1. Home
  2. News and Articles

Rogue Librarians and Activist Archivists!

October 27, 2018

We all — hopefully — have a story about a moment in library when something wonderful happened to light a love of reading in our hearts. Or in an archive where, through the magic of preservation and curation, history stayed alive and did not fade. There are ‘special collections’ that matter to whole communities and entire nations. And there are some that are special to just a few.

From The ‘Wall That Heals’ to Veterans Voices

October 26, 2018

Contributed by Miriam Anderson Lytle, Gail Borden Public Library District, Elgin, IL.   It was a warm September day when The Wall That Heals drove into town. It was hailed on streets lined with school children waving American flags. A solemn parade of Warriors’ Watch Riders, fire trucks, dignitaries end-capped by Elgin Police Department squad cars rumbled through green-flashing signal lights. There was no stopping this semi-truck and its fans en route to Elgin’s city plaza. Vietnam Vets welcome here. Tears streamed down cheeks though most donned sunglasses to disguise emotion. It had been nearly 40 years since the war ended, but hearts were still broken, families still destroyed, a nation unhealed.

Media Literacy Starts at the Library

October 25, 2018

“Media literacy“ is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages in all their forms — from print to video to the internet and social media. “Media literacy“ is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages in all their forms — from print to video to the internet and social media. Media literacy combines deconstruction and construction of media messages since we are all consumers and producers of media.

Library Fun for Families with Young Children

October 22, 2018

Whether you care for a young child as a parent, a guardian, or as a job, every caregiver has had moments where you and your child are stuck at the house and bored. Maybe the weather outside is no good, the little one is tired of all their toys, or you’re simply craving interaction with another adult after being the dutiful parent, grandparent, nanny, or daycare provider all week long. This is where your public library saves the day! Public libraries seek to provide a place for young children and their caregivers to spend time, have fun, and maybe even learn some valuable early learning skills. What does that look like, you ask? Let me tell you about some pretty amazing services.

10 Ways to Instill a Love of Reading in Your Child

October 11, 2018

Teaching a child to read is one of the most important skills you can give them. Good readers excel at life, and conversely those that can’t read end up in dire circumstances. But being able to read and reading well begin with a love of reading. After all, those things we do well we usually also really enjoy, because we’ve put in the time to get better. Here’s how parents can help their children start down the right path to joy and success in life, as well as a world of adventure and knowledge in reading:

How to Be a Political Librarian

October 04, 2018

(Wake up.) (Drink coffee. Read the news.) The new OCLC report shows just how far voter support for libraries has eroded. Every time a library goes up for a funding measure, it is a battle. My kid is 9 years old and has never known a school librarian. She probably never will. Remember this “new normal.” This is when the Koch brothers fund robo-calls to defeat a local library referenda and we in Illinois are facing full-on state-level budget collapse that’s affecting my academic library friends at Chicago State. Sometimes it’s hard to bring fresh enthusiasm and optimism to my work every day. Hell, sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed. (Feed the kid. Feed the cat. Go to work.) Things we know (and some questions)

5 Ways Libraries Became Better Because of the Internet

October 02, 2018

“I bet the internet has brought down library use…” is one of the first things people say to me when I tell them I’m a librarian. In fact, it’s not true. The unvarnished truth is that library use has risen by a lot since the world wide web became commonplace in the early nineties. In my view, the reasons for this are relatively uncomplicated; in the same way that the internet has made some areas of everyday life more efficient, it has also improved the way libraries serve their patrons. Meaning, instead of replacing libraries, it has helped them do what they’ve always done, but better! Here are five ways the libraries and the internet work together:

How Audiobooks Can Make People More Literate

September 09, 2018

Educators and cognitive scientists recognize that “reading” is a very broad term. In the audiobook community, we already know that “reading” can and does mean critical listening as well as visual understanding of printed text. Pushback still comes from some who believe that“to read” is to decode visually. I like to call them reading “print-bound purists.” As most long-established “eye-readers” know, assumptions about characters, plot direction, and capacity to grasp how facts in chapter one will be required in chapter seven, can and do miss the mark on any first complete reading of a book. How many of these print-bound purists re-read texts — silently, of course, as 20th century pedagogy taught many of us to be a requirement of “skillful” reading?

Learning Starts at Home and the Public Library is the Next Stop

August 29, 2018

Learning starts at home, whether intentional or not. Children mimic what they see done by the adults around them. A baby learns to make noises when he or she watches a parent speak. She knows how to eat from a spoon by watching the family at the dinner table. He learns how to look at a book when he sees his dad reading.

The Perfect Recipe for Building Community

August 27, 2018

Library programs connect communities by bringing people together for shared experiences, conversation, and learning. When we include food in our programming, it opens up incredible new possibilities for sharing between generations and patron communities, fostering curiosity and building needed skills in the process.
More Posts