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The following libraries are winners of the 2022 Library Building Awards, sponsored by Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures (a division of the American Library Association) and the American Institute of Architects. The awards recognize the best in library architecture and design and are open to any architect licensed in the United States. Projects may be located […]
Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) recognizes the achievements of more than 200 individuals and institutions with an array of awards. This year’s winners, chosen by juries of their colleagues and peers, embody the best of the profession’s leadership, vision, and service as well as a continued commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and outreach. […]
Libraries are complicated. They have a maze of departments, a specific method for retrieving books, and many rooms with different purposes: public and staff areas, service desks, and storage areas for materials, with varying access policies. Library signs can help guide users through this unfamiliar maze, allowing them to find what they came for with […]
Patrons display their new enhanced library cards at an April 6 sign-up event at the Fairbanks branch of Harris County (Tex.) Public Library. The cards offer another form of ID. Photo: Nancy Hu/Harris County (Tex.) Public Library Photo identification is an essential part of American life. But for large swaths of the populace, photo IDs can […]
Play areas next to desks give caregivers flexibility at Henrico County (Va.) Public Library’s Fairfield branch. Photo: Chris Cunningham Photography In January, images of some unusual new workstations at Fairfield Area Library—part of Henrico County (Va.) Public Library (HCPL)—went viral on social media and across national and international news media. What caught people’s attention: the […]
George Saunders Photo: Zach Krahmer George Saunders is best known for his dystopic short stories that satirize—and humanize—the absurdities of our shared reality. His forthcoming collection Liberation Day (Random House, October) is no exception, exploring themes of power, ethics, and justice amid backdrops of a hailstorm, a tyrannical government, and an underground theme park. American […]
This movie poster is one of 3,000 items in the Witchcraft Collection at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Photo: Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 19thCentury 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 […]
RAR-Atlanta leaders (left to right) Sarah Cruz, Hannah Griggs, and Devin Cowens. Photo: Dessa Lohrey The gear library of the Radical Adventure Riders Atlanta chapter (RAR-ATL) isn’t the first of its kind for cycling gear, but it is one of the most organized and accessible. In researching other groups that loan cycling gear, “we hadn’t […]
Fall is my favorite time of the year. The air turns crisp; holy days and holidays—both religious and secular—come in quick succession; hope for the school year abounds; and heritage, awareness, and history months are in full swing. Embracing these celebrations, identities, and hopes is foundational to our shared core values of diversity, lifelong learning, […]
Early this year, there was some buzz about a new site called tl;dr papers, which claimed to “use machine learning to summarize arguments in scientific papers so that even a seven-year-old could understand them”. From the moment I tried to visit the site it was down, so I put a watch on it, hoping to […]
Our online column Letters of the Law explores a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, with the help of a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer, and Tomas A. Lipinski, a lawyer who became a librarian. Together they have authored four books on the subject, including […]
Registrants browse the ribbon bar at the 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C. Photo: EPNAC From June 23 to 28, the American Library Association (ALA) held its 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition, its first major in-person conference since the pandemic began. Participants’ eagerness to gather and reconnect was palpable and seen in the […]
Daphene Keys, public services librarian at Houston Community College, poses with the Baker & Taylor mascots. Photo: EPNAC The American Library Association’s (ALA) 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition returned to Washington, D.C., June 23–28, and the mood in the exhibit hall was only slightly subdued compared with previous in-person conferences. This year’s attendance of just […]
Students from universities in several countries participate in calligraphy tutorials through City University of Hong Kong and learn how to parse historical East Asian texts. Two libraries earned this year’s American Library Association (ALA) Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects. The winning entries include a program that teaches information literacy through calligraphy and a […]
Photo: Kieran Kesner Celeste Ng’s third novel, Our Missing Hearts, tells a story that may not feel as speculative as we might wish: When an economic crisis hits the United States, fear and racism poison society, and people look for a scapegoat. Under the guise of national security, a law called PACT—the Preserving American Culture […]
Exhibit hall candids from the American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C.Photos: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries The exhibit hall at this year’s Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., boasted the usual fan favorites—books, author talks, new product demos, robots, mascots, and all the swag fit for a canvas bag. Attendees weren’t exactly sure […]
Over the past few years, we have been asked to be brave as we do things that once would have been unthinkable. We have had to be brave while defending intellectual freedom and the right to read. We have had to be brave taking on the role of disaster workers in response to COVID-19. And […]
In this third and final installment of my columns on the pervasiveness of adult low literacy, I feel an urgent need to call out how race, gender, and class coincide—and collide—when it comes to reading ability. This topic is especially critical at a moment marked by de facto and de jure attacks on women’s bodies […]
On June 22, 2022, in the midst of a power outage on the historic campus, a core group of staff working on the Virtual Tribunals program met on the Redwood City Campus for a half-day long discussion regarding next steps on the project and in particular, the longer term vision and goals for the next 2-3 […]
Photo: EPNAC Pulling from his experiences living in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots following the Rodney King verdict, actor John Cho has written Troublemaker (Little, Brown and Company), his debut middle-grade novel. The book, released in March, follows 12-year-old Jordan in the wake of the riots while he balances school and complicated family dynamics. […]
