The Soufrière Young Authors project has published six books since its first workshop in April 2016. Its goal is to produce all of its students’ books and distribute them widely on the 27-mile-long island. Peace Corps volunteer Grace Kilbane and Soufrière Public Library Librarian Catherine Prospere developed the project as a way to increase literacy … Continue reading Soufrière Young Authors Project
“We tie some education with it,” says Alice Reinert, school librarian at Wanamaker. “It’s geared to help our younger students learn their coins. And it’s also to try to get them service minded.” February is also when Wanamaker holds its Book Fair, so the month was a celebration of books and literacy, Reinert says. At … Continue reading School Raises Money to Support Haiti’s Libraries
Anne Tracy Morgan, daughter of financier John Pierpont (J. P.) Morgan, was the mind and money behind the volunteer mobilization. Morgan was a frequent visitor to France. When war broke out, she threw herself into relief work for the Allied cause. In 1917, she created the American Committee for Devastated France, better known as CARD … Continue reading The French Connection
In February, I led the first official delegation of American librarians and library supporters to Cuba for the Havana International Book Fair. I learned that the country had a longstanding commitment to literacy, and I began my visit with a meeting of renowned Cuban library leaders, including the remarkable Marta Terry González, and our own … Continue reading Connecting with Cuba
It’s not at all what she envisioned herself doing while in library school in Arizona, but she’s thrilled at this new slant on librarianship. Sanchez is among the growing group of MLIS grads using their degrees as passports to an array of fascinating jobs available outside the traditional library setting. They’re flying to exotic places … Continue reading The Bohemian Librarian
Muto interviewed, packed up, and flew out anyway. She had worked at LexisNexis for 10 years after finishing an MLIS at Kent State University and a JD at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Ohio. She was a ready for a change, and she got it. “I walked off the plane and it was a cacophony … Continue reading An Unconventional Librarian
As I was growing up, my mother wanted me to know there was a big, wide world out there and to appreciate it, understand it, and be a part of it. When I was a kid, our Army family was stationed for two years in Daegu, South Korea. When I was a preteen, my mother … Continue reading We Are Global
Information is an important tool in fighting the outbreak. Alison Blaine, a master’s student at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science and a research assistant in the UNC Davis Library’s Research Hub, is part of an interdisciplinary team that developed ebolainliberia.org, a website that provides data and news about the … Continue reading Tracking Ebola in Liberia
Sylvia Cisneros, president of Reforma: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, delivered 225 Spanish-language children’s books to the Rio Grande Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, September 10, as part of the organization’s effort to help meet the social and emotional needs of unaccompanied children from Central … Continue reading Children in Crisis
IFLA’s World Library Information Congress 2014 in Lyon, France offers a modest-sized but busy exhibit hall. The hall opened Monday to a large crowd sampling new database offerings as well as information about associations and vendors from across the world. ALA’s booth was packed for the opening, and has remained busy. … Continue reading Photos from the Exhibit Hall at WLIC 2014 in Lyon
Sometimes, low tech trumps high tech. At Tuesday morning’s plenary session of IFLA’s World Library and Information Congress 2014 in Lyon, French journalist Florence Aubenas talked about her kidnapping and six-month imprisonment in Iraq in 2005 and the time since. “Very often, the countries at war create conditions that prevent us from using technology tools,” she … Continue reading High and Low Tech at World Library and Information Congress 2014 in Lyon, France
Keynote speaker and French philosopher Bernard Stiegler encouraged the crowd of thousands of librarians with his view that libraries will never die. Though digitization and proliferation of ebooks caused some to predict the demise of libraries, Stiegler noted that libraries are more important than ever. Outside the convention center, Libraries Without Borders, in partnership with … Continue reading World Library and Information Congress 2014 Opens
