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
“Librarians who think straight are actively engaged in creating the future. They are not trying to protect the past,” declared Stephen Abram, Canada’s 2011 Librarian of the Year and creator of the Stephen’s Lighthouse blog. The Digital Bridge to Somewhere panel on Sunday, June 26, was made up of men who planned for, created, and … Continue reading It’s Really About the Patrons
Transliteracy is a trendy word these days, and much like the Web 2.0 debate that took place a few years ago, there are those who question whether or not transliteracy is just a new, fancier term for information literacy. According to Bobbi Newman, one of the speakers on the Why Transliteracy panel that took place … Continue reading Trans-what? A Day of Literacies at the ALA Annual Conference
Three measures related to WikiLeaks were debated and ultimately defeated during the ALA Membership Meeting at Annual Conference amid controversy about the required number of members present throughout the meeting to represent a quorum. Member Herb Biblo contended that the meeting was set up for failure, reacting to the fact that action on the resolutions … Continue reading WikiLeaks Measures Voted Down in Membership Meeting
“If the Intellectual Freedom Committee is the brains of the ALA and the Committee on Professional Ethics is the conscience, then we (the LeRoy C. Merritt Fund) are the righteous arm for the individual librarian,” declared Loriene Roy, past ALA president and current Merritt Fund trustee. It became clear during the Intellectual Freedom 101 presentation, … Continue reading Intellectual Freedom 101: The Brains of the ALA
As seen in ALA blogs on Saturday, June 25: The Red Cape Event of the Season—ALSC Blog Heather Acerro reported that “The poopiest place to be at #ALA11 tonight was the Super Diaper Baby 2 party. Here are some highlights: Tinkle tinis and hot dogs were served. Yes, tinkle tinis—get it? The super-awesome and talented … Continue reading Best of the ALA Blogs – Saturday
“If we don’t advocate for ourselves, then who’s going to advocate for us?” asked Cindy Singer of the County of Los Angeles Public Library and moderator of the “Privatization of Libraries: What’s at Stake for Your Profession and Community” session. That question set the tone for the afternoon and advocate librarians did. The room was … Continue reading This Is Our Last Public Space
Even though he wrote The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), Siva Vaidhyanathan has plenty of good to say about the company. “Google has actually treated us very well,” he said during his Auditorium Speaker Series speech. “Google does a good job with what they offer and they do it for free…. They’re … Continue reading Vaidhyanathan Speaks on the Limitations of Benevolence
