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Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Raymond Pun

By Raymond Pun | March 1, 2024

Today, libraries and library workers are enduring simultaneous challenges of book bans, artificial intelligence, climate crises, surveillance, digital content price gouging, job burnout, and workplace safety. ALA must realign itself and its core values to empower our work and better support our communities during these turbulent times. As a first-generation college graduate and an emergent … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Raymond Pun →

Working Hand in Hand

Community-led planning is a method for making decisions that puts power in the hands of the community rather than the library. They have real responsibility, authority to make decisions, and accountability for the outcomes. Librarians serve as conveners and facilitators, providing access to library resources and support. The library cannot and should not try to … Continue reading Working Hand in Hand →

Beyond ADA Compliance

By Amy Holland | March 1, 2024

In 2020, staff members at Irondequoit Public Library (IPL) in Rochester, New York, began rethinking our approach to accessibility and inclusion. With reduced hours and services during the COVID- 19 pandemic, we had an opportunity to reenvision how we wanted to welcome patrons back. ADA guidelines provide for a minimum standard of service, but we … Continue reading Beyond ADA Compliance →

Librarian's Library by Araceli Mendez Hintermeister

Getting Down to Business

By Araceli Méndez Hintermeister | March 1, 2024

Libraries That Build Business: Advancing Small Business and Entrepreneurship in Public Libraries Edited by Megan Janicki Libraries are valuable allies for local entrepreneurs, breaking down barriers to technology and information access while fostering community connections. Drawing from ALA’s Libraries Build Business initiative, this book is divided into two parts. The first outlines strategies and considerations … Continue reading Getting Down to Business →

Kathleen Slocum

February 21, 2024

In September the South Dakota Library Association awarded Kathleen Slocum, accessible library services manager at South Dakota State Library in Pierre, its 2023 Distinguished Service Award.

Rachel Grover

February 21, 2024

Rachel Grover, librarian at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, received the Virginia Association for School Librarians’ 2023 School Librarian of the Year Award November 3.

Alyssa Coleman

February 21, 2024

September 26 Alyssa Coleman, digital services librarian at Luzerne County (Pa.) Community College, was named 2023 New Librarian of the Year by the Pennsylvania Library Association.

Michael D. Toman

February 21, 2024

Michael D. Toman, 73, adult services librarian at South Pasadena (Calif.) Public Library from 1995 until his 2015 retirement, died September 2.

Betty-Carol Sellen

February 21, 2024

Betty-Carol Sellen, 89, who held positions at the City University of New York (CUNY) Brooklyn College Library from 1964 until her retirement in 1990, died November 26. She had previously served at Brooklyn Public Library from 1959 to 1960 and University of Washington Law Library in Seattle from 1960 to 1963. She was a founder of … Continue reading Betty-Carol Sellen →

George Needham

February 21, 2024

George Needham, 68, retired director of Delaware County (Ohio) District Library, died November 28. Needham also served as state librarian of Michigan, executive director of ALA’s Public Library Association, vice president of OCLC, and director of Fairfield County (Ohio) District Library. He received the Ohio Library Council’s Hall of Fame Librarian award in 2022.

Carole J. McCollough

February 21, 2024

Carole J. McCollough, 86, retired associate professor and dean of the library and information science program at Wayne State University in Detroit, died December 1. With the Children’s Defense Fund, McCollough conducted workshops for college interns training to run summer literacy (Freedom School) programs. She was chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Task … Continue reading Carole J. McCollough →

James Kyed

February 21, 2024

James Kyed, 86, retired librarian at Harvard University Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Records Center for the New England region, died November 30. Kyed had previously worked at the engineering libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge for 20 years—including 13 years as head librarian—and Georgia Institute of … Continue reading James Kyed →

Latest Library Links

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Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
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Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
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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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