#alaac18 Archives | Page 3 of 7 | American Libraries Magazine

Libraries Helping Entrepreneurs

By Terra Dankowski | June 25, 2018

At “Strengthening Libraries as Entrepreneurial Hubs,” a session sponsored by the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) at the American Library Association’s 2018 Annual Conference in New Orleans in Sunday, members of ULC’s Learning Cohort discussed practices and approaches for public libraries that want to support contractors, small business, and startups in their communities. “Most businesses fail … Continue reading Libraries Helping Entrepreneurs →

President’s Program Speakers Address Citizenship through Poetry, Memoir

By Amy Carlton | June 25, 2018

Smith has been traveling around the US, but instead of reading at the usual bookstores and college campuses, she’s been hitting public libraries, churches, and community centers. She said the sense of gathering in these spaces has been intimate and inspiring. For example, she read her work in a men’s rehab facility, and although the … Continue reading President’s Program Speakers Address Citizenship through Poetry, Memoir →

Hailley Fargo, student engagement and outreach librarian at Penn State University, University Park, and Dylan Burns, digital scholarship librarian at Utah State University, Logan, introduce their research on the emotions of library job seekers at the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans June 25.

Emotions in the LIS Job Search

By Kate Thompson | June 25, 2018

After Fargo and Burns endured the stress and competition of the LIS job market, they wanted to see if this experience was common, but found little research on job searches within LIS literature. Their project responds to a familiar question: Is librarianship dying? Blogs and think pieces suggest that one shouldn’t pursue library school, and … Continue reading Emotions in the LIS Job Search →

April Hathcock, scholarly communication librarian at New York University Libraries

Battling Racism Below the Surface

By Phil Morehart | June 25, 2018

After discussing definitions of whiteness (a way of thinking, both intentional and unintentional, that privileges the values of white people over those of non-whites) and implicit bias (the unconscious and conscious stereotypes that we ascribe to others), Hathcock broke the near-capacity crowd into small groups to discuss an example of implicit bias and whiteness in … Continue reading Battling Racism Below the Surface →

Lights, Camera, Libraries!

By Phil Morehart | June 25, 2018

Daardi Sizemore Mixon, university archivist and special collections librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU), and her colleague Monika Antonelli, outreach librarian, explained how, as part of the university’s 150th anniversary celebration, the MSU library produced a 50-minute documentary titled Two Weeks in May. The basis for the film was Out of Chaos (Minnesota State University Mankato Foundation, … Continue reading Lights, Camera, Libraries! →

Lauren J. Young, Craig McClain, and Alison Ricker

Libraries: A Force for Science

By George M. Eberhart | June 25, 2018

Alison Ricker, head of the science library at Oberlin (Ohio) College, said, “Librarians are all a force for science, simply by what we do.” Her message was amplified by a blue T-shirt draped over the panel’s table that read “I am a force for science.” Ricker explained it was distributed by the American Association for … Continue reading Libraries: A Force for Science →

Top 10 Tweets—Monday Edition

By Heather Cho | June 25, 2018

You on a Monday. #alaac18 #MondayMorning 8:30AM sessions actual footage pic.twitter.com/9jgnvX5Wrp — Kayt Ahnberg (@teach_research) June 25, 2018 You asking an important question. With 36 hours of conferencing left, I just shipped 30 lbs. of books to myself. How did this happen? 🤦🏾‍♀️ #ALAac18 #ocpsreads #SummerReading — Ms. Garner (@GarnerDP) June 25, 2018 … Continue reading Top 10 Tweets—Monday Edition →

Sarah Simms and Hayley Johnson of Louisiana State University discuss their research on the Camp Livingston internment camps at "The Accidental Researcher: a Case Study in Librarian-led Historical Research and Social Justice" on June 24 at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference.

How Two Academic Librarians Became Accidental Historical Researchers

By Sally Stieglitz | June 25, 2018

For Hayley Johnson and Sarah Simms, speakers at “The Accidental Researcher: a Case Study in Librarian-led Historical Research and Social Justice” on June 24 at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference, their research on the Camp Livingston internment camps started with a May 2016 newspaper article on letters from interned World War II–era Japanese American children. Johnson, head of … Continue reading How Two Academic Librarians Became Accidental Historical Researchers →

Hidden Figures in American Library History: The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South

Desegregating Public Libraries

By George M. Eberhart | June 25, 2018

On Sunday, June 24, the governing Council of American Library Association (ALA) passed a historic resolution that “apologizes to African Americans for wrongs committed against them in segregated public libraries” and commends those “who risked their lives to integrate public libraries for their bravery and courage in challenging segregation in public libraries and in forcing … Continue reading Desegregating Public Libraries →

ALSC Changes Name of Laura Ingalls Wilder Award

By Terra Dankowski | June 25, 2018

“We made this decision in order to bring our awards program into consistency with our mission and our strategic directions,” says ALSC President Nina Lindsay. “ALSC’s core values include integrity, respect, inclusiveness, and responsiveness, and we found we needed to review the names of awards with those values in mind.” In a joint statement released … Continue reading ALSC Changes Name of Laura Ingalls Wilder Award →

Bullying, Trolling, and Doxxing, Oh My!

By Phil Morehart | June 25, 2018

Nicole Cooke, assistant professor and MS/LIS program director at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s School of Information Sciences, opened the session by detailing how she became a target after the right-wing publication Campus Reform published a story about her research project, “Minority Student Experiences with Racial Microaggressions in the Academic Library,” which received a 2017 … Continue reading Bullying, Trolling, and Doxxing, Oh My! →

Spatial Humanities in Libraries

By Carrie Smith | June 25, 2018

Weimer was joined by two other panelists to provide an introduction to spatial humanities and its potential as an aspect of library instruction and its role in student research at “Understanding and Using Spatial Humanities: Digital Mapping at the Forefront of Scholarly Research,” moderated by Leslie Wagner, chair of the Map and Geospatial Information Round Table, … Continue reading Spatial Humanities in Libraries →

Latest Library Links

18h

John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
23h

Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
2d

Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
2d

Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
3d

ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14
3d

Emily Weak writes: “Something I always hear from hiring managers is that they want to build a resilient, diverse workforce. Sometimes we say we want a resilient workforce, but what we mean is that we want staffers who are willing to go above and beyond, or to do more with less. These concepts are deeply entrenched in librarianship, but I think we’re beginning to see how they can cause problems. Instead of trying to hire people who will do more with less and who will thrive amid adversity, let’s think about resilience as an organizational feature.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
3d

Elisabeth B. White writes: “How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the ‘why’ of learning), representation (the ‘what’ of learning), and action and expression (the ‘how’ of learning). However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.

View more Latest Library Links