Tag Archives: ALA

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Freedom to Read: Getting Involved! (Banned Book Week Series #1)

Today the library profession begins Banned Book Week! CMLE will provide information to you each day this week, from September 25 − October 1, 2016.

This is the week we band together to draw attention to the issue of books and information being banned from our patrons. As a profession devoted to distributing information, and connecting great materials with our patrons, any sort of censoring of that process is troublesome to us. We support the freedom to read, and intellectual freedom, across genres, platforms, and formats.

banned-book-week
Support the freedom to read!

 

Today we are looking at the resources the American Library Association’s website provides to us.

Do you have questions about this topic? A handy Q&A has been provided for you. Talking about censorship, banning books, and restricting freedom to read for some or all patrons can be tough. It can be hard to bring it up in your library with your colleagues, and hard to discuss with patrons. ALA provides you with some content to share and discuss, and some suggestions about spreading ideas of intellectual freedom. You can also follow the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom on Twitter. It is filled with facts and information, as well as fun displays and activities libraries around the country are doing!

How can you get involved in publicizing banned books? Check out this information about making your own videos for the Virtual Read Out! Your library can participate, and you can bring in your patrons if they want to share in the video making experience.

Many libraries are doing interesting programming for this week, and there is a lot of great information being shared in advance. You can look at the things libraries and librarians are contributing here. And you can share the contributions from your library here.

Sadly, book challenges happen all the time, so we need to be aware of banned book information the other 51 weeks of the year. You can get involved, and learn more about the issue – before you have professional problems in your library.

Does all of this make you want to have Banned Book Week swag in your library or for yourself? The ALA has you covered! Check out all the material available, and see what you might want now, or get started planning out next year’s displays!

Intellectual freedom is a continuing struggle, and libraries of all sorts are on the front lines. You need support and information to help you in providing the best possible resources to your community, and CMLE and the ALA are here to help you!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Podcast recap of ALA Conference

In case you weren’t able to attend ALA’s 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida that took place in June, take a listen to this podcast!

Host Phil Morehart presents Episode Four of ALA’s Dewey Decibal podcast series that hopes to bring the convention to you. The podcast features interviews with a variety of staffers and speakers, including Peter Coyl and Michael Eric Dyson. Hosts also interview some of the 16,000 librarians and library professionals right from the conference floor, where they speak about their experience and the role they play in the world of libraries. Hearing the background noise and excitement in the voices of the attendees help to transport you to the energy of the conference.

Don’t miss Episode Five of the Dewey Decibal series, now available, with a focus on library architecture and design.

General, Public, School Media Specialist

ALA, Google launch “Libraries Ready to Code”

Backlit_keyboard“Ready to Code” will distill and share best practices—empowering more libraries to better prepare young people of all backgrounds with the computational thinking skills necessary for participation in the 21st century economy.”

Libraries have always been a place for community members to come together in pursuit of knowledge. Today, they are playing an increasingly important role in the development of young people’s computer skills.

The American Library Association (ALA) and Google, Inc. are coming together in an attempt to increase access to Computer Science (CS) learning for kids and young people. The project named “Libraries Ready to Code” pays attention to the opportunities offered at libraries for underrepresented groups of young people to expand their CS skills. They will monitor these opportunities through a mixture of interviews, focus groups, and site visits. They are hoping to find out just how much coding and computer learning takes place at libraries. That way they will be able to tailor their programs to be even more helpful to the kids, students, and young people who are in need of these increasingly relevant skills.

To learn more and read the press release, read here.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/zfs426q licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: My Tribute to Librarians

My new phone case in honor of National Library Week!
My new iPhone case in honor of past and present library systems!

I couldn’t let National Library Week end without taking a moment to reflect on what libraries mean to me. As a child, our little town did not have a public library (still doesn’t), and there was no school library, so the bookmobile came to main street every two weeks. I always checked out the maximum number of books, and even though I tried to ration, I was always done at least a week before the bookmobile lumbered back into town. Finally, the bookmobile librarian put me out of my misery and quietly lifted the limit for me and we were both happier. She was my hero. During junior high, I discovered the school media center, and spent every moment there that I could. The librarian liked me and was nice to me. In high school, I almost got expelled for cutting classes until the school librarian vouched for the fact that I was in the media center reading during my missed class! I guess the principal simply didn’t have the heart to expel me for my innocent love affair with books. When my three children were small, I opened a daycare center. Every day we had story time. The first time I saw a child lock onto the book I was reading with fierce attentiveness, I was hooked. That pure channel between the child’s brain and the story was exactly where I wanted to be! Until that electric moment, I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Shortly after this in 1993 or so, I logged onto the Internet (no easy feat at that time), surfed on over to a special collection of aboriginal art in Australia (a bucket list destination), and felt the intoxicating power of remote digital collections too. So, when I started college at age 35, I knew very clearly that I was on a path to be a librarian, and have never looked back. Graduate school in Chicago gave me ample opportunity to visit and use some of the finest research libraries in the world. The deal was sealed; I was completely smitten.

I honor and commend all types of librarians during National Library Week. You make important contributions to people’s lives, some who have little, others who are more fortunate. You help build an informed citizenry, but I am preaching to the choir here! Well done library friends; you rock!

Patricia Post
CMLE Executive Director

Image credit: Photo by Patricia Post

 

General, Public

Study on digital content in public libraries

technologyThe American Library Association (ALA) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) have recently released the results of their first ever joint research initiative: Digital Content in Public Libraries: What Do Patrons Think?

“Library patrons were asked about preferences for print or digital formats, collection assessment, preferred devices and other issues that affect the use and distribution of published content in public libraries. The study will serve as a tool to furthering the understanding of the e-book marketplace.”

Some highlights include:

  • In the past year, 96% of respondents said they read at least one print book, while 44% read at least one e-book.
  • Borrowing print books is the most cited reason for visiting a library.
  • 23% of respondents borrow up to 10 e-books in a year.
  • Patron satisfaction in urban libraries greatly exceeds suburban and rural libraries.

An Executive Summary of results is available free if you are a member of the ALA or BISG.  The full report is available for purchase online here.

ALA & BISG announce results of study

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (William Iven), licensed under CC0 1.0