Latest Library Links
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J. Greller writes: “Today’s post is for everyone, since our political climate is currently so filled with misinformation. We all need to have factual information for the coming November election. Please share with your friends on social media. Too many people believe everything they read or see on TV. I’ve also attached an infographic from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, which you can print and post near your workspace.” -
ALSC President Kirby McCurtis writes: “Have you visited the Look to Libraries in Times of Crisis page yet? Knowing that you and the families you work with need more help during this pandemic, ALSC created this resource page. Here you’ll find tons of reading recommendations, virtual games and activities to help kids thrive at home, tip sheets for managing stress, and articles from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” -
Librarian Alexandria Brown writes: “Every so often, the question of whether or not to add a spine label designating ‘diverse’ books makes the rounds. Many condemn the practice, but lots of library staff persist in labeling. Like most diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in librarianship, many of my colleagues are still operating within a white (and cisgender and heterosexual) supremacist framework. It is an understandable predicament to be in—after all, many library degree programs are not as strong as they could be in advocating for DEI and decolonization. So let’s examine the question of diversity labeling and see if we can’t get to a better understanding of why it’s problematic.” -
A new fact sheet from the AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees explores the role of library staffers in the workforce, diversity and demographics within the profession, educational attainment and wages of librarians, gender inequality, the benefits of union membership for librarians, and other issues faced by library workers, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on libraries and library professionals. -
ALA is joining National Voter Registration Day as a premier partner. Sign up to participate, receive information and resources about hosting voter registration, and join libraries across the country in celebrating NVRD on September 22. Register by September 7 to receive posters, stickers, and other print resources delivered by mail directly to your library. -
ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall writes: “Two civil rights giants, C. T. Vivian and John Lewis, died on the same July day. Both were courageous Freedom Riders who challenged segregation in the South. Lewis, who served as a US representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district for more than three decades, was a friend to libraries and to ALA, for which he was a frequent speaker. His late wife, Lillian, had been a librarian, and libraries played a major role in Lewis’s early activism. He often spoke about how, as a teen, his efforts to desegregate his public library in the South started him on the road to becoming a ‘good trouble’ maker.” -
Libraries have always been spaces for discovery. But in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been tasked with transforming themselves into places that allow users to physically distance while being more digitally connected than ever. As some institutions emerge from months of shutdowns, design and architecture experts seek to meet current health and safety challenges as well as safeguard these community spaces against an uncertain future. -
Art Plotnik, former editor of American Libraries and editorial director of ALA Editions, died August 28 in Chicago. He was 82. Before joining ALA in 1975, Plotnik earned his MSLS at Columbia University in New York City, wrote pulp fiction, and served as a newsletter editor in the Librarian’s Office of the Library of Congress. Plotnik wrote eight nonfiction books and the 2019 YA novel Aaron Schmink’s First Crazy Love. He also taught in the journalism department at Columbia College in Chicago and was a charter board member of the American Book Awards. Many of his former colleagues at ALA, where he worked until 1997, shared their memories. -
ALA President Julius C. Jefferson Jr. writes: “As I write this, many of us are reflecting on the life of the ‘boy from Troy,’ US Rep. John Lewis. For 60 years Lewis served and advocated for our collective humanity. Lewis’s legacy reminds me that service is the fundamental reason libraries exist and that reading and access to information—which are human rights—are necessary for full participation in our democracy. To carry on that legacy, how will we advocate for participation by all and serve all our communities? Or, as Lewis asked: ‘If not us, then who? If not now, then when?’” -
The Library Design Showcase is American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries. These shining examples of architectural innovation—completed before the COVID-19 pandemic—address user needs in unique, interesting, and effective ways. As with past showcases, renovations and expansions dominate submissions, as communities find novel ways to conserve and honor existing spaces while moving them into the 21st century. -
School Library Media Specialist Steve Tetreault writes: “There’s a lot going on in the world right now. COVID-19 is going to have far-reaching economic effects. We know that school libraries tend to be the first programs cut when money gets tight. And school libraries have the potential to help deal with the institutional racism and lack of information literacy that plague many of our schools, and certainly our society. None of us are alone. School librarians are a vast and clever community. And we touch the lives of so many. If we each take some action, we can achieve great things.” -
Between 1893 and 1919, Andrew Carnegie gave away $60 million of his fortune to fund 1,689 public libraries across the country in towns big and small. These towns were often so proud of these monuments of culture that they distributed postcards celebrating the new library. Many of these postcards, along with thousands of other postcards of libraries around the world, are housed at the American Library Association Archives in the Sjoerd Koopman, Celene Bishop, Judy Muck, and Daniel W. Lester Library Postcard Collections.
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