International Archives | Page 6 of 18 | American Libraries Magazine

World Library and Information Congress 2014 Opens

By Laurie D. Borman | August 19, 2014

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 →

Used Ebooks

By James LaRue | August 8, 2014

So much hinges on copyright. The doctrine of First Sale meant that publishers couldn’t lock libraries out of the market. But digital works, like software, got swept under licensing agreements, with the power to place all kinds of restrictions on the sale resting almost entirely with the copyright holder. Typically, it’s worth pointing out, that … Continue reading Used Ebooks →

Building a Pipeline to Education in Azerbaijan

By Leonard Kniffel | July 21, 2014

There is money in Azerbaijan and plenty of it. Petroleum wealth mostly. Two-thirds of the country is rich in oil and natural gas, and Western companies are tapping oil fields in the Caspian Sea that the communist regime left untouched during the 70 years Azerbaijan spent as a part of the Soviet Union. Change is accelerating … Continue reading Building a Pipeline to Education in Azerbaijan →

Finding Hope Through Tragedy

By Phil Morehart | July 2, 2014

Paul Rusesabagina’s last name translates to “he who disperses his enemies” in the Kinyarwanda language. There is no more fitting name for the man responsible for saving 1,268 Tutsi refugees from certain death at the hands of Hutu soldiers during the Rwandan genocide. Rusesabagina was the featured speaker at the always popular Alexander Street … Continue reading Finding Hope Through Tragedy →

Creativity and Play at the Next Library Conference

By Sanhita SinhaRoy | June 23, 2014

Emanuel used the event to announce that Chicago Public Library (CPL) had just received a $400,000 grant from the Knight Foundation for its Internet to Go program, which will allow library patrons in six neighborhood branches where digital access is low to check out Wi-Fi hotspot devices for three weeks at a time. The grant … Continue reading Creativity and Play at the Next Library Conference →

Don’t Let It Stay in Vegas

By Laurie D. Borman | June 2, 2014

Have you watched American Libraries Live, our free, streaming library program? If you want to sample it, we have an excerpt in our June issue from our mobile technology in the library program. Hosted by Heather Moorefield-Lang, education and applied social sciences librarian for Virginia Tech, the expert panel included Bohyun Kim, digital access librarian … Continue reading Don’t Let It Stay in Vegas →

An American in Paris

By Alan S. Inouye | March 28, 2014

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of talking about US library ebook lending at the Salon du Livre—the Paris Book Fair. Representing ALA, I served on the panel “La Diffusion du Livre Numérique dans les Bibliothèques aux USA: Points de Vue des Acteurs” (Dissemination of Digital Book Libraries in the USA: Views of the … Continue reading An American in Paris →

Ukrainian Library Association Releases Statement

By Sanhita SinhaRoy | March 4, 2014

During the months of January and February 2014, the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine found itself at the center of the anti-government clashes in Kiev…. Severe clashes between the protesters and government forces took place in front of the National Parliamentary Library. The square and streets around it were filled with smoke and fire from … Continue reading Ukrainian Library Association Releases Statement →

A Country of Hope and Promise

By Leonard Kniffel | February 18, 2014

Cafés, bars, souvenir vendors, and street artists line the narrow and densely populated promenades in the old colonial center of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where hawkers lure customers with promises of bargain prices. At night, throngs of young people stroll the oceanside of the Malecón, eating sweets and listening to street musicians, while the museums … Continue reading A Country of Hope and Promise →

Changes and Connections

By Ingrid Parent | February 4, 2014

In 2011, I was elected as president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the global voice of the library and information profession. With my term having ended at the World Information and Library Congress this past August, I wanted to share some thoughts on why libraries remain as relevant as ever … Continue reading Changes and Connections →

Newsmaker: Ishmael Beah

By Mariam Pera | January 14, 2014

Why did you decide to write a memoir about your childhood experiences in Sierra Leone? ISHMAEL BEAH: It came out of several frustrations about the lack of knowledge about the use of children in war and also the way my country was only presented as a place of violence. I wanted to put a human … Continue reading Newsmaker: Ishmael Beah →

For Love of the Written Word

By Mary Mackay | November 20, 2013

The count is in: The official wrap-up last week of the 32nd Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) in the UAE reported that 900,000 visitors had browsed more than 400,000 titles on display in Sharjah’s Expo Centre, 150,000 UAE schoolchildren had participated in more than 500 interactive activities and workshops as part of class trips, and … Continue reading For Love of the Written Word →

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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