Archives

Higgerson, Rebecca

June 8, 2017

January 5 Rebecca Higgerson started as director of Brandon Township (Mich.) Public Library.

Enquist, Amy

June 8, 2017

Amy Enquist became program librarian at Beacon Falls (Conn.) Public Library January 2.

Herron, Jennifer

June 8, 2017

Jennifer Herron recently joined Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis as emerging technologies librarian.

Gomez-Beloz, Selina

June 8, 2017

Crown Point (Ind.) Community Library appointed Selina Gomez-Beloz as director in December.

Hildebrand, Ryan

June 8, 2017

February 27 Ryan Hildebrand started as authorities and special collections cataloging librarian at the University of Oregon Libraries in Eugene.

Grove, Cindy

June 8, 2017

January 12 Cindy Grove became director of Rockport (Mass.) Public Library.

Finnigan, Claire

June 8, 2017

Claire M. Finnigan, 91, a teacher and librarian for 45 years in the Peekskill (N.Y.) City School District, died January 3.

Grayshaw, John

June 8, 2017

January 5 John Grayshaw started as director of Middletown (Pa.) Public Library.

Huggins, Annelle

June 8, 2017

January 31 Annelle R. Huggins retired as associate dean of University Libraries at the University of Memphis, Tennessee.

Jeffers, Louise

June 8, 2017

Louise Catherine Jeffers, 86, a librarian in Guernsey, Wyoming, for more than 20 years, died December 20.

Johnson, Nancy

June 8, 2017

Nancy Johnson, 65, who served as head law librarian, associate dean for library and information services and professor of law at Georgia State University in Atlanta between 1980 and 2012, died December 13 of ovarian cancer. She was instrumental in building the Georgia State Law Library collection and was inducted into the American Association of … Continue reading Johnson, Nancy →

Juarez-Carrillo, Veronica

June 8, 2017

Veronica Juarez-Carrillo recently became librarian at the Exeter (Calif.) Branch of Tulare County Library.

Latest Library Links

1d

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
2d

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
2d

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
3d

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
4d

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
4d

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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