Eight members of the new Polish American Librarians Association met informally over lunch at the National World War II Museum on Sunday during ALA in New Orleans to discuss the organization’s goals and objectives, which include the possibility of applying for affiliation with ALA. But first things first. PALA, which was incorporated in Chicago in … Continue reading Polish-American Librarians Aim to Raise Public Awareness
On Monday, June 27, the “Out of the Closet and Into the Library: LGBTQ Programming” panel discussed how to develop and implement LGBTQ programming in your library. The panelists were from both public and academic libraries and approached the topic of incorporating the programming from the perspective of the institutions they served. Bleue Benton, collection … Continue reading LGBTQ Programming in Your Library
Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, met WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a gathering of investigative journalists in April 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks had released a video of the U.S. military firing on Reuters journalists. Blanton told the audience at “When It Leaks It Pours: WikiLeaks, National Declassification System, … Continue reading Transparency and Ethics in the Wake of WikiLeaks
You can’t go wrong if you attend a program that America’s favorite librarian Nancy Pearl has anything to do with, and the early risers who showed up for “Libraries and Bookstores: Strange Bedfellows?” this morning at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans weren’t disappointed. Joining Pearl on this panel of librarians and booksellers were … Continue reading Librarian-Bookseller Panel Urges Programming Partnerships
"If there were no governing body currently in place, what structure would you envision that reflects ALA's goal of an engaged and collaborative membership, the effective use of new technologies, and the changes in outlook and expectations occurring with the new generation of people working in libraries?" That was charge of the ALA Future Perfect … Continue reading Council I: Report envisions a new ALA
While it took 40 years for the Pentagon Papers to be declassified, as they were on June 13, Daniel Ellsberg suggested the timing might be perfect. “There’s never been a time, really, that the lessons that might be drawn from those papers are so timely.” Ellsberg, who leaked the documents in 1971 showing the secret … Continue reading Daniel Ellsberg, Unwinnable Wars, and the Pentagon Papers
American Libraries is giving away free copies of Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries, a new book published by Skyhorse Publishing and ALA Editions. To get your copy, be one of the first 20 ALA Annual Conference attendees to stop by the American Libraries booth today (Monday, June 27), from noon … Continue reading Free Copies of Reading with the Stars
Laura Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan novels, and David Simon, creator of the HBO series The Wire and Treme, are a married couple, but the PLA President’s Program was still the first time they’d appeared together—apart from a single appearance before a much smaller audience in a synagogue. They spoke to each other and … Continue reading Books and TV: Laura Lippman and David Simon Address PLA
YALSA’s Teens and Technology Interest Group sponsored a Pecha Kucha 20×20 session on programming and other technology issues for teen services. Pecha Kucha is a short-format talk. Each speaker prepares a slide show of 20 images, which each show for 20 seconds before advancing automatically, for a total presentation time of just under 7 minutes. … Continue reading In a Flash: Tech Services for Teens
I was making my way from the screening yesterday evening of The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers to an adjacent auditorium where we were told that Ellsberg himself would make a surprise appearance. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a white-haired man walking ahead of me … Continue reading Daniel Ellsberg: Gentleman, Scholar, Nation’s Most Famous Whistleblower
The folks at Wikipedia “are lovers of the institutions of knowledge” and definitely libraries, said Sue Gardner at ALA President Roberta Stevens’s special program Sunday at ALA in New Orleans. The executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, said that the wiki is not opposed to traditional media; and, in fact, “we want … Continue reading Sue Gardner Calls for Librarians to Dive in to the World of Wikipedia
For my last session today, I attended “Reach Out and Read: How Libraries Can Work with Doctors Who ‘Prescribe Reading’ to Achieve Common Goals.” I am not a children’s librarian, and I am definitely not a doctor, but I was interested in this session because it brought in perspectives from outside of the library world … Continue reading Read More! It’s the Doctor’s Orders
