Photo: Megan Rosenbloom.

Newsmaker: Megan Rosenbloom

October 22, 2019

Rosenbloom, a medical librarian at University of Southern California (USC) and obituary editor for the Journal of the Medical Library Association, is a leader in the “death positive” movement and the Order of the Good Death, a group of “funeral industry professionals, academics, and artists exploring ways to prepare a death phobic culture for their … Continue reading Newsmaker: Megan Rosenbloom


Society of American Archivists Archives*Records 2019 Conference logo

Creating Accessibility within LGBTQ Collections

August 8, 2019

Linda J. Long, curator of manuscripts in special collections and university archives at University of Oregon Libraries, provided background on the history and politics of archiving LGBTQ collections and examined the roadblocks that have impeded the accessibility of these collections. University of Montana Digital Archivist Erin Baucom discussed how the use of language incompatible with … Continue reading Creating Accessibility within LGBTQ Collections


Society of American Archivists Archives*Records 2019 Conference logo

SAA 2019: Building New Traditions

August 8, 2019

Francesca Marini, programming and outreach librarian at TAMU’s Cushing Memorial Library and Archives (CMLA), moderated the session and gave the introductory presentation, providing background information about CMLA’s efforts and collections. Beginning with a brief history of some of the racism at the university, Greg Bailey, university archivist, provided a historical timeline of the integration of … Continue reading SAA 2019: Building New Traditions



Librarian's Library: Karen Muller

A Librarian’s Good-Bye

June 3, 2019

In 1970, I was working in book receipts at Boston Public Library and just beginning to consider library school when I expressed an interest in cataloging during a coffee break with colleagues. Bill Crowe, who became dean of University of Kansas Libraries, suggested Cataloging USA, by Paul S. Dunkin, published by the American Library Association … Continue reading A Librarian’s Good-Bye


Emily Cabaniss, company librarian and music assistant for the Seattle Opera. Photo: Kelly Clare Photography

Bookend: The Show Must Go On

January 2, 2019

“I hadn’t realized this kind of work was possible,” she says. “Every opera company has a person called a librarian, but they’re usually an orchestra librarian”—typically a music preparation specialist with ensemble experience who doesn’t, like Cabaniss, hold an MLIS. Hired in 2014 as the company’s first information professional, Cabaniss makes sure the artistic, music, … Continue reading Bookend: The Show Must Go On


Left: Christina Bryant holds an invitation from the Mistick Krewe of Comus (1900); top left: a dance card issued by the Twelfth Night Revelers (1899); bottom left: a costume design from the Léda Hincks Plauché Collection. (Photos: Susan Poag (Bryant, butterfly); New Orleans Public Library (costumes))

Bookend: Conservator of Carnival

June 1, 2018

“The invitations are definitely one of the highlights,” notes Christina Bryant, department head of the library’s Louisiana Division/City Archives and Special Collections. “They are each a miniature work of art and sometimes engineering,” she says of the elaborately paneled and intricately drawn creations. Other standouts in the Carnival collection, dating back to the 1860s, include … Continue reading Bookend: Conservator of Carnival


Nancy Down, head librarian of the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University Libraries.

Bookend: Pop Culture Paradise

May 1, 2018

When researchers need to study these or other pieces of American ephemera created after 1876, they head to the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University Libraries. Founded almost 50 years ago, the library holds one of the largest comics collections in the country, as well as … Continue reading Bookend: Pop Culture Paradise


Life and Activities of Shakyamuni Buddha Incarnate, 1486Photo: Library of Congress

By the Numbers: Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

May 1, 2018

39 Years ago that Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week was first observed. In 1990, the week was expanded to the month of May. 1980 Year that the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association was founded. The group formally became affiliated with the American Library Association (ALA) in 1982. 45th Anniversary that the Chinese American Librarians Association celebrated this … Continue reading By the Numbers: Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month


Alisun DeKock stands beside the species identification iPad in the Shedd Aquarium’s Amazon Rising habitat, as two South American tambaqui fish swim by.

Bookend: A Friend to the Fishes

March 1, 2018

The Shedd’s library of some 7,000 books is primarily for aquarium staff, interns, and volunteers and is not open to the public. The most popular materials in the collection are the field guides to various fish, plants, insects, aquatic invertebrates, and marine mammals. DeKock says that “staff members take them out on field trips because … Continue reading Bookend: A Friend to the Fishes


The Library of Things pull-out poster, illustrated by Brian Mead.

The Library of Things

June 1, 2017

As the sharing economy continues to swell, nontraditional collections become more pervasive, community-specific, and imaginative. Here are some of our favorite unusual items circulating at libraries in North America (click to expand).


Librarian Tara Murray (right) with Victorian-era stamp cases, stamps of the Duchy of Oldenburg from an 1863 album, and books from the American Philatelic Research Library collection. (Photos: Abby Drey)

Bookend: Philatelic Relics

June 1, 2017

For the most part, APRL does not include stamps in its collection, “but they are occasionally included as collateral material. For example, the library owns two examples of the famous 1918 ‘Inverted Jenny’ error stamp, one of which was just recovered in June 2016 after being stolen from a stamp show in 1955. The first … Continue reading Bookend: Philatelic Relics