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
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
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
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
“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
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
One of my biggest mistakes as a library administrator was getting rid of the card catalog. No, I’m not talking about replacing it with a digital version. Everyone did that back in the ’80s. That was a no-brainer. What I mean is that after we installed the OPAC, I sent the physical card catalog into … Continue reading Dead Trees We Have Known
Engaging with library users on the web is no longer restricted to simply putting a static HTML file on a server and calling it a successful website. Yet without technical assistance and forethought, content management can be an actively complex and frustrating process. A content management system like WordPress lets you manage your website more … Continue reading WordPress as a Library CMS
One of the best parts of my job, especially this time of year, is marveling at great achievements; how splendid it was to witness an old friend and erstwhile student, Eric Meyers, defend his dissertation last month. Eric’s dissertation covered a lot of territory; he studied the relationship between group information-seeking processes and the products … Continue reading As They Like It
