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Determined Students Successfully Build New School Library

Critical Exposure is proud to announce today’s grand opening of the student library at The Washington Metropolitan High School, a public school in Washington, D.C. The library’s transformation was the result of hard work from The Washington Metropolitan High School students, who participated in the Critical Exposure program and advocated for a new and functional school library. “By participating in this program, I was able to help get our school a library, which I don’t think a lot of teens can say. It makes me feel like I accomplished something, and that makes me feel good. Now I want to do something in the big picture that will make a change. Anything that needs standing up for in the future, I’ll be there.” said Joshua Elliot, 17.  Critical Exposure is a nonprofit that teaches youth to use the power of photography and their voices to become effective advocates for school reform and social change. Read more...

Applications for ALTAFF/LexisNexis Outstanding Friend Conference Grant due April 15

LexisNexis, a Silver Friend corporate sponsor of the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF), has announced it will fund an annual grant that will enable a Friends of the Library member to attend the ALA Annual Conference, which will be held this year in Anaheim, Calif., June 21-26. “In keeping with the LexisNexis commitment to meeting the research needs of librarians and promoting information access to their patrons, we are excited about sponsoring a Friend to attend annual ALA Conference,” says Mary Dilenschneider, director of segment management for LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions. Read more...

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Take Action

Ask Your Representative to Support Funding for Childhood Literacy and LSTA

Appropriations season is heating up in Washington DC. It is imperative that you call your U.S. Representative by March 14 and ask them to sign two separate "Dear Colleague" letters that will greatly help libraries. Read more... 

School Libraries and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) why YOU should care and what YOU can do!

Every single person in the country who cares about libraries should contact their U.S. Senators in Washington at 202-224-3121 or at their local offices in your state about the importance of including school libraries in the reauthorization of ESEA. ESEA reauthorization, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), will determine federal education policy for the coming decade.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee marked-up (voted out of committee) ESEA on October 20, 2011 without including school libraries! While no date has yet been set for a Senate vote, the ALA believes that it may come up after January 23, 2012.

Ensuring that school libraries are included in ESEA reauthorization means that federal funding for schools would also include school libraries.  But, more importantly, having school libraries included in ESEA is a strong statement that school library programs are considered an important part of the learning environment.  This will make it harder for local decision makers to de-professionalize or cut school library services.

As library supporters, it probably goes without saying that you value libraries at all levels.  But if you are not directly associated with a school library, it may well be that you really haven’t thought much about them and their contribution to every school, community, and even your own library!  Because of the pending vote on ESEA – which does not now include school libraries – it’s time for you to focus your library love on school libraries. Read more...

Showcase

Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center

The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center’s mission is to preserve, display, and interpret the art of Charles M. Schulz. The museum opened in August 2002 and was founded as a 501c3 non-profit by Charles Schulz’s family and friends. Planning began in the mid-1990s and Charles Schulz was involved with some of the early decision making about the building’s design and vision before his death in February 2000. Much of our collection came from the studio and home of Charles Schulz. His widow, Jean Schulz, is the museum’s board president and is very involved in many aspects of the museum. The majority of our collection acquisitions continue to come from Jean Schulz, as well as friends and colleagues of Charles Schulz and fans from around the world. Read more...

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News

Chicago teens design Lady Gaga tour bus
Working out of the YOUmedia teen space at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center, six 16- and 17-year-olds have been helping to design a tour bus for Lady Gaga, a specialized vehicle that will join the pop star’s caravan when she goes out on the road again next year. The teens were featured in a celebrity philanthropic event at Harvard University on February 29. Called the “Born Brave” bus, its mission echoes Gaga’s new Born This Way Foundation and its interior will feature a media-focused youth space much like YOUmedia itself....
Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28

Publishers oppose bill on scholarly open access
A group of 81 scholarly journal publishers came out against the latest iteration of the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA)—a bill that would require federal research grantees to make their resulting academic papers freely available to the public no more than six months after publication in a scholarly journal. The bill, introduced in February in both the House (H.R. 4004) and Senate (S. 2096), is the third iteration of FRPAA to be introduced since 2006; two previous versions failed to make it to a vote....
Inside Higher Ed, Mar. 6; Association of American Publishers, Mar. 5

