New Miss Piggy and Kermit READ poster tees | American Libraries Magazine

Apparel and accessories company Out of Print is collaborating with ALA on the debut of its Disney Miss Piggy and Kermit Muppets READ tees. The T-shirt will feature a vintage image of Miss Piggy and Kermit among the library stacks originally released in 1981 as part of ALA’s READ poster campaign promoting literacy.

ALA Communications and Marketing Office, Jan. 26

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Leslie Burger writes: “I don’t know about you, but June always seems to mark the end of the year for me. The end of June will also mark the end of my time with ALA as we plan to welcome a new executive director to lead and guide the Association. ALA Forward, a future-facing initiative already underway, includes a new strategic plan, an organizational assessment, and the repositioning of the Association well beyond its 2026 sesquicentennial anniversary. My year and a half as ALA’s interim executive director has been exciting, intellectually challenging, and marked by change.”

American Libraries column, June
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Jeremy Gantz writes: “During the current extraordinary surge of book-banning efforts, committed advocacy by library workers and their allies is stemming the tide of censorship attempts in both school and public libraries, with more and more states enacting anti-book-ban laws. Since 2023, nine states have passed such legislation. This year, at least 19 more states—including Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Mexico, as well as more conservative states like Arkansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee—have already seen new anti-book-ban bills introduced.”

American Libraries feature, June
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Cobb County (Ga.) Public Library writes: “June is Pride Month! These books celebrate diversity, community, inclusivity, and understanding.” This list includes children’s picture books, children’s nonfiction books, chapter books, teen and young adult fiction and nonfiction, and adult fiction and nonfiction.

Cobb County (Ga.) Public Library, June 1
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Tony Phillips writes: “Microsoft Excel has hundreds of tools and functions, meaning it’s quite easy to overlook some of the most useful ones. In this guide, I’ll share four lesser-known, hidden tricks that could transform how you use the popular spreadsheet software.” The explainer covers Goal Seek for long-term planning, the Camera tool for taking data snapshots, data groups for managing large datasets, and custom number formats for quick data visualization.

How-To Geek, May 28
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Brett Oppegaard, Talea Anderson, and Suzanne James-Bacon write: “A recent Department of Justice final ruling established that government agencies will be required to go beyond simple alt-text descriptions in the suddenly near future and to provide instead what the spirit of the law always has recommended, which was equivalent or comparable access to information. To proactively respond to this upcoming reckoning, we have documented one library’s process for incorporating audio description [the preferred remediation process] into a sample image collection.”

College and Research Libraries News, Vol 86, No. 6 (June)
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Jenni Diaz Garcia writes: “For weeks as a new library worker, I smiled through the fear of feeling constantly a few paces behind. Around the two-month mark, something shifted. I finally had enough context to stop feeling lost and enough confidence to start asking the important questions: Where is this position going? Can it evolve into something else? What does growth look like here, for me? Feeling steady didn’t mean I had all the answers, but it meant I had space to start shaping them.” After a year on the job, Diaz Garcia shares the top lessons she’s learned.

NMRT Notes, June 2
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Anne Ford writes: “Since founding the Internet Archive in 1996, Brewster Kahle has helped preserve nearly three decades of digital history—along with millions of books, audio recordings, videos, images, and software programs. But in 2023, four major publishers successfully sued the Archive, forcing it to remove their copyrighted books from its digital lending library. Now the Archive is under attack again, as a music industry copyright infringement lawsuit against it seeks nearly $700 million in damages related to the Archive’s Great 78 preservation initiative. We discuss with Kahle the lawsuit, the Archive’s future, and the developments making him feel ‘very encouraged.’”

AL Online, June 4

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