American Libraries Magazine: Editor's Letter

Something Old, Something New

Laurie Borman — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:05:16 +0000

March/April 2013

By Laurie D. Borman

Seven years ago, then–ALA President Leslie Burger helped launch the Emerging Leaders program with 117 participants and 23 projects. This year’s class of 55 Emerging Leaders met at Midwinter in Seattle, and will present their projects at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Open to librarians and support staff who are new to the profession, the 2013 class of Emerging Leaders gathered to network and begin assigned group projects while learning more about ALA. A selection committee considers geography, gender, ethnicity, and type of library in choosing a diverse group.

We thought you might want to know a little more about the talented library workers selected this year, as you probably will be hearing from them in the near future if past classes are any indication. The 2007 class, for example, includes current ALA Executive Board member Alexia Hudson-Ward and American Libraries E-Content blogger Christopher Harris. Luminaries shine in every class.

We’ve created a set of trading cards of the 2013 Emerging Leaders. You can get a real deck of those cards at the Gale Cengage booth at Annual. While there, why not find each Emerging Leader and have them sign your cards? Who knows what they’ll be worth in the future!

This month, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) launches, after three years of plans, meetings, and old-fashioned hard work. As our story notes, when DPLA goes live, “it will already contain hundreds of collections from around the country, from daguerreotypes of African slaves to medieval manuscripts, from 19th-century newspapers from small-town Kentucky to newsreel footage from much of the past century.” The DPLA will be a portal to a wealth of collections.

What would you do if your library basement filled with water and soaked books, artwork, or other fragile pieces? You could call the American Institute for Conservation’s Collections Emergency Response Team hotline. With Preservation Week being celebrated April 21–27 this year, we’re sharing a first-hand account of one librarian’s shift on the hotline. It’s a compelling story about the work of preservation librarians and how to be proactive regarding your own collections.

It’s been 10 years since the Supreme Court upheld the Children’s Internet Protection Act. If you’re still a little fuzzy on what you’re obligated to filter, Deborah Caldwell-Stone gives you First Amendment tips.

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Engaging Our Communities

Laurie Borman — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:21:32 +0000

January/February 2013

By Laurie D. Borman

Where’s Johnny Depp? In 2013, you can find him in American Libraries, as part of our annual Year in Review. He started his own book imprint last year, with the inaugural title—about Bob Dylan—slated to appear in 2015. There’s a lot more to our 2012 retrospective than celebrity sightings, though. Check out surprising Pew Research Center stats, the truth about ebook pricing, the launch of Google Fiber at the library, and the new Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence. 2012: It was an exciting, sometimes challenging year.

If I were predicting a library theme for 2013, it would be community engagement. Libraries and librarians are looking for ways to better serve the needs of their local populations, whether that community is a city, a campus, or a school. The January/February issue of American Libraries reflects part of that broad spectrum of engagement efforts. For example, we found that libraries across the country are scaling back the stacks and even putting trailers in parking lots to make room for makerspaces. There’s a long history of making things in libraries, beginning with quilting clubs and crafting classes. If you’re planning a makerspace for your facility, we cover three models that work and provide a list of practical resources, including types of equipment, and price tags.

Libraries can engage with those who need help staying in their community too. “Libraries Help Homeowners Fight Foreclosure” explains how the San Diego County (Calif.) Library joined forces with the Housing Opportunities Collaborative, a nonprofit foreclosure-prevention organization, to help local financially strapped residents keep their homes. And the library did it even as its own budget shrank.

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Gauging Your Interest

Laurie Borman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:04:17 +0000

November / December 2012

By Laurie D. Borman

A few weeks ago, American Libraries sent you a survey. And despite all the other surveys and polls and requests that likely came to you this election season, more than 4,000 of you responded. Thank you for taking time to provide feedback.

We want to know what you think about the magazine, and indeed, all the media streams of American Libraries—AL Direct, AmericanLibrariesMagazine.org, Twitter (@AmLibraries), Pinterest, and Facebook. We’ll be looking at all the data and plan to make improvements to the look and content of the magazine as well as our online site. We’ve signed up with a new design team at ALA, headed by Kirstin Krutsch and Chris Keech, to develop this new look with your input, with a planned launch in 2013. In the interim, watch for subtle changes to features, added infographics, and sidebars. We hope you’ll like what you see.

