accessibility Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Call Number Podcast: Rethinking Your Space

September 12, 2022

As any library staffer who has gone through a building renovation knows, significant behind-the-scenes work goes into updating or overhauling a facility. From working with architects to communicating with committees to soliciting community feedback, rethinking a library doesn’t happen overnight. On Episode 75, the podcast team focuses on library design and architecture. First, American Libraries … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Rethinking Your Space →

Show and Tell

By Mark Aaron Polger | September 1, 2022

Interior signage includes identification signs for service points, office room numbers, elevators, stairways, restrooms, entrances, and exits; directional signs; signs for orientation (call number ranges, floor directory); and regulatory signs (fire exits, fire alarm pulls). Exterior signage usually includes signs for site identification, entrances, exits, parking (and accessible parking), and directional signs. At its most … Continue reading Show and Tell →

A toddler at Arlington Heights (Ill.) Memorial Library (AHML) enjoys tummy time while playing with Peek-a-Boo Mirror, a sensory toy in AHML’s collection.

A Sense of Support

By Annemarie Mannion | May 2, 2022

That experience more than 13 years ago inspired her to start BTPL’s Youth Accessibility Support Collection, a set of items designed to meet the needs of children with various types of disabilities and learning needs. Since 2009, families have been borrowing from the collection, which includes adaptive toys, sensory storytime boxes, speech therapy cards, and skills … Continue reading A Sense of Support →

Meeting Every Maker

By Abigail L. Phillips and Amelia M. Anderson | May 2, 2022

Acknowledging that gap, our research team set out to explore the accessibility of public library makerspaces. We did this through focus groups with disability advocates and stakeholders, with grant support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Every makerspace is different, we learned, but there were some common themes in our discussions with participants. … Continue reading Meeting Every Maker →

ALA Announces $7 Million in Grants to Support Accessibility

March 3, 2022

The American Library Association (ALA) announced today that its Libraries Transforming Communities project will offer more than $7 million in grants to small and rural libraries to increase the accessibility of facilities, services, and programs to better serve people with disabilities. “[The] Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities [grant] represents an important next … Continue reading ALA Announces $7 Million in Grants to Support Accessibility →

Accessible not just discoverable; Lauren Geiger and Emily D. Harrison

Planning for Accessibility

By Carrie Smith | June 27, 2021

Harrison and Lauren Geiger, metadata librarian at MSU Libraries, shared their experiences in improving accessibility in the university’s digital archives and special collections at the on-demand session “Accessible, Not Just Discoverable: Ensuring Accessibility in Digital Collections,” part of the American Library Association’s 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition Virtual. Users encounter the four principles of accessibility … Continue reading Planning for Accessibility →

Two toddlers and an adult play with Everbright, an interactive light wall with many multicolored round dials. The smallest child faces the camera smiling.

Low-Vision Accessibility

By Carrie Smith | June 1, 2021

Everbright User: Kate Simpson, Central Library children’s department manager at San Antonio Public Library What is Everbright? Everbright is an interactive light wall. It has knobs all over, and each knob changes color as you turn it. You can create images or patterns by setting the dials to various color shades, and you can program … Continue reading Low-Vision Accessibility →

Inclusive Media

By Carli Spina | May 3, 2021

The tech company Cisco predicts that by 2022, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic. In recent years, large libraries have jumped on this trend, producing recorded author events, tutorials, and promotional videos; since the pandemic began, the popularity of online videos has exploded even further. Ubiquitous as it is, much video content … Continue reading Inclusive Media →

ACRL 2021 Opening Session speaker Tressie McMillan Cottom

Ascending into an Open Future

By Amy Carlton | April 14, 2021

Cottom, associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, spoke about how these discussions inform the courses she teaches as well as her current thinking about the role of the academic library. One course, “Networks of Racial Capitalism,” examines the effects of information capitalism and structural inequality. … Continue reading Ascending into an Open Future →

Jack Miller dusts shelves at the main location of Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Illinois, pre-pandemic. Photo: Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Illinois

A Disproportionate Pandemic

By Emily Udell | March 1, 2021

“He is so routine-driven that he never considers doing ‘home’ things at the computer lab or ‘computer lab’ things at home,” says his mom, Rebecca Miller. “Being able to do these things at home is not the same to him at all.” In addition, using the computer lab gave Jack a taste of what his … Continue reading A Disproportionate Pandemic →

Illustration of people, stacked books, and a computer monitor. (Illustration: ©PureSolution/Adobe Stock)

How User-Friendly Is Your Website?

