special collections Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Call Number Podcast: Preserving History

April 15, 2024

First, American Libraries Managing Editor Terra Dankowski speaks with Indigenous author Traci Sorell, the honorary chair of this year’s Preservation Week. Sorell, a former attorney who worked on Native Nations policy, discusses preservation’s part in telling stories. Next, American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Kathleen Monahan, special collections public … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Preserving History →

By the Numbers: Literary Baltimore

By Megan Bennett | January 2, 2024

ALA’s 2024 LibLearnX conference will be held January 19–22 in Baltimore. 1882 Year that Enoch Pratt Free Library (EPFL) in Baltimore was founded. Six years after ALA’s founding, EPFL received its initial funding from local businessman and philanthropist Enoch Pratt. The system now has 22 locations across the city. 1992 Year that Atomic Books—an independent … Continue reading By the Numbers: Literary Baltimore →

Anna Kresmer, holding a title from the B&O Railroad Museum research library, poses in front of a 19th century locomotive.

Bookend: Keeping Track

By Megan Bennett | January 2, 2024

“It really [was] a seismic culture shift,” Kresmer says. “We call it the moonshot. We liken it to the internet, how it had that kind of change on people.” Kresmer analyzes and catalogs materials, supports exhibit development, and oversees BORM’s research library, home to more than 5,000 titles. Locomotives aside, BORM’s collection—including its archives, library, … Continue reading Bookend: Keeping Track →

A catalog from the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play

By the Numbers: Toys

By Megan Bennett | November 1, 2023

230,000 Number of volumes available at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, located at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The library houses books, catalogs, personal papers, design documents, oral history projects, and other research material relating to … Continue reading By the Numbers: Toys →

World War I–era peace pins housed at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford (Calif.) University. The pins belonged to pacifist and feminist activist Alice Park.

Keep the Peace

By Megan Bennett | September 1, 2023

Lucy Biddle Lewis, a fellow peace activist, walked in on this happening. Lewis told her contemporaries that she saw Addams and begged her to stop because scholars could learn from her life and work. There’s no record of when this interaction took place, but in 1930, Addams began donating her materials to Swarthmore (Pa.) College, … Continue reading Keep the Peace →

Call Number Episode 85: The Colorful World of Comics

Call Number Podcast: The Colorful World of Comics

July 17, 2023

First, American Libraries Associate Editor Megan Bennett speaks with Jenny Robb, head curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University in Columbus, which houses the world’s largest collection of print cartoon art. Then, American Libraries Associate Editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial hits the halls of ALA’s 2023 Annual … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: The Colorful World of Comics →

Bookend: At the Heart of Medical History

By Phil Morehart | June 1, 2023

“It’s not a traditional library,” says Michelle Rinard, referring to the museum’s Thorek Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection. As curator and manager of exhibitions and development, Rinard stewards the library—home to more than 1,000 volumes of medical books, journals, illustrations, letters, and manuscripts dating from the 16th century to the present. Among the collection’s rare … Continue reading Bookend: At the Heart of Medical History →

Head curator Jenny Robb poses with collection items from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

Bookend: A Library of Laughs

By Megan Bennett | May 1, 2023

“When I was growing up, we didn’t have graphic novels for a children’s audience,” says Robb, head curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (BICLM) at Ohio State University in Columbus. “But now we have all kinds of stories,” she says. “Autobiographical, fantasy, adventure, you name it. It’s incredible to see this explosion … Continue reading Bookend: A Library of Laughs →

Pieces from Library of Congress' Bob Hope Collection

By the Numbers: Humor

By Megan Bennett | March 1, 2023

1976 Year that author Larry Wilde founded National Humor Month, held annually in April. 70 Number of oral history interviews available online through the American Comedy Archives, housed at Iwasaki Library at Emerson College in Boston. Interview participants include Margaret Cho, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, and “Weird Al” Yankovic. 628,300 Number of print materials … Continue reading By the Numbers: Humor →

Javier Barrios, Hilary Swett, Lauren O’Connor at the Writers Guild Foundation’s Shavelson-Webb Library in Los Angeles

Bookend: Flipping the Script

By Terra Dankowski | March 1, 2023

The library’s ephemera provides an illuminating look at Tinseltown and a record of the guild and its members: a Cold War–era FBI file on blacklisted screenwriting couple Hugo Butler and Jean Rouverol, two lifetime achievement awards given to seven-time Oscar recipient Billy Wilder, and screenwriter Linda Woolverton’s correspondence related to the development of Disney’s animated … Continue reading Bookend: Flipping the Script →

