International Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Global Themes and Reflections in LIS Education

By Raymond Pun | October 1, 2019

Day 1: Perspectives on diversity and inclusion, data ethics, and fake news In “The Hoax and the President: Historical Perspectives on Politics, Truth, and Academia” on September 24, Sharon McQueen, an independent scholar, explored the rise and impact of fake news in journalism and the information ecology. She said fake news can be traced back … Continue reading Global Themes and Reflections in LIS Education →

Volunteers in Colombia unload a Libraries Without Borders mobile Ideas Box. Photo: Libraries Without Borders

International Innovators

By Phil Morehart | July 17, 2019

The Presidential Citations began as an initiative of former ALA President Loriene Roy (2007–2008). Presented by the International Relations Round Table (IRRT), the awards recognize exemplary services and projects that draw attention to the potential for library services to create positive change, demonstrate sustainability, and provide a model for others. The four winning libraries for … Continue reading International Innovators →

Moving the Needle

By Loida Garcia-Febo | June 3, 2019

During this time, I treasured the opportunity of being the first Puerto Rican American and second-youngest ALA president in the organization’s 143-year history. I have loved representing ALA nationally and internationally and collaborating with a talented Executive Board. Over the past year, ALA has helped secure funding for libraries to keep them open, equipped, and … Continue reading Moving the Needle →

American Library Association President Loida Garcia-Febo (in red) speaks to librarians at the Russian State Library in Moscow.

Reaching Out to Russian Libraries

By Steve Zalusky | May 2, 2019

On April 23, Garcia-Febo spoke at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, focusing on ALA flagship projects—including advocacy, diversity, Preservation Week, and international relations—within the framework of modern libraries. The next day, she spoke at the Russian State Library in Moscow about how ALA resources help shape the future of libraries. On April … Continue reading Reaching Out to Russian Libraries →

The first African Leadership Academy graduating class, from left: Bakary Sanyang, director of bibliographic services, The Gambia National Library Service Authority; Beatrice Ampadu, senior librarian, Ghana Library Authority, Lartebiokorshie branch; Guy Ebenezer Amarteifio, regional librarian, Greater Accra, Ghana Library Authority; Victoria Isaacks, librarian, Namibia Library and Archives Service; Miriam Wangari Mureithi, principal librarian, Kenya National Library Services, Thika; Gertrude Kayaga Mulindwa, former director, National Library of Uganda; Nkem Osuigwe, human capacity development and training director, AfLIA; Barbra Apolot, librarian, National Library of Uganda; Jacinta Were, former deputy director, University of Nairobi Library, Kenya; Katrina Ndeshipanda Shikuni, senior librarian, Outapi Community Library, Namibia; Pranisha Parag, principal librarian, Msunduzi Municipal Library, South Africa; Adonia Katungisa, director, National Library of Uganda.

PLA Debuts African Leadership Academy

By Mary Hirsh | April 3, 2019

Since 2013, 140 US public librarians have participated in the PLA Leadership Academy, which was developed in collaboration with Adam Goodman, director of the Center for Leadership at Northwestern University. With funding and support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Libraries program, PLA partnered with the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions … Continue reading PLA Debuts African Leadership Academy →

Students at a teacher’s college in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, learn about the Darakht-e Danesh Library.

2018 Presidential Citations

By Phil Morehart | July 18, 2018

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Canada La Biblioteca Móvil, Guatemala Suzhou Library, China Inner Mongolia Library, China The recipients were selected by a team of IRRT members in consultation with then–ALA President Jim Neal, who recognized them at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans during the IRRT International Librarians Reception … Continue reading 2018 Presidential Citations →

John Hickok (center) interacts with students at a school in Kandal Province, Cambodia.

Building Bridges to the East

By Michael Dowling | July 18, 2018

Hickok is international outreach librarian at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). His initial role at the library was providing outreach and instruction to CSUF’s international student population. That led to an “aha” moment. “I realized for me to truly understand international students’ library experiences, I needed to see the libraries in their countries,” he says. … Continue reading Building Bridges to the East →

Community Colleges of Spokane (Wash.) librarians Melinda Martin (left) and Heather Morgan at an Assessment in Action RoadShow delivered to community college librarians in Washington state.

On the Road Again

By Chase Ollis | July 18, 2018

The program offers daylong, immersive workshops in a variety of disciplines that can be brought to institutions around the world upon request. Led by experts in the field, these traveling workshops help academic librarians learn new skills and strengthen existing competencies to tackle the greatest issues facing the profession today. The program reaches hundreds of … Continue reading On the Road Again →

Cindy Thornley, director of the Horry County (S.C.) Memorial Library, talked about library road trips at the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference in Philadelphia on March 22.