Protesters rally against Harvard Library layoffs
Approximately 50 protesters gathered in front of the Holyoke Center on the campus of Harvard University March 1 to rally against layoffs that may result from the Harvard Library’s upcoming reorganization. On February 13, the university announced a voluntary retirement package for library workers. Three organizers with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, which represents close to half the library workforce at Harvard, wrote an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson March 5, stating the implications of the reorganization....
Harvard Crimson, Jan. 23, Mar. 2, 5

MLK Library’s future: Half a library or none at all?
Mike DeBonis writes: “Last fall a blue-ribbon panel of planners, developers, and architects looked at what could be done with the historic but increasingly unsuitable Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, D.C. The options included (a) renovating the building, (b) selling off the building and using the proceeds to build a new library elsewhere, and (c) expanding the current building and dividing it between a library and another, revenue-generating use. The panel’s final report is now public, as is this news release from DCPL.”...
Washington Post: District of DeBonis, Mar. 5

Robolibraries roll out in Chicago suburbs
Libraries short on cash, parking, and staff are looking at self-service options to reach customers during off hours without adding work for employees. Tucked into vending machines or train station lockers, robolibraries allow patrons to pick up or drop off DVDs and books at their convenience during a time when many suburban libraries are cutting operating hours....
Chicago Tribune, Mar. 7

Laura Bush gives final grants for Gulf Coast school libraries
Former First Lady Laura Bush (right) returned to Chalmette High School in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, March 1 for the fifth time since Hurricane Katrina and announced grants ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 to 10 Louisiana school libraries. The grants are part of her foundation’s Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative. Bush also announced—to the surprise of the librarians in attendance from many of the schools—that all the 116 school libraries that have received grants from the foundation over the past six years will also receive about $1,000 each....
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mar. 1; Tales from a Loud Librarian, Mar. 1

EU commissioner says new Google privacy policy breaks the law
Google rolled out its new privacy policy March 1 to renewed protests from data protection authorities in Europe. The policy will allow the world’s largest internet company to collect information about its users across all its products, services, and websites and store it in one place. Some European authorities have concluded that the new policy violates European law, European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told BBC Radio Four. Meanwhile Google responded to reader questions about its privacy changes....
Los Angeles Times, Mar. 1–2

Advice from the man who helped save LA’s libraries
In 2010, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa handed Los Angeles Public Library a budget so severe that the system’s board couldn’t keep any of the city’s 73 libraries open more than five days a week. In March 2011, LAPL’s fortunes changed when voters approved a ballot initiative that forced the municipal government to rearrange the city’s budget in order to provide the library with enough funding to restore hours at all its branches. The man in charge of LAPL during this tumultuous period was Martín Gómez (right), Los Angeles’ soon-to-be-former city librarian....
Torontoist, Mar. 2

Library book returned after 100 years
A 500-year-old medical textbook has finally found its way back to Dublin’s Marsh’s Library after having been lost for more than a century. It was bought along with an antique mirror for 90 euros ($118 US) from a Dublin junk shop by an unnamed barrister and returned to the library March 2. Originally published in 1538 in Basel, Switzerland, the book is the third volume in a series of five on the medical works of physician, philosopher, and surgeon Galen....
Irish Times (Dublin), Mar. 6

Million-dollar boost to Prince George’s school libraries
School libraries in Prince George’s County, Maryland, received a $1.2 million boost for additional staff and materials as the school board voted February 24 to send the $1.65 billion FY2013 school budget to county officials for approval. Board members introduced amendments that would allocate $2 per student to purchase library materials and offer a full-time library media specialist—up from the proposed part-time employee—at each of the county’s 22 traditional high schools....
Prince George’s (Md.) Gazette, Feb. 24

Seaside sued over meeting room policy
A lawsuit, filed in US District Court against the Seaside (Oreg.) Public Library, claims that the library’s policy involving the use of its meeting room is unconstitutional. A Florida-based nonprofit organization called Liberty Counsel filed the suit, claiming that the policy discriminates on the basis of religious content and viewpoint. The lawsuit stems from a request by Benjamin Boyd, who wrote a letter August 6, 2010, seeking to use the meeting room on behalf of the Liberty Foundation (now known as the Liberty Counsel)....
Daily Astorian (Oreg.), Mar. 2

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