Latest Library Links
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On January 7, the American Library Association released a statement from its Executive Board, condemning the recent violence in Washington, D.C.: “ALA forcefully condemns the violent attempts to undermine the integrity of our electoral process and our democracy. The threats, destruction of government buildings, and looting witnessed on January 6 do not constitute peaceful protest, but domestic terrorism,” the statement read.
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The states of Washington and Oregon, along with dozens of Native American tribes and cultural groups, sued the federal government on January 4 to stop the sale of the National Archives building in Seattle. The National Archives and Records Administration facility in Seattle was approved for eventual closure and sale last year. The filing alleges that the public, including the concerned tribes and the state of Washington, were not given prior notice about the federal government’s plan to sell the Seattle building.
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Jason Christian writes: “Like most idealistic librarians, kynita stringer-stanback entered the profession in part to spread knowledge to help make a better world. But the lack of racial and gender diversity in the field and an unwillingness of white and cisgender people to share power within library institutions has meant enduring repeated unfair treatment from colleagues and management, things large and small, from microaggressions to more overt discrimination.”
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Diana Restifo writes: “While the trials of educators thrust suddenly into remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been widely examined, less frequently discussed is how librarians are navigating a similar e-learning path. If the classroom is closed, so is the school library. How do students access the wealth of learning resources within when they can’t step across the library threshold? The following steps serve as a guide for librarians and library administrators to manage their libraries as fully digital learning resources.”
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Rachel Ayers writes: “Libraries are magical. We know this, as readers. Depictions of libraries within the fantasy genre have certainly embraced this magical feeling…and run with it. Fantasy libraries can be (almost) neatly categorized into three essential magical types: the library containing all books regardless of written status; the library where the books speak to each other; and the library as portal to other worlds/places. But what’s truly magical about these fantasy categories is the way these magics correspond with the way libraries work in the real world.”
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Lara Ewen writes: “For 67 years, Princeton (N.J.) University’s School of Public and International Affairs bore the name of former US President Woodrow Wilson, who spoke favorably of the Ku Klux Klan, kept Black students from being admitted to Princeton during his tenure as university president, and supported the racial segregation of federal agencies. In response to student protests and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, in June 2020 the school dropped his name—an act that has led to a wider awareness of Wilson’s racist legacy. It also has led to repercussions at Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Virginia.”
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On January 5, IFLA published a new statement on the role of library and information services in improving the way societies are governed, both through optimal decision-making within government, and effective scrutiny and engagement by parliaments and wider populations. Effective, transparent, and inclusive governance is a precondition for success in any policy designed to improve lives and communities, as recognized in United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Jan. 5
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Claire Fallon writes: “The book world, like American society as a whole, has been squeezed by economic pressures, battered by the pandemic, swept up in the Me Too movement and forced to answer for its pervasive whiteness and racism. The book scandals of 2020 are not frothy bits of gossip, but complicated and unsettling controversies with sweeping implications for the power imbalances and forms of exploitation and exclusion that still pervade the entire literary ecosystem.”
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Valentina di Liscia writes: “In 2013, photographer Kyle Cassidy uploaded one of his images to Wikimedia Commons. Anyone can use it free of charge, even modify it, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License—so long as they credit him properly. Nearly seven years later, the photo was at the center of a bizarre scam involving affiliate links, a fake copyright enforcement company, and a Wikipedia user improbably named ‘Aldwin Sturdivant.’”
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Library marketing expert Angela Hursh writes: “We’ve come a long way in library marketing. Many libraries are promoting their collection and services in ways they would have never imagined six years ago. They’re focused on strategy and innovation. They’re not afraid to try new things. They’re experimenting. They’re putting cardholders first. Library marketing no longer stinks! Now it’s time to advance library marketing to the next level. Here are the four things libraries should do now to move successfully into the future.”
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Staffers at Toronto Public Library have set their sights on calling more than 20,000 senior library users as part of a wellness check to see how they’re doing during the pandemic. Since mid-July, about 20 library staff members have called more than 10,000 patrons, most of them between 80–100 years old, who may be isolated. Now staffers are starting to make calls to an additional 13,000 library cardholders between 70–79 years of age.
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