June 2014

PA Librarians Receive Mental Health Sensitivity Training

Here’s the story from the Lehigh Valley Times.

NHS Human Services’ Bushkill Township office provides regular mental health sensitivity training at Recovery Partnership but last week was the first time the group ever worked with librarians, said Andrew Grossman, a program director. Most of the people who receive the group’s training work directly in the mental health field, he said. Grossman said he thought it was a good idea for librarians to receive the training, as many local mental health group homes send their residents to libraries on a regular basis for socialization.

“I think it’s great they’ll get a better understanding of the folks who are coming into their facility,” he said. “I think a lot of times they don’t fully understand the people in the library.” The training Grossman provided the librarians is the same NHS provides for mental health workers. Grossman talked about the stigma of mental health and explained many different diagnoses.

Did you receive any training regarding this issue as a LIS student?

June 24, 2014 by Librarians Libraries

Pearl’s Picks for Summer Reading

If you like your summer reading to take you beyond the beaten path, librarian Nancy Pearl is here to help. NPR’s go-to books guru joins us once again to share “under the radar” reads — books she thinks deserve more attention than they’ve been getting. Pearl talks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about some of the titles she picked out for the summer reading season — several of which will make you reconsider the way you think about maps.

Listen on NPR.

June 24, 2014 by Libraries

African-American Interviews to be Hosted at Library of Congress

The small details of everyday life and more profound events that get to the heart of the black experience in America are part of an ambitious video history called The HistoryMakers that has become part of the Library of Congress, the library is expected to announce Tuesday.

The collection includes 9,000 hours of video interviews with 2,600 African-Americans in more than 35 states. More from the New York Times.

June 23, 2014 by Librarians Libraries

From the DC Public Library to the Obama Administration

Ricardo Thornton to Join President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Yesterday, President Obama announced his intent to appoint DC Public Library employee Ricardo Thornton Sr. to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, PCPID.

Thornton has worked at the DC Public Library since 1978. He is a Member of Project ACTION!, a coalition of adults with disabilities. He is also a Member of the D.C. Developmental Disabilities Council, an actor with the theatre group Players Unlimited, and an international ambassador with the Special Olympics. Thornton and his wife Donna were the subjects of Profoundly Normal, a made-for-TV movie. In 1997, The Washingtonian magazine named Thornton a “Washingtonian of the Year.”

The PCPID is comprised of 34 members, including 19 citizen members and thirteen ex officio (Federal Government) members. Citizen members of the PCPID are appointed to serve for a maximum of two years.

To learn more about Ricardo, click here.

June 20, 2014 by Librarians Libraries Public Libraries

Boy Creates Little Free Library in his Leawood, KS Front Yard, City Shuts it Down

From Boing Boing:

In Kansas, 9-year-old Spencer Collins has been told by authorities that he must stop sharing books with his neighbors, and close the little free library in his yard. Its slogan was “take a book, leave a book,” but city government is mostly about the taking.

Collins loves reading. He doesn’t just dive into a book — he swims through its pages. “It’s kind of like I’m in a whole other world and I like that,” he said. “I like adventure stories because I’m in the adventure and it’s fun.”
When he tried to share his love for books, it started a surprisingly frustrating adventure.

“When we got home from vacation, there was a letter from the city of Leawood saying that it was in code violation and it needed to be down by the 19th or we would receive a citation,” said Spencer’s mother, Sarah Collins. The Bookcase was considered an illegal accessory building.”

June 20, 2014 by Legal Issues Librarians Libraries

Building digital libraries in Ghana with Worldreader

https://medium.com/message/ebooks-for-all-b23d2d8e63b8

Worldreader, headquartered in San Francisco but with offices in Barcelona, Accra, and Nairobi, was co-founded in 2009 by former Amazon.com executive David Risher and Colin McElwee. The genesis of the non-profit was predicated on two simple notions:

Everyone should have access to books.
Technological advances are quickly making digital books cheaper and easier to distribute in more scalable ways than physical books.

David and Colin spent a year or so preparing, gathered some Kindles, and in March 2010 went to Ghana to test the idea with twenty students.

June 20, 2014 by EBooks Libraries

Librarian breaking bad – High school librarian arrested for alleged meth lab in Ohio

A high school librarian in Ohio was making meth on the side, authorities said.
Nicole Gries’ luck ran out on Friday the 13th when police received an anonymous tip that there might be a meth lab in her home on Foxford Court in Lakemore.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/high-school-librarian-arrested-alleged-meth-lab-ohio-article-1.1836291#ixzz357M6ZDD0

June 19, 2014 by Librarians Libraries School Libraries

Love In the Stacks and …Happily Ever Afters

From USA Today, an interview with Romance Writers of America’s Librarian of 2014, Sean Gilmartin.

Interviewer: From your bio on RWA’s website: Growing up, (Sean) would read his mother’s romance novels, partially for the juicy parts, and knew that one day he would write a romance himself.

Why romance novels? What about them appeals to you personally?

Sean: Love is a complicated and strange thing. I have always been drawn to the bond that love creates between people, whether that is romantic or not. I am fascinated by love that blossoms unexpectedly. To have a rough and tough character who vows to never open his or her heart, only to have it stolen by the last person they expected … ah, it gets me every time!

As a teen librarian I keep up-to-date with YA novels and many of them have some form of romance in them. If you think about popular songs or movies, there is usually some aspect of a loving relationship between two characters. It’s almost inescapable. When I read romance I get hopeful and happy because two people are finding a love that completes them. I find it so satisfying when I finish a novel and everybody lives happily ever after.

June 18, 2014 by Libraries

Cites & Insights 14:7 (July 2014) available

Cites & Insights 14:7 (July 2014) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ14i7.pdf

This special issue does something I don’t believe has ever been done before (and is unlikely ever to be done again): looks at every journal from every publisher on Beall’s lists to see whether they’re plausible predators–whether they could reasonably attract any sensible author.

Full notice and commentary here.

June 17, 2014 by Uncategorized

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