LearnRT’s “TEDx, Boot Camps, and Unconferences: Innovative and Low-Cost Staff Development Events” offered insights on using nontraditional methods to help library staff gain knowledge and insight to better perform their jobs. Janie Hermann, program librarian at Princeton (N.J.) Public Library, described how the library created a camp experience for its staff development day in 2009. … Continue reading Saving on Staff Development
Jill Nishi of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation kicked off a panel discussion of “Recovery along the Gulf Coast” by saying it was hard for her to believe that it has been five years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged large portions of Mississippi and Louisiana. “But so much has been accomplished,” she added. Nishi noted … Continue reading Librarians Share Front-Line Stories of Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery
“Everyone loves series,” declared Jonathan Stroud, author of The Bartimaeus Sequence. “Children love series, adults love series, publishers love series.” Stroud spoke as part of a panel at “Keep ’Em Coming: Series Fiction Creators Talk Shop,” where four young adult authors talked about the whys and the hows of series fiction. Financial considerations are a … Continue reading Panel Reveals Series Secrets
Activist writer Dan Savage keynoted the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans today by explaining how his new book, It Gets Better, was inspired by a rash of suicides by gay teens who commit suicide because they cannot picture a future that would be good enough to make up for the pain they are in … Continue reading Dan Savage Keynotes ALA Conference with Message of Positive Subversion
In accordance with the Association’s continued emphasis on diversity, small groups probed the varied facets of the issue during the Town Hall Meeting on Diversity June 24 presented by ALA’s Committee on Diversity. The goal was to provide members with an opportunity to gather and discuss key issues and develop strategies for use with the … Continue reading Town Hall explores staff, patron diversity issues
As ALA staff members pack for the Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans June 23–28, the second since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast six years ago, what should arrive but an email thank-you note from a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, librarian regarding ALA’s 2006 Annual Conference there. Open Letter to ALA: On behalf of the … Continue reading Kudos from the Crescent City
In a surprise announcement June 2, two of the leading names in digital reference publishing told their library customers that they have merged to strengthen the value of their databases and print resources. EBSCO Publishing, a subsidiary of EBSCO Industries founded in 1944 and headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, has acquired the staff and product lines … Continue reading The Merger of the Century: EBSCO Acquires H. W. Wilson
Collegiality extends across time and borders, as ALA Library Director Karen Muller was recently reminded when she saw a colleague’s photo in the media and realized that her former coworker was toughing out an unenviable ordeal. The person Muller recognized in the photo accompanying an April 5 USA Today; story was Jane Gillis, rare book … Continue reading Jane: Karen Says “Hi”
As people continue to mourn the deaths of more than 500 people from this spring’s horrific tornados and assess the untold property damage in the South and Midwest, ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels emailed ALA’s governing Council today regarding the Association’s disaster-response protocols at home and abroad: “It is our policy and practice to … Continue reading ALA and Library Relief Funds
An Open Letter from ALA President Roberta Stevens and ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels: Dear Colleagues: Here is ALA’s new 2015 Strategic Plan (PDF file). The plan outlines the vision and goals that will guide us through what promises to be a period of unprecedented challenges and opportunities for libraries. It reflects the work … Continue reading Unveiling the ALA 2015 Strategic Plan
The recent American Libraries Readership Survey results are in and a winner has been chosen. Becky Jacobson, public relations liaison at the Antioch (Ill.) Public Library District, was randomly chosen by American Libraries’ editors to receive $500 worth of Random House books. The survey was conducted over a one-month period from April 18–May 15 and … Continue reading Becky Jacobson wins American Libraries survey prize
Election results just announced: Maureen Sullivan has been elected 2012–2013 president of the American Library Association. Sullivan is an organization development consultant, and is also a professor of practice in the Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions PhD program at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston. Maureen Sullivan received … Continue reading Maureen Sullivan elected ALA President for 2012 – 2013 [UPDATED]
