Latest Library Links
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Kate Heston writes: “A federal grant that allowed the Flathead County (Mont.) Library to loan out internet hotspots dried up this week, and library trustees appear disinclined to continue the program. The hotspots first became available in 2020 via a Digital Competitive Grant from the National Telecommunication and Information Administration [which ended June 30]. Continuing the hotspot program struck Flathead County Library Board Trustee Doug Adams as inappropriate. ‘I am philosophically opposed to expanding welfare programs at any level of government,’ Adams said at the board’s June 26 meeting. ‘That’s exactly what this is.’” -
“On July 7, the Mellon Foundation announced the appointment of Carla Hayden as a senior fellow. Hayden will pursue scholarship, writing, and research projects while also serving as a strategic partner and counsel, working in collaboration with Foundation leadership and staff. She will advise on opportunities to support and advance libraries, archives, and other organizations in the public knowledge ecosystem. Hayden’s year-long appointment comes as libraries and public knowledge institutions navigating both historic challenges and transformative advances, including artificial intelligence and digital technologies, the need to ensure equitable access to information, decreasing federal funds for libraries, and escalating censorship efforts.” -
Oguz Kayra writes: “An ancient marvel, unique in design and history, is being unearthed in the heart of southwest Türkiye. Archaeologists working in Stratonikeia, a vast ancient city located in Muğla Province and listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List, have uncovered significant portions of a rare Roman-era library, shedding light on the intellectual and architectural grandeur of the time. Nestled at the intersection of four major streets in the city center, the library was originally constructed during the Hellenistic period and later redesigned in the Roman era.” -
Jessica K. Anderson and Yan Quan Liu write: “Public libraries are institutions that connect individuals with resources. However, not all patrons see themselves reflected in the selected books, and others struggle to discover relevant results in the catalog due to outdated or problematic search terms. Two emerging strategies to address these issues are diversity audits and critical cataloging. Although there is substantial literature on both individually, there is a noticeable lack of studies examining the relationship between the two. Our aim was to identify choices among libraries that have conducted collection audits to reveal patterns that can inform institutions with similar needs.” -
Angela Hursh writes: “Libraries have great stories to tell. But getting the media to listen isn’t always easy. Here are the top 10 practical tips that Leslie Marinelli, communications manager at Forsyth County (Ga.) Public Library; Ray Holley, communications manager at Sonoma County (Calif.) Library; and I shared [at a recent online panel] for getting your library into the news.”
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Pranay Parab writes: “I’ve mostly been really happy with my M1 MacBook Air, which I’ve been using for nearly three years now. However, I regret not going for the variant with 16GB of RAM. The newer laptop still occasionally slows down when I open too many browser tabs. Luckily, I did some troubleshooting and fixed the problem, and I’m here to share what I’ve learned with you. So, if Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari or other browsers are slowing down on your computer, try some of these tips to nip that problem in the bud.” -
Victoria Cox writes: “LaRue County (Ky.) Board of Education heard both criticism and praise last week when members were asked to remove 14 books from the high school library. Although the vote was split, the board ultimately refused to ban the books, citing the need to uphold the constitutional rights of students” by a 4–1 vote. Books the board considered include The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi; Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. -
Jennifer A. Keach, Jenne M. Klotz, and Galen J. Talis write: “Library leaders at all levels are well-placed to create opportunities for joy in their organizations and to model how to do so with nuance and balance. Toward that end, we explored the multidisciplinary literature and compiled an annotated bibliography for leaders who wish to support joy within groups, organizational change agents who want to create equitable conditions for joy in the workplace, and readers seeking to develop their personal practice of joy. We provide a guide exploring five themes: defining joy, finding individual joy, work and organizational joy, empowering change with joy, and joy-adjacent emotions.” -
David Vickers Loertscher and Michelle Young write: “This tutorial introduces school librarians to the use of data visualization tools for documenting and communicating their impact on teaching and learning. By leveraging accessible platforms like Google Forms and Google Sheets, the authors demonstrate how librarians can build dashboards and real-time visual reports to showcase co-teaching, instructional collaboration, and student engagement. The tutorial features real-world examples, highlights common data sources already available to librarians, and argues that dynamic visual storytelling is a powerful alternative to traditional library statistics.” -
Robin Camille Davis writes: “It wasn’t until seven years into my career as a user experience librarian that I realized I’d been accidentally excluding a sizable segment of users from my user research. Interviews, surveys, and usability studies favor people who are gifted at oral and written communication. What about people who are more gifted at visual communication? In the context of user research, this participatory design invites participants to design their own response to a given prompt.” -
Stories from communities nationwide come to life on ALA’s new Show Up for Our Libraries interactive site map. The stories illustrate the real-life consequences of potential funding cuts to rural, research, city, state, and university library programs and, in turn, to the hundreds of millions of library users across the country. Services such as summer reading programs, telehealth resources, interlibrary loan, and ebooks have all been affected. ALA collected the stories in conversation with patrons, library professionals, and advocates across the country to better understand the impact of federal funding cuts since the President’s executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services. -
On June 27, the Supreme Court upheld the Universal Service Fund, which funds the E-Rate program. ALA issued a statement regarding the ruling that reads, in part, “The ALA applauds the Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision to uphold the Universal Service Fund. The system of telecommunications subsidies administered by the Federal Communications Commission includes the E-Rate program, which provides libraries and schools billions of dollars each year for broadband access and connectivity. More than half of all public libraries apply for funding to subsidize the cost of internet connectivity through E-Rate each year.”
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