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Thib Guicherd-Callin, Assistan1

I’m pleased to announce that Thib Guicherd-Callin has accepted the continuing role of Assistant Director and Program Manager for LOCKSS. Thib brings unsurpassed experience and skills to this role. He joined the LOCKSS Program as a Summer intern in 2005 and has been with it since then. In his own words, he is “the intern […]

Referenda Roundup 2020

Illustration: ©artflare/Adobe Stock Each year, American Libraries tracks dozens of library referenda across the country, using the ballot box as a means of tracking support for public and school libraries. Because next week’s presidential election is expected to generate high voter turnout, some communities may be pushing harder than usual to get local referenda in […]

The Top Hit: How a research re1

The Top Hit: How a research report on “Evaluating Information” became the SDR’s most visited item

When the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) set out in January 2015 to research the ability of students to judge the credibility of online information, they could never have predicted that their results would be disseminated precisely at a time when the level of public concern over the availability, spread, and impact of misinformation online […]

Pandemic pivot: Digitization s1

Pandemic pivot: Digitization services for course reserves

The COVID-19 pandemic poses many challenges to libraries, including the accessibility of physical materials in support of teaching and learning. In a more typical quarter, faculty would place books on reserve, so that students could come to the library and check them out for a designated window of study. With most students off campus for […]

Separate—and Unequal

Carrie C. Robinson Fifty years ago this week, Carrie C. Robinson—a Black school librarian whose long career revealed much about the Jim Crow South, the challenges of integration, and librarianship in the civil rights era—settled a landmark case for racial justice in the profession. After being passed over for a promotion, she had sued her […]

Volunteer Vignette: Transcribe1

Volunteer Vignette: Transcribe without fear, don’t be intimidated!

In today’s post, Sam Schireson interviews a By the People volunteer who has gone above and beyond! By the People is a crowdsourced transcription program launched in 2018 at the Library of Congress. Volunteer-created transcriptions are used to make digitized collections searchable and discoverable on loc.gov. In this interview we hear from Henry in Virginia who has been […]

Connect with The Signal at the1

Connect with The Signal at the 2020 National Book Festival

By the People at the National Book Festival Tomorrow, Friday 9/25, marks the beginning of the 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival! Representatives from across the Library will be hosting festival-goers via virtual booths, where visitors can connect with their favorite Library programs and collections. A member of the By the People team will be […]

How to Write a FDD in 149 Easy1

Today’s guest post is from Marcus Nappier, who is a Digital Collections Specialist in the Digital Content Management Section at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress maintains over 470 format description documents (FDDs) on the Sustainability of Digital Formats website that provide information about file-formats, bit stream structures and encodings, and their usage in […]

Digital library services news 1

Welcome!  As summer draws to a close, it’s time to highlight hot news in digital library services. Featuring contributions from: Cathy Aster, Hannah Frost, Dinah Handel, Amy Hodge, Michael Olson, and Sarah Seestone.  First Spanish-English exhibit published | Primera exposición publicada en español-inglésThe first Spanish-English Spotlight at Stanford exhibit has been published, The Maria Jesús Casado García-Sampedro […]

Celebrating the accomplishment1

Anqi Xu, pictured above, is one of 240 students who deposited their work to the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) as part of completing their programs of study at Stanford in 2020. Xu received her MA in East Asian Studies. Her thesis, available at PURL and SearchWorks, is a case study using a combination of business and […]

Expanded discovery now availab1

We’re pleased to announce expanded discovery for Spotlight at Stanford exhibits is now available via library.stanford.edu and searchworks.stanford.edu. Our colleagues on the DLSS Access Team have recently added an Exhibits tile to the bento search options, adding another discovery point for Spotlight at Stanford. There are different ways to conduct a search that will yield […]

2020 Library Design Showcase

The year’s most impressive new and renovated libraries By Phil Morehart | September 1, 2020 Library Learning Center at Texas Southern University in Houston. Photo: Kayla Hartzog Welcome to the 2020 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries. These shining examples of architectural innovation—completed before the COVID-19 pandemic—address user needs […]

Virus-Responsive Design

A floor plan for furniture removal at Hennepin County (Minn.) Library’s Eden Prairie branch. Illustration: MSR Design Libraries have always been spaces for discovery. But in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been tasked with transforming themselves into places that allow users to physically distance while being more digitally connected than ever. As some […]

Ready for Action

A worker installs solar panels on the roof of Ledding Library in Milwaukie, Oregon. Photo: Katie Newell/Ledding Library in Milwaukie, Oregon Sarah Preskitt has lived in Alaska for almost 40 years—and seen its climate change in ways the Lower 48’s hasn’t. “We used to joke that you had to arrange your Halloween costume over your […]

2020 ALA Award Winners

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 diversity, equality, education, and outreach. […]

Encoding Space

In 1956, Abraham Maslow published a seminal paper on the influence our physical surroundings have on us. Participants viewed photographs of people’s faces and evaluated them based on different attributes. Maslow wanted to test how people reacted to this content while located in different physical environments. Some viewed the images while seated in a beautiful […]

By the Numbers: Rural and Smal1

Graves County (Ky.) Public Library’s bookmobile. Photo: Graves County (Ky.) Public Library 1982Year the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) was founded by Bernard Vavrek, director of the Center for the Study of Rural Librarianship at Clarion (Pa.) University. 5Number of days the ARSL Conference will take place, September 28–October 2. Previously scheduled for […]