Sharjah International Book Fair Archives | American Libraries Magazine

The Networking Library Lounge at the Sharjah International Book Fair/American Library Association Library Conference.

Networking and Learning in the Middle East

By Michael Dowling and Mary Mackay | September 22, 2017

Then–ALA President Julie B. Todaro opened the conference with an update on ALA’s Libraries Transform campaign, stressing library transformation as essential to the communities libraries serve. Miguel Figueroa, director of the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries, provided the second day’s keynote on the importance of exploring trends and signals around us and how … Continue reading Networking and Learning in the Middle East →

The Expo Centre Sharjah, site of the SIBF/ALA Library Conference

The View from Sharjah 2016

By Mary Mackay | November 15, 2016

The conference offered participants the chance to learn from international experts from the MENA region as well as from the US. In response to 2015 attendee feedback, the 2016 conference offered more interactivity and focus on specific topics, including in-depth facilitated discussion sections addressing how to build stronger library associations in the MENA region; the … Continue reading The View from Sharjah 2016 →

From left: Khaled Ahmad Halloume, Hassan Momani, ALA Past President Sari Feldman, Jassim M. Jirjees, Asmah Saad Assim, Muna Abdulla, and Azeyaa Ahmed at the 2015 SIBF/ALA Library Conference. Photo: ALA International Relations Office

SIBF/ALA Library Conference Turns Three

September 23, 2016

As ALA’s most ambitious international professional development collaboration to date, the library conference will be hosted at the 35th SIBF, November 8–10 at the Sharjah Expo Centre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The shared location provides an opportunity for attendees to combine professional development with exploring and acquiring materials for their libraries. In 2015, … Continue reading SIBF/ALA Library Conference Turns Three →

Welcome from Ahmed Al Ameri, chairman of Sharjah Book Authority, at the opening of the 2nd Annual ALA Library Conference, November 10, 2015, at the Sharjah International Book Fair.

Library Issues from a Fresh Perspective

By Patricia A. Wand | July 14, 2016

The roster of keynote speakers includes ALA President Julie B. Todaro, who will focus on “The Expert in the Library,” and Center for the Future of Libraries Director Miguel Figueroa, who will discuss societal trends and managing change in libraries. But what happens when you transplant an ALA conference into an Arabic country? The answer: … Continue reading Library Issues from a Fresh Perspective →

Attendees at the second annual SIBF/ALA Library Conference, November 10–12 in Sharjah, UAE.

Librarians Gather at Sharjah/ALA Conference

By Mary Mackay | November 17, 2015

SIBF Director and Chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority Ahmed Al-Ameri said he was thrilled to welcome this second conference, which he sees growing in the future. “I am confident this mutual cooperation between the SIBF and ALA will be helpful in skill development of the industry’s professionals,” he said. ALA President Sari Feldman’s opening … Continue reading Librarians Gather at Sharjah/ALA Conference →

2014 SIBF/ALA Library Conference presenters and staff reconvene at the 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. Left to right: Lynn Silipigni Connaway, ALA Marketing Director Mary Mackay, ALA President Courtney Young, ALA International Relations Office Director Michael Dowling, Michael Levine-Clark, Sharjah Book Authority Chairman Ahmed Al-Ameri, Jon Malinowski, ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels, Magda El-Sherbini, Rick Anderson, Janet Fritsch

Looking to the Next SIBF/ALA Library Conference

October 7, 2015

The 2015 SIBF/ALA Library Conference will be held November 10–12. Attendees will be able to interact with an international roster of experts during 15 programs on topics related to all types of libraries that cover new trends and technologies, e-resources, innovative spaces and services, rebranding and proving the value of the library, staff and leadership … Continue reading Looking to the Next SIBF/ALA Library Conference →

We Are Global

By Courtney L. Young | November 18, 2014

What I did not realize was how happily my passion for librarianship would collide with what my mother taught me—to be a citizen of the world. My first connection was as an LIS student at Simmons College, when I took an international and comparative librarianship course from professor Patricia Oyler. Years later, the lessons my mother … Continue reading We Are Global →

Latest Library Links

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Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
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Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
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ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14
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Emily Weak writes: “Something I always hear from hiring managers is that they want to build a resilient, diverse workforce. Sometimes we say we want a resilient workforce, but what we mean is that we want staffers who are willing to go above and beyond, or to do more with less. These concepts are deeply entrenched in librarianship, but I think we’re beginning to see how they can cause problems. Instead of trying to hire people who will do more with less and who will thrive amid adversity, let’s think about resilience as an organizational feature.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Elisabeth B. White writes: “How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the ‘why’ of learning), representation (the ‘what’ of learning), and action and expression (the ‘how’ of learning). However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
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Elisa Shoenberger writes: “The comics I grew up reading were those in the newspapers, and they were called the funny pages for a reason. In time, I began exploring the wider world of comic books, covering a wide variety of genres from superhero comics to horror. But I do have a fondness for the seeming simplicity of one to four-panel comics in the newspapers and webcomics for humor. For this list, I’ve put together my tribute to the funny pages. Most of the comics are short form comics, but a few are longer narratives.”

Book Riot, Nov. 11
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Jay Peters writes: “Bluesky gained more than 700,000 new users in the last week and now has more than 14.5 million users total, Bluesky COO Rose Wang confirmed to The Verge. The ‘majority’ of the new users on the decentralized social network are from the US, Wang says. The app is currently the number two free social networking app in the US App Store, only trailing Meta’s Threads. Instagram-bootstrapped Threads, which recently crossed 275 million monthly users, is still significantly larger than Bluesky. But the independent platform has seen a lot of growth in recent weeks.”

The Verge, Nov. 11

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