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ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall writes: “I have reflected in past columns on the pervasiveness of information poverty and called on libraries and information professionals to intervene. In my last column, for example, I wrote about how the pandemic continues to expose the degree to which societal inequities are linked. I focus here on that final link: the relationship between the justice system, incarceration inequities, and information disparity.”
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Amy-Mae Turner writes: “While the concept of a free, community-managed, online encyclopedia had been around for some time, Wikipedia, as we know it now, officially began with its first edit on January 15, 2001, two days after the domain was registered by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. To celebrate Wikipedia’s 20th anniversary, we’re sharing 20-plus facts about the free encyclopedia that you never knew you never knew.”
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New York Public Library President and CEO Anthony W. Marx writes: “We have long known that the digital divide is a key issue, and that millions of our neighbors do not have home connectivity. In 2020, the chasm came into very sharp focus. What was inequality of access became tragic exclusion from almost all educational, economic, and civic life. At the height of the pandemic, the city’s public libraries, closed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, still recorded over 1,000 Wi-Fi sessions a day. Our fellow citizens of the greatest city in the world had no other choice but to brave a pandemic to stand outside to get the internet bleeding from our branches. Now they will do so in the cold of winter.”
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Cindy L. Rodriguez writes: “The coming year brings new books from many of our favorite creators along with exciting debuts. Keep in mind that a book may have a Latinx creator (like an illustrator) but the content may not be Latinx-centered, so if you are looking for books with Latinx content, please read the descriptions carefully.”
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ALA’s 2021 Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits Virtual, originally scheduled for January 22–26 in Indianapolis, was always planned as a transitional event that would lead to an innovative new conference concept in 2022. The pandemic, however, necessitated bigger changes than anticipated, as ALA announced in August that this year’s meeting would be held entirely online. Many of this year’s elements will be familiar, including a slate of speakers from the worlds of literature and activism, the announcement of prestigious literary awards including the Newbery and Caldecott medals, and the Symposium on the Future of Libraries.
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ALA President Julius C. Jefferson writes: “Alongside the cumulative losses of 2020, we saw a year of opportunity. A year when library professionals answered the call to serve amid multiple crises. A year when library workers again proved to be essential ‘first restorers’ or ‘second responders.’ Libraries connected America in ways that have brought our communities closer.”
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With a 3–2 vote on December 21, West Hollywood (Calif.) City Council approved renaming the West Hollywood branch of Los Angeles County Library after late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The city’s Public Facilities Commission and several advisory boards must weigh in on the matter, but the council made its wishes known by this vote.
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Erie City (Kans.) Public Library was recently awarded a SPARK Grant to expand its “We Share” program. Under the program, library officials will plant vegetables and distribute the harvest and seeds to members of the community. Families that don’t have room for a garden at their homes can plant and pick their produce in the community greenhouse.
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The Washington Wizards basketball team is launching its first-ever Winter Reading Challenge dedicated to early readers, kids, and teens. The challenge kicked off New Year’s Day and will run through March 31. The challenge is in partnership with DC Public Library, Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, and Alexandria Library to build positive reading culture and promote literacy for youth across the entire Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area. Readers who complete the challenge will be eligible for prizes including exclusive virtual fan experiences, Wizards jerseys, bobbleheads, and Jr. Wizards Camp vouchers.
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ALA welcomed the eighth consecutive increase in federal fiscal year appropriations to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The regular FY2021 budget bill, passed on December 21 alongside the $900 billion Emergency COVID Relief spending package, includes an additional $5 million for IMLS, including $2 million for the Library Services and Technology Act.
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University of California-Santa Barbara Library’s Department of Special Research Collections will soon preserve one of the world’s largest collections of radio broadcasting: the American Radio Archives. The archives, established in 1984 by the Thousand Oaks Library Foundation, include recordings of Winston Churchill, broadcast photographs, radio and television scripts, books and film dating back to 1922.
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On January 1, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain, where they will be free for all to use and build on. These works include books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial (in the original German), silent films featuring Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, and music ranging from the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown to songs by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller.
Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Dec. 12
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