Library News, Reviews, and Views
To aid in your use of the handy ALA Scheduler this year LJ ’s editors have selected a few of their favorite ALA program sessions from the sprawling array of options on offer. We hope these selections will give you the best shot at the newest and best ideas and innovations, the most useful information and best practices, and, of course, the most entertainment for the time and money you have invested. If all else fails there is always “that toddlin’ town” outside.
THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY Library District had the honor April 16 of hosting LJ’s leadership event series “Lead the Change! Oregon.” In anticipation of the day, I reflected on the varied leadership roles I’ve assumed over the years—from my days as spaceship commander during first grade recess to choir president in high school to more formal leadership roles. I also reflected on those around me in leadership roles from whom I’ve gleaned so much.
This week, Library Journal and School Library Journal staffers are reading lots of hot forthcoming books: Elizabeth Wein’s follow-up to Code Name Verity, Marisha Pessl’s noiry Night Film. I’m most intrigued by a novel my colleague Meredith Schwartz just finished, Austin Grossman’s You, which she promises is like (at least a little bit) many of my own favorite books.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 2:00-3:00 PM ET Data-driven decision making is creating large pools of data around which public libraries are trying to define everything from overarching strategies to granular collection development strategies. Although the analysis of this data is often left to third-parties, some libraries are taking the step of hiring their own data analysts to help administrators decide what the data means, why it matters, and how best to present it to other stakeholders. Register now!
In fall 2012, the Harvard Labrary—a temporary “pop-up” space in an empty storefront in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA—was opened as a public gallery for design student projects from the semester-long Library Test Kitchen (LTK) seminar at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Last month I found something in blogland that summed up the ideal of memoir writing so elegantly that I have to get out of the way and let Dani Shapiro—whose memoir Devotion you should all run out and read right now—do the talking. What is the job of the memoirist? Is it to tell all? [...]
The Enoch Pratt Free Library (EPFL), Baltimore, MD, has plenty of books, but not enough bookkeepers. For the second year in a row, an audit of the EPFL’s finances has unearthed “significant” internal bookkeeping problems, the most serious of which delayed a scheduled $3.2 million payment to the City of Baltimore for almost a year.
Jill Bourne is now Director of the San José Libraries, CA. She was formerly Deputy City Librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Susan Brown was appointed Director of the Chapel Hill Public Library, NC, effective May 20. She is currently Marketing Director for the Lawrence Public Library, KS. Moira Danehy was named Lending Services [...]
Michael Kelley’s April 29, 2013 editorial “Can We Talk about the MLS?” and the 157 comments posted to that article so far prompted us to consider accountability for the American Library Association’s (ALA) accreditation of graduate programs in library and information science. The ALA Standards emphasize what programs must accomplish in terms of strategic planning and student learning outcomes. ALA does not dictate what those outcomes should be nor does it specify any particular courses that must be offered in an MLIS program. So, what does it mean to be a graduate of an ALA accredited program?
INFOdocket by Gary Price
