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  • 5y

    Cell phone reading Hello (Photo: Tyler Lastovich/Pexels)Staffers at Toronto Public Library have set their sights on calling more than 20,000 senior library users as part of a wellness check to see how they’re doing during the pandemic. Since mid-July, about 20 library staff members have called more than 10,000 patrons, most of them between 80–100 years old, who may be isolated. Now staffers are starting to make calls to an additional 13,000 library cardholders between 70–79 years of age.

    Toronto Star, Dec. 30

  • Latest Library Links

    • 14h

      Illustration of a woman readingDaniel Pfeiffer writes: “It has been a brutal summer for artificial intelligence (AI) news and commentary. Though I have deep reservations about the trajectory we’re on, I do at least feel good about the work that librarians are undertaking in this field, such as organizing communities of practice, incorporating AI into information literacy instruction, and finding thoughtful uses of it. Such applications underscore that librarians have an important role in shepherding this technology, and we need more AI-literate librarians to enter these conversations and decision-making processes.” Pfeiffer recommends new reports and research to help librarians gain that literacy.

      Choice 360: LibTech Insights, July 28, July 14, July 7, June 9

    • 19h

      Dan Pelzer with the What Dan Read header from his websiteRachel McRady writes: “Dan Pelzer read more than 5,000 books throughout the course of his life, including one classic he called ‘pure torture.’ Pelzer, who died on July 1 at the age of 92, left his friends and family a 109-page handwritten list of all the books he’s read since 1962. Pelzer’s family scanned the list and created a website sharing his reads, What Dan Read. In a post shared on the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Facebook page, Pelzer’s daughter, Marci, wrote, ‘ALL of his books were Columbus Metropolitan Library books. Nobody loved the library more than Dan.’”

      People, July 22; Columbus Metropolitan Library, July 21

    • 22h

      Scenes from the featured documentariesGreg Landgraf writes: “Libraries are having a Hollywood moment, as several documentarians have recently turned their lenses towards libraries, librarians, and intellectual freedom issues. Some of these films made their mark at the recent ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia, on PBS, at the Sundance Film Festival, and even at the Oscars, where The ABCs of Book Banning was nominated last year for Best Documentary Short Film. Below you can read about some favorites (and find out how to watch them).”

      American Libraries Online, July 28

    • 2d

      ALA member card illustrationALA has launched the ALA Learning Library, a member-exclusive collection of free professional development resources. Introduced at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference, the ALA Learning Library will help ALA members easily access a large and growing of eLearning events that are only available to them. In addition to demonstrating the value of membership to current members, the new library also helps promote membership to non-members who want to take advantage of the professional development offerings.

      ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, July 23

    • 2d

      From the president by Sam HelmickSam Helmick writes: “As library professionals, we often traffic in the timeless—in books, archives, and community memory. But this year’s ALA Annual Conference reminded us that timing matters, too. At a moment when the core tenets of librarianship—intellectual freedom, the right to read, equitable access to information—are under direct attack across the country, gathering in Philadelphia felt as much like a profound act of civic engagement as it did impactful professional development. There was an unmistakable sense that showing up mattered.”

      American Libraries column, July/Aug.

    • 2d

      Author Alex Segura signs copies of Dick Tracy at the Hoopla booth. Rebecca Lomax/American LibrariesMarshall Breeding writes: “Although libraries are currently facing a climate of political and financial upheaval, that didn’t stop information professionals from showing up in force to ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition. With more than 600 vendors and a variety of live stages and pavilions, the Library Marketplace showcased products for libraries facing intense new challenges. Services and solutions that focused on libraries’ ongoing needs for efficiency and impact were in high demand.”

      American Libraries feature, July/Aug.

    • 5d

      Milky Way galaxyDaisy Atterbury writes: “Literature, like space travel, offers an escape, but also a way to reimagine what it means to be tethered to this planet, to each other, to the futures we may or may not reach. A multi-genre class of experimental writers challenged me to think against the steady gravitational pull of capitalist orientations to space. Space belongs not to the empire, but to the storytellers, the poets, the dreamers who refuse the logic of extraction and conquest. Each of these books remind us that another world is always possible, whether here, ‘out there,’ or somewhere between.”

      Electric Literature, July 18

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