#alamw16 Archives | Page 3 of 4 | American Libraries Magazine

Attendees at the Collection Development Discussion Group

Collaboration and Competition in Collection Development

By Erika L. Jenns | January 10, 2016

To start the discussion, Priddle asked attendees to discuss any new or interesting collections, either at their own institutions or that they had heard about elsewhere. Lois Black, the special collections curator at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, mentioned a donation of 1,100 volumes from an alumnus to her institution. The donation was comprised largely … Continue reading Collaboration and Competition in Collection Development →

Beth Kilmarx (left) and Charlotte Priddle, RBMS Curators and Conservators Discussion Group co-conveners

Just Lines in a Spreadsheet?

By Erika L. Jenns | January 10, 2016

Nearly every special collections repository sends some items to an offsite storage facility. As a result, curators and conservators are dealing with issues related to access to and transport for those materials on an almost daily basis. When attendees were asked to raise a hand if their institution sent special collections materials, manuscript or print, … Continue reading Just Lines in a Spreadsheet? →

Kelly Coyle-Crivelli opens the Penguin Random House Book Buzz Theater session.

Something for Everyone

By Erika L. Jenns | January 10, 2016

Warcraft: Bonds of Brotherhood by Paul Cornell Axiom by Mark Waid Hellboy in Mexico by Mike Mignola; illustrated by Richard Corben, Mick McMahon, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, and Dave Stuart Rivers of London: Body Work by Ben Aaronovitch The Blacklist Vol 1: The Gambler by Nicole Dawn Phillips Archie Vol. 1 by Mark Waid; illustrated by Fiona … Continue reading Something for Everyone →

Lizzie Velásquez at the ALA 2016 Midwinter Meeting

How One Person Can Change the World

By Amy Carlton | January 10, 2016

Velásquez sat down with American Libraries before giving the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture at Midwinter and discussed her upcoming projects and how she feels now about social media. Her new memoir—her fourth book—will be released in spring 2017. She calls it “my dream book” and says it is more personal than the inspirational tomes she’s … Continue reading How One Person Can Change the World →

Council I Passes Resolution on Islamophobia

By Amy Carlton and Laurie D. Borman | January 10, 2016

President-Elect Julie B. Todaro, chair of the 2015–2016 Committee on Committees, presented the nominations for the 2016–2017 election by Council of three Executive Board members (CD#11). The nominees are Vicki Morris Emery, Andrew K. Pace, John C. De Santis, Karen E. Downing, Kimberly Ann Patton, and Ann Crewdson. There were no nominations from the floor. … Continue reading Council I Passes Resolution on Islamophobia →

Diversity Research Update

By Willie M. Miller | January 10, 2016

Sarah Lightner, Ohio State University, talked about her project, “Development of Texts That Mediate and Facilitate Diversity in Adolescent Classrooms,” which addressed the problem of barriers to fruitful discussion on the topics of race, gender, and sexuality in secondary classrooms. Lightner said her “research is a critical literary analysis for the purpose of creating alternative, … Continue reading Diversity Research Update →

Top Ten Tweets—Friday (Day 1)

By Julie Cai | January 10, 2016

The countdown to Midwinter 2016 is over. Midwinter is here! It’s day one and excitement is stirring IRL (in real life) and on the interwebs. Follow #alamw16 to keep up with what’s going on in Boston: You never know who you will meet at conference! This real talk delivered by author Cassandra Clare: The opening … Continue reading Top Ten Tweets—Friday (Day 1) →

Colleen Theisen, Susie Kirk, and Richert Schnorr

How Do You YouTube?

By Sanhita SinhaRoy | January 9, 2016

Theisen’s online video series, Staxpedition, tries to break down these barriers. “We have a will and an enthusiasm, but none of us knows anything about video, and we just really wanted to make them,” she said. Joining Theisen on the panel were Susie Kirk of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and Richert Schnorr of … Continue reading How Do You YouTube? →

YALSA Session Provides Learning Lab Insights

By Terra Dankowski | January 9, 2016

This is how Koh kicked off the “YALSA Trends Impacting YA Services: Competencies Needed to Provide Teen Library Services of the Future” program at ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits on Saturday, showcasing the research she and June Abbas, an associate professor also at OU SLIS, conducted on informal learning and community learning centers in libraries. … Continue reading YALSA Session Provides Learning Lab Insights →

Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services explains merger between OLOS and Office for Diversity

Moving Beyond the OLOS / Diversity Office Merger

By Erika L. Jenns | January 9, 2016

In its role facilitating the merger, ALA’s Committee on Organization has put forth two changes to the OLOS Advisory Committee, changing its name to the “Equity and Inclusion Office Advisory Committee” and establishing its new mission (reprinted in full below). Unsurprisingly, the announcement of this merger caused concern among the members in attendance at the … Continue reading Moving Beyond the OLOS / Diversity Office Merger →

Building Fantastic Worlds for Tweens

By Phil Morehart | January 9, 2016

Moderated by noted fantasy editor Sharyn November, the forum was lively and often filled with laughter, with the authors feeding off the audience’s enthusiasm for the subject and their respective work. Notwithstanding the light tone, serious topics were addressed. Discussing depictions of young girls and boys in their work and in the fantasy genre as … Continue reading Building Fantastic Worlds for Tweens →

Colorado State Library School Libraries Infographic

Data Visualization for the
Rest of Us

By Sanhita SinhaRoy | January 9, 2016

So Hofschire and her colleagues created a one-page legal-size infographic that summed up more than two decades of data. While it was only a general snapshot, she says, “This was the piece that our users needed to start that conversation with their stakeholders.” And it had a tremendously positive impact. That was three years ago. … Continue reading Data Visualization for the
Rest of Us →

Latest Library Links

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Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
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Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9
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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.

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