Archives

Zhang, Kaiping

July 20, 2016

June 30 Kaiping Zhang retired as business/economics librarian at the University of Oregon Libraries in Eugene.

Popko, John

July 20, 2016

John Popko retired as university librarian at Seattle University in July.

O’Doherty, Kathleen

July 20, 2016

June 30 Kathleen O’Doherty retired as director of Woburn (Mass.) Public Library.

Harrington, Drew

July 20, 2016

Drew Harrington retired as dean of the University of Portland (Oreg.) Clark Library in July.

Chaffee, Lance

July 20, 2016

May 27 Lance Chaffee retired as director of Olean (N.Y.) Public Library.

Boyarsky, Karen

July 20, 2016

Karen Boyarsky, head librarian at Beverly Hills (Calif.) High School, retired in June.

Beck, Linda

July 20, 2016

In June Linda Beck retired as director of Indian Valley Public Library in Telford, Pennsylvania, after 28 years with the library.

Morehouse, Harold

July 20, 2016

Harold Geddes “Hap” Morehouse, 88, dean emeritus of the University Libraries at the University of Nevada at Reno (UNR), died May 5. He started at UNR in 1961, became director of libraries in 1969, and served 24 years in that position. He continued cataloging books at UNR after his retirement until 2007. Geddes also mentored many … Continue reading Morehouse, Harold →

Martell, Charles

July 20, 2016

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 … Continue reading Martell, Charles →

Kohler, Carolyn

July 20, 2016

Carolyn Willa Kohler, 72, head of the Government Documents Department at the University of Iowa Libraries from 1971 until her 2004 retirement, died May 5 after a short illness. Kohler was active in ALA’s Government Documents Round Table and received ALA’s James Bennett Childs Award in 2003 for her lifetime contribution as a documents librarian. … Continue reading Kohler, Carolyn →

Havlik, Robert

July 20, 2016

Robert J. (Bob) Havlik, 90, director emeritus of the Architecture and Engineering Libraries at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, died February 29. Havlik was part of the Notre Dame library faculty from 1973 until his 1992 retirement. He had previously been a librarian at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; Iowa … Continue reading Havlik, Robert →

Robinson, Alice

July 20, 2016

At the Suffolk School Library Media Association Awards Ceremony May 18, Alice Robinson, West Babylon (N.Y.) Junior High School librarian, received a Dr. Joette Stefl-Mabry Honorarium Donation for creating a makerspace program at the school library.

Latest Library Links

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Rodney Freeman Jr. writes: “We are living through a period of profound uncertainty and systemic challenge—where erasure of truth and history is not only possible but actively underway. History is protected by those who collect, preserve, and share the facts, and the archive becomes a battleground where every saved story is an act of resistance. The future will only remember what is preserved today, and the choice is between standing by as stories are diluted or destroyed—or fighting for the record, for the archive, and for the truth with steady, everyday work that anyone can participate in.”

Common Dreams, Nov. 2
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John Herrman writes: “Drawing on a new global survey of 250,000 adults in 50 countries by analytics firm GWI, John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times provocatively argues that, amidst all the fervor about artificial intelligence, another consequential story is unfolding more quietly: ‘In years to come, we may well look back on September 2025 as the point at which social media jumped the shark and began rapidly accelerating its transition from the place to be seen,’ he writes, ‘to a gaudy backwater of the internet inhabited by those with nothing better to do.’”

New York Magazine: Intelligencer, Nov. 10; Financial Times, Oct. 3
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While there were relatively few local elections in the US November 4, several that were held delivered good news for libraries. Washington County, Oregon, approved a library levy increase from 22 to 37 mills. School board members who had supported book bans lost in Cypress-Fairbanks (Tex.) Independent School District. In Ohio, 18 of 20 public library levies passed, and voters rejected several school board incumbents who ran on culture-war issues including banning books. In Pine-Richland School District in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, a slate of candidates opposing the school board’s new policy giving themselves power to add or remove library books, won the majority of board seats.

OregonLive, Nov. 5; Houston Press Nov. 5; Cleveland.com, Nov. 5; Signal Ohio, Nov. 10; TribLive (Pittsburgh), Mar. 18, Nov. 5
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For the first time since 2018, ALA will host the National Library Legislative Day February 25–26, 2026. The event will combine advocacy education, networking, and in-person meetings with legislators and congressional staff. Interested participants must complete an interest form by December 12 to be considered, as capacity is limited to 235 people and ALA is working to ensure equitable state representation. During the February 25 training portion, participants will share advocacy stories, learn from policy experts, and strategize for meetings on Capitol Hill the next day.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Nov. 10
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Corey Halaychik writes: “Libraries have long been the backbone of academic and public access to knowledge. But over time, we have handed over too much control to vendors—companies that provide us with books, databases, discovery systems, and other essential services. If we continue down this path, we risk losing our ability to shape the future of information access. But libraries don’t have to be passive consumers of vendor products. We can be creators, leaders, and innovators. The question is: Are we ready to take that step?”

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Nov. 7
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Amanda Jones, the Livingston Parish (La.) school librarian who became one of the first librarians to sue book-banning activists for defamation after relentless assaults on her character, has received an apology from one of the critics who accused her of giving inappropriate materials to children. Jones settled her lawsuit against Ryan Thames, who operates the Bayou State of Mind Facebook page, for $1 and an apology, in which he acknowledged that his claims about her were not true.

Louisiana Voice, Nov. 3; American Libraries feature, Sept./Oct. 2023; Instagram, Nov. 2
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On November 5, ALA, Unite Against Book Bans, and the Interfaith Alliance launched the “Faith for Libraries: Diverse Faith Communities Supporting Libraries and Librarians” campaign to defend the freedom to read. The organizations have launched a pledge for people of faith to defend the freedom to read, and a campaign for houses of worship to send supportive postcards to their local librarians. They will also announce a major event in Chicago next year to coincide with ALA’s Annual Conference.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Nov. 5

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