It’s easy to forget that, beyond the talking robots, vendors dressed as Star Wars characters, and the authors signing books, a range of innovative, useful, and original products and services are on display. The large number of 2016 Modern Library Awards (MLAs) on display by vendors throughout the hall is testament to the quality of … Continue reading Overwhelming: The Exhibit Hall at Midwinter
A list of all the 2016 youth media award winners follows: John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: Last Stop on Market Street, written by Matt de la Peña, is the 2016 Newbery Medal winner. The book is illustrated by Christian Robinson and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint … Continue reading De la Peña, Blackall win Newbery, Caldecott
Since her days at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Berry has been a prominent activist on issues related to civil rights, gender equality, and social justice. She began her talk recalling how both King’s life and death has influenced her activism. She was studying law at the University of Michigan at the time King was … Continue reading Practicing Activism Every Day
The selections were announced January 10 during the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony and Reception that are part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits in Boston. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s bravura debut novel, The Sympathizer, illuminates the double-mindedness of a half-French, half-Vietnamese spy as he confronts impossible and dire situations in divided, war-torn Vietnam … Continue reading 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals
Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff started by noting “how important your voice is in the successes ALA achieves,” specifically citing the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in December. Sheketoff said lawmakers were able to get library-friendly requirements into the bill because ALA members made the effort to call and write to their … Continue reading Washington Office Update
Zittrain addressed those gathered for “Creativity, Innovation, and Change: Libraries Transform in the Digital Age,” asking them what libraries’ core purpose is. “Why do we have the books to begin with?” he asked. He noted four goals that he said were nothing new, radical, or subversive: Freeing the world’s knowledge. This includes digitizing records. For … Continue reading Creativity, Innovation, and Change
Here are our picks for Saturday’s top tweets! Use and follow #alamw16 to keep up to date with Midwinter happenings! It was a very music-filled day at conference. The listening party for Act I of the musical “Hamilton” filled the halls of the North Lobby. The Force is strong at Midwinter… Meanwhile, the cake was … Continue reading Top Ten Tweets—Saturday (Day 2)
An unthinkable tragedy led Colin Goddard, the subject of Living for 32, to become a filmmaker. The title of the film references the 32 people murdered in the mass shooting that devastated Virginia Tech in 2007. Goddard was one of the survivors. (He was shot four times, and three of the bullets remain in his … Continue reading Films for Change
The first panelist to speak was Jamie Hollier, co-owner and co-CEO of Anneal, a technology consulting company. Her first trend was an increase in interoperability related to data. She discussed ways that interoperability was important to communication, data standards, and infrastructure. With data standards, Hollier identified that the medical industry is creating standards for electronic … Continue reading LITA Top Tech Trends
Delivering the opening remarks, ALA President Sari Feldman highlighted information policy as a key component of ALA’s Strategic Directions. She noted that the first step in expanding and strengthening library professionals’ involvement in information policy is increasing their understanding of it. The day’s programming focused on elucidating this concept, and building library professionals’ capacity for … Continue reading ALA Information Policy Workshop
As a relatively new group, much of the discussion at the session was focused on reaching existing and potential members. The group has a discussion list, acr-iglmo@lists.ala.org, as well as a Facebook page, both of which co-convener Amy Wainright encouraged all attendees to join. The group falls under the ACRL umbrella, but not all members … Continue reading Overflowing Interest in Outreach
A demographic revolution has disrupted the way we age, she said. In fact, the nation’s fastest growing age segment is made up of people over the age of 85. The second fastest is those over the age of 100. Jenkins said she wants to encourage people to look at aging as something to look forward … Continue reading Aging, Disrupted
