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December 11, 2024 150 × 100 Graceful degradation in accessible website design

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Latest Library Links

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Catherine Hollerbach writes: “Much has been written about the US Surgeon General’s 2023 report on loneliness, which explicitly names libraries as part of the social infrastructure poised to make a difference in addressing the epidemic. Concurrently, since COVID, many public libraries have embraced their role in public health initiatives. Social prescribing, a new trend in health care that connects patients with nonclinical experiences to improve their health, gives libraries another opportunity to make a difference in the lives of their customers.”

Public Libraries Online, Dec. 12
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The Public Library Association (PLA) has selected more than 130 public libraries as the third cohort to host digital literacy workshops through the PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive and the new PLA Digital Navigator Workshop Incentive. The workshops are funded by a $2.7 million contribution from AT&T and are designed to support public libraries in their efforts to boost digital skills for all members of their communities. The workshops leverage online digital literacy courses, created by PLA in collaboration with AT&T, that are available to anyone through DigitalLearn.org and AT&T ScreenReady.

Public Library Association, Dec. 10
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Award-winning author and illustrator Raina Telgemeier and cartoonist and comic theorist Scott McCloud have been selected as 2025 National Library Week honorary chairs. Telgemeier and McCloud have partnered to create a one-of-a-kind graphic novel, The Cartoonists Club (Scholastic Graphix, April 2025). They will also speak at the opening session of ALA’s 2025 LibLearnX Conference in Phoenix January 25. National Library Week celebrates the important role libraries and library professionals play in schools and communities. In 2025, the event will be held April 6–12, with the theme “Drawn to the Library.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Dec. 5
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Urszula Lechtenberg and Helene Gold write: “Libraries take the call for accessibility very seriously. However, our web content can still fall short of the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines first developed in 1999 and continuously updated through the present day. In April 2024, the Department of Justice finalized a rule updating regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The final rule dictates that public entities’ web content [including LibGuides and licensed content from libraries that receive federal funding] meet the technical standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, level AA.”

Information Technology and Libraries, Dec. 16
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Rachel Rosenberg writes: “Inclusivity requires intention and planning. More and more, library leaders are acknowledging that staff members and patrons benefit when our programs, hiring practices, and trainings are inclusive and community-led. These six guides provide support for libraries looking to make thoughtful and service-transforming changes.”

American Libraries column, Nov./ Dec.
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Rosie Newmark writes: “On a Wednesday in February 2023, anyone stopping by the North Branford Senior Center in Northford, Connecticut, might have expected to hear big-band music or golden oldies, not Disney songs. But that was before the 4th-graders got there. ‘There’s so much that we share / That it’s time we’re aware / It’s a small world after all,’ several older adults sang along with students, who were visiting from nearby Totoket Valley Elementary School as part of an intergenerational book club.”

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
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Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4

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