Archives

Taylor, Mary

December 4, 2015

Mary Taylor retired as executive director of LITA July 31.

Pera, Mariam

December 4, 2015

American Libraries Associate Editor Mariam Pera left ALA April 17.

Clifford, Tim

December 4, 2015

Tim Clifford was promoted to Senior Production Editor in ALA Production Services April 15.

Bailey, Colin

December 4, 2015

Colin B. Bailey has been appointed director of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

Tsien, T.H.

December 4, 2015

T.H. Tsien, 105, curator emeritus of the East Asian Collection at the University of Chicago’s Joseph Regenstein Library, died April 9. Tsien was considered one of the most influential Chinese librarian in the United States, working at the University from 1947 until 1978, and continuing his research and writing after his retirement. As a librarian … Continue reading Tsien, T.H. →

Lee, Hikyung Yoon

December 4, 2015

Hikyung Yoon Lee, 80, a librarian at Princeton (N.J.) University for more than 30 years until her 1997 retirement, died March 17.

Leon, Mark

December 4, 2015

Mark Leon joined ALA as chief financial officer May 11.

Wemett, Lisa

December 4, 2015

Lisa C. Wemett, president of the Friends of Libraries Section of the New York Library Association, received the first NYLA Above and Beyond Award at the association’s 2014 annual conference. Additionally, NYLA’s Youth Services Section has named its annual spring conference scholarship in Wemett’s honor.

Beske, David

December 4, 2015

David Beske joined ALA as human resources coordinator April 29.

Phillip, Zelantha

December 4, 2015

Zelantha A. Phillip, 44, a division manager at Queens (N.Y.) Public Library, died April 20 after a short illness. She managed a computer center at Queens Library, served as project manager for a million-dollar National Science Foundation-funded project, and received the Queens Library Luminary award in 2000 and 2002.

Douglass, Joanne

December 4, 2015

Joanne Douglass retired as assistant librarian at Buckfield (Maine) Junior Senior High School in June.

Matsil, Kathie

December 4, 2015

Kathie Matsil retired as head of the youth services department at Meriden (Conn.) Public Library after 33 years with the library in April.

Latest Library Links

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Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9
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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.
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ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The group will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia in June, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4

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