The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
Intellectual Freedom in Rural Libraries
update: links should work now Jessamyn already wrote about the “Small But Powerful Guide to Winning Support for Your Rural Library” (available here as a PDF). You can now also access the Small is Powerful Online Toolkit for Winning Support for Your Rural Library online. I haven’t had a chance to study it in depth, [...]
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
During the conference, most attendees stayed near the Convention Center and French Quarter areas. Luckily those areas are on higher ground and weren’t severly damaged by the hurricane. Unfortunately not all of New Orleans fared the same way. Monday afternoon I went with two of my friends, Jennifer and Donna, to see what devastation Katrina had created on the [...]
Lyrics to Literacy
I attended the ALSC-sponsored program “Lyrics to Literacy” on Monday, June 26. This program caught my eye by the description: “Through song, story, rhythm and chant, learn techniques to develop early literacy skills. Participants will learn how to enhance self-esteem, strengthen reading readiness, language development and promote brain growth.” Doesn’t that sound fun? I wasn’t [...]
PLA All-Committee Meeting
The PLA All-Committee Meeting was held on Sunday, June 25, at the New Orleans Marriott. Forty-three committees met at separate tables to plan and discuss upcoming events. I am a member of the Services to Preschool Children and their Caregivers Cluster. One problem that the committee noticed is that so many great sessions are planned during conferences, but not [...]
How My Parents Learned to Eat: Dim Sum, Fry Bread, Collard Greens and Tacos in the Library
No, this was not another session about food but rather about strategies for reaching out to diverse communities. I came in on the second set of speakers, librarians from the Las Vegas County Library which has an increasingly diverse population of Chinese, African American, Hispanic and Native American individuals. So, the main question is, how [...]
Drug Foods, Fast Foods and Feasts: the Social Science of Eating
So this session was not absolutely about library services, but it was really treat for me and there was quite a bit to be learned. The first speaker, Wendy Woloson, Curator of Printed Books at the Library Company of Philadelphia, told us the history of sugar in America (an abridged version of her book Refined [...]
Outside the Magic Circle: Library Services & Underserved Users
After recuperating for a week and getting back in the swing of things, here are some of my notes from a session I attended. (I apologize, I came in late to this session and was unable to get the speakers’ names) The title came from a statement made by journalist Cynthia Tucker quoted in the [...]
Karen Schneider talks up (and about) lii.org
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing there’s a pretty good chance that you already know about the Librarians’ Internet Index (lii.org) and that you’re subscribed to their “New This Week” newsletter. I’ve know about LII for about two years, and I’ve been getting the newsletter via RSS for about a year and a half, but [...]
Anderson Cooper Keynotes PLA President’s Program
Anderson Cooper, the CNN reporter known for his emotional coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, was the keynote speaker at Monday night’s PLA President’s Program, held at the Morial Convention Center during the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. PLA President Dan Walters welcomed attendees, and after various announcements and the distribution of the [...]
The Long Tail
It was SRO at Chris Anderson’s presentation on “the long tail,” the subject of a 2004 article in Wired magazine (where Anderson is the editor in chief) and now the title of a new book, subtitled “Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.” Why big crowds at a session that was really [...]
