American Libraries podcast Archives | Page 8 of 8

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Halloween Episode

October 27, 2016

It’s that time of the year again, when the days grow shorter, a chill creeps into the air, and the supernatural and otherworldly are ubiquitous—even in the library world. Join American Libraries Associate Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart for a very special Halloween edition of the podcast, featuring conversations with: Greg Hager, director of … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Halloween Episode →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Banned Books

October 5, 2016

James LaRue, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. James and Phil talk about the difference between a challenge and a ban, the reasons behind books bans in the US, and more. Sara Stevenson, a librarian at O. Henry Middle School in … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Banned Books →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Design

August 30, 2016

Brian Lee from Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, the chief architect behind Chicago Public Library’s award-winning Chinatown branch. Lee and Morehart discuss the new Chinatown library and why it’s important for a library to integrate itself into and reflect the community it serves. Kimberly Bolan, the library consultant behind Kimberly Bolan and Associates and author of … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Design →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Annual Recap

July 25, 2016

To fulfill such an ambition, Morehart brought more hands on deck—“It’s a whole ALA family affair.” In this very special installment of Dewey Decibel (well, they’re all pretty special to us!) we bring you a variety of reporting from a variety of staffers. – The Pulse nightclub shooting, which happened two weeks before Annual, was … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Annual Recap →

Dewey Decibel Podcast Episode Three Celebrating the Carnegie Medals

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Celebrating the Carnegie Medals

June 24, 2016

Episode Three features interviews with Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Carnegie Medal– and Pulitizer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer, and Nancy Pearl, renowned librarian, literary critic, and Carnegie Medals committee chair. The awards, cosponsored by Booklist and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Reference and User Services Association, were announced in January. Carnegie Medal winners Nguyen … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Celebrating the Carnegie Medals →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Security

May 23, 2016

In Episode Two, we bring you conversations on library security. It’s not an easy topic to talk about, but it is an essential one. We welcome three people from the library world who work to help us understand how to handle safety issues—both large-scale, harrowing encounters and smaller but still disconcerting events—in our buildings and … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Security →

American Libraries Dewey Decibel Podcast: Episode One

Experience the Dewey Decibel Podcast

April 25, 2016

You can hear it in Dewey Decibel host and AL associate editor Phil Morehart’s voice—just how darn excited we are to be sharing our conversations with librarians, authors, thinkers, scholars, and others, about topics from the library world and beyond, in this new monthly offering. In the first podcast episode, “Preservation: If You Don’t Have … Continue reading Experience the Dewey Decibel Podcast →

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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