digital content Archives | American Libraries Magazine

SLACK Journals Select: The Key to Content Your Way

September 13, 2023

NURSING Our nursing token bundle offers access to articles in Journal of Gerontological Nursing, Journal of Nursing Education, Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, Research in Gerontological Nursing, and The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. SLACK’s nursing journals are a premier source of practical, useful, and timely information directed toward today’s nursing … Continue reading SLACK Journals Select: The Key to Content Your Way →

Portrait of Dispatches author Monika Glowacka-Musial

Visualize This

By Monika Glowacka-Musial | March 1, 2021

Digital collections, however, are not simply representations of physical collections but resources in their own right. Unlike physical collections, their digital counterparts feature detailed metadata. Often, they also feature full text, thanks to optical character recognition conversion of text images into machine-encoded data. Both metadata and data can be mined, analyzed, and visualized—not only opening … Continue reading Visualize This →

One Country, One Collection

By Mirela Roncevic | November 2, 2020

This open digital library not only introduced users to a new way of engaging with digital content but also offered a sustainable business model to publishers, authors, libraries, and those who wished to support it financially. The idea for the national library did not come overnight. It was the result of working on various projects … Continue reading One Country, One Collection →

Digital Legacy Planning

By Heather Moorefield-Lang | September 1, 2020

The themes of afterlife and legacy have become prominent in popular media over the past few years, but the lifecycle of our digital footprint is less understood. The Digital Legacy Association, a British organization that hosts annual conferences on the topic, defines digital legacy as the digital information left behind when a person dies. How … Continue reading Digital Legacy Planning →

Preservation as Risk Management

By Erin Baucom | September 3, 2019

The best type of program is an interlocking system of policies, workflows, technical solutions, and efforts meant to keep digital objects usable in the long term. Digital objects are made up of bitstreams—sequences of 1s and 0s that require specific software and hardware environments to remain accessible. Some are born digital (those materials with no … Continue reading Preservation as Risk Management →

Saving Your Digital Life

By Carrie Smith | June 25, 2019

Katlin Seagraves is the digital literacy associate at the Tulsa City-County Library where she manages the library’s Digital Literacy Lab. At “Save As: Preserving Your Digital Life” on June 24 at the ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., Seagraves educated attendees on methods for preserving born-digital personal data like photos and social media. … Continue reading Saving Your Digital Life →

Mobile phone with Demco DiscoverMobile app.

Reaching Patrons on the Go

By Carrie Smith | June 1, 2018

DiscoverMobile by Demco The recently launched DiscoverMobile app connects communities to everything their libraries have to offer. The app is available to all types of libraries and is designed to run on both Android and iOS devices. The app is hosted and maintained by Demco—libraries manage only their own content and branding. Libraries can add … Continue reading Reaching Patrons on the Go →

In the plenary session, Sarah Burnes, Jennifer Brier, Nell Taylor, and Luis Herrera discuss how archives are put together.

DPLAfest: Inclusion, Community, and Outreach

By Carrie Smith | April 25, 2017

In the same rooms where the final planning sessions establishing the DPLA were held five years ago, Executive Director Dan Cohen announced that the archive now held more than 16 million items from 2,350 member institutions and is on track to have hubs in all 50 states. The Open eBooks program, launched in 2016 to provide free access … Continue reading DPLAfest: Inclusion, Community, and Outreach →

The Future of Library Cards

By Kaitlin Throgmorton | January 3, 2017

At many libraries, digital “cards”—which usually consist simply of numbers that patrons use to access digital items—have become standard. The Harris County (Tex.) Public Library (HCPL) introduced its version, the iKnow Digital Access Card, as a way to “reduce as many barriers as possible,” says Library Director Edward Melton. IKnow card holders can access the … Continue reading The Future of Library Cards →

Improving Library Websites

By Carrie Smith | January 3, 2017

Syndetics Unbound Syndetic Solutions and LibraryThing for Libraries were designed to make online library catalogs more informational and interactive. ProQuest has now combined these two services into Syndetics Unbound, which provides 16 different catalog enrichment elements in one service. Many of the features will be familiar to those who are used to shopping for books … Continue reading Improving Library Websites →

Hoopla’s catalog includes more than 500,000 items and is accessible by mobile app.

