However, in the days, months, and years afterward, tenured academic librarians may start to feel a lack of motivation, support, and career guidance. Mentoring programs customarily focus on early-career librarians, and many people begin to wonder, “What next?” To answer that question, we’ve highlighted strategies for dealing with posttenure burnout. Be intentional about your time. … Continue reading Fighting Posttenure Fatigue
At many of the country’s 4,000 rural library systems, staffers are operating by themselves, or nearly so. Solo librarianship can take a variety of forms. It can be a sole employee, a full-time employee managing part-timers or volunteers, or librarians working with small or spread-out teams. As libraries continue to recover from the worst of … Continue reading One of a Kind
230,000 Number of volumes available at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, located at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The library houses books, catalogs, personal papers, design documents, oral history projects, and other research material relating to … Continue reading By the Numbers: Toys
In addition to having the option to take one college course per semester, incarcerated students can come to a computer lab once a week at their correctional facility. That’s where a student success specialist, a writing tutor, and I provide them with research assistance. My job is to answer questions and help students brainstorm search … Continue reading Closing Access Gaps
In a diverse local and global information ecosystem, maintaining community and trust is paramount, but increasingly difficult. Participatory processes and collective action can help address concerns and empower groups. Public open digital scholarship holds promise to achieve these ends. Below I highlight three of the Indiana University (IU) projects I have been involved in that … Continue reading Community Creation
Living History Cincinnati and Hamilton County (Ohio) Public Library, Walnut Hills branch The oldest branch in its system and the first of several of Cincinnati’s Carnegie libraries, Walnut Hills recently underwent its first significant improvements since its construction in 1906. The branch is now fully accessible. The architects preserved its French Renaissance–style details—red brick, a … Continue reading 2023 Library Design Showcase
Lucy Biddle Lewis, a fellow peace activist, walked in on this happening. Lewis told her contemporaries that she saw Addams and begged her to stop because scholars could learn from her life and work. There’s no record of when this interaction took place, but in 1930, Addams began donating her materials to Swarthmore (Pa.) College, … Continue reading Keep the Peace
As of late, bureaucratic practices in higher education have been steeped in a neoliberal ideology that manifests as managerialism, or applying a corporate model to run a nonprofit or academic institution. Neoliberalism emphasizes capitalist free-market values, including a focus on efficiency, maximizing productivity, and individualism over collectivism. With managerialism, academic libraries are asked to adopt … Continue reading Question the Bureaucracy
At “An Introduction to Organizing and Collective Bargaining in Libraries,” a session at the American Library Association’s 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 24, a panel of five Chicago-area library workers addressed these questions by sharing their experiences with organizing, winning recognition for their unions, and negotiating contracts at their respective libraries. … Continue reading The Reasons for Unions
For some people experiencing burnout, the solution has been quiet quitting, the phenomenon of employees doing the absolute bare minimum. The quitting part is a misnomer. Individuals aren’t quitting their jobs; they are setting clear boundaries. Quiet quitting is about self-preservation. A January survey found that more than one-third of US workers have disengaged (up … Continue reading Don’t Ignore Quiet Quitting
In Episode 83, Call Number highlights how libraries and librarians are supporting small business owners—particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. First, American Libraries Associate Editor Megan Bennett talks with Madeleine Ildefonso, managing librarian at Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). They discuss LAPL’s Be a Successful Street Vendor program, a new offering … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Supporting Small Business
“When I was growing up, we didn’t have graphic novels for a children’s audience,” says Robb, head curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (BICLM) at Ohio State University in Columbus. “But now we have all kinds of stories,” she says. “Autobiographical, fantasy, adventure, you name it. It’s incredible to see this explosion … Continue reading Bookend: A Library of Laughs
