ALA launches Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship Program

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the return of the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship Program, which seeks to recruit diverse LIS faculty members. The program, to be run in partnership with University of South Carolina’s School of Information Science, will recruit a cohort of 8-10 racially and ethnically diverse doctoral students focused on advancing racial equity and social justice in library and information science curricula. “There have been many discussions about the lack of diversity in the profession, and that includes the classrooms as well,” said Kevin Strowder, director of ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, in an October 14 statement. An information session for the fellowship will take place November 3; applications for the program open November 4.

ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, Oct. 14

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Pankil Shah writes: “While Excel’s auto-formatting feature helps tidy up your data, it can also unintentionally alter your intended formatting. If you’re annoyed with Excel constantly changing your numbers to percentages or dates or applying unwanted formatting, here are a couple of ways to disable the auto-formatting feature.”

MakeUseOf, Sept. 11
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ALA’s Nominating Committee has announced a deadline extension for completing the Candidate Biographical Form necessary to become a candidate for the positions of president-elect, treasurer, or councilor at large in the spring 2025 ALA election. Any ALA members interested in being considered for candidacy for these positions now have until September 30 to complete the form. Elected candidates will serve for three years, from 2025–2028; the elected presidential candidate will serve one year each as president-elect, president, and immediate past president during that period.

ALA Governance Office, Sept. 17
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Douglas Soule writes: “Facing a federal lawsuit with accusations of unconstitutional censorship, a Florida school board has agreed to place books it banned back on library shelves as part of an out-of-court settlement. In total, 36 books will be returned in the Nassau County School District, according to a settlement agreement signed September 11. They range from classics like Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini to And Tango Makes Three, a children’s picture book about a same-sex penguin pair.”

Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat, Sept. 12, July 24
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Becky Siegel Spratford writes: “I am constantly correcting people—educated people, library users, readers—who think that when we buy a book for the library we get it in all formats for one price. They assume we pay slightly more [for electronic formats] than them, but they think for that price we get all those copies they see in our collections. We need to work on how we communicate this issue to our card holders. So how can we share this complex issue more easily?”

RA for All, Sept. 11
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Chris Lewis writes: “For my generation and generations before us, the public library was an equalizing force in every town, helping anyone move toward the American dream. A ruling in Hachette v. Internet Archive has just thrown that promise of equality into doubt by limiting libraries’ access to controlled digital lending (CDL). On September 4, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals [affirmed a lower court’s decision that CDL through the National Emergency Library was not fair use.] If the courts won’t recognize CDL-based library lending as fair use, then the next step falls to Congress.”

MIT Technology Review, Sept. 11
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“Hispanic Heritage Month honors the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latine Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States, and is celebrated from September 15 to October 15 annually. Check out these recent releases from authors of Hispanic or Latine background!”

Seattle Public Library, September
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Cara S. Bertram writes: “The year 2023 was another record-breaker for book bans. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) documented 1,247 attempts to censor library books and other materials—most of which were works by or about people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, or both. But attempts to limit access to literature in the US are as old as our nation itself. American Libraries travels through time to outline our country’s history of censorship—and the library workers, authors, and advocates who have defended the right to read.”

American Libraries feature, Sept./Oct.

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