International Archives | Page 11 of 18 | American Libraries Magazine

How One Library Digitized Its Community’s Newspapers

By Allison Quam | July 20, 2011

The Winona Newspaper Project, an open, noncommercial digital archive, is providing access to a number of historic periodicals of Winona, Minnesota, a mid-sized city in the southeastern part of the state. The project is an indispensable resource for Winona State University’s Darrell W. Krueger Library and university faculty and students, as well as for local … Continue reading How One Library Digitized Its Community’s Newspapers →

E-books, Young Professionals, and Reinventing ALA

Keith Michael Fiels | July 18, 2011

ALA’s Executive Board and governing Council spent much of their time during Annual Conference in New Orleans discussing—and acting on—a series of recommendations from five special task forces charged with exploring important issues facing libraries and the Association. Council’s Equitable Access to Digital Content Task Force has been studying the challenges and potential solutions in … Continue reading E-books, Young Professionals, and Reinventing ALA →

Libraries and the Future of Electronic Content Delivery

By Lisa Carlucci Thomas | July 13, 2011

“Libraries are about content plus community,” says Michael Porter. “What does that mean in a world where in 5, 10, or 20 years the vast majority of content is electronic?” Porter draws on two decades of experience as a librarian, speaker, and writer to envision an organization that will take a leading role in charting … Continue reading Libraries and the Future of Electronic Content Delivery →

Sue Gardner Calls for Librarians to Dive in to the World of Wikipedia

June 26, 2011

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 →

Do Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Library Reprieves Herald More Good News?

By Beverly Goldberg | June 15, 2011

Officials in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools and the Mecklenburg County Commission have loosened their purse strings just enough to enable school libraries to remain staffed for the next academic year and the long-embattled Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to expand service hours at its six regional libraries from 37 to 54 per week. The day after Mecklenburg … Continue reading Do Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Library Reprieves Herald More Good News? →

The Smartest Readers

By Karen Muller | June 6, 2011

We all know that “Libraries are the smartest investment.” Study after study shows that for every dollar invested by a community in library services, $2.38 (PDF file), or $4.48 (PDF file), or even $6.54 (PDF file) in economic benefits are returned to the community. Another measure of the value of libraries is the individualized calculation … Continue reading The Smartest Readers →

Jane: Karen Says “Hi”

June 1, 2011

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” →

Fanbase to the Rescue: A Massachusetts Tale

By Eric T. Poulin | May 31, 2011

While much has been written recently about using Facebook as a promotional tool for libraries and librarians, opinions vary widely on Facebook’s effectiveness in reaching library users. It’s indisputable, though, that Facebook can successfully promote advocacy on behalf of library-related issues, based on the creation of a Facebook Page that generated community awareness in western … Continue reading Fanbase to the Rescue: A Massachusetts Tale →

Refresh Your View of E-rate

By Marijke Visser | May 31, 2011

Suffering from the after-school network grinding-to-a-halt syndrome? Have a flat or declining budget with little state or local political support? Can’t figure out how to pay for a bandwidth upgrade to support patrons’ online activities such as searching for jobs and applying for e-government services? If you haven’t considered the e-rate program lately, now’s the … Continue reading Refresh Your View of E-rate →

Keeping Our Message Simple

By James LaRue | May 31, 2011

concerned about the future of my organization that I started reading much more widely and deeply. Many of the books were about brain research. Most focused on how and why we come to believe things, both as individuals and as communities. A couple of those books dug into how difficult it is for us to … Continue reading Keeping Our Message Simple →

The Best in Library Branding

By Judith Gibbons | May 27, 2011

The John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award (JCD) turned 65 years old this year and celebrated this milestone with the Midwinter announcement of the 2011 winners. Five vibrant libraries demonstrated innovative, outstanding marketing strategies in campaigns ending in 2010: Anythink Libraries of Adams County, Colorado; Edmonton (Alberta) Public Library; Loudoun County (Va.) Public Library; … Continue reading The Best in Library Branding →

ALA and Library Relief Funds

May 25, 2011

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 →

Latest Library Links

12h

Jennifer A. Keach, Jenne M. Klotz, and Galen J. Talis write: “Library leaders at all levels are well-placed to create opportunities for joy in their organizations and to model how to do so with nuance and balance. Toward that end, we explored the multidisciplinary literature and compiled an annotated bibliography for leaders who wish to support joy within groups, organizational change agents who want to create equitable conditions for joy in the workplace, and readers seeking to develop their personal practice of joy. We provide a guide exploring five themes: defining joy, finding individual joy, work and organizational joy, empowering change with joy, and joy-adjacent emotions.”

Library Leadership and Management, June 30
14h

David Vickers Loertscher and Michelle Young write: “This tutorial introduces school librarians to the use of data visualization tools for documenting and communicating their impact on teaching and learning. By leveraging accessible platforms like Google Forms and Google Sheets, the authors demonstrate how librarians can build dashboards and real-time visual reports to showcase co-teaching, instructional collaboration, and student engagement. The tutorial features real-world examples, highlights common data sources already available to librarians, and argues that dynamic visual storytelling is a powerful alternative to traditional library statistics.”

Learning Hub, June 25
17h

Robin Camille Davis writes: “It wasn’t until seven years into my career as a user experience librarian that I realized I’d been accidentally excluding a sizable segment of users from my user research. Interviews, surveys, and usability studies favor people who are gifted at oral and written communication. What about people who are more gifted at visual communication? In the context of user research, this participatory design invites participants to design their own response to a given prompt.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, June 30
20h

Stories from communities nationwide come to life on ALA’s new Show Up for Our Libraries interactive site map. The stories illustrate the real-life consequences of potential funding cuts to rural, research, city, state, and university library programs and, in turn, to the hundreds of millions of library users across the country. Services such as summer reading programs, telehealth resources, interlibrary loan, and ebooks have all been affected. ALA collected the stories in conversation with patrons, library professionals, and advocates across the country to better understand the impact of federal funding cuts since the President’s executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, June 25
2d

On June 27, the Supreme Court upheld the Universal Service Fund, which funds the E-Rate program. ALA issued a statement regarding the ruling that reads, in part, “The ALA applauds the Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision to uphold the Universal Service Fund. The system of telecommunications subsidies administered by the Federal Communications Commission includes the E-Rate program, which provides libraries and schools billions of dollars each year for broadband access and connectivity. More than half of all public libraries apply for funding to subsidize the cost of internet connectivity through E-Rate each year.”

AL: The Scoop, June 27
2d

On June 27, ALA announced its new executive director, Daniel J. Montgomery. ALA’s announcement read, in part, “Montgomery has worked on behalf of public education and the rights of workers for more than two decades. He was elected to a three-year term as president of the 103,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers in October 2010 and has been unanimously reelected every three years since then. He will start at ALA on November 10. The steering committee chose Montgomery because of his commitment to public institutions, his comfort working across diverse and difficult political situations, his service to both cities and rural areas, and his experience managing a complex, member-driven organization.”
6d

Oliver Moody writes: “In the €100 million Oodi library, which looms over central Helsinki like a cruise ship from the future, robots called Tatu, Patu, and Veera trundle back and forth between the shelves and the reading rooms. Against this backdrop, foreign visitors might be surprised to see how many children and teenagers are engaged in an almost unsettlingly archaic activity: reading and borrowing books. In the age of TikTok, Netflix, and Candy Crush, it is not just Finland’s public libraries that are booming, but also demand for their physical paperbacks and hardbacks.”

The Times (London), June 20

View more Latest Library Links