American Libraries podcast Archives | Page 2 of 8

Call Number Podcast: Setting Up for Self-Care

May 16, 2022

First, American Libraries Associate Editor and podcast Diana Panuncial speaks with Randa Lopez Morgan, programming and events librarian for Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, about LSU’s Relaxation Room and how it has helped students decompress during finals week. Next, American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski interviews Rebecca Tolley, author of A Trauma-Informed Approach to … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Setting Up for Self-Care →

Call Number Podcast: Making Financial Sense

April 18, 2022

Episode 70, “Making Financial Sense,” marks the podcast’s six-year anniversary and the first installment helmed by American Libraries Associate Editor Diana Panuncial. In this episode, we celebrate Financial Literacy Month and wrap up Money Smart Week (April 9–16). The podcast team talks with library workers about some big questions around money: How do we raise … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Making Financial Sense →

Call Number episode 69: Year-End Author Chats

Call Number Podcast: Year-End Author Chats

December 27, 2021

Featured in this installment are never-before-released clips from conversations with Fox Sports analyst and former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, acclaimed writer Isabel Allende, reggae musician and philanthropist Ziggy Marley, TV host and producer Padma Lakshmi, bestselling horror author Max Brooks, Dance Theatre of Harlem alumni Judy Tyrus and Paul Novosel, and lawyer and speaker Savala … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Year-End Author Chats →

Call Number podcast: The Buzz on Scripps National Spelling Bee

December 16, 2021

On this bonus episode of Call Number with American Libraries, sponsored by the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Phil Morehart, communications manager for the American Library Association, talks with J. Michael Durnil, executive director of the Bee. They discuss how the Scripps National Spelling Bee has changed over time, the benefits of participating, how libraries can … Continue reading Call Number podcast: The Buzz on Scripps National Spelling Bee →

Call Number Podcast: Food, Glorious Food

November 23, 2021

On Episode 68, Call Number with American Libraries looks at the wonderful world of food. First, American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski speaks with model, author, and Top Chef host and producer Padma Lakshmi about the intersection of cooking and family and the value of creating space for everyone’s food story. Next, American Libraries Editor … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Food, Glorious Food →

Call Number with American Libraries: Agents of Change

Call Number Podcast: Agents of Change

October 29, 2021

On this bonus episode of Call Number with American Libraries, sponsored by Gale, Maggie Reagan, senior editor of books for youth at Booklist, talks with Jessica Klinker, head librarian at Franklin Heights High School in Columbus, Ohio—one of the librarians whose feedback helped shape the Agents of Change 2.0 paper. They discuss Klinker’s experiences working … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Agents of Change →

Call Number Podcast: Zombies!

October 19, 2021

In Episode 67, Call Number with American Libraries celebrates Halloween with a look at libraries and the living dead. First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Ben Rubin, horror studies collection coordinator at University of Pittsburgh Library System, about the George A. Romero Archival Collection, which was gifted to … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Zombies! →

Call Number with American Libraries, Episode 66 - Library Architecture and Design: The Past Meets the Future

Call Number Podcast: Library Architecture and Design

September 21, 2021

First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Heather Hart, manager of Salt Lake City Public Library’s Sprague branch, about renovations that were made to the 93-year-old, English Tudor–style library after a flood destroyed much of the building in 2017. Next, Morehart talks with Sean Ngo from architecture firm DLR … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Library Architecture and Design →

Call Number Podcast: Serving Our Veterans

August 20, 2021

On Episode 65 of Call Number with American Libraries, we look at library services to veterans. First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Angela Maranville, a US Air Force veteran and director of knowledge access and resource management at West Virginia University (WVU) Libraries in Morgantown. They talk about … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Serving Our Veterans →

Call Number Podcast: Libraries and Hip-Hop

July 19, 2021

In Episode 64, Call Number with American Libraries looks at libraries and hip-hop. First, American Libraries senior editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Ralph McDaniels, the hip-hop luminary who created the influential Video Music Box TV show in the early 1980s and who now serves as hip-hop coordinator at Queens (N.Y.) Public … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Libraries and Hip-Hop →

