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Illustration: Gaby FeBland When a handful of books stopped being returned at Vinton (Iowa) Public Library, Janette McMahon suspected it was more than just forgetfulness. McMahon, the library director at the time, says residents of the east central Iowa town of 5,000 had been discussing book bans, and it had become heated. “We had five […]
Rebecca Makkai Photo: Brett Simison Each of Rebecca Makkai’s five books is different in focus and style, and all are enthralling, incisive, and witty. Her 2018 novel The Great Believers won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Makkai is a Guggenheim fellow; […]
Photo: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Presidents’ Day is February 20 1955Year Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act, establishing the Presidential Library System. Before that, many presidents’ archives were lost, destroyed, or separated. 887,000Number of copies of Barack Obama’s 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, that sold in the US and Canada within the first […]
Sandy Himel is associate professor and head of government information and the Cajun and Creole Music Collection at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Photo: Doug Dugas/University of Louisiana at Lafayette In 1950s southern Louisiana and southeast Texas, a new kind of music filled hopping dance halls: swamp pop. The genre, typified by electric guitars, pianos, […]
Now that I’ve almost entirely removed myself from Twitter, I’m looking around at how to…well, do whatever it is I want to do now. I’m definitely going to stick to Mastodon for awhile, and now I’m playing around with adding this old blog to ActivityPub and auto-posting to my Mastodon when I write here. I’m […]
After a year of unprecedented challenges and impressive successes, it’s time to celebrate the resilience of librarians. This holiday season, focus on gifts that highlight goodwill, inclusivity, and the joy of books. We’ve rounded up a list of presents that are fun, thoughtful, and affordable—most items are less than $40. And while you’re shopping, don’t […]
This is a guest blog post by digitization lab assistant Abigail Watson, who has been with Stanford Libraries’ Digital Production Group since March 2021. Content warning: this blog contains mentions of the Holocaust, death, and trauma. My name is Abigail, and I have been working in digitization with the Digital Production Group at Stanford Libraries […]
Every year, voters from small towns and big cities alike decide on ballot measures that affect libraries. This year was no different—and as in past years, American Libraries and the Public Library Association have partnered to look at some of the wins and losses across the country. While libraries notched notable victories in 2022, some […]
On November 17, I was able to attend most of an amazing book talk sponsored by Library Futures. It was with the authors of two timely books, Chokepoint Capitalism (Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow), and Data Cartels (Sarah Lamdan). You can, and should, watch the entire recording! In Chokepoint Capitalism, “by analyzing book publishing and […]
The other day, Lifehacker posted that Windows Has a New Tool for Simultaneously Recording Your Screen and Webcam. That tool is Clipchamp, and I am impressed! Oh, and it’s free. MPOW has blocked the Microsoft Store, so I wasn’t able to install the desktop version, but I was able to run the web version. I […]
When I first saw the article, How Open Is the U15? A Preliminary Analysis of Open Access Publishing in Canadian Academic Libraries, of course I had to see how MPOW, the University of Calgary, stacked up. We’ve long been a proponent of open access; we had the first open access author’s fund in Canada, established […]
Every year, voters from small towns and big cities alike decide on ballot measures that affect libraries. This year is no different—and as in past years, American Libraries and the Public Library Association have partnered to look at some of the wins and losses across the country. While libraries notched many victories in 2022, some […]
This past weekend, we had the amazing chance to see the New York City Center production of Parade. I knew the plot of the show, but had never heard the music prior to going in Saturday evening and finding our seats. We knew we were in for something special…this was a fundraiser, the show is […]
Even more on artificial intelligence. I’m going to create a new category for this blog! I just finished reading An AI toolkit for libraries, by Michael Upshall, in UKSG Insights. I found it to provide a really good background on what artificial intelligence is, and isn’t, including some examples of some basic narrow AI currently […]
I’ve been poking a bit at the multitude of AI image-generation tools, and just ran across this tool that allows one to do a little exploring of the algorithmic bias that’s pretty much baked-in, but otherwise not really visible. I learned about it via this article in Vice, and thanks to @ResearchBuzz. Here’s what I […]
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will soon update the data management and sharing requirements associated with grant-funded research. On January 25, 2023, a new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy will go into effect, replacing the current policy that has been in place since 2003. The new policy expands the NIH’s commitment to make […]
Illustration: Chelsea Feng High-profile book banning and boycott stories have included everything from Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee’s Everywhere Babies to Pizza Hut’s Book It! program, which some attacked in June for featuring LGBTQ books in celebration of Pride Month. These stories, especially when shared on social media, have accelerated the culture wars and negatively […]
Illustration: Chelsea Feng As libraries, schools, and universities continue to confront unprecedented attacks on the freedom to read, the Public Library Association (PLA) invited library colleagues to participate in “Facing the Challenge,” a virtual town hall held March 4. As those who have endured book-banning attempts and related legislative efforts know, the experience is often […]
Ihor Poshyvailo, founder of Maidan Museum in Kyiv, holds the ceramic cockerel that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Photo: Bohdan Poshyvailo/Maidan Museum Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines since February, and the conflict has affected people globally—including American librarians. While it’s easy to feel helpless when war breaks out in another country, […]
Photos: ©Adobe Stock Language in the media—whether through visuals, audio, or traditional text—has the power to influence our beliefs about people, groups, and even how we see ourselves. When it comes to media, white men have historically and predominantly been the creators of the language that we have consumed for many years. This has created […]
