As of January 14, elementary-school students in the Davis (Utah) School District were once again free to borrow the Patricia Polacco picture book In Our Mothers’ House, which district officials had ordered in May 2012 to be placed behind the circulation counter and made available only to youngsters who presented written parental permission for them … Continue reading Utah Suit Restores Access to In Our Mothers’ House
Librarians in all types of libraries provide training and instruction. Whether it’s for staff or patrons, the timing of the training is usually critical. Teach first-year college students about a database when they have no assignment that requires them to use it and it will likely go in one ear and out the other. Teach … Continue reading Just-for-Me Training
Candidates for ALA President Barbara Immroth Visit blogs.ischool.utexas.edu/immroth Libraries will meet important individual and community needs through reimagining. In the face of nationwide economic pressures, we are reinventing our services to become virtual and physical spaces for conversation, personal growth, innovation, and knowledge building. ALA—the oldest, largest library association in the world—is ideally positioned to … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President and Treasurer
Caroline Kennedy has been a lifelong advocate for reading, literacy, and libraries. Her career has included work with the New York City Department of Education and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Most recently, she spoke at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting and served this year as honorary chair of National Library Week. Kennedy has … Continue reading Newsmaker: Caroline Kennedy
A new report by the Pew Research Center indicates that free access to technology in public libraries is as important to Americans ages 16 and older as printed books and reference services. “Library Services in the Digital Age” (PDF file), released January 22 by the center’s Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that 80% … Continue reading Public Library Users Want Both Books and Technology
In 1978, when I first read Ivan Doig’s This House of Sky, I was a librarian at Timberland Regional Library in Washington State. Doig’s memoir of growing up in the Montana high country as the third member, along with his father and grandmother, of an unconventional but loving family struck me as a very special … Continue reading Visiting Two Medicine Country
A thread through ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s mission has been “leadership.” Leadership takes many forms throughout our professional lives. We lead colleagues to accomplish the work of our libraries; we lead community groups to advocate on behalf of the library; we lead teams to learn new skills or to adapt a service in new ways. … Continue reading Leadership and Advocacy
Did you know that about 95% of incarcerated people eventually reenter the general population? Neither did I. Nor did I know that a high proportion of them are high school dropouts, though I suppose that’s not all that surprising. Given those circumstances, the importance of, say, health literacy training for inmates seems pretty obvious. Obvious, … Continue reading Making Friends with Research
Mobile phones, personal electronic devices, and tablet computers have infiltrated most corners of the academic library. Although many institutions are interested in exploring these new technologies, some are focusing on tablet computers in particular to enhance and even reimagine their services to better support their communities. Library and information professionals who are finding ways to … Continue reading The Tao of Tablets