Starting this month, we’re also launching American Libraries Live, a streaming video broadcast that you can view for free (at AmericanLibrariesLive.org) in your library, at home, or while sipping coffee at your favorite Wi-Fi-enabled café. The first program—on Friday, November 16, at 1 p.m. Central time—features ALA TechSource author Jason Griffey talking about libraries in the near future in “Library 2017: Tech at Warp Speed.” Topics for other shows include strategies for landing your ideal library job, digging into databases, and the real deal about ebooks for libraries, and will be hosted by Marshall Breeding, Warren Graham, and other experts. This is not a webinar with voice-overs but a chance to watch presenters live onscreen. Got questions? Ask away, because the sessions feature a live chat, too. It’s like having your own personal expert to solve problems on the spot. See the full lineup of shows on AmericanLibrariesLive.org.

If you’re wondering whether we’re developing a mobile app or want a way to view our content on your smartphone, well, we’ve got you covered there, too. Our digital editions and uploads (which you can launch right from our Facebook page or from AmericanLibrariesMagazine.org/archives) will scale to fit your tablet or smartphone.

However you want to encounter us—in print, online, on your smartphone, in a chat, by social media, or email—we’re ready. Oh, and who was the lucky survey-respondent winner of the $500 gift certificate, good toward any ALA Editions, TechSource, Neal-Schuman, Chandos, or Facet books? Stephanie Mallak Olson, district library director of Iosco-Arenac District Library in Oscoda, Michigan. Congratulations, Stephanie!

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Our Roller-Coaster Summer

Laurie Borman — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:08:13 +0000

September/October 2012

By Laurie D. Borman

If I were to write “What American Libraries Did This Summer,” it would be more roller-coaster ride than mai tais on the beach. Such is the nature of juggling several media streams, especially when tied to news and deadlines.

At the top of the hill were the twin peaks of the ALA Annual Conference and the Virtual Conference. Both offered great blog and story opportunities, interviews, inspiration, and ideas. We also visited the Special Libraries Association conference in Chicago in July.

ALA Editions provided an excerpt from Joint Libraries:Models That Work. We called for photos and case studies from joint libraries around the country to supplement the excerpt. The projects range from the Harmony Library in Ft. Collins, Colorado, which combined a cash-strapped local library with a community college facility, to the new urban high school/public joint library being built in the middle of Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. Their stories offer viable, cost-saving joint-use options, and we hope it provides good ideas for you, too.

What goes up must come down, and we briefly hit bottom at the end of July. We had planned an interview for this issue with Jonah Lehrer, author of Imagine:How Creativity Works, a book about biochemical processes in creativity. A former Rhodes Scholar and neuroscience junkie, Lehrer wrote for The New Yorker and Wired and had authored two other books about the brain. He was scheduled to speak at Midwinter, so the interview was timely. The day the interview transcript arrived, Lehrer resigned from his job at The New Yorker and his publisher pulled Imagine from bookstores because Lehrer had admitted to fabricating quotes from Bob Dylan. Through no fault of ALA, Lehrer was also yanked from the Midwinter speaker roster. We scrambled, regrouped, and rearranged our layouts without a Newsmaker for this issue. (However, you can read the original Q&A, “A Day Before Disgrace,” online.)

While all this was going on, we played catch-up on print issues, sliding up our deadlines to ensure you will now get your copy of AL in the first week of the cover date. Our columnists turned in their work weeks early to adjust to the new schedule, and we edited July/August and IFLA supplement copy simultaneously, barely taking a breath before starting in on this issue.

Well, it’s been fun, and even though summer’s not yet over as I write this, we’re ready to ride on to our next adventure. Thanks for joining us!

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Transformations

Laurie Borman — Sat, 19 May 2012 18:33:09 +0000

May/June 2012

By Laurie D. Borman

Transforming sounds like such a magical process. In a glittery whirlwind, Cinderella is transformed from rag-covered servant to bejeweled beauty in a ball gown. Unfortunately, transforming rarely occurs in fairy-tale fashion. It’s a process that takes time, determination, and effort by dedicated teams. Glass slippers and fairy wands are strictly optional.

