Latest Library Links
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David Barnett writes: “As we drift into the season of mists, many of us may cozy up with a ghost story or two. But who are the best known authors behind the classics, who plied their chilling trade in the Victorian and Edwardian eras? There are the usual suspects: M. R. James, Charles Dickens, William Hope Hodgson, Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins. But what of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman? Evelyn Henty? Olive Harper? Elinor Mordaunt? Lettice Galbraith? B. M. Croker?”
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In a surprise move on July 14, the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising arm of CPL, laid off all staff members whose wages were funded by philanthropic grants. Among these workers were all mentors in the flagship YOUmedia teen program that served as a refuge for Black and Brown youth and an incubator for the city’s top rappers, including Vic Mensa, Noname, and Chance the Rapper.
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With its first virtual conference October 13–16, the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) celebrated its 15th anniversary—and its largest conference turnout. More than 1,000 attendees gathered online from across the US, along with a few from England and Canada, for sessions, virtual bookmobile tours, a cocktail reception, networking, and an award ceremony.
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Through the American Democracy Game, developed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, players can put themselves in the shoes of a lawmaker and find out what it is like to deal with public policy issues. Discover the different interests on each side of a public policy issue and learn how negotiation and compromise can lead to a good result. This online game was developed by NCSL for middle-school students and includes teacher guides and information.
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Scientific American Associate Editor Tanya Lewis rounds up the most insidious false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic, why they’re false, and why people still believe them despite evidence to the contrary. Among the eight persistent myths are believing the virus was engineered in a lab as a bioweapon, believing that face masks aren’t effective, and believing that herd immunity will protect the population if we just let the virus spread.
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Melody Herr writes: “I’m not going to enter the debate over open access and open culture; I will neither criticize nor advocate for CC licenses. Rather, I’m interested in how US federal courts evaluate infringement claims and determine statutory damages in cases related to works released under the licenses. In a recent study, I examined about two dozen cases, with initial filing dates running from December 2014 through October 2018, retrieved from the database Westlaw. Here, I present a high-level overview of that study for anyone who engages with CC licenses: creators and users, publishing professionals and library professionals, advocates for and skeptics of open culture.”
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Boldizsar Nagy hoped that the tales in the children’s book he edited, Wonderland Is for Everyone, would help youngsters to learn to accept minorities and fight social ostracism. Instead, it has caused a stir in Hungarian politics, with the far-right and the ruling nationalist government labelling it “homosexual propaganda” that should be banned from schools.
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John Lindaman, manager of technical services at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Thomas J. Watson Library, writes: “There’s a popular misconception that librarians as a profession are conservative. Not politically conservative, but literally conservative—wanting to keep old stuff. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth—we are often on the cutting edge of using new technologies, and always looking for the most efficient, up-to-date way to help our patrons. However, the dirty little secret is that sometimes the old stuff, while no longer useful, is actually cool.”
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National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching, and author Anthony Anaxagorou rounds up 10 of his favorite books by writers writing on writing, “diverse in their central arguments and genres, [they] guide us toward more interesting and lateral ways to think about what we want to say, and ultimately, how we choose to say it.”
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The name of a white supremacist North Carolina governor will be removed from a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library branch, library officials said this week. Morrison Regional Library will now be known as SouthPark Regional Library, the library board of trustees agreed. The library was originally named for Gov. Cameron A. Morrison, who helped lead the white supremacy campaign of 1898 that terrorized Black residents and led to policies of segregation.
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Investigators are searching for the person who set a fire inside a ballot drop box in Baldwin Park, California, on purpose, potentially compromising dozens of votes. The incident happened around 8 p.m. October 18, in front of the city’s public library. Firefighters say someone purposely tossed burning newspaper into the official drop box. Mayor Manuel Lozano said he believes there were close to 100 ballots in the box at the time of the incident that were burnt or wet.
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