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Louisiana Denied State Aid; Support Varies Elsewhere

By Beverly Goldberg | August 8, 2012

“FY2012 has proven to be relatively stable,” the bipartisan National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) said August 7 in its State Budget Update: Summer 2012 (PDF file). “Projected revenues and appropriations in FY2013 also are expected to rise moderately.” Although a sustained robust recovery still eludes state coffers, the NCSL report affirms that “new budget … Continue reading Louisiana Denied State Aid; Support Varies Elsewhere →

Talk to Teens – They’re Still Listening

About a decade ago, libraries were talking to teens about what would make the public library a cooler place. The results of these conversations were captured in Elaine Meyers’s article “The Coolness Factor” (American Libraries, November 1999) and informed the focus of the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development project. That world—without Facebook and … Continue reading Talk to Teens – They’re Still Listening →

Using Web Analytics Well

By Kate Marek | October 5, 2011

Are your website visitors doing what you expect them to do or what you want them to do? Are they following the path you thought they would follow when you designed your menu system? Are visitors to your digital-library page finding the link to historical photos of your city or the university’s archival images? These … Continue reading Using Web Analytics Well →

The Problem with Sports Novels

By Bill Ott | October 3, 2011

Most sports novels, especially the kind that follow a team or an individual through a season of play, face a built-in problem: The drama and suspense usually rides on the team’s success or failure as it moves through the season and plays the inevitable Big Game. Thus, there can only be one of two endings. … Continue reading The Problem with Sports Novels →

Main Street Public Library

By Wayne A. Wiegand | September 27, 2011

One day in the mid-1990s Doug Zweizig and I were having lunch on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, where we both taught. I was contemplating a history of the small-town American public library, I told him, but wanted a fresh perspective. Eighty percent of public library systems existed in towns of fewer than 25,000, I … Continue reading Main Street Public Library →

Open Source, Open Mind

By Meredith Farkas | September 27, 2011

I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed … Continue reading Open Source, Open Mind →

New from ALA Editions

By Karen Muller | September 27, 2011

With over 11 million articles and loans moving through the cooperative resource sharing processes of libraries each year, this updating of the Interlibrary Loan Practices Handbook is welcome. In preparing this third edition, editors Cherié L. Weible and Karen L. Janke have built on the pioneering work of Virginia Boucher, author of the first two … Continue reading New from ALA Editions →

The Big Easy Revisited

By Molly Raphael | September 27, 2011

Returning to New Orleans for the 2011 American Library Association Annual Conference this year was both rewarding and emotional for many of us. Five years earlier, we traveled to Louisiana less than a year after the devastating hurricanes and massive flooding from failure of the levies. At that time, we were welcomed with much more … Continue reading The Big Easy Revisited →

Manage Best with Best Practices

By Karen Muller | September 27, 2011

This month we’re examining the library literature for tips on how to manage our libraries better. Improvements may come from analyzing each step of a task and its impact on the bottom line, or from incorporating new standards and practices consistent with the diversity of materials now part of our collections. Pay Attention to Standards … Continue reading Manage Best with Best Practices →

The Lowdown on STEM

By Linda W. Braun | September 20, 2011

Each week I have at least one conversation about how schools and libraries are working to support teaching and learning in STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. I’ve discovered that some librarians are struggling to figure out what their role should be in the STEM universe. I’m here to give you a few pointers. First, … Continue reading The Lowdown on STEM →

Broadcast Collaboration

By Brian Mathews | September 16, 2011

“Remind me how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull?” “What music should I play for a piece about polar bears?” “David Hasselhoff—singing at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Can you find tape?” Welcome to a typical day at the National Public Radio library in Washington, D.C., where over 10,000 such requests come in each year from staff, … Continue reading Broadcast Collaboration →

Recognizing the Impact of Ezra Jack Keats

By Rocco Staino | September 14, 2011

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ezra Jack Keats’s groundbreaking picture book The Snowy Day (Penguin, 1962), The Jewish Museum has created the first major United States exhibition for the Caldecott-winning illustrator. “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats” show features over 80 original works, from preliminary sketches to final paintings … Continue reading Recognizing the Impact of Ezra Jack Keats →

Latest Library Links

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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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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.
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ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. ELs will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4
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On December 9, ALA announced a $25 million bequest by James W. Lewis, of Washington, D.C. The gift, the largest individual bequest in ALA’s history, will fund scholarships for aspiring librarians with demonstrated financial needs. Throughout Lewis’s career at Merrill Lynch, where he leads the Lewis Group as senior vice president and senior relationship manager, he has demonstrated his commitment to libraries and their communities by generously volunteering his time, including as a member of the Board of Visitors at the library of his alma mater, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also served as a Library Trustee Board member at District of Columbia Public Library for 10 years.”

AL: The Scoop, Dec. 9
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Tess Prendergast writes: “I will never forget the surprised look on one mom’s face during storytime when I dropped a tip—technically called an aside—about how rhyming helps babies differentiate sounds and prepares them for reading. “You mean that all this singing will help her in school?” she asked. “I thought we were just doing this for fun!” Early literacy activities are certainly fun—but also valuable. Many parents and caregivers aren’t aware that simple, everyday activities can benefit their child’s early language and literacy development and have a lasting positive impact on their learning.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Joel Thornton, associate dean, collections and scholarly communication at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, has withdrawn his candidacy for 2025–2028 treasurer of the ALA. Larry Neal, director of Clinton-Macomb (Mich.) Public Library, is the remaining nominated candidate for ALA treasurer. Members who are interested in running by petition for ALA treasure may do so by completing a petition form with the signatures of no fewer than 200 current personal ALA members, and a Candidate Biographical Information Form, by December 13.

ALA Governance Office, Dec. 9
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Catherine Savage, Roz Topolski, and Ashley Johnson write: “In a healthy democracy, voters have confidence in the electoral process, are well informed about the issues, and know that their voice matters. Unfortunately, rampant misinformation and disinformation have left voters unhappy and confused these days about what to believe and whom to trust. Providing a space for civic engagement is an important part of what public libraries do. To that end, the community engagement team at Vernon Area Public Library District in Lincolnshire, Illinois, retained a political scientist in residence as a key component of a yearlong series of election-related offerings.”

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.

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