This week, Penguin Random House announced changes in their e-book lending terms. Alan Inouye of the ALA Washinigton Office discusses the changes and next steps for libraries.
Libraries are a national infrastructure, at the ready to meet some of the greatest challenges our communities face. You can’t put a price tag on the benefits America’s 120,000 public, school, research and special libraries offer our communities every day.
The least we can do is authorize and fund the only federal agency dedicated to advancing innovation, lifelong learning and civic engagement through libraries.
In 2014, the American Library Association found
that about 23 percent of all public libraries offered a fitness class
in the last year, while another survey from the same time learned that
37 percent of the libraries they reached out to offered yoga. More than
60 percent of North Carolina library systems offer
fitness classes. There’s a lot left to understand about how and why
librarians focusing on physical health and wellness, but the most
important thing to know is also the most obvious: The classes are
needed.
I’m not sure exactly when I started making a point to visit libraries when I traveled, but I think it was a trip to see my sister in Birmingham, UK just a few years ago. We walked by their amazing brutalist library – that was being torn down. I happened to be in town for the grand opening of the brand new wedding cake library, and Malala was speaking SO of course we had to go. After that, it became A Thing. Even on a recent day trip within my own state, we visited two small town libraries that happened to be open. If there’s a gift shop or a used book sale, I buy something. I love seeing the different spaces. Definitely recommend this!
Librarians, policymakers and other experts gathered Thursday in Washington, D.C., for a panel discussion on the legislation and the needs of tribal communities.
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the group that investing in broadband infrastructure is critical because those investments increasingly determine which cities, towns and tribal nations thrive.
“Just like water, roads, railways and electricity, broadband is now fundamental when it comes to our community development,” Clyburn said.
It’s still National Library Week. You should be especially nice to a librarian today, or tomorrow. Sometime this week, anyway. Probably the librarians would like tea. Or chocolates. Or a reliable source of funding.
The decennial count of all U.S. residents is a long tradition: required
by the U.S. Constitution to determine representation in Congress and the
Electoral College, the Census also is key
to the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funding to states
and localities and to the production of widely-used datasets. However,
each decade brings new innovations and challenges. In 2020, the Census
will be conducted primarily online for the first time.
Like past
e-government efforts, this likely will place additional demands on
library staff and technology resources to assist people in participating
in the Census online or via another method of their choosing. It also
presents an opportunity to increase public awareness and use of Census
data.
House of Brat 