I Love Libraries

Features

Public Libraries Around the World

You might think that public libraries are only found in cities and suburban communities in developed countries, but take one look at this map and you’ll realize that they actually exist in many developing countries too. In Kenya: 58 libraries. In Peru: 729. In Indonesia: 1,598 public libraries. What are all these libraries doing? In many cases, they are addressing their community’s development goals: supporting entrepreneurs in Vietnam, providing vital health information in Nepal and Kenya, or helping their citizens to be engaged, informed, and involved in Honduras and Romania. Wherever they are, libraries drive development. Read more...

The Privacy Expert You Need to Meet: Your Local Librarian

by Barbara M. Jones, Director, ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)

I am honored to be the first of a blogger series celebrating ALA’s Choose Privacy Week.  Thanks to funding from the Open Society Foundations, this is our third year and we are so pleased to share with you our campaign’s growth.  Get to know www.privacyrevolution.org!  There you can view the very latest news on how YOU can get involved as a library privacy expert.  Soon you can view our newest video on immigrants and privacy rights.  Your community needs you! Read more...

One state’s experience at National Library Legislative Day

Concern over federal and state budget cuts to library programs motivated Georgia State Librarian Lamar Veatch to make his 15th annual trip to Washington, D.C., for National Library Legislative Day (NLLD. In fact, Veatch asserts, coming to D.C. is a big part of his commitment to librarianship. “My job is to represent libraries, and it’s a part of my professional responsibilities to do this,” Veatch said. “If I’m in Washington, I might make a difference. And, truthfully, it’s fun.” Read more...

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Take Action

School Libraries and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) why YOU should care and what YOU can do!

Every single person in the country who cares about libraries should contact their U.S. Senators in Washington at 202-224-3121 or at their local offices in your state about the importance of including school libraries in the reauthorization of ESEA. ESEA reauthorization, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), will determine federal education policy for the coming decade.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee marked-up (voted out of committee) ESEA on October 20, 2011 without including school libraries! While no date has yet been set for a Senate vote, the ALA believes that it may come up after January 23, 2012.

Ensuring that school libraries are included in ESEA reauthorization means that federal funding for schools would also include school libraries.  But, more importantly, having school libraries included in ESEA is a strong statement that school library programs are considered an important part of the learning environment.  This will make it harder for local decision makers to de-professionalize or cut school library services.

As library supporters, it probably goes without saying that you value libraries at all levels.  But if you are not directly associated with a school library, it may well be that you really haven’t thought much about them and their contribution to every school, community, and even your own library!  Because of the pending vote on ESEA – which does not now include school libraries – it’s time for you to focus your library love on school libraries. Read more...

Showcase

Underused synagogue libraries speak volume

Many of their own congregants may not realize it, but Cleveland’s synagogues that have their own religious schools contain more than sanctuaries, social halls and classrooms. Many also boast libraries containing an astonishing wealth of material. Filling their shelves are the newest fiction and nonfiction, updated Jewish research collections, current periodicals and newspapers, and a substantial audiovisual collection. Read more...

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News

Petition seeks return of Dirty Cowboy
More than 230 people have signed an online petition that seeks to have the children’s book The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake returned to the shelves of the Annville-Cleona (Pa.) School District. The school board voted unanimously in April to remove the book based on the objection of one student’s parents. Illustrator Adam Rex uses various items, such as birds, a boot, and a cloud of dust, to cover the cowboy’s private parts while he is bathing and then while he is attempting to put his clothes back on....
Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News, May 7

Ex-NARA official sentenced for stealing Archives rarities
Leslie Waffen, former director of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video branch of the National Archives, was a guardian of national treasures for 40 years. But for the final 10 years of his career, he secretly peddled some of those rare pieces of history on eBay. On May 3, Waffen was sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release for embezzling US property. He admitted stealing 955 items from the Archives, including original recordings of the 1948 World Series and a rare recording of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. Radio-history buff J. David Goldin helped authorities crack the case....
Washington Post, May 3; Associated Press, May 4

Blind patrons sue Philadelphia library over Nooks
With the assistance of the National Federation of the Blind, four blind patrons of the Free Library of Philadelphia have filed suit against the library because they cannot access one of the library’s programs for which they are eligible. The library has expanded a program in which free Nook Simple Touch e-readers are loaned to patrons over the age of 50. Unlike some other portable e-readers that use text-to-speech technology or Braille, the Nook devices are completely inaccessible to patrons who are blind. The FLP Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and its staff are concurrently undergoing a drastic reduction and merger....
National Federation of the Blind, May 2; Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7

A Paul Revere rarity
A few weeks ago, Brown University Conservation Technician Marie Malchodi opened a leather-bound book, one of more than 300,000 rare volumes in the hold of the John Hay Library. With surgical precision, she turned the pages of The Modern Practice of Physic, by Robert Thomas, published in 1811 and once owned by Solomon Drowne, Class of 1773. And there, in the back, she found a piece of paper depicting the baptism of Jesus. It was signed, “P. Revere Sculp.”...
New York Times, May 3; Brown University Library News, Mar. 27

Charleston library inventory turns up gems
A rare book almost 270 years old has been found in the vault of the Charleston (S.C.) Library Society. The 1743 tome, A Dissertation upon Parties by Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was one of 800 volumes that planter and diplomat John Mackenzie donated to the College of Charleston in the 1700s. His books were housed at the society, founded in 1748, until a proper library could be built at the fledgling college. But a devastating 1778 fire destroyed most of the collection....
Associated Press, May 7

Public visual-arts library opens in El Paso
On May 6, the El Paso (Tex.) Museum of Art and its partner, the El Paso Public Library system, officially dedicated what city officials are calling the first public library in the country devoted to the visual arts. The Algur H. Meadows Library—named after the late Dallas art collector and entrepreneur—houses more than 4,000 art books. Another 2,000–3,000 exhibition catalogs from the last 50 years are still to be cataloged....
El Paso (Tex.) Times, May 7

Windsor school librarians get layoff notices
Faced with declining enrollment and a $11-million cut in provincial grants for the 2012–2013 school year, the Windsor-Essex District (Ontario) Catholic School Board has handed layoff notices to its remaining school librarians. An attempt in 2011 to eliminate its libraries and 40 school librarians resulted in a public uproar. The board eventually backed off from its decision and retained 19 librarians. The layoff notices are required by the budget process; the board said that librarian layoffs are only one possible scenario....
Windsor (Ont.) Star, May 2

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