In our May/June 2012 issue, American Libraries covers the possibilities for how to transform our libraries. Colleagues have found new ways to deliver services, from embedding reference librarians into local civic projects to catalogers embracing their evolution into an ever-broadening role—see “Community Reference: Making Libraries Indispensable in a New Way” by Colbe Galston, Elizabeth Kelsen Huber, Katherine Johnson, and Amy Long, and “Cataloging Then, Now, and Tomorrow” by Elise (Yi-Ling) Wong. The work begins by inviting the community—whether parents, teachers, university administrators, patrons, or the public—to the table to talk about wants and needs.

This transformational work is so important that it is the theme of this year’s ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. The work started under the direction of President Molly Raphael will continue during President-Elect Maureen Sullivan’s term when she is handed the gavel in June. You’ll find loads of programs and conversation-starter sessions at Annual to help you begin—or continue—the transformational process at your institution. Our special section gives you a preview of the conference highlights, as well as a dining guide to Anaheim and surrounds.

Elsewhere in this issue, we talk with the new Chicago Public Library Commissioner Brian Bannon, who in March succeeded Mary Dempsey after her 18 years at the helm. (See Newsmaker.) He, too, is working with transformational issues, like tighter budgets and increased demands for services.

While we’re working on long-range transformational plans, all of us are also having to keep an eye on the key issues, which inevitably involve e-content. This month, American Libraries offers an E-Content Digital Supplement that features interesting observations by writers, users, publishers, librarians, and booksellers, as well as articles on digital rights and the progress of ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in Anaheim in June. We’ll listen to a host of amazing speakers, learn about new and useful products, and talk transformations. And again, glass slippers are optional, but I hear the pixie dust is mandatory.

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Of Design, Danes, and Daffodils

Laurie Borman — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:49:17 +0000

March/April 2012

By Laurie D. Borman

What is your favorite library space? Perhaps a school library reading nook, or the august reading room from your university days, or maybe the balcony stacks in your hometown? The architectural design—and of course, a facility’s resources—draws you to these places and encourages you to stay awhile.

That’s why American Libraries features new and now library designs in our 2012 Library Design Showcase—to give you ideas to consider for your facility. (Be sure to check back at the end of April to see even more gorgeous renovations and new buildings in our Facilities Showcase Digital Supplement.) The showcase began in 1988, when we featured library furniture that could accommodate the emerging need for computers and wired equipment. The following year the showcase grew to include interior design, from California to Pennsylvania. Many of the designs still look fresh and inviting.

Some of the new spaces shown in this issue expand reading spots in the library, others open up cramped quarters. The designs make me think about a few library spaces I’ve enjoyed and why they are meaningful.

The Royal Danish Library on the Slotsholmen in Copenhagen merges the traditional 1906 building with Schmidt, Hammer, and Lassen’s 1999 black marble and glass Black Diamond. Last summer, I went up the escalators in the Black Diamond, drawn to the lush ceiling painting by Per Kirkeby. Crossing the glass-walled walkway under Kirkeby's fresco into the old building’s wood-paneled traditional space, I thought the library blended historic and modern in a uniquely Danish way.

Sandusky, Ohio, expanded its 1901 Carnegie Library by connecting it with the adjacent Erie County Jail (both are on the National Register of Historic Places) and reopened in 2004. The design created an architecturally elegant combination of Greek Revival and Classical Revival. My visits to the library were back before the merger, when a peaceful summer afternoon in the cool, air-conditioned room slipped by like the pages of my book.

A search for Wi-Fi led me to the Jasper (Alberta) Municipal Library. It was built in the 1920s as a detachment office for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and as a library it was quaint but tight. Plans are under way for an expansion to open next year. It will include more space for Wi-Fi users, among other improvements. The new footprint still leaves green space for the elk that sometimes graze on the library lawn.

