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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 […]
Illustration: Franzi Draws Until we live in a truly egalitarian society, we need to actively work toward making society more equitable. Put another way, it is not enough to simply be not racist; we must work to be antiracist. Psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College, uses the analogy of a moving walkway. […]
A band celebrates Juneteenth in Austin, Texas, in 1900. Photo: Austin History Center, Austin Public Library 19Date in June when Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US, is observed. The holiday is also sometimes called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day. 1865Year that US General Gordon Granger arrived with […]
Ellen Keith, director of the Chicago History Museum Library, displays items related to the Great Chicago Fire. Photo: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries Nearly 150 years after it leveled 18,000 buildings and killed 300 people, the Great Chicago Fire (October 8–10, 1871) lives on—in the city’s tourist attractions, sports team names, and soon in a Chicago History […]
Henderson County (Ky.) Public Library’s StoryWalk participants read a page from picture book Jonathan and His Mommy last summer. Photo: Henderson County (Ky.) Public Library Last year, Danielle Anguish, children’s services manager at Henderson County (Ky.) Public Library (HCPL), was tasked with coordinating a summer literacy activity for kids from seven elementary schools and four […]
Prior to the pandemic, Amy DelPo (center), administrator of older adult services at Denver Public Library, led in-person programs for seniors. Photo: Denver Public Library More than one in five people in the United States—or 73 million—is a baby boomer, according to the Census Bureau. By 2030, all boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—will be […]
Marcus Nappier, Digital Collections Specialist I’m excited to share this interview with Marcus Nappier, one of my colleagues in the Digital Content Management Section. My hope with this interview, and the others that we publish here, help spread awareness about the background, experience, and interests of the people that support the Library of Congress in […]
Apparently parts of this have been around for a couple of years, but it just came on my radar last week with this blog post. Did you know that Excel can do lookups from providers like Wolfram, Bing, and Power… Source of Article
On May 20, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which addresses the increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic. The measure comes as the nation celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Three ALA member leaders who have helped blaze the trail for Asian […]
Filed under stuff no citizen should have to do, today I went through pages archived by the Wayback Machine in order to provide a patron with historical R-Value data for COVID-19 for the Province of Alberta. This information is updated weekly (since mid-December, 2020) at https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-alberta-data.aspx, but for some reason the Government has chosen not […]
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 […]
