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Columns Society members at University of Mississippi tell visitors about the Committee on History and Context plaque placed at Barnard Observatory.

What’s in a Building Name?

By Timothy Inklebarger | March 1, 2019

With the goal of reconciliation and justice, institutions across the US are increasingly undertaking formal measures to review who they’ve memorialized—evaluating names of buildings and monuments to determine connections to white supremacy and other forms of discrimination. Unsurprisingly, university librarians and archivists are finding a role in these discussions, providing historical materials on the buildings … Continue reading What’s in a Building Name? →

Clifford Anderson, associate university librarian for research and learning, at the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Bookend: News to Peruse

November 1, 2018

This year the archive of more than 1.1 million abstracted segments—including the only known coverage of its kind of the Vietnam War, the Apollo spaceflight program, and Watergate—celebrates its 50th anniversary. “We want people to have an objective record of what has been broadcast,” says Clifford Anderson (pictured), associate university librarian for research and learning, … Continue reading Bookend: News to Peruse →

Judith A. Downie poses with growlers from CSUSM Library’s Brewchive. Photo: Brandon Van Zanten (Brewchive)

Tapping into Beer History

By Judith A. Downie | November 1, 2018

“Who’s collecting San Diego’s beer history?” This question—asked by Char Booth, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) Library associate dean, during a brewing science certificate proposal review in 2016—launched what would become the Brewchive at CSUSM Library. In 2018, the archive received the American Library Association’s John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award. With the … Continue reading Tapping into Beer History →

Lalitha Nataraj, former adult education librarian at Escondido (Calif.) Public Library, describes the creation of “Home: A Living Archive Exhibition.”

Archive with Care

By Terra Dankowski | October 1, 2018

At “Proceed with Care: Steps Toward Building Trust with Marginalized Communities,” a September 29 session at the third National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in Albuquerque, New Mexico, two former Escondido (Calif.) Public Library (EPL) employees shared with attendees how they created a participatory archives to engage marginalized communities and put “justice-seeking, caregiving, and … Continue reading Archive with Care →

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! →

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 →

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero in conversation at the American Library Association (ALA) 2018 Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans

The Librarian and the Archivist

By George M. Eberhart | June 24, 2018

The two immediately began playing a friendly game of one-upmanship. Hayden kidded Ferriero about the Library of Congress (LC) being older (established in 1800) than the National Archives (1934). Then Ferriero mock-complained that in 1935, then–Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam refused to relinquish LC’s copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the … Continue reading The Librarian and the Archivist →

Left: Christina Bryant holds an invitation from the Mistick Krewe of Comus (1900); top left: a dance card issued by the Twelfth Night Revelers (1899); bottom left: a costume design from the Léda Hincks Plauché Collection. (Photos: Susan Poag (Bryant, butterfly); New Orleans Public Library (costumes))

Bookend: Conservator of Carnival

June 1, 2018

“The invitations are definitely one of the highlights,” notes Christina Bryant, department head of the library’s Louisiana Division/City Archives and Special Collections. “They are each a miniature work of art and sometimes engineering,” she says of the elaborately paneled and intricately drawn creations. Other standouts in the Carnival collection, dating back to the 1860s, include … Continue reading Bookend: Conservator of Carnival →

Nancy Down, head librarian of the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University Libraries.

Bookend: Pop Culture Paradise

May 1, 2018

When researchers need to study these or other pieces of American ephemera created after 1876, they head to the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University Libraries. Founded almost 50 years ago, the library holds one of the largest comics collections in the country, as well as … Continue reading Bookend: Pop Culture Paradise →

What Is Access without Equity?

By Nicole Umayam | March 1, 2018

For community-based or other participatory archive models, digital technologies offer a way to meaningfully engage with materials. Yet what good is a digital archive if the community does not have internet available? How can an individual fully participate in using or shaping digital heritage resources if they do not have the computer skills, or even … Continue reading What Is Access without Equity? →

Alisun DeKock stands beside the species identification iPad in the Shedd Aquarium’s Amazon Rising habitat, as two South American tambaqui fish swim by.