Clerestory windows pour light into the reading room of the Jerwood Centre, built in 2004 in England’s Lake District and noteworthy for its collection of rare first editions. It is adjacent to William Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage where the poet began his writings. But his collection of books and the view of daffodils from his library at Rydal Mount, his home from 1813 to 1850, stand out as the perfect proportions for a collection, connecting poet, poems, and place.

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Treasure Hunt

Laurie Borman — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:22:42 +0000

January/February 2012

By Laurie D. Borman

All of you who’ve weeded a collection know the challenges I face. Former American Libraries Editor Leonard Kniffel left me a legacy: file drawers stuffed with materials from his 15 years at the helm of this magazine. As someone new to the American Library Association and to this publication, it’s been somewhat daunting to determine what should stay and what should go. Is it a trifle or a treasure? The project is a deep dive into the history and workings of the ALA, some going back prior to Leonard’s arrival.

Fortunately I have plenty of resources to assist me in assessing documents, including the advice of my new colleagues at ALA, especially at American Libraries, and an ALA Retention Policy.

The folders sometimes detour into the evolution of technologies. A thick American Libraries deadlines file spans handwritten calendars and dot-matrix printouts from the 1980s, typeset calendars from the 1990s, and self-published and color-copier versions. (In the interest of being eco-friendly, we now keep track of deadlines in a network drive.)

Other files overflow with fading faxes and yellowed newspaper clippings—remember Stephen Carrie Blumberg, caught in 1990 with more than 11,000 rare books and manuscripts stolen from libraries? Yes, I have a file on him. Then there are microfiche samples from vendors and a typewritten interview with Booklist Editor Bill Ott on the occasion of Booklist’s 90th anniversary in 1995. Haven’t found any floppy disks or eight-millimeter movies yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

What’s remarkable is that these old files speak to professional issues that are still relevant content today. The cover story of AL’s January/February 2012 issue, about interns adding diversity to the library work force, advances a long tradition within the library community of striving for diversity in front of and behind the desk. The diversity folder from the AL cabinet covers a 1991 ALA retreat, and AL colleagues tell me that civil rights struggles began to affect ALA policy in 1938, when the Association took a stand against segregated meeting rooms. In 1970, ALA’s Feminist Task Force was created, and that same year ALA made history by becoming the first-ever professional association to form an LGBT group.

I hope to complete my file deep dive by the time you read this, but my quest for leads on professional trends relevant to you has just begun. I’m plowing through reader surveys, reviewing Google Analytics, and checking blog comments. Have a burning issue you want us to cover? Email me, or say hello at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

And if you need a 1989 typesetting user’s guide or a flier on how to repair your 1981 Osborne computer, I’ve got the file!

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What You Told Us

Beverly Goldberg — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:51:45 +0000

July/August 2011

By George M. Eberhart and Beverly Goldberg

In April, we conducted an online survey of our readers, in order to find out what American Libraries is doing right and what we could be doing differently. A big thank you to the nearly 3,600 participants, who represented all types of libraries (public, academic, school, and special). You answered 31 questions about your preferred formats, and some 2,400 of you took the time to add comments to one or more parts of the survey, giving us some< helpful things to consider. Your input is and will be invaluable.

Although this was not a scientific survey, we learned many things about how you read, what you want and don’t want to read, and how you prefer to receive information. In the summary that follows, we’ve identified some of your more frequent comments and preferences.

In a nutshell:

79% consider American Libraries and AL Direct essential professional reading.
American Libraries is rated high on reliability of information (90%) and relevance (65%).
AL Direct is very highly regarded (“fabulous!” “gold!”) and considered very useful. It rated high on relevance and reliability (76%) and timeliness (88%).
76% like to get their American Libraries content in print.
Print fans want the content to be focused on articles rather than time-sensitive news (which is AL Direct ’s specialty).
Mobile phone access is a key issue (36% say that’s how they like to access content). Tablets and e-readers follow close behind.
Many ALA members do not see a clear difference between the overall ALA website and the American Libraries website.
Most members access the American Libraries website through links in AL Direct.
The digital version of the magazine with page turns that we offer with each print issue was not widely known, but it did generate strong feelings about the technology on both sides of the issue. In general, it’s safe to say this is not a preferred format. Some asked for a PDF version of the magazine, unaware that this option is built into the technology we use.
In general, the message was that we can do more to distinguish the benefits and the features of our digital options.
We also received numerous suggestions for content coverage and will be implementing many of those in the future.

