Latest Library Links
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ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions will host a new two-session workshop, “Using Snapchat to Reach Library Patrons” with Paige Alfonzo on August 24 and 31. Alfonzo will teach you how to successfully leverage Snapchat as a marketing tool—one that can be used for readers’ advisory, promotion, information dissemination, and a variety of other marketing purposes. Registration is through the ALA Store. -
ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions will host a new iteration of its 90-minute workshop, “How to Deliver Great Library Customer Service” with Laurie Brown on August 23. Brown will offer pointers on listening and communications skills to help your conversations with angry, chatty, or overly demanding patrons turn out as gracefully as possible. Registration is through the ALA Store. -
Tom Brant writes: “Eyeing a 360-degree camera to create videos that you can watch with a virtual reality headset? You might want to keep your finger off the buy-now button, because Google on June 22 announced an effort to make 180-degree videos the VR standard instead. Google will foster a new video standard, called VR180, aimed at making it easier for professionals to film VR videos using a normal camera instead of one designed specifically for 360-degree shooting.”
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The Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library will buy security cameras, enlist more off-duty police officers, and ban toy or lookalike guns following the June 11 shooting inside the Main Library downtown, the first ever in the 23-branch system’s history. The library has since reviewed its active-shooter training, tested its emergency-notification system, met with staff members, and created an 86-page security briefing book. The board voted 4–0 on the new cameras, expected to cost as much as $500,000.
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Arlene Hopkins and Stephen Maack write: “The world faces global ecological systems challenges of unprecedented severity and threat. The scientific reality of climate change has been politicized; President Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the action has moved city and state leaders to offset this maneuver. The role of public libraries as hubs for reliable information, learning, and community building is ever more critical to our future resilience and sustainability.”
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J. D. Biersdorfer writes: “What’s the best way to get animated GIFs into text messages? Using a dedicated keyboard that taps into a ready library of GIF files is often a speedy way to send a visual response in a text message, a Twitter post, or a conversation in the Slack communications service. Animated GIFs—those looping bits of video often taken from movies, TV shows, or viral clips circulating around the web—can also be found in online libraries with links for easy sharing in messages or to social media sites.”
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In a major announcement on June 22, HarperCollins has agreed to make a selection of its ebook backlist titles available to public library users on a multi-user lending model, via Midwest Tape’s hoopla digital platform. Starting in July, the publisher will make about 15,000 ebook titles available, including works from bestselling authors. Library Ideas will also offer HarperCollins titles via its multi-user platform Freading, and vendor OverDrive will also offer the titles via its “Cost-Per-Circulation” model.
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Science publisher Elsevier won a default legal judgement on June 21 against websites that provide illicit access to tens of millions of research papers and books. A New York district court awarded the company $15 million in damages for copyright infringement by Sci-Hub, the Library of Genesis (LibGen) project, and related sites. Judge Robert Sweet had ruled in October 2015 that the sites violate US copyright. The court issued a preliminary injunction against the sites’ operators, who nevertheless continued to provide unauthorized free access to paywalled content. -
Emily Temple writes: “I have a hard time getting rid of books, and if you’re reading this space, you probably do too. In general, I’m interested in other people’s book collections. How many books, which ones, how are they kept, where are they kept? So, one rainy afternoon, I started poking around the book collections of famous people, to see which ones happened to be (technical or actual) book hoarders. Some of the results surprised me—though I admit I already knew about Karl Lagerfeld.”
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On June 22, ALA announced a new competitive grant program, sponsored by Google, that will fund a cohort of school and public libraries to develop resources to help get US libraries “Ready to Code.” The $500,000 pilot program is part of Phase III of Libraries Ready to Code, an ongoing collaboration between ALA and Google to ensure that expert library professionals are prepared to develop and deliver programming that promotes computer science and computational thinking among youth.
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Chicago’s big plan to co-locate mixed-income housing with new, architecturally significant Chicago public libraries reached an important milestone this week. The board of the Chicago Housing Authority voted to authorize a pair of loans of up to $11 million each for two such projects: Chicago Public Library’s Independence branch at 4022-4036 N. Elston Avenue and the Northtown branch at 6800-6824 N. Western Avenue.
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Lost L.A., the University of Southern California Libraries’ collaboration with public media company KCETLink, has earned two Emmy Award nominations. A three-episode pilot season of the TV series first aired in January 2016. It grew out of an existing partnership between the two organizations to share the history of the Los Angeles region through the member collections of L.A. as Subject, a research consortium hosted by the USC Libraries. It is possibly the first Emmy nomination for an academic library.
