#acrl2021 Archives | American Libraries Magazine

ACRL 2021 Closing Session speaker Mona Chalabi

ACRL Day Four: Humanizing Information

By Amy Carlton | April 19, 2021

Charts all have the same visual language—lines, bars, pies—but Chalabi said she tries to marry her illustrations with their subject matter to retain her viewers’ attention. A chart about candy sales uses bars of chocolate, for example, so that the meaning is clear even if the labels are removed. Chalabi described her two criteria for … Continue reading ACRL Day Four: Humanizing Information →

ACRL 2021 invited speakers (from left) Jennifer Brown, Jennifer Ferretti, and Charlotte Roh of We Here

ACRL Day Three: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries

By Amy Carlton | April 16, 2021

Jenny Ferretti, We Here founder and digital initiatives librarian at Maryland Institute College of Art, opened the session “Systemic Oppression Requires Systemic Change: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries in Contemporary Contexts” by providing background on the racial past and present of libraries. Libraries, she said, are traditionally white-serving institutions, citing Todd Honma’s “Trippin’ over … Continue reading ACRL Day Three: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries →

ACRL 2021 Virtual Conference Invited Speaker Kaetrena Davis Kendrick

ACRL Day Two: Getting to Welcome

By Amy Carlton | April 15, 2021

She began her talk by laying out the challenges facing the field—such as rising tuition costs, student retention, competition, and the pandemic—and their corresponding opportunities, including attracting nontraditional students, expanding degree programs, tapping alumni resources for networking, and rethinking what the campus experience could mean to students after the pandemic. Kendrick spelled out her theory … Continue reading ACRL Day Two: Getting to Welcome →

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 →

Latest Library Links

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“There is some research that indicates winter is the most stressful season of the year: Our environment gets colder and darker, and winter holidays can be major stressors due to finances, family, and more. To usher in fall’s transition into winter, our November booklist has fiction and nonfiction titles all about kindness. That means a lot of things, such as: practicing kindness towards ourselves to promote self-care and wellbeing, practicing kindness towards others to strengthen empathy towards others, and practicing kindness toward our environment to better sustain our world.”

Denver Public Library, Nov.
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Skylar Laird writes: “Seven books must be removed from the library shelves and classrooms of South Carolina’s public schools, while three classics can stay, the state Board of Education decided Nov. 5. The decision was the first time the board considered whether to remove or keep books under a new regulation banning books that contain ‘sexual conduct.’ Instead of waiting for parents to challenge the books locally and appeal districts’ decisions, committee members asked department staff to review books that had already faced local opposition or came up during public hearings for the regulation.”

South Carolina Daily Gazette, Nov. 5; The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.), June 25
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Amy Bushatz writes: “The Matanuska-Susitna Borough (Alaska) School District has agreed to pay $89,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated students’ constitutional rights by removing 56 books from library shelves early last year, district officials said November 1. Under the settlement, seven books will remain permanently off district library shelves, officials said. The remaining titles were returned to shelves late this summer at nine high schools, four middle schools, and a correspondence homeschool program. The settlement does not include an admission of guilt.”

Mat-Su Sentinel (Palmer, Alaska), Nov. 1
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“Kerri Price is no stranger to ALA. In early September, Price returned to the Association to direct the Office for Accreditation, which promotes and advances education in library and information studies, after five years at the nonprofit Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in Chicago. During her previous tenure at ALA, Price spent 12 years working in the Office for Accreditation and the Governance Office. She answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members.

AL: The Scoop, Nov. 5
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Renaud Foucart writes: “The US Department of Justice may be on the verge of seeking a breakup of Google in a bid to make it less dominant. While this is still a distant prospect, it is being considered in the wake of a series of rulings in the US and the European Union which suggest that regulators are becoming increasingly frustrated by the power of big tech. But what would a breakup of these tech giants achieve for consumers?”

LLRX, Oct. 29
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Steven Mintz writes: “For decades, a college or university’s quality was measured by the size of its library collection. The library was the campus’s crown jewel, a towering building at the institution’s center, symbolizing academic prestige. But as collections shift online and physical books move into remote storage, the library’s purpose is now in question. For libraries to maintain their central place within the intellectual life of universities, they must become dynamic, multipurpose hubs that not only provide access to a vast array of digital and physical resources but also actively engage in the broader educational and cultural missions of their institutions.”

Inside Higher Ed: Higher Ed Gamma, Oct. 28
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On November 6, ALA issued a statement following the results of the 2024 US election. The full statement reads as follows: “In response to results of the 2024 US election, ALA vowed to continue its defense of the core values of librarianship in the face of political threats. ‘We know that many of our members are concerned that the election results portend attacks on libraries, library workers, and readers,’ said ALA President Cindy Hohl. ‘Whatever happens, ALA will stand up for all Americans’ freedom to read—and we will need everyone who loves libraries to stand with us.’”

AL: The Scoop, Nov. 6

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