Thank you for your time and ideas! We are always pleased to hear from you, through surveys, email, Facebook, or Twitter.

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An Exit Interview

Leonard Kniffel — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:00:00 +0000

January/February 2011

By Leonard Kniffel

What better way to make sure you’re asked the right questions in your exit interview than to conduct it yourself? So after 22 years on the American Libraries staff, 15 of them at the helm, here comes mine:

Why are you leaving AL? I’m listening to a little voice inside that says it’s time to move on.

To do what? Take a four-month leave and write another book.

And then what? Concentrate on public awareness and the @ your library website and forge alliances and partnerships with foundations and related organizations that will help ALA’s advocacy and outreach directly to the public. My next book, Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries, is scheduled to be published as a trade hardback in April, and I want to promote this book with the goal of helping librarians reach out to funding officials, administrators, and other potential library patrons and advocates.

What is the best work you’ve done? I’m proud of our coverage of disasters—from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina—and all of our efforts to make library connections to big national and international stories. It took some doing to get exclusive interviews with Bill Gates, Laura Bush at the White House, and Julie Andrews as our special guest to celebrate AL's the centennial. They and many others are in the forthcoming book. Listening to successful people talk about their love of reading and libraries has been enormously gratifying.

What have you done to make a difference? I wrote my first editorial in February 1989 as an associate editor, taking publishers to task for allowing important black literature to go out of print. My faith in the value of libraries has shaped everything I’ve ever done for the magazine, which includes publishing articles by some of the best writers in the profession; some of them are still writing for us.

What advice would you give your successor? AL communicates with readers through six print issues a year, a popular weekly e-newsletter, and a fluid website that includes original news reporting, interviews, video, photo galleries, advertising, JobLIST, and eight blogs. But speed is the key. Change needs to happen quickly in the 21st century as new communication options become available.

Have you had any hidden agendas? I have always preferred “patron” over “user” or “customer” and “library” over “information” and its various incarnations. Another was to get us to laugh about the librarian stereotype, instead of reinforcing it by scolding the media. Still another, perhaps not so hidden, was to expand international coverage.

What do you see as the future? It’s waiting to be invented. The best thing ALA can do is hire creative library and publishing professionals and help them shine. With this, my last issue, I leave that future to them.

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Less Ink, More Words

Leonard Kniffel — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:27:16 +0000

November / December 2010

By Leonard Kniffel

American Libraries moves to digital, fewer print issues

With the November/December 2010 issue, American Libraries print moves permanently to bimonthly publication. Monthly print as a viable delivery vehicle for anything that can be called “news” is clearly limited, and publishing to the web allows for faster and more flexible dissemination and is a general industry trend. Although manufacturing and postage costs are certainly a factor in the decision to produce fewer print issues, advertising has also seen a sharp decline over the past year and we have heard from many readers calling for a no-print option in their membership profile.

Moving to web-first publishing in the Drupal content management system has enabled American Libraries to deliver more content faster and at lower cost than ever possible—electronically. American Libraries Direct provides a weekly aggregation of ALA news and news from around the country and the world, along with what’s new on ALA websites.

In 2011, we have scheduled six bimonthly print issues and four quarterly digital supplements. Timing and mailing will be orchestrated to coincide with the dates of ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, Annual Conference, and other major events. Issues should reach members sometime between the first and third weeks in the first month of the issue.

The combined total content delivered to readers through AL Direct is already greater than the total ever published in print. With few exceptions, AL content is currently being published to the web first and then selectively collected or revamped for print. Some articles will appear as web extras, others will appear in the quarterly digital supplements. In-depth interviews will generally be excerpted for print and appear in full online. Most blog postings, videos, photo essays, webinars, and digital-supplement material will be available online only, with links delivered weekly in American Libraries Direct.

The only column that will be discontinued is “The Association’s Associations,” since all ALA division news is delivered weekly through American Libraries Direct and the news release feed on the website. Division and round table leaders are encouraged instead to work with American Libraries to develop content around their professional issues and major initiatives.

