digital equity Archives | Page 5 of 5 | American Libraries Magazine

Digital Divide on the Inside

By Kate Sheehan | October 26, 2009

Technology and reference are intertwining strands of public service. As our systems get more sophisticated, and as our desire to overhaul and remake those systems gets more intense, libraries need librarians who are tech-savvy and back-office staff who are pure tech. But is the drive toward more technologyoriented public service a one-way street? Or is … Continue reading Digital Divide on the Inside →

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Daisy Atterbury writes: “Literature, like space travel, offers an escape, but also a way to reimagine what it means to be tethered to this planet, to each other, to the futures we may or may not reach. A multi-genre class of experimental writers challenged me to think against the steady gravitational pull of capitalist orientations to space. Space belongs not to the empire, but to the storytellers, the poets, the dreamers who refuse the logic of extraction and conquest. Each of these books remind us that another world is always possible, whether here, ‘out there,’ or somewhere between.”

Electric Literature, July 18
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Jenny Arch writes: “‘Upselling’ is a sales term that refers to convincing customers to purchase additional items or a more expensive version of the same item. However, we can ‘upsell’ in libraries too—and it doesn’t cost people anything! It’s just a way of promoting library materials or services that patrons may not be aware of yet.” Readers’ advisory, programming, databases, and library consortia services are all opportunities where upselling might help patrons make fuller use of their libraries.

Jenny Arch, July 18
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Ethan DeWitt writes: “Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed seven bills July 15, many of which were intended to strengthen parental rights, bucking the conservative wing of her party over hotly contested legislation. One of the most closely watched bills vetoed by Ayotte would have required public schools to adopt complaint procedures to allow parents to object to, and potentially remove, material deemed harmful from schools. In her veto message, Ayotte noted that state law already allows parents to opt their child out of instructional material they object to, as long as they provide an alternative material.”

New Hampshire Bulletin, July 15
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Rebecca Kheel writes: “Children’s biographies of trailblazing transgender public figures. An award-winning novel reflecting on what it is like to be Black in America. A series of graphic novels about the love story between a teenage gay couple. Those are some of the 596 books that have been pulled from shelves in the Defense Department schools that serve military children as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to censor LGBTQ+ and racial issues from official government materials.”

Military.com, July 14
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Andrea Baer writes: “In this article, I explore the dissonance between instruction librarians’ pedagogical goals and professional values and the capacities, limitations, and costs of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. I pay particular attention to messages we hear about the appropriate ways to think and feel about generative AI. These ‘feeling rules’ often stand in the way of honest and constructive dialogue and collective decision making. Work from within and outside librarianship offers another view: that we can slow down, look honestly at generative AI capacities and harms, and collectively explore the kinds of futures we want.”

In the Library with the Lead Pipe, July 16
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Mike Masnick writes: “There’s a fundamental architectural flaw in how the internet works that most people have never heard of, but it explains nearly every frustration you have with modern technology. Former Google and Stripe executive Alex Komoroske traces all of these problems back to the ‘same origin paradigm’—a quick security fix” that originated with the Netscape browser and isolates all websites and apps into their own universe. “This creates massive friction every time data needs to move between services and fundamentally reshapes where data accumulates.”

Techdirt, July 16; Every Thesis, July 14
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Kaye Thornbrugh writes: “The Cooperative Information Network in north Idaho and eastern Washington will dissolve in September, ending more than 40 years of partnership. The July 16 vote was the culmination of months of unsuccessful efforts to reorganize the consortium. Several member libraries pointed to the Community Library Network’s (CLN) in northern Idaho’s updated policies as the impetus for the dissolution. In January, CLN trustees voted to restrict minor patrons from placing holds on materials from other consortium libraries and barred them from accessing material deemed ‘harmful to minors,’ regardless of the wishes of their parents or guardians.”

Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Press, July 17; Hagadone News Network, Mar. 26

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