Online Streaming Options

By Carrie Smith | November 1, 2016

Hoopla Hoopla, launched in 2013 by Midwest Tape, provides single-platform access to most major types of digital holdings: audiobooks, ebooks, video, and music. Patrons can access content either by streaming it from the Hoopla website or by using the mobile app, which allows both streaming and temporary downloads for offline access. Items are automatically removed … Continue reading Online Streaming Options →

Dan Cohen, executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, speaks at “Brave New World: The Future of Collections in Digital Times,” a program at the IFLA 2016 World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio.

The Future Is Digital

By Phil Morehart | August 18, 2016

ALA president-elect James G. “Jim” Neal opened his segment of “Brave New World: The Future of Collections in Digital Times,” a program at the IFLA 2016 World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio, with a warning. Digital content is growing exponentially. The world produces daily ebooks, online games, 3D-printed work, MOOCs, social media content, … Continue reading The Future Is Digital →

Latest Library Links

5h

Nimisha Bhat writes: “I’m always telling prospective library school students that the best part of my job is learning something new every day. Every time I have a research consultation with a student, they teach me something new while I determine the best way to connect them with the information they need. This is something I have been trying to remind myself of since I started a new tenure-track library position earlier this year. Like many librarians, what I lack in theoretical learning I’ve made up for in experiential learning as a practitioner.”

ACRLog, Nov. 27
8h

All known surviving pages of the rough draft of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species have been published online by the National University of Singapore (NUS). On the 164th anniversary of its publication, NUS published three recently rediscovered pages from Darwin’s draft. The draft pages make it possible to see in detail how Darwin originally composed and revised many of his arguments and expressions. The drafts also contain many sentences that didn’t make the final cut, offering fascinating insights into Darwin’s thinking as he composed the book that quite literally changed the world.

National University of Singapore, Nov. 24
11h

Stephen Shedletzky writes: “When people are afraid that something bad will happen to them because of their decision to speak up, in most cases, they won’t do it. And can we really blame them? This is, seemingly, leadership’s failure to foster the type of culture that encourages and rewards people for speaking up. So, how do you foster a speak-up culture? It starts with resisting the urge to manipulate employees—and ends with making it safe and worthwhile for them to share their truth.”

Greater Good, Nov. 13
13h

Lisa Bintrim writes: “The number of program challenges reported to ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has grown over the past 10 years from one or none each year to a peak of 69 challenges in 2019. Recognizing the need to prepare library staff for opposition to programs, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) tasked the School-Age Programs and Services (SAPS) committee with creating a toolbox focused on program challenges. On behalf of the SAPS committee, I’m excited to share the result of our work from the 2022–2023 term: The ALSC Toolkit for Program Challenges.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 25
1d

ALA has selected 50 participants for its 2024 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. ELs will take part in a virtual day-long session during the 2024 LibLearnX conference in Baltimore this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Nov. 27
2d

Stephi Smith writes: “Celia Hamilton wanted to identify further with her Chinese heritage. Her adoptive parents are not Chinese, and she says this left her feeling like she missed out on some aspects of her cultural background. To connect with that part of her identity, Hamilton crafted a traditional garment—inspired by the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e—as one of three teens selected for Carmel Clay (Ind.) Public Library (CCPL)’s teen artists-in-residence program. CCPL is one of a handful of libraries across the US that have created teen artist-in-residence programs with a goal of bolstering youth interest in the arts.”

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
2d

Carrie Russell writes: “Why do librarians and teachers—the very professionals who specialize in information literacy, equitable access to information, and the advancement of learning—have so many anxieties and misconceptions about copyright? Many of us harbor an unfounded fear of copyright litigation. ‘Better safe than sorry’ is a frequent assertion. But that attitude can keep users and creators of copyright-protected content from engaging in personal and educational activities that are unlikely to infringe copyright law. That excess caution is, consequently, contrary to the values of librarianship, teaching, and the goals of copyright.”

View more Latest Library Links