American Libraries podcast Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Call Number Podcast: Small Libraries, Big Ideas

November 11, 2024

At Burlingame (Kans.) Community Library, sensory spaces and a new loanable resource collection are improving the lives of patrons with disabilities and their families. Meanwhile, at North Liberty (Iowa) Library, staffers are moderating discussions on hot-button topics that are getting community members to open up, listen to one another, and connect. Both libraries have received … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Small Libraries, Big Ideas →

Call Number Podcast: The Haunting of Peoria Public Library

October 25, 2024

Is the building possessed by spirits hovering above cursed ground? Or, are these apparitions just a sign that the librarians have been spending too much time in the stacks? In this Halloween season rebroadcast of Episode 31, “The Haunting of Peoria Public Library,” originally aired in 2018, past-host Phil Morehart road-trips to Peoria in Central … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: The Haunting of Peoria Public Library →

Call Number Podcast: Check Out Your Library

September 26, 2024

In this bonus episode, sponsored by OverDrive, we learn more about Check Out Your Library and the campaign’s Fiction and Film Tour. American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski talks with Jen Leitman, chief marketing officer of OverDrive, about how the program is building public awareness and helping libraries fulfill their missions. For more information on … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Check Out Your Library →

Call Number Podcast: For the Love of Music

July 15, 2024

Some libraries offered programs, hosted listening parties, and transformed into mini concert venues to celebrate their favorite musician’s latest release. American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Kafi-Ayanna Allah, adult services program coordinator at Orange County (N.C.) Public Library; Yesenia Baltierra, assistant library director at Placentia (Calif.) Library District; and … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: For the Love of Music →

Call Number Podcast: Sunny San Diego

June 18, 2024

First, American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Tim Tully, instruction and outreach librarian for San Diego State University’s Surf and Skate Studies Collaborative. He shares the origins of these local subcultures, how they have evolved, and where to go if you want to catch waves or hit a kickflip. … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Sunny San Diego →

Call Number Podcast: Sustainability Strategies

May 13, 2024

First, American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski pays a visit to the Sulzer Regional branch of Chicago Public Library, which hosts a repair café every month. At these events, participants bring household items in need of mending to the library. Volunteers with toolkits fix the items, sparing them from the landfill. Next, members of ALA’s … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Sustainability Strategies →

Call Number Podcast: Preserving History

April 15, 2024

First, American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski speaks with Indigenous author Traci Sorell, the honorary chair of this year’s Preservation Week. Sorell, a former attorney who worked on Native Nations policy, discusses preservation’s part in telling stories. Next, American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Kathleen Monahan, special collections public … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Preserving History →

Call Number Podcast: Decoding AI

March 11, 2024

First, American Libraries Associate Editor Megan Bennett speaks with Cheryl Eberly and Larry Singer, both from Santa Ana Public Library in California. They discuss the library’s initiative, which provides neurodivergent youth with access to robots that help them build social-emotional skills. This includes an AI robot named Moxie, who is available for checkout. Then, American … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Decoding AI →

Episode 92: The Wide World of Librarians in Sports

Call Number Podcast: The Wide World of Librarians in Sports

February 12, 2024

First, American Libraries Associate Editor Megan Bennett speaks with Paralympian and librarian Amanda McGrory. McGrory, a seven-time medalist, has competed in wheelchair racing in four Paralympic games. Now retired from racing, she oversees the archive for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Then, American Libraries Senior Editor Greg Landgraf chats with Drew Evans, retired law … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: The Wide World of Librarians in Sports →

Call Number Podcast: Good Morning, Baltimore!

January 16, 2024

First, American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with David Thomas and Tonya Thomas, both chefs and food historians. The husband-and-wife duo is behind Baltimore’s H3irloom Food Group, a culinary organization with a mission of uplifting the Black food narrative through catering and educational events. They discuss their cooking journeys and … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Good Morning, Baltimore! →

2023 Author Chats - from left, authors Clint Smith, Angie Thomas, and Rick Riordan

Call Number Podcast: 2023 Author Chats

December 11, 2023

In Episode 90, Call Number presents its “2023 Author Chats.” Hear never-before-released clips from conversations with Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel, James Patterson, Rick Riordan, Brian Selznick, Clint Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Angie Thomas, and Kelly Yang. They share how libraries have been an integral part of their life and work—often highlighting how the library … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: 2023 Author Chats →

Episode 89: Services for the Incarcerated

Call Number Podcast: Services for the Incarcerated

November 13, 2023

First, poets and prison reform activists Reginald Dwayne Betts and Randall Horton talked with former ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall back in an interview conducted last July. Betts and Horton, who were formerly incarcerated, now spearhead respective literary program: Betts founded Freedom Reads, which installs 500-book Freedom Libraries in prisons and juvenile detention centers, … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Services for the Incarcerated →

Latest Library Links

17h

Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
21h

Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
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Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9

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