Core Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Justine Withers, Kim Hill, and Adam Chandler at ALA Annual 2024

Patron Privacy and Enhanced Research

By Carrie Smith | June 30, 2024

Panelists at “Identity and Authentication: Enhancing the Research Experience with Responsible Use of Patron Data,” moderated by Justine Withers, electronic resources librarian at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, addressed these and other questions around privacy policies in the academic library. The panel took place on Saturday, June 30, at the American Library Association’s … Continue reading Patron Privacy and Enhanced Research →

11 Questions: Julie Reese

November 20, 2023

She answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members. Coffee, tea, other? I enjoy having a cup of hot coffee with my ham and cheese omelet that I make each morning. What’s the first website or app you check in the morning? I check my family’s text messages. I usually find texts that … Continue reading 11 Questions: Julie Reese →

A Welcoming Space

By Emily Drabinski | September 1, 2023

Whether it’s marveling at the dome inside Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque, Iowa, the vibrant entrepreneurship lab at University of Rhode Island in Kingston, or the bright carpets and colorful student art at P.S. 28 in Manhattan, those first few moments through the door always call home the magic that happens inside our buildings. We … Continue reading A Welcoming Space →

Tools of Engagement

By Allison Escoto | November 1, 2022

Marketing with Social Media: A LITA Guide, 2nd edition Edited by Beth C. Thomsett-Scott Updated and extensive, this guide offers useful information on the finer points of using social media to market services and build community. Readers at all stages of their careers and at any experience level will find solid advice on choosing the … Continue reading Tools of Engagement →

C. Thi Nguyen, associate professor of philosophy at University of Utah in Salt Lake City, was the opening keynote speaker at the 2022 Core Forum on October 14. Photo by Jeri Gravlin.

Building Agency and Creating Value

By Brooke Morris-Chott | October 18, 2022

Game collections as ‘library of agencies’ Core Forum kicked off October 14 with “Games and Agency,” a keynote presentation from C. Thi Nguyen, associate professor of philosophy at University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The game enthusiast and former food writer spoke about the ways that our social structures and technologies shape how we … Continue reading Building Agency and Creating Value →

Latest Library Links

4h

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
23h

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
1d

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
2d

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
2d

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.
2d

ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The group will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia in June, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4
3d

On December 9, ALA announced a $25 million bequest by James W. Lewis, of Washington, D.C. The gift, the largest individual bequest in ALA’s history, will fund scholarships for aspiring librarians with demonstrated financial needs. Throughout Lewis’s career at Merrill Lynch, where he leads the Lewis Group as senior vice president and senior relationship manager, he has demonstrated his commitment to libraries and their communities by generously volunteering his time, including as a member of the Board of Visitors at the library of his alma mater, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also served as a Library Trustee Board member at District of Columbia Public Library for 10 years.”

AL: The Scoop, Dec. 9

View more Latest Library Links