You’ve authored two cookbooks, a food encyclopedia, and a memoir. What made you want to write the children’s book Tomatoes for Neela? This book is based on a story I would often tell my daughter, who is now 11, as I was putting her to sleep in earlier years. I think one of the best … Continue reading Newsmaker: Padma Lakshmi
Headlining speakers talked about books, libraries, and the exchange of ideas in the greater context of major societal challenges. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and Opening Session speaker Nikole Hannah-Jones, who developed the 1619 Project for The New York Times Magazine, recalled an elective course on Black studies she took as a teenager. “It was the first … Continue reading 2021 Annual Conference Wrap-Up
Interviewed by Lonnie Bunch III, the first African American secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and introduced by ALA President Julius C. Jefferson Jr., Obama talked about A Promised Land (Crown, November 2020)—the first of two memoirs spanning his paradigm-breaking presidency—and the role of libraries in shaping the story of American democracy. “A Promised Land chronicles … Continue reading Hope and Harmony
Memorials were read for John T. Ma (M#9), Vartan Gregorian (M#10), Kathie Coblentz (M#11), Henrietta M. Smith (M#12), Cheryl McCarthy (M#13), Eleanor “Penny” Brome (M#14), Latanya N. Jenkins (M#15), Anita Schiller (M#16), Xiaoqiu Li (M#17), Bernadette Storck (M#18), William C. Robinson (M#19), Margaret R. Myers (M#20), Michele Leber (M#21), Leonard Kniffel (M#22), William G. Asp … Continue reading Council III: Resolutions and Updates
“Nurses and social workers get the support that they need to recognize and cope with compassion fatigue, but in the world of libraries it’s a relative unknown,” she said. “We generally do not do a good job of promoting our own health and well-being.” Franco introduced attendees to the body’s major stress chemicals—adrenaline and cortisol—and … Continue reading The Struggle Is Real
Kemper started his position in January 2020 with “mixed messages”—he’d been appointed by a president who had proposed defunding IMLS over three consecutive years and unanimously confirmed in the Senate, which had approved increases for the agency over the same period. There was no time to process the president’s fourth proposed elimination before the pandemic … Continue reading Realms of Opportunity
ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall presented the review of Executive Board actions taken since the 2021 Midwinter Meeting (CD#15.1) and the implementation report on Council actions taken at Midwinter (CD#9.1). In a carryover from Council I earlier in the day, Forward Together Resolutions Working Group (FTRWG) cochairs Christina Rodriques and Jack Martin presented their … Continue reading Council II: Restructuring and Sustainability
“The act of education is an act of vulnerability, the willingness to open up to the possibility of a new worldview or at the very least be exposed to it even if it doesn’t shift your own,” said Stacy Collins, research and instruction librarian at Simmons University in Boston. There are those who arrive at … Continue reading The Myth of Neutrality
The Virtual Council rules (CD#5.2) and agenda (CD#8.6) were adopted. The minutes from the 2021 ALA Midwinter Meeting and March Council Meeting Minutes (CD#2.3–2.4) were also adopted. Mike Marlin, chair of the Resolutions Committee, thanked his colleagues and bade farewell to retiring committee members before presenting his report (CD#10.2). The Committee on Committees (COC) report … Continue reading Council I: Forward Together Work Begins
On the surface, Colman’s graphic novel The Unfinished Corner (Wonderbound/Vault, 2021) is about four Jewish kids who are whisked away by a rogue angel to an unfinished portion of the universe to help rid it of evil, but the author said the book conveys much more. “It’s a sad, but undeniable fact, that whenever there … Continue reading Escaping the Ordinary
“I left active duty in 1987 as part of the Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act. Basically it was peace time and they wanted to get people out to save money, so I left early and gave back double that time in reserves,” she said. “And when I came back to Illinois, there wasn’t work. So I … Continue reading Serving Those Who Have Served
Harrison and Lauren Geiger, metadata librarian at MSU Libraries, shared their experiences in improving accessibility in the university’s digital archives and special collections at the on-demand session “Accessible, Not Just Discoverable: Ensuring Accessibility in Digital Collections,” part of the American Library Association’s 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition Virtual. Users encounter the four principles of accessibility … Continue reading Planning for Accessibility