This movie poster is one of 3,000 items in the Witchcraft Collection at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Photo courtesy of Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

By the Numbers: Halloween

By Terra Dankowski | September 1, 2022

19th Century in which Halloween was popularized in the US, thanks in part to the arrival of Irish and Scottish immigrants. Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival Samhain. 65% Percentage of US consumers who planned to celebrate Halloween in 2021, according to a National Retail Federation survey. 6 Number of live “ghostcams” … Continue reading By the Numbers: Halloween →

Ladino singer-songwriter Sarah Aroeste explains how the migration of Sephardic Jews from Spain to Macedonia and Greece informed Ladino music. Aroeste performed June 27 at the Association of Jewish Libraries Conference 2022. Photo by Sally Stieglitz.

Saving Our Stories

By Sally Stieglitz | July 1, 2022

Highlighting history In the session “Documenting History through Collections,” presenters discussed how collections tell—or exclude—stories from the past. Herb Calanes, retired director of Corpus Christi (Tex.) Public Libraries, shared his research on Sephardic Jews in northern Mexico (an area then known as Nueva España) following their 1492 expulsion from Spain. Although Sephardic families were longtime … Continue reading Saving Our Stories →

Latest Library Links

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Catherine Hollerbach writes: “In early 2020, when the world shut down for COVID, many people got interested in houseplants. Anne Arundel County (Md.) Public Library’s Crofton Library embraced this trend and then some!” While preparing to reopen after the COVID shutdown, the library installed plants at the information desk to discourage patrons from sticking their heads through gaps in newly installed acrylic shields. They were well received and cared for, and the library gradually added more plants and built educational tools, programming, and partnerships around the plants.

Public Libraries Online, Apr. 18
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Rodney Freeman writes: “I am proud to be a librarian—and rare. Less than 7 percent of librarians in the U.S. are Black. Libraries symbolize the literacy that was denied to so many of our ancestors. For our enslaved forebears, something as fundamental as learning to read was illegal and dangerous, but they did it anyway. Separate but ‘equal’ schools and ‘colored’ libraries filled with cast-offs from white libraries were key features of the Jim Crow era. Today we are seeing the same impulse to distort access to information into a tool to suppress and control, and to make some people ‘other.’”

Newsweek, Apr. 16
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Lori Birrell writes: “Staff want to feel valued, and they want their work to have an impact. A reorganization process can help leaders to surface such areas of impact and give staff a feeling of empowerment and value. Practitioners considering any sized reorganization are strongly encouraged to consider what models and resources will best support them as they plan and lead this work. Regardless of the model or resources, any reorganization process should be more than just moving boxes and reporting lines around on an organizational chart.”

Library Leadership and Management, Apr. 15
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Megan Bennett writes: “Two decades ago, while Daily Show Senior Correspondent Dulcé Sloan was doing summer shows at a community theater in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the library was her main hangout spot. In the small town of 9,000 people, it was a place to gather with other young actors—and the only place with internet access. American Libraries spoke with Sloan before her closing session at the Public Library Association 2024 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, about her new book, her journey in stand-up comedy, and her memories of libraries.”

American Libraries Trend, Apr. 17
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Ashley Cosby Fowlkes writes: “In February 2023, Warren County (Ky.) Public Library (WCPL) began working with LifeWorks at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, a residential community for neurodiverse young adults that focuses on independent living and job readiness. By May, WCPL opened a satellite location at LifeWorks—making it the state’s first public library branch dedicated to serving neurodiverse patrons. The satellite is designed to be a sensory-sensitive environment, enabling individuals with autism, ADHD, or other learning differences—who can become overstimulated in crowded public areas—to concentrate on their studies, read a book, or browse digital library resources.”

American Libraries Trend, Mar./Apr.
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Araceli Méndez Hintermeister writes: “In the dynamic landscape of modern entrepreneurship, libraries emerge as powerful allies. The books in this collection delve into why and how libraries can be pivotal in supporting local businesses. Explore how libraries can serve as economic incubators and build relationships in the process.”

American Libraries column, Mar./Apr.
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Joe Árvai writes: “As artificial intelligence (AI) creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters. But my own research as a psychologist who studies how people make decisions leads me to believe that all these risks are overshadowed by an even more corrupting, though largely invisible, threat. That is, AI is mere keystrokes away from making people even less disciplined and skilled when it comes to thoughtful decisions.”

The Conversation, Apr. 12

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