Overwhelmed With Orders, Some Black-Owned Bookstores Ask for Patience “We are running as fast as we can,” a Boston shop told customers who are clamoring for antiracism books that are soaring in popularity but hard to keep in stock.
From: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/books/black-owned-bookstores-frugal.html Overwhelmed With Orders, Some Black-Owned Bookstores Ask for Patience – The New York Times
One thing that readily comes to my mind when thinking of how libraries have used social media: to spread humor, and by extension joy. Even typos can or other misconceptions can be shaped into a something that is positively viral. An example of this is the whole snake/snack confusion that the Pflugerville Library had when advertising their Anti-Prom.
From: https://bookriot.com/2020/06/22/librarians-and-the-power-of-social-media/
Librarians and the Power of Social Media | Book Riot
I’m not here to make friends–yet I desperately want all of you to like me–but more importantly, I want to share with you some things I believe to be true, and sharing these truths is much more important to me than being liked. I feel the need to call some of ya’ll in. So–here we go. From: https://himissjulie.com/2020/06/20/calling-in-librarianship-a-manifesto/ Calling in Librarianship: A Manifesto
A Virginia school district, determined not to let a pandemic keep students from their summer reading, is delivering books to students via the drone company run by Alphabet.
From:
Kept Out of the Library, a School District Tries Summer Reading by Drone – The New York Times
“We thought we were going to get a lot of hang-ups. … We all know those telemarketers that call in the middle of the day. You don’t answer the phone.,” he says. “They [people he’s called] have been so inviting and trying to help. … Some of them are just saying, ‘I'm not doing anything, I'm home. I got all the time in the world.’”
From:
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/librarians-covid-19-blm-masks/lapl-coronavirus-contact-tracer
Stacking books to contact tracing: LA librarians embrace new role during COVID-19
At UC Berkeley, members of the Library staff have shared lists of books and films to provide a deeper understanding of race and racism, and to lift and center Black voices. They’re also working to provide greater access to many of the volumes you see here — and more — in digital form, so they can be read by more people within the UC Berkeley community, from anywhere.
From:
https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/juneteenth-2020
Black Lives Matter: Librarians share books, films that shine light on race, injustice | UC Berkeley Library News
If you find yourself scrambling for a good novel to escape the novel coronavirus, you’re not alone. Across the country, libraries have seen demand skyrocket for their electronic offerings, but librarians say they continue to worry about the digital divide and equality in access — not to mention the complicated questions that must be answered before they can reopen for physical lending.
NPR reports that New York Public Library has calculated its most circulated books of all time (so far). Only one non-fiction book made the top ten.
As we limp headfirst into a new decade, it’s beginning to feel like many of these stories have become perennial entries.
2019 saw yet more drag queen story hour protests, vendor buyouts, the persistence of fake news, scandals, and lawsuits aplenty, along with the usual spate of book burning and banning.
Below are some of the other notable headlines from the past year’s library-related news.
10. Naomi Cries Wolf
Feminist author Naomi Wolf found her book Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love cancelled by the publisher after a public revelation that its research was based on the flawed assumption of equating "death recorded" with the death penalty.
9. Circulating More than Books
For years, libraries have been experimenting with checking out tools, humans, and other non-book items—a practice which continues to make headlines.
8. Clueless Architects
More proof that money doesn’t always buy common sense: A new $41 million branch of the Queens Public Library (initially) placed books on a staircase, rendering then inaccessible to wheelchairs, while Cornell University’s new upskirt-friendly building came with a $21.6 million price tag.
7. Emma Boettcher Wins Big!
Allowing ourselves to take a break from railing against "vocational awe" in librarianship, we offered a collective kudos this year to librarian Emma Boettcher for her appearances on the Jeopardy! game show.
6. The New York Times Flap
Calling it "fake news," a Florida commission blocked libraries from licensing The New York Times, while another patron in Idaho garnered national attention for their attempts to censor anti-Trump titles.
5. Privacy Roundup
Privacy issues this year included the boycott of the new registration policy from LinkedIn Learning; concerns over FaceApp and facial recognition software; complications with DNA Testing; and the legal case over the 2020 census citizenship question.
4. I’m Ok, You’re Biased
The concept of "algorithmic bias" is nothing new, but this year more attention was focused on how prevalent it has become in library systems.
3. "Cancel Culture" Hits Libraries
Examples include the removal of Mevil Dewey’s name on a library award as well as the cancellation of multiple conference sessions. Other cases where a controversial speaker was not cancelled involved the Toronto Public Library and the Seattle Public Library.
2. Publisher Pushbacks
The biggest open access story of the year would have to be the University of California’s failed negotiations with Elsevier. Other notable events include the New York Public Library’s cancellation of their Kanopy subscription, outrage over new e-book terms from Macmillian and Pearson, and the slow advancement of Plan S.
1. Whither Late Fees?
The movement to end library late fees seemed to reach the start of a tipping point this year. Whether or not your library continues this practice, it should at least justify the current policy in place.
What was your favorite library story of the past year? Mine was the debate over whether or not a character in Good Omens would actually wear white gloves when handling old books.
“NewsGuard’s green-red ratings signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda, according to NewsGuard’s website, https://www.newsguardtech.com/.”
https://www.sj-r.com/news/20191116/library-using-internet-trust-tool
I am not feeling great about this tool and will not be installing it at our library. Curious to hear others’ decisions or experiences with NewsGuard.
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