By Greg Landgraf | March 1, 2021

“I get the feeling that many people think usability comes second to utility,” says Christina Manzo, user experience librarian at Radford University Carilion in Roanoke, Virginia. “I think they’ve become one and the same. There’s a seemingly endless supply of interfaces competing for our attention, so users are less willing to put up with a … Continue reading How User-Friendly Is Your Website? →

Boost Your Public Speaking Skills

By Anne Ford | November 1, 2019

“I was just so petrified,” remembers Travis, who is advisor for information literacy and library instructional assessment at California State University, Long Beach. “I had actually prepared; I knew everything I should have said. It was just the idea of speaking in public that terrified me.” Years later, Travis has more than conquered her stage … Continue reading Boost Your Public Speaking Skills →

Latest Library Links

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On September 21, during Banned Books Week, Chicago Public Library (CPL) announced itself a sanctuary for endangered stories, establishing Book Sanctuaries across 77 neighborhoods and 81 library branches. Book Sanctuaries are designed to expand local access to banned and challenged books, and CPL has a free downloadable toolkit for individuals and groups looking to establish their own sanctuaries, whether in physical or digital spaces. By creating a Book Sanctuary, people “are providing unwavering support and protection for the freedom to read,” according to a statement from CPL, and are committing to collecting and protecting endangered books; making endangered books broadly accessible; hosting book talks and events to generate conversation, including storytimes focused on diverse characters and stories; or educating others on the history of book banning and burning.

Chicago Public Library, September 21
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Phil Morehart writes: “In their bestselling young adult memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020), author and activist George M. Johnson tells the story of their life growing up Black and queer in the United States, while also addressing topics like racism, gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, and sexual abuse. Johnson is serving as honorary chair of this year’s Banned Books Week, and they spoke with American Libraries about their book, why it’s being challenged, and how it can serve as a call to action.”

AL Online, Sept. 21
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Joanna Margaret writes: “ Over the past few years, the aesthetic known as Dark Academia, often associated with The Secret History, has become one of the hottest and most pervasive trends on social media, a veritable subculture featuring storied institutions of higher learning, autumn leaves, Gothic architecture, dark décor, and tweed jackets. If you, too, are interested in learning more about this fascinating trend, here are 6 novels that capture the essence of the genre.

CrimeReads, September 15
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Ruth Wong writes: “Last October, I attended a Wikipedia editing party themed around homelessness. At this event, I realized that by contributing to Wikipedia, I could contribute to how history is written. One month in, someone noticed my edits. The other editor said that my sources were too biased. That’s fair: I dove into this topic and found that my original edit was incorrect. But the other editor also tried to delete my user page, claiming that I was using it for self-promotion, which was totally uncalled for.”

Diff, September 17
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Chronicling America, the searchable online database of historic American newspapers, will soon include digitized newspapers from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds Chronicling America, recently awarded its first grant award to a National Digital Newspaper Program partner for the state of New Hampshire, its final state, ensuring access to significant newspapers from the entire United States. Established in 2005 and maintained online at the Library of Congress, Chronicling America offers free online access to 19.9 million pages of newspapers.

Library of Congress, September 13
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Nitish Pahwa and Emma Wallenbrock write: “In March 2020, as bookstores and libraries joined other businesses in closing their doors, the Internet Archive tried a virtual solution. It had long offered an Open Library, which contains scanned books that can be checked out online by users one at a time. In response to the pandemic, it temporarily lifted limits on the number of scanned copies available for checkout.” The National Emergency Library ended in under three months, but a lawsuit alleging “willful mass copyright infringement” is ongoing and recently escalated.

Slate, September 12
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Kathy Johnson Bowles writes: “So many times, I’ve heard the lament from colleagues “I don’t know how you do it. I could never ask anyone for money.” After every similar expression of exasperated longing (with a thinly veiled piteous sniff for the Oliver-esque position of a development executive), I return with, “I don’t ask for money; I ask people to share our vision and make an investment.” Through the guidance of mentors, working with successful fundraisers and securing numerous gifts, I’ve developed a philosophy that anchors the process of asking for money. Here are a few concepts I’ve found helpful.

Inside Higher Ed, September 13

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