By the Numbers Archives | Page 3 of 3 | American Libraries Magazine

32: Number of countries represented in the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, which includes readings in Aymara, Catalan, Dutch, English, French, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Spanish, and Zapotec.

By the Numbers:
Hispanic Heritage Month

By Terra Dankowski | October 12, 2015

1968 Year that Congress passed a joint resolution, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, establishing Hispanic Heritage Week. 20 Years later, under President Ronald Reagan, that Congress passed an act to extend the observation to Hispanic Heritage Month—starting September 15 and ending on October 15. 1943 Year to which the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape … Continue reading By the Numbers:
Hispanic Heritage Month →

By the Numbers: Banned Books Week

By Terra Dankowski | October 1, 2015

11,300 Number of books that have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association. The Banned Books Week campaign launched the same year, in response to the surge in challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries across the country. 60 Years ago, this September, that Vladimir Nabokov first published Lolita in Paris—after … Continue reading By the Numbers: Banned Books Week →

Latest Library Links

24h

An Arizona antique dealer has discovered a long-overdue item from the Los Angeles Public Library, and it’s way too big to fit through the book-return slot. A bronze sculpture by US artist Lee Lawrie (best known for his free-standing Atlas in front of New York City’s Rockefeller Center) has turned up at Floyd Lillard’s antique shop in Bisbee, 50 years after it went missing from the iconic library in downtown L.A. Lillard said he plans to return the artwork to the library, just as soon as officials there decide how to transport the roughly 250-pound curved panel. He bought the sculpture about 10 years ago from a woman in Sierra Vista.

Tucson Arizona Daily Star, Sept. 20
1d

Rachel Kramer Bussel writes: “In April, librarian Jennifer Rothschild tweeted about the disparity between ebook and print prices publishers charge libraries vs. the public, garnering over 4,000 likes for a Tweet that read ‘So here’s the thing—I am worried that publishing is killing libraries, and that will, in turn, kill publishing,’ the first in a thread exploring the issue. The thread became so popular that Rothschild, collection engagement librarian for Arlington (Va.) Public Library, has continued them, expanding from discussing publishers’ library ebook prices to comparing prices for specific books on national bestseller lists, and noting when publishers change their terms.”

Forbes, Sept. 20
1d

Perhaps the largest Little Free Library in Mississippi is in Mize. It is a full-size reproduction of the TARDIS—Time and Relative Dimension in Space—a well-known device in the Doctor Who TV series that combines travel across time and space. The TARDIS is “much bigger on the inside” and full of adventure and mystery, so was an appropriate and engaging vehicle for a Little Free Library, said Dick Ford, who built most of the structure and was instrumental in getting it located outside the R. T. Prince Memorial Library in Mize. However, it is not the only TARDIS Little Free Library, as there are at least 37 others.

Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, Sept. 17
1d

Caroline Haskins writes: “One day in early September, Archivist Tony Cucchiara gave me a tour of the massive archival system for Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, accounting for all 570,000 burials. Green-Wood has millions of pages of burial orders, lot information, and family information spread across three buildings. The information in these files is useful to historians studying disease, to genealogists, to descendants of the deceased, and to New York history generally. However, climate change poses threats to archives around the country. In a worst-case scenario, climate change could mean that irreplaceable records documenting the course of human history are lost forever.”

Vice, Sept. 17
1d

A prolific book thief has been jailed for 25 months after he stole more than 7,000 books from three universities in Edinburgh, Scotland, before selling them online. Darren Barr is said to have made more than £30,000 by selling the textbooks through the online book markets WeBuyBooks, Ziffit, and Zapper. During an 11-month crime spree from October 2017, Barr is believed to have stolen thousands of textbooks from Napier University and hundreds more from Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt universities. The books included sought-after texts on nursing, business studies, human resources, criminology, and marketing.

The Guardian (UK), Sept. 18
1d

Joel Hruska writes: “Speeding up a slow PC can be a challenge, particularly when dealing with older hardware that may be on the cusp of needing an upgrade or replacement anyway. Sometimes, a system simply needs a fresh OS install or driver update to perform significantly better. In other cases, upgrade or wholesale replacement are necessary. This article is designed to help you troubleshoot a slow machine. Specifically, it walks through the process of determining whether your problem is more likely to be caused by software, hardware, or simply the age of the machine.”

ExtremeTech, Sept. 20
1d

Erin Nguyen writes: “Many public libraries can identify with the challenge of providing weekend programming to patrons. We know that weekends are an ideal time to provide programs for patrons who are unable to attend programming during weekday storytime sessions, yet we are often so leanly staffed on the weekends that adding the responsibility of presenting programs to our staff workload is next to impossible. Through grant funding and partnerships with a wide range of talented presenters, my library system is now able to provide Saturday family programming through our Saturday Stories and Songs series in order to meet this critical need.”

ALSC Blog, Sept. 20

View more Latest Library Links

By the Numbers: Hispanic Heritage Month

By the Numbers: Banned Books Week

By the Numbers:
Hispanic Heritage Month