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Today’s guest post is from Kate Murray of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division and co-leader of the FADGI Audiovisual Working Group. The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Audiovisual Working Group has released a revised version of its popular resource, Significant Properties for Digital Video. FADGI’s Significant Properties for Digital Video (2024). Initially […]
With small businesses employing almost half the US workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public libraries’ support for those businesses, and the entrepreneurs who start them, makes a significant contribution to our country’s economy. 5.5 millionThe record-breaking number of new businesses started in 2023, according to the US Census Bureau. 50%Approximate number of […]
Illustration: Shane Tolentino For Susan Brown, December 17, 2004, was a perfectly normal day—until she saw the elevator doors open. Brown, director of Transylvania University’s J. Douglas Gay Jr./Frances Carrick Thomas Library in Lexington, Kentucky, was walking past the staff elevator on the library’s main level when the doors parted and she reflexively glanced inside. […]
Alexandra, the daughter of librarian Beth B. Demapan at Joeten-Kiyu Public Library in Susupe, Northern Mariana Islands, plays with kinetic sand in the library’s new Sensory Corner.Photo: Beth Demapan In 2023, the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office launched the largest grant initiative in the Association’s history—the Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Accessible Small and Rural […]
Photo: © Anna Stills/Adobe Stock How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must […]
Members of Totoket Valley Elementary School’s (TVES) intergenerational book club, comprising 4th-graders from TVES and residents from North Branford Senior Center in Northford, Connecticut, complete an activity based on the book Mr. Ferris and His Wheel in 2023. Photo: Shelly Thompson On a Wednesday in February 2023, anyone stopping by the North Branford Senior Center in […]
St. Louis (Mo.) County Library, in partnership with the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, distributes diapers at its six library locations. Photo: St. Louis (Mo.) County Library What would you do to keep your child clean, dry, and healthy? Skip meals? Miss bill payments? Take on an extra job? For nearly half of US families […]
Vernon Area Public Library District in Lincolnshire, Illinois, worked with municipal leaders to create a self-guided exhibit titled Know Your Local Government. Photo: Vernon Area Public Library District in Lincolnshire, Illinois Noting the public’s eroding faith in the election process and its growing mistrust of many information sources, staffers at Vernon Area Public Library District […]
Author-illustrator Vashti Harrison made history this year as the first Black woman to win the Caldecott Medal, which has been awarded since 1938, for her picture book Big. It tells the story of a big girl in a world that celebrates small, tracing her journey to self-love and showing the power of words to both […]
Recognizing all of humanity in libraries requires a thoughtful approach and a humble spirit. I believe that we, as information professionals, have been called to this work because of our shared values. Every day, library workers provide a vital public function. We are entrusted to serve our communities, and we know that the best way […]
The ongoing need to rapidly acquire knowledge and skills related to new technologies and developments in the library field has been a preoccupation of library workers and administrators for years. Keeping current may seem impossible, given time and budget constraints. But microlearning in the form of short online courses, or microcourses, can be an efficient […]
Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’s digital collections? The Signal shares updates on new additions to our digital collections and we love showing off all the hard work of our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. […]
I just finished Amy Orben’s excellent article, The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics, and recommend it. I thought it was going to be simply an acknowledgement and catalogue of the fact that yes, we have seen this before, with radio, comics, TV, video games, etc., and while it does include that, it does an excellent […]
October 27th marks Theodore Roosevelt’s 166th birthday and we’re hoping you can help us celebrate the occasion! Yesterday, the By the People crowdsourced transcription program released over 20,000 new pages of TR’s papers into crowd.loc.gov. We’re calling on all #TedHeads (our favorite TR fans) to join us in transcribing these materials to make the Library’s […]
Today’s blog post is an interview with Liz Caringola of the Digital Services Directorate here at the Library of Congress. You can read other interviews with digital collections staff here. Carlyn: Hi Liz, could you tell us a bit about what you do in the Digital Services Directorate? How would you explain your job to […]
I just finished reading Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant, and wanted a place to keep the links mentioned in the epilogue. This is not a review, but this really is a book you should put on your to-read list, especially if you live in Alberta. It tells the story of […]
Welcome to the 2024 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries throughout North America. Like the profession itself, library facilities are in a constant state of rebirth and reimagination. Libraries have evolved from places devoted strictly to scholarship and materials collection to true third spaces, where diverse communities come together […]
The American Library Association (ALA) and the International Interior Design Association are pleased to present the winners of the 2024 Library Interior Design Awards. Submissions, open to any library worldwide, are judged by industry professionals based on aesthetics, design, creativity, and function. Of the selected projects, one is named Best of Competition. The winners were […]
New English Canaan (1637) by Thomas Morton The year 2023 was another record-breaker for book bans. The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) documented 1,247 attempts to censor library books and other materials—most of which were works by or about people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, or both. Since these […]
Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) recognizes the achievements of more than 200 individuals and institutions with an array of awards honoring their service to librarians and librarianship. Winners are chosen by juries of their colleagues and peers and embody the best of the profession’s leadership, vision, and service as well as a continued […]
