American Libraries

ALA's Ahead to 2010 strategic plan, and the dues increase needed to implement it, dominated the agenda at the fall meeting of the Association's Executive Board, held October 28-30 at ALA Headquarters in Chicago. Approved by ALA Council at the 2005...

MORIAL CONVENTION CENTER NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA JUNE 22-29, 2006 ALA is planning another exciting Annual Conference. Register early for low rates and great speakers, programs and events! Housing for the Annual Conference will open on...

On March 15, Peter Ralph, recently appointed trustee with the Grand County (Colo.) Library District, phoned James LaRue, director of the Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries, with a question: How common was it to use spine labels identifying some books...

Marcia Adams has been promoted to assistant director, technical services, for the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in Washington, D.C. * Nancy Alcorn retired as assistant head librarian at Newburyport (Mass.) Public Library September 10, after 20...

It all began with a trip to the Pikes Peak Library District's archives two years ago by the library's newly hired executive director, Jose Aponte. Winner of Reforma's 2004 Trejo Librarian of the Year award for his service to the Latino community, Aponte...

The only public library in the area of Kashmir administered by Pakistan was completely destroyed in the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that devastated the mountainous region October 8, causing an estimated 90,000 deaths in the area and leaving some 3 million...

NORTHERN IRELAND The UK Department of Culture Arts and Leisure is conducting a three-month public survey to see whether Irish public libraries should be open longer, have weekend hours, or offer cafes and health services. Culture Minister David...

The story of retired Michigan librarian Edna Claire Schooley (AL, June/July, p. 85) encouraged a number of other former librarians to reminisce with us about their enthusiasms and activities following life in libraries. As 2005 comes to a close, we...

My mother was a genie. Mercifully, not the bare-midriff, Barbara Eden variety; I mean that she was a genealogist, as well as an amateur local historian (and stamp collector, dollmaker, quilter, freelance pagoda designer, etc.). Had I ever been able...

Hurricane Wilma made landfall October 24 north of Everglades City as a Category 3 storm and left some 3.2 million homes in south Florida without power for days. The majority of libraries in the affected areas weathered the storm well, except for temporary...

Listening is an act of love," says Dave Isay. "It tells people that they matter and that their time on earth meant something, their names won't be forgotten. I think that's all that any of us really wants to know." StoryCorps is about listening to...

For the last 20 years or so, Quick Bibs has been devoted to whatever I've been reading, but this time I'm going to talk about what I haven't been reading. I seem to spend a lot of time scanning my bookshelves, not really looking for something to read...

Surgeon general of the United States since 2002, Richard H. Carmona has made a strong connection between good health care, the internet, and librarians' "very important role in being able to help people--especially the untrained consumer who needs...

The Charleston Conference--a stimulating forum for acquisitions librarians, book and periodical publishers, and system vendors that started out in 1980 as an informal gathering in Charleston, South Carolina--celebrated its quarter-century November...

Who could have imagined several years ago, when the American Library Association booked New Orleans as the site of its 2006 Annual Conference, that the Big Easy would be at the center of what some have called the biggest humanitarian crisis in the...

These last few years have been the best of times and the worst of times for ALA: our most successful Annual Conference ever in Chicago in June 2005 (AL, Aug., p. 53-77); our largely successful work with others to educate public opinion on the iniquities...

Q I am the supervisor of a reference department and am extremely frustrated by staff members who use their computers for personal use--and one in particular who participates in online discussion groups and plays computer games. Staff have been warned...

If you work in a public, school, or academic library, chances are you will find teens. In public libraries alone, one in four patrons is a teenager, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the teen population will grow to more than 42 million by 2008....