Latest Library Links
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American Libraries has changed the name of its monthly podcast from Dewey Decibel to Call Number with American Libraries. After consulting with the American Libraries Advisory Committee, staff decided to change the podcast name to distance the magazine from the legacy of Melvil Dewey (1851–1931), a founder of ALA and inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, who was eventually ostracized by ALA as a result of what one librarian of the period called his “outrages against decency.”
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Librarian Tanya DiMaggio writes: “Usually at this time of year I am planning our library’s Youth Services Winter Retreat. Sometime around the second week of December the Children’s Services department of eight staff members and the Teen Services department of three staff members take a whole day to reflect on the past year’s programming and services, to plan for spring, and to begin summer reading plans. We also have at least one fun activity that serves as a team builder. Well this year, the retreat will be virtual. The meeting over our virtual platform we’ve got down pat. But team building seems more important now more than ever.”
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Amrita Khalid writes: “Before college students returned to campuses during a pandemic this fall, privacy advocates warned that a new wave of school surveillance tech could be installed in the name of keeping them safe. To a degree that varies greatly from campus to campus, schools are experimenting with technology to control crowds, contact-trace, and otherwise monitor the presence of the virus on campus.”
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On October 26, Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) announced that 46 books (26 fiction, 20 nonfiction) have been selected for the longlist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The six-title shortlist—three each for the fiction and nonfiction medals—will be chosen from longlist titles and announced on November 17. The two medal winners will be announced at RUSA’s Book and Media Awards event, which will take place online 3–4 p.m. Central time on February 4, 2021.
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In an October 26 statement, the American Library Association (ALA) announced three candidates running for president. Stacey A. Aldrich, state librarian, Hawaii State Public Library System, Honolulu; Ed Garcia, director, Cranston (R.I.) Public Library; and Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, adult services assistant manager, Palos Verdes Library District in Rolling Hills Estates, California, are candidates for the 2022–2023 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA). Ballot mailing for the ALA election will begin March 8, 2021, and end April 7, 2021. Individuals must be members in good standing to vote.
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As the COVID-19 crisis continues to disrupt higher education, ITHAKA is extending the JSTOR and Artstor expanded access program through June 30, 2021, to help institutions in their shift to remote teaching. Institutions that have opted in don’t need to take any action—they will continue receiving access to unlicensed JSTOR Archive and Primary Source collections and the Artstor Digital Library. Participating institutions that have not yet opted in may still do so; log in to your JSTOR library admin account to request expanded access.
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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and the International Association of University Libraries issued a joint statement on October 22 to publishers and service providers about the 2021 subscriptions and renewals of electronic resources and databases. Noting the pandemic’s effects on budgets for universities, schools, industries, and libraries worldwide, IFLA and IATUL request that publishers support these institutions by reducing prices.
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A 39-year-old Boston man charged with setting a ballot box outside Boston Public Library on fire October 25 is emotionally disturbed and does not appear to be “plotting against our democracy,” Suffolk County’s top prosecutor said. Worldy Armand appeared October 26 in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of willful and malicious burning, according to Boston police and the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. Judge Mark H. Summerville ordered him held without bail, and Armand is due back in court October 30 for a detention hearing, according to court records.
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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo has been a part of the curriculum at Lake Norman Charter School in Huntersville, North Carolina, since the 2018–2019 school year. But some parents are pushing to have the book banned this year due to its profanity, sexual references, and anti-Christian verses. Current seniors who have already read the novel say it encourages productive classroom discussions and an elevated level of learning.
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Michael Zamorski of Monmouth Council Boy Scout Troop 18 has created a teaching garden of native plants and other features at the Freehold (N.J.) Public Library as he works to attain the rank of Eagle Scout. In addition to the garden’s aesthetic appeal, Zamorski registered the site as a monarch butterfly waystation with Monarch Watch and created laminated pages (available inside the library) with more information about the featured plants.
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James Hamblin writes: “Full disclosure: I was not eager to read about books bound in human skin. I knew almost nothing about the subject, but I felt pretty confident that nothing was more than enough. With Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom, a rare books specialist and librarian at UCLA, quickly disabused me of this notion. Part scholar, part journalist, part wide-eyed death enthusiast, Rosenbloom takes readers on her own journey to understand how and why human-skin books came to be.”
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William Germano and Kit Nicholls write: “Where do reading lists come from, anyway? Wouldn’t we love to know exactly what Plato’s students were required to read? In Aristotle and other ancient writers we have tantalizing glimpses of works and writers now lost. But even if we had them, those works would be subject to two millennia of thinking about the world, including the world of these ancient texts.”
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