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Tenzin Kalsang, children’s librarian at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library’s Williamsburg branch, performs Tibetan storytimes for users around the world. Photo: Todd Boebel When Tenzin Kalsang, children’s librarian at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library’s (BPL) Williamsburg branch, started an online series of bilingual storytimes in April 2020, the native Tibetan speaker couldn’t have predicted she’d become an […]
A confession: I had intended to write about the strategic planning work that we have been engaged in across the Association for the past year. It’s work that centers on the financial stability and membership growth required to achieve ALA’s goals of universal broadband (and the educational, employment, and public health access that depend on […]
Connection—across our diverse backgrounds, experiences, and futures—is a theme of my presidential year, and it is a necessary conversation. Demographers predict that by 2050, African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, Latinx, and Indigenous people will constitute the majority of Americans. So how does the American Library Association (ALA) fit into our rapidly evolving democracy? How can […]
Though the ongoing pandemic prompted the American Library Association (ALA) to hold its 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition virtually June 23–29, there was no shortage of enthusiasm or curiosity among the more than 9,100 attendees who gathered online to hear from speakers and authors and share their experiences. Nikole Hannah-Jones Headlining speakers talked about books, […]
I was alerted to a new(ish?) feature within Google Scholar earlier this week by this blog post: What does this new Google Scholar “Public Access” feature mean for me or my work? More information on the Google Scholar site itself: https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html?1#publicaccess. From that original post: The new Google Scholar feature is a reminder that it […]
Stanford researchers can now automatically populate their ORCID record with publication data from Stanford Profiles. This new feature allows researchers, many of whom have built out extensive lists of their publications and research outputs in Stanford Profiles over the years, to make their ORCID record equally rich. Further, as they add new publications to their […]
Savala Nolan. Photo: Andria Lo As a woman who is mixed race, has experienced elite schools and generational poverty, and has been thin and fat at different times in her life, Savala Nolan has long felt that she occupies in-between spaces in society. The lawyer, speaker, and writer (whose work has appeared in Bust, Time, […]
Stanford Libraries is embarking on an exciting collaboration with the National Central Library of Taiwan (NCL) to digitize a selection of Chinese rare books in the holdings of the East Asia Library and the Bowes Art & Architecture Library. The scanned titles will be added to the NCL’s Rare Books and Special Collections online database, a […]
Last month, I posted about how a patron request prompted me to collect the historical COVID-19 R-values for Alberta. That data is available on a public Google Sheet, but I had meant to throw up a chart as well. The other day I was reminded about Datawrapper, so I used that to make this: Hopefully […]
Today we are pleased to highlight a major enhancement to Stanford’s research information ecosystem: the ability to link a SUNet ID with an ORCID iD via authorize.stanford.edu. This development allows Stanford community members to leverage ORCID iDs, a unique identifier for researchers across the globe, to get credit for their work and streamline their workflows. […]
In 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement, legendary ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell—the first Black permanent member and principal dancer with New York City Ballet and a protégé of George Balanchine—founded Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). It was imagined as a space where dancers of all cultures and colors could train in the […]
The Stanford ORCID Initiative’s goal is to maximize the presence and value of ORCID iDs for all Stanford researchers. ORCID iDs are unique identifiers for researchers that help them get credit for their work; they also connect systems, making research processes and administration better and easier. In November 2019, the Stanford Faculty Senate Committee on […]
Today’s blog post is from Abby Shelton and Lauren Seroka, two Digital Collections Specialists in the Digital Content Management Section here at the Library of Congress. Abby and Lauren discuss their work with the University of Michigan School of Information’s Ann Arbor Data Dive earlier this year. On March 27, 1956, Branch Rickey wrote of baseball […]
Photograph of Nicki Saylor, incoming Chief of the Digital Innovation Lab at the Library of Congress The Library of Congress has appointed Nicole Saylor as the new Chief of the Digital Innovation Lab, a position established to lead the Library’s innovation with digital collections and to support its digital transformation. The position, located in the […]
The following post by Kate Zwaard, Director of Digital Strategy at the Library, was originally posted on the Library’s Of the People blog. I am SO THRILLED to share that we are now accepting applications for the Program Director of the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI), part of our Of the People: Widening the Path […]
Sen. Barack Obama speaks at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition President-Elect Barack Obama keynoted the opening general session at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, June 23–29, 2005, while a US senator from Illinois. This article, published in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries, is an adaptation of that speech, which drew […]
Illustration: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries and Anastasia Krasavina/Adobe Stock In 1986, Friends of Libraries USA President Frederick G. Ruffner Jr. had the ambitious idea to start the Literary Landmarks Association, an organization that would encourage the development of historic literary sites across the US. Thirty-five years later, his vision has been realized: 187 Literary Landmarks spanning […]
This year’s Annual Conference—the third American Library Association (ALA) conference to go virtual during the coronavirus pandemic—brings together an exciting lineup of speakers and educational sessions designed to engage members in a week of collaboration and connection. Tune in to hear from leading authors, thinkers, and activists, and explore programs and panel discussions devoted to […]
Historical photos of Black men participating in civic life from the Black Male Archives. In September 2018, Rodney E. Freeman Jr. was at home lying on his couch when he heard about Botham Jean. Jean, a 26-year-old Black accountant in Dallas, had been shot and killed by his neighbor, a white Dallas police officer, when […]
Legal issues arise in libraries. Which is why, over the past year and a half, our Letters of the Law column at americanlibraries.org has explored a wide range of legal topics, led by two authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer, and Tomas A. Lipinski, a lawyer who became a librarian. Together they […]
