Archives

Roth, Jennifer

September 1, 2021

March 17 Jennifer Roth was promoted to director of William P. Faust Public Library in Westland, Michigan.

Alford, Larry

September 1, 2021

Larry Alford, chief librarian at University of Toronto Libraries, received the Canadian Association of Research Libraries Award for Distinguished Service to Research Librarianship May 18.

Kear, Robin

September 1, 2021

Robin Kear, liaison librarian in research and educational support at University of Pittsburgh, became the first librarian elected university senate president, effective July 1.

Collens, Lisa

September 1, 2021

In April Schlow Centre Region Library in State College, Pennsylvania, promoted Lisa Rives Collens to director.

Crews, Molly

September 1, 2021

Texas A&M University’s Medical Sciences Library promoted Molly Crews to librarian at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Center for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses, effective April 4.

DeAngelo, Karen

September 1, 2021

In March Montgomery County–Norristown (Pa.) Public Library promoted Karen DeAngelo to executive director and district administrator.

Lyles, Denise

September 1, 2021

Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut, promoted Denise K. Lyles to supervisor of the Harry Bennett and Weed Memorial and Hollander branches, effective July 1.

Miculek, Sally

September 1, 2021

March 10 Georgetown (Tex.) Public Library promoted Sally Miculek to director.

Phillips-Bell, Allen

September 1, 2021

Allen Phillips-Bell was promoted to director of Pender County (N.C.) Library in March.

Potts, Amber

September 1, 2021

Amber Potts was promoted to associate director of Henderson County (Ky.) Public Library in April.

Sandefur, Shannon

September 1, 2021

April 12 Henderson County (Ky.) Public Library promoted Shannon Sandefur to director.

Stelly, John

September 1, 2021

Ascension Parish (La.) Library promoted John Stelly to director in March.

Latest Library Links

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The Librarians, a documentary directed by Kim A. Snyder that follows librarians as they work to protect children’s rights to access books, won the Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking at the 78th Emmy Awards on September 5. In a Facebook post, the production team wrote: “We are so proud to stand here in solidarity with all our fierce librarians and Freedom to Read advocates, and so many others across the nation who continue to fight to defend our First Amendment rights. This award is such an honor–and it HONORS ALL OF YOU—American patriots, truly heroes!” The film is available to stream on PBS.

The Television Academy, Sept. 5; American Libraries Online, July 28, 2025
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Librarians joined the world in mourning Dolly Parton and remembering both her artistic achievements and her philanthropy. Parton’s award-winning Imagination Library initiative, inspired by her father’s inability to read or write, has put hundreds of millions of books into the hands of children, and she considered it one of her greatest achievements. ALA conferred Parton with honorary lifetime membership, its highest honor, in 2023. American Libraries interviewed Parton in 2018 as the Imagination Library was delivering its 100 millionth book. Libraries, including Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library and Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, created commemorative displays and book lists, while the University of Louisville (Ky.) Archives and Special Collections and the University of North Carolina Libraries shared rare photos and recordings.

I Love Libraries, Aug. 27; American Libraries Trend, Jan./Feb. 2018; Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library, Aug. 26; Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, Aug. 26; University of Louisville (Ky.) Archives and Special Collections, Aug. 27; Chapelboro.com, Aug. 27
5d

Yasir Mahmood writes: “I’ve been gradually building up my Excel shortcut knowledge over time, and it has genuinely helped me work with spreadsheets more efficiently. Once you start incorporating shortcuts into your daily workflow, there’s honestly no going back to the old way.” Shortcuts can speed navigation, data selection, formatting, formula-building, data management, and simply working with worksheets.

MakeUseOf, Aug. 27
5d

Dan Johnson writes: “Viktoria Haidai surveys the mangled remains of the printing press, which should have been busy churning out textbooks ready for the new school year. The plant, on the edge of Kyiv, was hit during the night by a Russian missile, just as production was ramping up to deliver 1.3 million books—10% of Ukraine’s schoolbooks. Russia has hit printing presses and publishing houses across Ukraine in a series of recent attacks, destroying 12 million books and damaging other icons of Ukrainian history and culture.”

BBC, Aug. 30
5d

“Public libraries nationwide are reaching a breaking point as a result of mounting pressures to censor collections, increased intimidation against library staff, and disruptions to library operations, according to a September 1 report by PEN America. Out of Circulation: Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries examines the fallout from book bans, canceled story hours, harassment of librarians, funding cuts, and the undoing of libraries’ independent governance. Taken together, the report argues, these actions threaten ‘the very existence of public libraries’ as a cornerstone of democracy.”

PEN America, Sept. 1
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Hana Lee Goldin writes: “More than half a billion people around the world now listen to podcasts, across more than 4 million shows. Buried in that catalog is a kind of source material that barely existed a generation ago: experts talking about their own work, at length and in their own words. The clearest proof that podcasts already work as sources is how often we quote them. Each repetition runs on memory alone. So the archive is already in use as a source, just without a way back to the moment.”

Card Catalog, Sept. 1
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Leah Weinryb-Grohsgal writes: “As the steward of over 200 petabytes of data, the Library of Congress (LC) has spent decades building infrastructure and services to preserve and provide access to digital materials. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer enticing possibilities for maintaining, delivering, and analyzing some of the nation’s most influential research and treasured cultural and historical artifacts. Yet the use of these technologies requires extensive evaluation and monitoring before implementation. In 2025, LC introduced its AI Sandbox for Staff to do just that. The most recent cohort of the Library’s AI Sandbox for Staff supported over a dozen small-scale experiments.”

Library of Congress: The Signal, Aug. 31

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