July/August 2011

Features & Trends

Step Easily into the Digital Future

By Kathy Anderson and Laurie Gemmill

Libraries know the future is digital, but how do we get there in these times of shrinking budgets and staffs? In a tough economy, a collaborative approach makes digitization possible for many libraries. By joining a mass digitization collaborative, the historical society, museum, public library, or academic institution new to digitization can launch a small … Continue reading Step Easily into the Digital Future →

First Things First: First-Class Service for 1st Graders

By Becky Cothran-Nichols

On eight school-day mornings every September, school buses pull into the Selma–Dallas County (Ala.) Public Library every hour starting at 9 a.m., unloading 40–50 bubbling 1st graders. They line up excitedly outside the door and then head in for one of the library’s best programs for kids. “Welcome to Your Library” has been welcoming 1st-graders … Continue reading First Things First: First-Class Service for 1st Graders →

The Case for Graphic Novels in Education

By Jesse Karp

Perhaps we’re past the point of having to explain that graphic novels, with their knack for attracting reluctant readers and hitting developmental sweet spots, have a legitimate place on library shelves. Perhaps. But what about the idea that graphic novels encompass such a wide range of themes and create such layered experiences through word and … Continue reading The Case for Graphic Novels in Education →

How to Offer More than a Movie
By Alan Jacobson
Is the Line Between Librarianship and Journalism Blurring?
By Barbara Jones
Daniel Ellsberg
How One Library Digitized Its Community’s Newspapers
By Allison Quam
Libraries and the Future of Electronic Content Delivery
By Lisa Carlucci Thomas
New Technologies, New Directions Emerge at ALA 2011
By Lisa Carlucci Thomas
Who’s the Boss?
By Jamie E. Helgren and Linda Hofschire

Columnists

Surf’s Up
Bill Ott
What You Told Us
By George M. Eberhart and Beverly Goldberg
Mentorship from Both Sides
By Aniko Halverson Nijhoff
Librarians’ Assessments of Automation Systems
By Marshall Breeding and Andromeda Yelton
Tutorials That Matter
By Meredith Farkas
A Pioneer Evolves
by Brian Mathews
My Midsummer Metamorphosis
By Jennifer Burek Pierce
Empowering Voices
By Molly Raphael
New from ALA Editions
by Karen Muller
Conquering the Digital Divide
By Karen Muller
E-books, Young Professionals, and Reinventing ALA
Keith Michael Fiels
Dead Trees We Have Known
by Will Manley
As They Like It
Joseph Janes

Latest Library Links

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Pankil Shah writes: “While Excel’s auto-formatting feature helps tidy up your data, it can also unintentionally alter your intended formatting. If you’re annoyed with Excel constantly changing your numbers to percentages or dates or applying unwanted formatting, here are a couple of ways to disable the auto-formatting feature.”

MakeUseOf, Sept. 11
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ALA’s Nominating Committee has announced a deadline extension for completing the Candidate Biographical Form necessary to become a candidate for the positions of president-elect, treasurer, or councilor at large in the spring 2025 ALA election. Any ALA members interested in being considered for candidacy for these positions now have until September 30 to complete the form. Elected candidates will serve for three years, from 2025–2028; the elected presidential candidate will serve one year each as president-elect, president, and immediate past president during that period.

ALA Governance Office, Sept. 17
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Douglas Soule writes: “Facing a federal lawsuit with accusations of unconstitutional censorship, a Florida school board has agreed to place books it banned back on library shelves as part of an out-of-court settlement. In total, 36 books will be returned in the Nassau County School District, according to a settlement agreement signed September 11. They range from classics like Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini to And Tango Makes Three, a children’s picture book about a same-sex penguin pair.”

Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat, Sept. 12, July 24
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Becky Siegel Spratford writes: “I am constantly correcting people—educated people, library users, readers—who think that when we buy a book for the library we get it in all formats for one price. They assume we pay slightly more [for electronic formats] than them, but they think for that price we get all those copies they see in our collections. We need to work on how we communicate this issue to our card holders. So how can we share this complex issue more easily?”

RA for All, Sept. 11
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Chris Lewis writes: “For my generation and generations before us, the public library was an equalizing force in every town, helping anyone move toward the American dream. A ruling in Hachette v. Internet Archive has just thrown that promise of equality into doubt by limiting libraries’ access to controlled digital lending (CDL). On September 4, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals [affirmed a lower court’s decision that CDL through the National Emergency Library was not fair use.] If the courts won’t recognize CDL-based library lending as fair use, then the next step falls to Congress.”

MIT Technology Review, Sept. 11
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“Hispanic Heritage Month honors the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latine Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States, and is celebrated from September 15 to October 15 annually. Check out these recent releases from authors of Hispanic or Latine background!”

Seattle Public Library, September
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Cara S. Bertram writes: “The year 2023 was another record-breaker for book bans. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) documented 1,247 attempts to censor library books and other materials—most of which were works by or about people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, or both. But attempts to limit access to literature in the US are as old as our nation itself. American Libraries travels through time to outline our country’s history of censorship—and the library workers, authors, and advocates who have defended the right to read.”

American Libraries feature, Sept./Oct.

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