ALA President Archives | Page 17 of 17 | American Libraries Magazine

Community Outrage Prompts Officials to Reopen Colton Libraries

By Beverly Goldberg | December 2, 2009

Less than a month after city administrators in Colton, California, abruptly shuttered both public libraries as part of an effort to close a $5-million budget gap, Colton Public Library is back in business. The December 1 reopening of the main library came just two weeks after some 100 area residents, including library board President Pete … Continue reading Community Outrage Prompts Officials to Reopen Colton Libraries →

It May Cost Too Much to Close Libraries in Reading, Pennsylvania

By Beverly Goldberg | November 4, 2009

Concerned citizens in Reading, Pennsylvania, have been brainstorming about how to keep the three branches of the Reading Public Library open ever since the board announced in late October that it had to close the three facilities at year’s end and lay off nine of the 20 branch library workers, leaving the city of about … Continue reading It May Cost Too Much to Close Libraries in Reading, Pennsylvania →

Library Levy Landslides Make History in Ohio

By Beverly Goldberg | November 4, 2009

Election Day in Ohio reaped an unprecedented show of library support: Voters in Ohio approved 29 of the 37 library levies placed on ballots by cash-starved public libraries reeling from 11th-hour cuts to state aid for FY2010–12, with one more apparently passing but close enough to require a recount. The impressive display translates into a … Continue reading Library Levy Landslides Make History in Ohio →

Village Residents Demand Return of Beloved Library Director

By Beverly Goldberg | October 21, 2009

The centennial of the Castleton (N.Y.) Public Library is being overshadowed by controversy, as area residents and local and state officials continue to demand the reinstatement of Darlene Miller as director of the library a month after the board summarily fired her. About 75 concerned citizens in the village of 1,600 gathered October 20 for … Continue reading Village Residents Demand Return of Beloved Library Director →

Ohio Budget Deal Includes Less Severe Funding Cut

By Gordon Flagg | July 15, 2009

Ohio libraries have been spared the proposed budget cuts that had threatened to lower their state funding by 30%. However, the biennial budget passed by the state legislature July 13 still includes a reduction in library funding of some 11%. The budget legalizes racetrack slot machines and cuts several state programs to close a projected … Continue reading Ohio Budget Deal Includes Less Severe Funding Cut →

Latest Library Links

7h

Sheila Craft-Morgan writes: “Citations are a key measure of the impact of a researcher’s work. However, research in a variety of disciplines has found that women are less likely to be cited than men; citations contain geographic bias; and the Matthew effect—in which those who begin with advantage continue to gain advantage—leads to more citations for prominent scholars in a specific discipline. These findings contribute to the notion that scholarly knowledge comes from a homogenous group of researchers, thereby overlooking the contributions of other groups.”

American Libraries column, June
10h

Mel Baldwin writes: “Regardless of why someone comes into a library, every patron should be free to interact with staff, browse materials, and use the internet without fear of harassment or worse. That freedom depends on libraries upholding patron privacy. With nearly 400 active anti-trans bills pending in state legislatures as of April 2024, it is a dangerous time in the US to be gender nonconforming, someone whose gender expression does not align with the traditional male or female binary. And for trans people of color, studies show the risk of discrimination and violence is higher.”

American Libraries column, June
14h

Greg Landgraf writes: “On a school morning last September, small groups of 5th-graders crowded around tools connected to scientific research—a microscope, a robotic camera, and even a snake named Morgan Freeman—clipboards and pencils in hand. They were at the Melrose branch of Roanoke (Va.) Public Libraries (RPL), judging graduate students from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on their research. The event was RPL’s second Flip the Fair, introduced in 2022 to help graduate students develop skills to effectively communicate their research while engaging local elementary students with STEM topics and the library.”

American Libraries Trend, June
3d

Aaryn Bierly writes: “Disability Pride Month is traditionally celebrated in July to celebrate the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The ADA regulates laws regarding service animals, requires employers to accommodate their employees’ physical and medical needs, stipulates the number and placement of accessible parking spaces and restrooms, and more. One in five Americans has some type of disability that makes working more difficult, and the ADA has made working conditions easier for a significant number of Americans. We’ve got several great lists of books for kids and teens of different ages featuring characters with a range of disabilities.”

Herrick District Library (Holland, Mich.), July 1
4d

“Many people already turn to libraries as sources of trusted information ahead of elections, and organizations like ALA and the League of Women Voters are hoping to expand those numbers. We’ve curated a selection of resources, tools, and ideas to help inform your library’s approach to this important work.”

WebJunction, July 3
4d

“A federal appeals court in New Orleans is taking another look at its own order requiring a Texas county to keep eight books that deal with subjects including sex, gender identity, and racism on public library shelves. Llano County officials had initially removed 17 books from its shelves amid complaints about the subject matter. The June 6 order was vacated July 3 after a majority of the 17-member court granted Llano County officials a new hearing before the full court. The order did not state reasons and the hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled.”

Associated Press, July 7
5d

Todd Spangler writes: “In the days after Paramount Global disabled mtvnews.com and mtv.com/news in June—removing a trove of hundreds of thousands of articles about music and pop culture from the internet—the not-for-profit Internet Archive assembled a searchable index of 460,575 web pages previously published at mtv.com/news. The Wayback Machine’s archive of MTV News is not the full complement of what was published over the span of more than two decades. But the new collection at least ensures, for the time being, that much of MTV News’ articles remain accessible in some form.”

Variety, July 2

View more Latest Library Links