AL has already done two advertiser-supported webinars, the most recent one in cooperation with the Office for Research and Statistics, which also used a digital supplement to deliver content to ALA members. The Public Information Office is planning to release next year’s State of America’s Libraries report as an AL digital supplement. Publishing through AL will enable ALA offices to deliver content cheaply and widely, and we are exploring more webinars and digital supplements based on office-created content.

Meanwhile, enjoy the last print issue of 2010, featuring, among other things, a case study of the successful gaming initiative at Houston Public Library, an upbeat article about retirement, and a look back at the history of Chicano librarianship. If you are not receiving the weekly American Libraries Direct, sign up and stay in touch at americanlibrariesmagazine.org/aldirect.

I hope the Q&A below answers any questions you may have about why American Libraries is reducing the number of print issues and moving to the web. If you have others, please feel free to contact me at lkniffel@ala.org.

Q & A

AMERICAN LIBRARIES MOVING TO 6 BIMONTHLY PRINT ISSUES IN 2011

**Q. Why is American Libraries moving from 10 print issues per year to six print issues?**

A. Moving to web-first publishing in the Drupal content management system has enabled the magazine to deliver more content faster and at lower cost than ever possible, electronically. American Libraries Direct provides a weekly aggregation of ALA news as well as news from around the country and the world.

Q. Isn’t it really just a matter of saving money?

A. No, although manufacturing and postage are certainly major costs, and advertising has seen a sharp decline. Many readers are calling for a no-print option in their membership profile. American Libraries print as a viable delivery vehicle for anything that be called “news” is clearly limited. And publishing to the web for faster and more flexible dissemination is an industry trend.

**Q. What will be the dates of the six print issues of American Libraries beginning in 2011?**

A. They will be bimonthly: January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, and November/December. Four quarterly digital supplements are also scheduled—Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Q. When will each issue reach members?

A. Timing and mailing will be orchestrated to coincide with the dates of ALA’s major events in coordination with advertising promotions. Issues should generally reach members sometime between the first and third weeks in the first month of the issue.

Q. Will this change the issue themes that are repeated annually?

A. No, but it will change the timing, and most issues will mail closer to the center of the two-month span. For example, the architectural issue will be March/April, instead of April. That means it will mail March 22, close to the mail date of the former April issue. The May/June issue will be the conference issue and will mail May 24.

Q. Will everything that is published online appear in print?

A. No. With a few exceptions, everything is currently being published to the web and then selectively collected in print. Some articles will appear as web extras, others will appear in the quarterly digital supplements. In-depth interviews will generally be excerpted for print and appear in full online. Most blog postings, videos, photo essays, webinars, and digital-supplement material will be available online only, with links delivered weekly in American Libraries Direct.

Q. What about the frequency of columns, departments, and features?

A. Columnists, including the ALA president, will write six columns per year. Because the presidency changes in mid-year, the columns will run July/August through May/June of the following year. The ALA Executive Director’s quarterly column will be timed to follow Executive Board meetings. The content combined total, however, that will be published online (including blogs, video, interviews, ALA news, and so on) will be much greater than the total ever published in print.

Q. How will the volume and issues be numbered?

A. 2011 begins volume 42. Issues will be numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Digital supplements will not be numbered, they will be dated. A new statement of ownership will be filed with the Post Office.

Q. What will happen to the columns for the 11 divisions, “The Association’s Associations”?

A. They will be discontinued. All division news is delivered weekly through American Libraries Direct and the news release feed on the website. Division leaders are encouraged to work with American Libraries to develop content around their professional issues and major initiatives.

Q. What about webinars?

A. American Libraries is seeking advertisers to support webinars and has done two so far. The most recent one was done in cooperation with the Office for Research and Statistics, which also used a digital supplement to deliver content to ALA members. The Public Information Office is planning to release next year’s State of America’s Libraries report as a digital supplement to American Libraries. Publishing through American Libraries enables offices to deliver content cheaply and widely, and we are interested in exploring more webinars and digital supplements based on office-created content.

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