All posts tagged: Libraries

Book bans and culture wars came for libraries. They’re still standing strong

Book bans and culture wars came for libraries. They’re still standing strong

Published by Sam Flores

This story was originally reported by Nadra Nittle of The 19th. Meet Nadra and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Sarah DeMaria still remembers how close she came to resigning from her role as a school librarian. It was the summer of 2023, and after a year of vicious personal attacks, politically motivated book challenges and police reports to flag so-called pornographic content in the library, DeMaria had enough. She packed up her office with no plan to return to the Hempfield School District in South Central Pennsylvania. But then she thought about her students: “If I left, who was going to be their voice?” she wondered. “Who was going to protect their books?” Focusing on the young people she serves keeps DeMaria grounded as libraries, in and out of schools, have become targets of the nation’s culture wars on race, gender and sexuality. During National Library Week, which ends Saturday, librarians across the country are fighting to maintain students’ access to books and to keep their jobs amid cuts to …

We Goofed | Jo Livingstone

We Goofed | Jo Livingstone

Published by José Betancourt

Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, Connecticut, is a temple. Although the Beinecke is cuboid it has the atmosphere of a pyramid, flanked in faintly translucent marble slabs that suck light into the building and radiate it outward at the same time. A new literary exhibition, “‘Beauties of My Style’: Errata and the Printed Mistake,” is not at the Beinecke; it is ninety feet away in the Hanke Gallery of the Sterling Memorial Library. This other Yale library is hideous in every way that the Beinecke shines. “Gothic revival” is the generous term. In a scathing 1930 critique later published in The Nation, a Yale undergraduate, William Harlan Hale, condemned SML’s combination of ecclesiastical decor and godless floorplan as a “cathedral orgy.” “How can students be educated to artistic appreciation,” he wondered, “under the eaves of an architecture that puts water tanks into church towers, and lavatories into oriels?” Past SML’s narthex, in a gloomy, wood-paneled corner of its nave, is a small, sarcastic show. It celebrates a loaded little …

Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton Album Acquired by Bodleian Libraries

Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton Album Acquired by Bodleian Libraries

Published by José Betancourt

An annotated photographic scrapbook—often called a “daybook”—featuring newspaper clippings and hundreds of photos by Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton has been acquired by the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford. The album was compiled by British Vogue darkroom assistant Roland Haupt between 1943 and ’49; Haupt developed film by both Miller and Beaton when they worked for Vogue magazine during this time period. The deal was brokered by the London-based photography dealer Michael Hoppen, who was approached about nine months ago by Haupt’s descendants. (Haupt died in the mid-1960s.) Hoppen declined to share the sales price with ARTnews, explaining that the family preferred that their identity and the details of the sale remain private for the time being. Below are spreads from the album, showing photographs by both Miller and Beaton, war-related and otherwise, as well as related newspaper clippings. “My Favorite Photographer” Image Credit: Courtesy Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford Haupt dedicates the book to Miller, who he tenderly refers to as “my favorite photographer.” He writes this next to a portrait of …

Court Victory for American Libraries, the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Court Victory for American Libraries, the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Published by José Betancourt

In late January, the Trump administration appealed the decision rendered in Rhode Island v. Trump. Judge John J. McConnell issued a permanent injunction in the case in November, directing that the administration could not further dismantle the IMLS and that all grant funding must be restored. The IMLS, which lost more than half of its already-slim staff, would continue operations as it did before the March dismantling. Rhode Island v. Trump was one of two filed in the wake of the administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency dedicated to public libraries and museums. There’s been a big update to the appeal. As of today–nearly a year to the date from the case’s first filing–the Trump administration has dropped its appeal. This means the decision rendered by Judge McConnell last fall stands. This is hugely celebratory and is one step in the right direction toward protecting public libraries nationwide and another toward protecting the IMLS. The victory is worth cheering, but it comes on the heels of the Trump …

AI Fatigue in Libraries and More Updates For Library Workers

AI Fatigue in Libraries and More Updates For Library Workers

Published by José Betancourt

Katie’s parents never told her “no” when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she’s not at work, she’s at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady View All posts by Katie McLain Horner Source link

Stop censoring books, teachers warn school libraries | UK News

Stop censoring books, teachers warn school libraries | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

