Latest Library Links
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Kymberlee Powe writes: “At the 2020 Young Adult Services Symposium—hosted virtually November 6–8 by YALSA—the theme was ‘Biggest Little Spaces: How Libraries Serve the Expanding Worlds of Teens.’ More than 560 people registered for the annual event, which offered more than 20 live sessions, networking opportunities, breakouts, and other activities. This year’s symposium focused on partnerships, empowerment, and using YA literature to promote equity.”
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In the 2020 election year, American Libraries and the Public Library Association tracked more than 100 library-related referenda across 27 states. Voters decided more than 90% of them in favor of the library. As usual, Ohio was a major front-runner, with 31 of 32 referenda voted in; Michigan came in second, with 18 of 20 approved. Included are preliminary results as of November 10. Some municipalities are awaiting provisional and mail-in vote tallies that may or may not change the results. A large selection of the referenda will appear in our January/February issue.
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Programming Librarian Kristina Gómez writes: “Milwaukee Public Library’s collaboration with the Deaf community began as part of an Our Town placemaking grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. One of our library’s goals as a grantee was to provide opportunities for cross-cultural connection among residents of the Historic Mitchell Street district, a predominately Latinx neighborhood on Milwaukee’s South Side. Mitchell Street is also home to the Greater Milwaukee Association of the Deaf, and it was in conversations with residents that we learned our Deaf community felt underserved by arts organizations—especially when it came to being recognized as creators. How could the library support Deaf individuals as artists while facilitating connections between neighbors?”
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Library consultant Mirela Roncevic writes: “When I lived in Croatia, I managed a project called One Country One Library (OCOL) from 2017 to 2020. The project’s goal was to develop a national platform of books and other publications (including short stories, academic articles and journals, textbooks, audiobooks, educational videos, and podcasts) that would be freely accessible via a website or app within the country’s borders. This open digital library not only introduced users to a new way of engaging with digital content but also offered a sustainable business model to publishers, authors, libraries, and those who wished to support it financially.”
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Harriet Sherwood writes: “The Vatican Apostolic Library, which holds 80,000 documents of immense importance and immeasurable value, including the oldest surviving copy of the Bible and drawings and writings from Michelangelo and Galileo, has partnered with a cyber-security firm to defend its ambitious digitization project against criminals. The library has faced an average of 100 threats a month since it started digitizing its collection of historical treasures in 2012, according to Manlio Miceli, its chief information officer.”
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Pan 3Sixty has created a virtual tour of Jane Austen’s House, a cottage in the village of Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for the last eight years of her life (1809–1817). Here she revised, wrote, and had published all her major works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The tour includes narration and 360-degree views of the rooms and grounds of the house plus information on household items, clothing, jewelry, and other personal objects.
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ALA and Humble Bundle are teaming up to offer library supporters and advocates an opportunity to fund ALA initiatives supporting social justice and intellectual freedom, including the Spectrum Scholarship program and the Freedom to Read Foundation. The Humble Bundle “Be the Change” collection contains nearly 50 diverse ebooks and audiobooks with a retail value of more than $800, featuring authors, creators, and characters of color, including The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, by Tamara Winfrey Harris, Falling in Love With Hominids, by Nalo Hopkinson, and This Book Is Anti-Racist, by Tiffany Jewell and illustrated by Aurelia Durand. The pay-what-you-want collection is available November 10–February 8.
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The eighth open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) runs November 1–December 15, during what may be the most challenging year in its 10-year history. Millions of Americans have lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many without employer-sponsored health coverage. The PLA initiative Libraries Connecting You to Coverage offers a suite of free tools and resources to help library practitioners assist patrons in enrolling in health insurance coverage.
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James Beard Award–winning chef, restaurateur, author, and newly appointed Bon Appétit brand advisor Marcus Samuelsson has joined forces with James Beard Award–winning writer Osayi Endolyn to create The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food (Voracious, October). The cookbook celebrates the richness and range of contemporary Black cooking with 150 recipes that roam from San Diego to Chicago, Martinique to Manhattan, and points in between. Samuelsson and Endolyn spoke with American Libraries about their work and the racial dynamics of the food publishing world, and they shared a recipe from the book.
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Library director Joslyn Bowling Dixon writes: “Last year, when I was running for a leadership position in the Virginia Library Association, I gave a speech to the organization’s executive committee and council chairs. As I looked out into the audience from the podium, I realized that—save for one other person—I was the only person of color in a room full of dozens of decision makers from across the state. I was reminded of the words of the late US Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm: ‘If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.’”
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Staffers at Wilmington (Mass.) Memorial Library recently installed a StoryWalk at nearby Rotary Park featuring 14 laminated pages of the picture book Are Your Stars Like My Stars? by Leslie Helakoski. Someone removed 11 of the pages over the weekend, and the Wilmington Police Department is asking for the public’s help.
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ALA’s Task Force on UN Sustainable Development Goals is collaborating with the National Library of the Philippines, the Philippine Librarians Association, and other organizations on the free webinar, “Philippine Libraries and Their Roles in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” November 19, 7 p.m. CT (November 20, 9 a.m. local time). Speakers include former ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo, former IFLA President Donna Scheeder, and NLP Director Cesar Gilbert Q. Adriano.
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