Call Number Podcast episode 63: Getting Outdoors

Call Number Podcast: Getting Outdoors

June 22, 2021

First, ALA Editions Senior Acquisitions Editor Rachel Chance speaks with Web Administrator and Local History Specialist Erin Rothenbuehler and Programming Director and Local History Specialist Sean Duffy from Ohio County (W.Va.) Public Library about a series of programs they offer on bugs, most notably the Brood X cicadas. Next American Libraries Associate Editor Sallyann Price … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Getting Outdoors →

Call Number Podcast: Law Libraries

May 18, 2021

First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Emily Florio, senior research services manager at international law firm Hogan Lovells and president of the American Association of Law Libraries, who provides a glimpse into the life and work of a law librarian. Next, Morehart talks with Anne Lucke, librarian at … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Law Libraries →

Latest Library Links

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The American Library Association (ALA) released new data today documenting 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. The unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 757 challenges reported in 2021. A record 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship, a 38% increase from the 1,858 unique titles targeted for censorship in 2021. Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.

ALA, Mar. 22
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Joshua Kim writes: “Mary Jane Petrowski, associate director of ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries, reached out in regard to my piece on academic library staffing trends. In that piece, I shared some Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) findings that seem to demonstrate a steep drop in academic library staffing since 2012. As Petrowski is ideally positioned to unpack academic library staffing trends, she agreed to help us figure out what is going on.” Petrowski answers whether IPEDS data is adequate for telling the story of staffing trends, contextualizes staff reductions, and shares ideas for how nonlibrarians can be allies to academic librarians.

Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 21, Feb. 12
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Maggie Laurel Boyd writes: “What happens when time doesn’t heal us the way we expect? Is healing possible in the terms we have laid out for it? This reading list features eight books published in the last 20 years, plus one book published 50 years ago (it’s worth the trip back in time, though, I promise) that challenge traditional healing narratives. In the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions about health and healing remain all too relevant; many of us are realizing that illness permeates many of the spaces we exist within, and still more of us are reckoning with our vulnerability to illness. Reading these texts helps us recognize that if our arc of recovery deviates from the template, then at least we’re in good company.”

Electric Lit, Feb. 23
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ALA’s Reference and User Services Association will host its second-annual RUSA Virtual Forum March 28 and March 30. Under the theme “Reference and User Services Reimagined,” the forum’s two nonconsecutive days of programs will showcase best practices for library workers in reference, user services, adult readers advisory, collection development, resource sharing, genealogy and archives, business reference, and reference technology. The opening keynote will be delivered by Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and associate professor at University of South Carolina’s School of Information Science. Early bird registration ends March 11.

ALA’s Reference and User Services Association, Feb. 22
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Paisley Rekdal, Peter Bromberg, and Rebekah Cummings write: “Utah is the latest state hit by the national wave of bills targeting public education. A new public school curriculum bill introduced in the Utah legislature (House Bill 427) would ‘prohibit the use of instructional materials and classroom instruction inconsistent with the principle of inalienable rights, equal opportunity, and individual merit.’ Vacuous as this description might seem, the bill is hardly empty of meaning. If passed into law, this bill would effectively shelter students from the past, spoon-feeding them versions of the world that make no one feel uncomfortable about anything, least of all actual facts. It’s not only a paternalistic attitude, but one that would stultify the classroom.”

The Hill, Feb. 24; The Guardian (US), Feb. 14; Utah State Legislature
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Jodi Fortino and Kate Grumke write: “The ACLU of Missouri is challenging a new state law that bans ‘sexually explicit material’ from schools and has resulted in districts pulling hundreds of books from their shelves. The suit, filed on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, asks the circuit court in Kansas City to find the law unconstitutional. The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Jean Peters Baker in her capacity as the Jackson County Prosecutor and on behalf of all county prosecutors in Missouri. In its lawsuit, the ACLU argues that the law violates educators’ due process rights because it uses vague language that invites government overreach and does not differentiate school employees’ official capacity from their personal capacity.”

KCUR-FM (Kansas City, Mo.), Feb. 23
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ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall writes: “Having visited, worked or consulted for, and spoken at hundreds of libraries, I don’t believe there is any educational or public service institution that more ably facilitates personal growth and community access than libraries. They place the acts of discovery and changemaking within reach of everyone. The library’s proven ability to stimulate people and ideas into action is what fueled ALA’s new Civic Imagination Stations project, a pilot supported by the Estée Lauder Companies’ Writing Change program, a three-year initiative designed to advance literacy as a pathway to equality, access, and social change.”

American Libraries column, Mar./Apr.

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