became inaugural program director of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Digital Library Trust, a partnership of the HBCU Library Alliance in McDonough, Georgia, and Harvard Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Latest Library Links

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Librarians joined the world in mourning Dolly Parton and remembering both her artistic achievements and her philanthropy. Parton’s award-winning Imagination Library initiative, inspired by her father’s inability to read or write, has put hundreds of millions of books into the hands of children, and she considered it one of her greatest achievements. ALA conferred Parton with honorary lifetime membership, its highest honor, in 2023. American Libraries interviewed Parton in 2018 as the Imagination Library was delivering its 100 millionth book. Libraries, including Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library and Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, created commemorative displays and book lists, while the University of Louisville (Ky.) Archives and Special Collections and the University of North Carolina Libraries shared rare photos and recordings.

I Love Libraries, Aug. 27; American Libraries Trend, Jan./Feb. 2018; Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library, Aug. 26; Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, Aug. 26; University of Louisville (Ky.) Archives and Special Collections, Aug. 27; Chapelboro.com, Aug. 27
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Yasir Mahmood writes: “I’ve been gradually building up my Excel shortcut knowledge over time, and it has genuinely helped me work with spreadsheets more efficiently. Once you start incorporating shortcuts into your daily workflow, there’s honestly no going back to the old way.” Shortcuts can speed navigation, data selection, formatting, formula-building, data management, and simply working with worksheets.

MakeUseOf, Aug. 27
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Dan Johnson writes: “Viktoria Haidai surveys the mangled remains of the printing press, which should have been busy churning out textbooks ready for the new school year. The plant, on the edge of Kyiv, was hit during the night by a Russian missile, just as production was ramping up to deliver 1.3 million books—10% of Ukraine’s schoolbooks. Russia has hit printing presses and publishing houses across Ukraine in a series of recent attacks, destroying 12 million books and damaging other icons of Ukrainian history and culture.”

BBC, Aug. 30
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“Public libraries nationwide are reaching a breaking point as a result of mounting pressures to censor collections, increased intimidation against library staff, and disruptions to library operations, according to a September 1 report by PEN America. Out of Circulation: Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries examines the fallout from book bans, canceled story hours, harassment of librarians, funding cuts, and the undoing of libraries’ independent governance. Taken together, the report argues, these actions threaten ‘the very existence of public libraries’ as a cornerstone of democracy.”

PEN America, Sept. 1
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Hana Lee Goldin writes: “More than half a billion people around the world now listen to podcasts, across more than 4 million shows. Buried in that catalog is a kind of source material that barely existed a generation ago: experts talking about their own work, at length and in their own words. The clearest proof that podcasts already work as sources is how often we quote them. Each repetition runs on memory alone. So the archive is already in use as a source, just without a way back to the moment.”

Card Catalog, Sept. 1
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Leah Weinryb-Grohsgal writes: “As the steward of over 200 petabytes of data, the Library of Congress (LC) has spent decades building infrastructure and services to preserve and provide access to digital materials. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer enticing possibilities for maintaining, delivering, and analyzing some of the nation’s most influential research and treasured cultural and historical artifacts. Yet the use of these technologies requires extensive evaluation and monitoring before implementation. In 2025, LC introduced its AI Sandbox for Staff to do just that. The most recent cohort of the Library’s AI Sandbox for Staff supported over a dozen small-scale experiments.”

Library of Congress: The Signal, Aug. 31
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Tess Vrbin writes: “Saline County, Arkansas, agreed this week to pay $275,000 to Patty Hector, the former library director who was fired in October 2023 after speaking against local conservatives’ push to limit children’s access to books. County Judge Matt Brumley’s firing power came from an ordinance approved by the all-Republican quorum court, which previously urged Hector to move books with ‘sexual content or imagery’ out of children’s reach. The books in question pertained to LGBTQ+ topics, sex education, and systemic racism, which Saline County conservatives called ‘indoctrination’ and inappropriate for children.”

Arkansas Advocate, Aug. 27; Oct. 9, 2023; Aug. 21, 2023; Apr. 17, 2023

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