Ken Burns Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Left to right: Donna Seaman, Terry Tempest Williams, Mark Kurlansky, Ken Burns

The Writer as Witness

By Phil Morehart | January 9, 2016

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and writer Ken Burns’s response when asked how he chooses the subjects of his work encapsulates “The Writer as Witness,” the theme of the ERT / Booklist Author Forum at the 2016 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. A writer must look both outward and inward to completely, accurately, and honestly tell a … Continue reading The Writer as Witness →

Ken Burns on “Grover Cleveland, Again!”

January 9, 2016

Documentarian Ken Burns sits down for an interview with American Libraries to discuss his new children’s history book, Grover Cleveland, Again! He also reveals the common thread that unites nearly all United States presidents and presents an idea for improving the teaching of history.

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“Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent civil rights movement in the late 1950s and 1960s to achieve legal equality for African Americans in the US. Each year, the US honors and celebrates King’s life and legacy on the third Monday in January. Here are some books that honor the life and legacy of Dr. King and his role in the civil rights movement.” Find additional booklists from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Colorado Mountain College Libraries, and New Orleans Public Library.

Livingston (N.J.) Public Library, Jan. 8; Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change; Colorado Mountain College Libraries, Jan. 9; New Orleans Public Library, Jan. 13
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“After the hundreds (thousands?) of hours trawling through online image collections since the Public Domain Review’s inception, we’ve decided it was time to create one of our own! We are really excited to share with you the launch of our new sister project, the Public Domain Image Archive, a curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse. Our aim is to offer a platform that will serve both as a practical resource and a place to simply wander—an ever-growing portal to discover more than 2,000 years of visual culture.”

Public Domain Review, Jan. 8
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The New York Public Library has acquired the archive of Jhumpa Lahiri, shedding new light on the award-winning author and multilingual translator. Comprising 31 boxes of material stretching to nearly 40 linear feet, the archive, which will become publicly available in 2025, chronicles Lahiri’s literary accomplishments from a young age and her commitment to critical reading, the nuances of language, and the craft of writing. Highlights include correspondence with friends and peer writers including Michael Cunningham, Jennifer Egan, Elena Ferrante, Salman Rushdie, Amy Tan, and others, and notebooks and drawings from Lahiri’s teenage years.

New York Public Library, Jan. 13
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Samuel T. Barber and Sarah Parramore write: “The creation of a Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Mentorship Group [at California State University, Fullerton’s Pollak Library] was designed to address the unique challenges posed by the rapid expansion of probationary tenure-track faculty. By describing an application of the ripple effect leadership theory, this article explores the importance of strategic, empathetic leadership in supporting faculty development, which may be useful to other academic library faculty and leaders seeking to assist and support newly hired library employees.”

The Journal of Creative Library Practice, Jan. 8
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Chris Gillespie writes: “Using ChatGPT to gather data can save you a significant amount of time. But the accuracy and reliability of the results depend heavily on the quality of the information the model uses. The good news is you can use a few strategies to force ChatGPT to provide responses based only on high-quality sources.” Recommended techniques include defining the source type, giving specific instructions, and asking for recent data only.

MakeUseOf, Jan. 11
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On January 13, the ALA Executive Board released a statement describing what library professionals can do to support communities affected by the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. To date, at least 24 people have died, and more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed, including Los Angeles Public Library’s Palisades branch, according to news reports. The full statement encourages those who wish to help to donate to local relief efforts and the ALA Disaster Relief Fund, volunteer for local libraries and organizations mobilizing to assist those in need, and advocate for policies and funding to help libraries continue critical work during and after disasters.

AL: The Scoop, Jan. 13
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ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table is now accepting applications for the “Game On!” grant, which provides $2,000 to help a library or libraries develop gaming programs or collections for their communities. The grant has doubled in size since 2024 thanks to a $1,000 donation match from Cards Against Humanity, whose support will continue through 2029. The application deadline is March 10, and the winner or winners will be announced at GameRT’s “ALA Play” event at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference this June in Philadelphia.

ALA Games & Gaming Round Table, Jan. 12

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