International Archives | Page 4 of 18 | American Libraries Magazine

Denice Adkins (left) and Elizabeth Jean Brumfield (far right) at an LIS curriculum committee meeting at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Changing Perspectives through Exchange

By Denice Adkins and Elizabeth Jean Brumfield | September 22, 2017

A mentor and mentee case study IFLA IMLS fellow Elizabeth Jean Brumfield, distance services librarian at Prairie View (Tex.) A&M University (PVAMU), has been mentored by Denice Adkins, associate professor at University of Missouri’s School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. Through their interactions, they were able to view librarianship from each other’s perspective. Adkins’s … Continue reading Changing Perspectives through Exchange →

ALA Presidential Citations

By Delin Guerra | September 22, 2017

The winners are: University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus Library and the city of Camrose, Alberta, Canada Bibliotheekservice Fryslân in the Netherlands Wellington County Library in Ontario, Canada The recipients were selected by a team of IRRT members in consultation with then–ALA President Julie B. Todaro, who recognized them at the 2017 ALA Annual Conference and … Continue reading ALA Presidential Citations →

A scrimmage day featuring the Special Olympics Burlington team—and open to people of all abilities—was held in May. Photo: Special Olympics Burlington.

Acceptance and Inclusion

By Amanda Wilk | September 22, 2017

After the 2016 US presidential election, BPL heard from teens who were frightened, shaken, and without the agency to act. For many who were from a diverse culture or ethnicity, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or simply had inclusive worldviews, this change in leadership created a deep sense of fear for themselves and those … Continue reading Acceptance and Inclusion →

The 11 cascading levels of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Visiting Egypt’s Libraries

By Laurie D. Borman | September 19, 2017

The new Biblioteca Alexandrina The Bibliotheca Alexandrina complex comprises not just a library building but also a planetarium and conference center. A large fence with guard stations about every 25 meters runs along the corniche. This was once where you could enter the grounds, but due to security precautions prompted by political turmoil, the entrance … Continue reading Visiting Egypt’s Libraries →

The Malaysia delegation, who will host the World Library and Information Congress next year in Kuala Lumpur, takes the stage at the Closing Session.

Countdown to Kuala Lumpur

By Terra Dankowski | August 25, 2017

Scheeder, addressing the crowd for the last time as president before Glòria Pérez-Salmerón’s term begins, emphasized the organization’s commitment to supporting the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and strengthening regional strategy during her term. “I never imagined we would travel so far together, so fast,” she said. “You create the kind of change … Continue reading Countdown to Kuala Lumpur →

Students in the Soufrière (St. Lucia) Young Authors project work on their projects during the weeklong workshop.

Soufrière Young Authors Project

By Larra Clark | April 28, 2017

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 →

Students at Wanamaker Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas.

School Raises Money to Support Haiti’s Libraries

By Alison Marcotte | April 13, 2017

“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 →

Hamayoun Ghafoori, assistant library director of the American University of Afghanistan.

A Visitor from Kabul

By George M. Eberhart | March 28, 2017

Ghafoori, who has been with AUAF since 2008, said he had visited several public, academic, and government libraries in the past three weeks, among them San Diego (Calif.) Public Library, University of Nebraska Omaha library, the Library of Congress, the State Library of Maine, and Lithgow Public Library in Augusta, Maine. He was impressed with … Continue reading A Visitor from Kabul →

Children read in the Soissons Library in Aisne, France, after World War I. Photo: ALA Archives

The French Connection

By Marcelline Dormont | February 16, 2017

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 →

Connecting with Cuba

By Sari Feldman | May 2, 2016

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 →

Margaret Kavaras on Gellért Hill overlooking central Budapest

Around the World in 80 Weeks

By Margaret Kavaras | January 27, 2016

It has been a unique and interesting experience living abroad and witnessing firsthand the ways in which information access, technology policy, and digital privacy are closely intertwined with the political process. Following the completion of my fellowship in August 2014, I departed the US for Budapest, Hungary, where I took master’s courses in public policy … Continue reading Around the World in 80 Weeks →

The presentation of ALA Presidential Citations for Innovative International Library Projects at the International Relations Round Table (IRRT) International Librarians' Reception on June 29, 2015, in San Francisco. Photo: IRRT

ALA Honors International Innovators

October 6, 2015

Earlier this year, ALA President Courtney L. Young, with support from the International Relations Round Table Advisory Award Committee, honored four libraries with this special citation at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco. They were recognized for designing and implementing a highly visible innovative library service that was unique or original … Continue reading ALA Honors International Innovators →

Latest Library Links

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ALA has launched the ALA Learning Library, a member-exclusive collection of free professional development resources. Introduced at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference, the ALA Learning Library will help ALA members easily access a large and growing of eLearning events that are only available to them. In addition to demonstrating the value of membership to current members, the new library also helps promote membership to non-members who want to take advantage of the professional development offerings.

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, July 23
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Sam Helmick writes: “As library professionals, we often traffic in the timeless—in books, archives, and community memory. But this year’s ALA Annual Conference reminded us that timing matters, too. At a moment when the core tenets of librarianship—intellectual freedom, the right to read, equitable access to information—are under direct attack across the country, gathering in Philadelphia felt as much like a profound act of civic engagement as it did impactful professional development. There was an unmistakable sense that showing up mattered.”

American Libraries column, July/Aug.
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Marshall Breeding writes: “Although libraries are currently facing a climate of political and financial upheaval, that didn’t stop information professionals from showing up in force to ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition. With more than 600 vendors and a variety of live stages and pavilions, the Library Marketplace showcased products for libraries facing intense new challenges. Services and solutions that focused on libraries’ ongoing needs for efficiency and impact were in high demand.”

American Libraries feature, July/Aug.
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Daisy Atterbury writes: “Literature, like space travel, offers an escape, but also a way to reimagine what it means to be tethered to this planet, to each other, to the futures we may or may not reach. A multi-genre class of experimental writers challenged me to think against the steady gravitational pull of capitalist orientations to space. Space belongs not to the empire, but to the storytellers, the poets, the dreamers who refuse the logic of extraction and conquest. Each of these books remind us that another world is always possible, whether here, ‘out there,’ or somewhere between.”

Electric Literature, July 18
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Jenny Arch writes: “‘Upselling’ is a sales term that refers to convincing customers to purchase additional items or a more expensive version of the same item. However, we can ‘upsell’ in libraries too—and it doesn’t cost people anything! It’s just a way of promoting library materials or services that patrons may not be aware of yet.” Readers’ advisory, programming, databases, and library consortia services are all opportunities where upselling might help patrons make fuller use of their libraries.

Jenny Arch, July 18
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Ethan DeWitt writes: “Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed seven bills July 15, many of which were intended to strengthen parental rights, bucking the conservative wing of her party over hotly contested legislation. One of the most closely watched bills vetoed by Ayotte would have required public schools to adopt complaint procedures to allow parents to object to, and potentially remove, material deemed harmful from schools. In her veto message, Ayotte noted that state law already allows parents to opt their child out of instructional material they object to, as long as they provide an alternative material.”

New Hampshire Bulletin, July 15
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Rebecca Kheel writes: “Children’s biographies of trailblazing transgender public figures. An award-winning novel reflecting on what it is like to be Black in America. A series of graphic novels about the love story between a teenage gay couple. Those are some of the 596 books that have been pulled from shelves in the Defense Department schools that serve military children as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to censor LGBTQ+ and racial issues from official government materials.”

Military.com, July 14

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