Bookend: A Friend to the Fishes

March 1, 2018

The Shedd’s library of some 7,000 books is primarily for aquarium staff, interns, and volunteers and is not open to the public. The most popular materials in the collection are the field guides to various fish, plants, insects, aquatic invertebrates, and marine mammals. DeKock says that “staff members take them out on field trips because … Continue reading Bookend: A Friend to the Fishes →

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Researching Sex

By Liana Hong Zhou | February 14, 2018

Today, sexuality and sexual issues remain at the forefront of news, from the rise of the #MeToo movement to the acceptance of gay marriage. Kinsey began the open discussion of sex with a marriage course he taught to seniors and married students 80 years ago in 1938 at IU. With the support of IU President … Continue reading Researching Sex →

Latest Library Links

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Tova Gaster writes: “Library Futures’s new research report, ‘Keeping an Open Mind: Awareness, Use, and Perspectives of OER in Public Libraries,’ takes a first look at how public librarians are using and perceiving open educational resources (OER). Library Futures surveyed public librarians about their use and awareness of OER via the Public Library Association mailing list from January–March 2024 and received 107 usable responses. Our flagship survey revealed that public librarians are very interested in OER, but many lack the resources, education, or support to bring interest into action.”

Library Futures, Nov. 22
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Jack Wallen writes: “Bluesky is a breath of fresh air. You’re not force-fed ads, nor are there algorithmic suggestions to clutter up your feed. Even better, there’s so much positivity. That alone is worth the time to migrate. But how do you get started? It took you years to collect those followers on Twitter. Will it take years to do the same on Bluesky? No. Bluesky’s starter packs are customized collections of accounts pre-loaded with users interested in different subjects.” Librarian Paul Jewell has created an information literacy starter pack.

ZDNet, Nov. 26; Information Literacy Weblog, Dec. 2
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A newly published research study from the American Association of School Librarians’ peer-reviewed online journal, School Library Research, investigates self-censorship of controversial topics in collection development. In “To Add or Not to Add: An Examination of Self‐Censoring Behaviors among School Librarians,” information science professors Jennifer Moore and Alissa Tudor use survey data to examine which controversial or frequently challenged topics school librarians chose not to collect. The research found that there were high amounts of self-censorship around books that dealt with sexual content, abortion, and self-harm.

American Association of School Librarians, Dec. 3; School Library Research, Volume 27
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Frank Strong writes: “Day one of pre-filing of bills for the 2025 Texas legislative session treated us with several attempts to further restrict reading rights for Texans. The headliner of those bills is House Bill 183, which would enable the State Board of Education to review and remove books from all public schools in the state, essentially creating a statewide banned books list. But it won’t be the only one. Below are six more antibook bills you should watch out for—and publicize, and speak out against, and fight—in the new year.”

Anger & Clarity, Nov. 29
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“In today’s society, libraries stand out as among the last truly public institutions. Providing access to resources without financial, social, or physical barriers, public libraries make a unique contribution to promoting individual and collective flourishing throughout the communities they serve. The New York Public Library’s Strategy and Public Impact team and the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center in Philadelphia have released a new report as part of an ongoing collaboration to study and advocate for the role of public libraries in the communities they serve.”

New York Public Library, Nov.
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ALA’s Games & Gaming Round Table announced the winners of its 2024 Platinum Play Hall of Fame Awards on December 2, representing the best games for library collections or programming released in the last two to 10 years. The “Platys” Class of 2024 includes longstanding favorites such as Splendor and Azul, approachable program-friendly titles like Just One and Exploding Kittens, the tournament-friendly Super Smash Bros. Melee, geolocation game Pokémon Go, and ‘80s throwback RPG Kids on Bikes.

ALA Games and Gaming Round Table, Dec. 2
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Samantha Kretschmer writes: “A staff survey conducted by administration at my library two years ago pointed to a general feeling of discontent amongst staff. The administration formed a Staff Advisory committee, which I was tasked with chairing. The point of this committee was to promote understanding and cooperation between the various branches and departments of the library; to promote productive cooperation between staff, management, and administration; to provide a place for a constructive exchange of ideas; to serve as a channel for staff questions, comments, and concerns; and to help create a community amongst staff.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 28

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