Teachers have called for an end to censorship in school libraries, with their union warning it “should ring alarm bells for all of us”. The warning at the National Education Union (NEU) conference in Brighton comes following claims a Salford school ordered dozens of classic titles be removed from shelves. Index on Censorship reported in March that George Orwell’s 1984 and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series were among the more than 130 books targeted at the Lowry Academy in Greater Manchester. It said the librarian had been “threatened with disciplinary action” and resigned. The school denied books had been banned and had instead been moved into “age-appropriate categories”. “Following concerns that a number of books within the library were neither age nor content-appropriate, an audit was conducted,” said a statement. “Following this, books have been placed into age-appropriate categories and returned to the shelves. A very small number of books were deemed inappropriate even for older children due to their content and have been removed.” More from Sky News:Resident doctors to strikeWhat’s behind disorder in cities? …

8 Speculative Fiction Books Set in Libraries and Bookstores

8 Speculative Fiction Books Set in Libraries and Bookstores

Published by José Betancourt

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Libraries and bookstores are magical places—full stop. So it’s no wonder that these repositories of stories have inspired countless tales of magic and wonder. After all, what better backdrop for a work of speculative fiction than the very locations that house the tomes readers adore so deeply? Many of those books lean into the magic that literature offers. Take Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, renowned for his contributions to magical realism. In 1941, he published a short story called “The Library of Babel” set in a universe that takes the form of (surprise, surprise) a library. It’s a philosophical exploration of the possibilities and limitations of literature. Similarly, Japanese master of surrealism Haruki Murakami’s short illustrated novella The Strange Library offers a horror-tinged tale about a boy imprisoned in a library and set the task of memorizing three books or having his brains eaten. Yikes! Magical bookstores are no less popular in the bibliosphere, providing the setting for …

Censorship concerns show need to support school libraries

Censorship concerns show need to support school libraries

Published by skeptic

Over the past year, concerns about the issue of censorship and book banning have been steadily growing. It’s an age-old problem. Books have always been routes to challenge, change, disrupting narratives, and a chance to explore the world through new perspectives. This is enough to make some believe access to certain types of books should be limited, or restricted entirely through book banning. I believe that at a time of deep uncertainty in our society, books offer a way to discover and deliberate, a way to understand the world and yourself. In school, where better for this to happen than in the school library, with a librarian on hand who can provide guidance, listen, and advise where support might be needed? A school librarian who is knowledgeable and supported can provide the expertise needed for schools to acknowledge difficult issues and approach them with sound judgment. Trusting your school librarian to develop a collection that is reflective of your whole school needs and interests is fundamental to this. Working with them to support their collection …

State Department Orders Non-Profit Libraries to Halt Passport Services

State Department Orders Non-Profit Libraries to Halt Passport Services

Published by José Betancourt

Last month, the State Department informed certain public libraries that they would no longer be able to act as passport acceptance facilities, due to their status as a non-profit/non-governmental organization. Understandably, this has sparked a lot of concern for these libraries and communities. I currently manage my library’s passport services, so I got wind that this was happening at the end of last year, when the State Department required every passport acceptance facility to submit an attestation of their status as a government organization. For most public libraries that accept passport applications, this wasn’t an issue, but libraries that operate as 501(c)(3) non-profits, such as the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, were told that they had to end their passport services by February 13th, 2026. Before I proceed, let’s take a little detour through the world of Public Library Funding in the United States. The vast majority of public library funding comes from local sources like property taxes and local government budgets, but libraries can also receive funding at the state and federal levels, and …

Where Did the IMLS’s Funding for Museums and Libraries Go? Into Trump’s ‘Freedom Truck’ Road Show, It Seems 

Where Did the IMLS’s Funding for Museums and Libraries Go? Into Trump’s ‘Freedom Truck’ Road Show, It Seems 

Published by Jenni Sidey

Have you always wished that you could visit a museum devoted to U.S. history, like maybe the one at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., but wished that rather than a brick-and-mortar museum in the nation’s capital, it could be on a tractor trailer in, say, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, or Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania? Well, the Trump administration is making those dreams come true with a fleet of six “Freedom Trucks”—mobile museums that will travel the nation throughout 2026, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. On display are artifacts like a draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Aitken Bible (“the first complete Bible published in an independent America,” per the Library of Congress), a musket used by the British Army known as the Brown Bess, and a pair of George Washington’s spectacles.  The rolling museums are part of the “Freedom 250” initiative, a self-described non-partisan organization leading the semiquincentennial celebration of the founding of the “Nation,” as its website styles it, with characteristically random Trumpian capitalization. Four banners on the …