Find Your Sister Library

By Terra Dankowski | March 23, 2018

The book in question was on heart health, and it helped a patron reclaim his life—so much so that he wanted to make a sizable donation to the Alexandria Library that would establish a travel fund for librarians. “I did not think it would happen,” said Thornley, who previously worked at Alexandria Library. “We didn’t … Continue reading Find Your Sister Library →

Attendees at the New Directions for Libraries, Scholars, and Partnerships symposium in Frankfurt, Germany, October 13. Photo: Judy Alspach

Frankfurt: New Directions for Libraries, Scholars, and Partnerships

By Kristen Totleben | October 25, 2017

The day-long event coincided with the Frankfurt Book Fair (October 8–15), which this year honored France and literature in French. Symposium discussions focused on the future of foreign language collections, libraries, and services, along with new and recurring trends in scholarship and the library profession. Library and scholarly communication professionals shared challenges and opportunities for … Continue reading Frankfurt: New Directions for Libraries, Scholars, and Partnerships →

UNESCO Withdrawal Will Slow Progress on Global Library Initiatives

By Michael Dowling | October 18, 2017

Currently the US provides 22% of UNESCO’s budget; our withdrawal will have a profound impact on the organization’s ability to provide invaluable information resources worldwide and training and programs on human rights issues such as gender equality. The American Library Association (ALA) values the promotion and advancement of education and libraries around the world. ALA … Continue reading UNESCO Withdrawal Will Slow Progress on Global Library Initiatives →

Dewey Decibel Episode 18: Dewey Goes Global

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Dewey Goes Global

October 4, 2017

First, American Libraries Associate Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart talks with Sandra Uwiringiyimana, author of How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of War Child (HarperCollins, 2017), which chronicles her life as a survivor of the 2004 Gatumba massacre in Burundi and as a refugee in the United States. They discuss the book, the … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Dewey Goes Global →

Latest Library Links

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The United for Libraries Institute: Friends, Foundations, and Trustees event will be livestreamed on January 25 during the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting. New York Times bestselling author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin (The Four Tendencies, “Happier with Gretchen Rubin”) will deliver the keynote address. In-person event registration begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern; livestreaming will be 1–4 p.m. Registration to join the livestream is free. Download the agenda for the institute online.
United for Libraries, Jan. 21
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ALA released a statement on January 21 regarding the National Archive’s efforts to alter photographs that include protest signs unflattering to our current administration. Such an act is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights. The Interpretation on Expurgation of Library Resources defines this specific violation as any deletion, excision, alteration, editing, or obliteration of any part of a library resource by administrators, employees, governing authorities, parent institutions, or third-party vendors when done for the purposes of censorship.
ALA Communications and Marketing Office, Jan. 21
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The British scientist Alan Turing’s Princeton doctoral degree, OBE medal, and other items of memorabilia have been recovered in Colorado, 35 years after they were taken from Sherborne School in the UK. On January 17, federal officials said they had recovered and were seeking the forfeiture of Turing’s items, reports, and letters from his time at boarding school. The items were stolen in 1984, the filing said, after a woman asked to see the Turing archive at Sherborne. In 2018 a woman named Julia Turing (originally Schwinghamer) offered the items on loan to the University of Colorado Boulder, after which federal officials searched a home and recovered the items.
The Guardian (UK), Jan. 21
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Alan Inouye writes: “A tsunami hit the publisher-library ecosystem in the last half of 2019. Macmillan Publishers decided that a library system (whether in a town of a few hundred people or the Los Angeles Public Library) may purchase only one copy of a new ebook until the ninth week after release. Libraries and their communities vigorously opposed this new policy through a wave of letters to the company, op-eds, articles, TV news appearances, radio interviews, panel sessions, and a national petition. Communities lose when ebook sales to libraries are denied or delayed, especially people with low or fixed income and, disproportionately, people of color.”
ITI Newslink, Jan. 21
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In 1763, a mob of white settlers, the so-called “Paxton Boys,” murdered 20 unarmed Conestoga People in a genocidal campaign that reshaped Pennsylvania settlement politics. The Library Company of Philadelphia has published a graphic novel about the event, Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga, by Lee Francis 4, with art by Weshoyot Alvitre, and edited by Will Fenton, and is now hosting an exhibition on view at the library through April 10. The exhibition features Alvitre’s hand-painted artwork from the graphic novel, a wampum belt created by Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry, and a behind-the-scenes documentary.
Library Company of Philadelphia
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Unexpectedly finding a skeleton lounging in her office doesn’t rattle Beth M. Lander, college librarian at the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “That’s an excellent example of what it is like to work here,” she says. “You never know what might happen next.” The college shares its library with the Mütter Museum, an institution known for its macabre medical materials, which span centuries. The library holds more than 146,000 journals, monographs, photos, manuscripts, and other medical ephemera documenting more than 1,000 years of medical history. It also has five books bound in human skin.
American Libraries Bookend, Jan./Feb.
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The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the world’s preeminent center for the study of the Yiddish language, culture, and history, has laid off all of its librarians. Four people were let go in the move, which was announced internally last week and confirmed by Executive Director Jonathan Brent in a statement on January 20. The four librarians were among 39 total employees of the 95-year-old organization, which reported $5.1 million in spending in its 2018 annual report. YIVO had a $550,000 revenue shortfall in 2019, Brent said, so the board and professional leadership decided to remove the librarians in order to “seek efficiencies in the organization.”
Forward, Jan. 20

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