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Zoom! Children’s Book Rockets to International Space Station
No full textJust like people on Earth, astronauts in orbit love to read. Now Astronauts Zoom! is part of that reading. The book was launched to the International Space Station (ISS), with four astronauts on the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, for Story Time From Space.After the spacecraft’s first launch attempt was scrubbed (with countdown nail-bitingly stopped at two minutes before liftoff), the book rocketed into space on March 2, 2023, on Read Across America Day. In about 120 days in space, the book has orbited more than 57 million miles on the ISS
Libraries and Diminished Patron Privacy During the COVID-19 Health Crisis
No full textThe COVID-19 health crisis has ushered in an era of great change in the way individuals and institutions function. With the contagious and deadly nature of COVID-19, libraries geared their efforts to increase access to and use of digital collections. With the introduction of stay-home orders, the option of adopting full virtual services became the go-to solution as a way of protecting library staff and users. Collaboration with third-party vendors that provide online library services heightened like never before. As libraries reopened at a later point in the global pandemic, library staff were asked to conduct health screenings for patrons entering the library and actively monitor whether patrons were socially distanced in the library. The drastic change to library operations due to the pandemic resulted in the increased collection of patrons’ personal information ranging from health information to location data coupled with library records. Much as librarians are traditionally and professionally committed to protecting their patrons’ privacy, undertaking activities like health screening in the absence of data transparency practices can potentially impact library users’ privacy. In this study, we investigated whether the 25 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members with the largest number of titles held developed or modified their privacy policies in response to the increase in data collection during the COVID-19 health crisis. Privacy policies are living documents that should evolve with the times and thus should be updated or modified to reflect the current realities. We also examined whether pre-pandemic privacy policies, if any, of the surveyed 25 ARL member libraries are aligned with the privacy requirements outlined in the American Library Association (ALA) Privacy Toolkit (ALA 2014). Our results show that of the surveyed 25 ARL libraries, none of them developed a new library privacy policy or modified an existing one to reflect their data practices with specific regard to the new realities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The disregard for such adjustments to their privacy policies violated the principle of data transparency. Our results also show that, at the time of the survey, 4 of the surveyed 25 ARL members did not have library privacy policies
Editor’s Corner
No full textI want to take up only a little of your time, dear reader, because I am excited to share the student issue with you. We received some solid nominations from instructors this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I and the DttP reviewers have
Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them
No full textWhat a pleasure to find this book about government information listed in the New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2022! Dan Bouk is a history professor at Colgate University who “researches the history of bureaucracies, quantification, and other modern things shrouded in cloaks of boringness” (author’s note). Tedium, he believes, can be a smokescreen for things that somebody deliberately wants to hide, so he’s on a personal mission to cut through the superficial dullness. Bouk is certainly the right person for the job. His enthusiasm for bureaucratic data is irresistible, and his meticulously researched writing is witty, lively, and not at all boring
Book Review: The Ultimate Privacy Field Guide: A Workbook of Best Practices
No full textPrivacy, a concept that provides individuals with the right to control how their personal information is used, is one of the core values of librarianship. This is so because the practice of librarianship is a patron-driven discipline closely allied with modern democratic values such as freedom of access to information as well as freedom from external powers—governmental, corporate, administrative, or what have you—attempting to limit such freedom of access. Privacy is also a core value of librarianship because librarianship in our time is one of a larger set of disciplines associated with information management and digital security. As librarians, we are entrusted with the privacy and confidentiality of our patrons’ and staff’s information and our patrons and staff, in turn, have a right to expect us to protect that information. Furthermore, in addition to keeping information private, librarians should also be able to explain which information should be kept private and also why any specific pieces of information fall under privacy constraints, if for no other reason than in order to justify the high estimation librarians have of privacy
Community Forward: Developing an Open and Free Cataloging Standard for Rare Materials
No full textDescriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (RDA Edition) (DCRMR) is a rare materials cataloging standard aligned with the official RDA Toolkit. DCRMR is informed by core principles of community and sustainability while employing open-source publication models and infrastructure. The RBMS RDA Editorial Group, composed of rare materials catalogers actively working in the field, is responsible for developing and maintaining DCRMR. This article discusses predecessor rare materials cataloging standards that led to the development of DCRMR, the principles and constraints that shaped DCRMR from its initial inception to eventual release, the method and technical tools used to achieve the RBMS RDA Editorial Group’s outcomes, and future directions for development
Stan Is THE Van: Mobile Makerspace a Hit in Ohio
No full textStan the Tech Van is an experience on wheels belonging to Madison (OH) Public Library (MPL). It’s not just a 2022 Ram Promaster 2500 cargo van; it can hold an FDM 3D printer along with other tech on carts in the back. We chose a high roof delivery van to allow any staff member the ability to drive Stan for a program or event since it does not require a commercial driver’s license. Stan is outfitted with delivery shelving, a roof rack, and an awning package as well as a powered Gramps Aluminum Gated Commercial Van Ramp System. It’s more than a vehicle that holds enough LEGO Robotics that a staff member doesn’t have to clean out his or her car to get a classroom set out to a school. It’s a mobile makerspace that holds all types of machines that anyone can use to create all sorts of projects
Couples who Collaborate: Mary Ann and Perry Hoberman
No full textThough this column usually highlights couples in the more traditional sense of the word, typically in a committed relationship in any form, defining the term more widely yields a delightful collection of couples who collaborate to produce children’s books.The Pumphrey brothers were the first sibling couple discussed (see vol. 19, no. 4 (2021): 27–29). In this column, we feature a mother-son duo, Mary Ann and Perry Hoberman, who have partnered for their very first collaboration, Away with Words (2022). No stranger to family collaboration, Mary Ann describes a dream come true, partnering with her son to create a picture book, and Perry, a well-known artist in his own right, shares similar sentiments to describe collaborating with his legendary mother to create another contribution to her impressive collection of children’s books
A Brief History of Banning Ellen Hopkins
No full textEllen Hopkins, the author of many verse novels for teens, did not shy away from writing about tough topics, like drug abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and violence. Writing based on her own experiences—as a woman, and as a mother—Hopkins found herself, for a period in the early 21st century, the target of censors who thought her tales were too dark and gritty for teens. This chapter explores the author’s own relationship to Hopkins’ work and the history of attempts to censor Hopkins and her stories over the past nearly two decades. From disinvitations to permission slips, censorship takes many forms. It goes after many different people and types of books, and through the timeline of attempts to ban one specific author, we can illuminate ways in which censors attack people’s lived experiences when they attempt to ban a book
Let this Radicalize Us
No full textThe more things change, the more they stay the same. While many have been working at the intersection of intellectual freedom and social justice for great lengths of time, it is newer to others. And for those who are new, they enter this work at a time when there is increasing contention around issues related to both intellectual freedom and social justice. Whether we’re dealing with the hyper fixation on notions neutrality, book bans, or systemic racism and whiteness in society and in the profession, there is a great need for this important work, and for these topics to work in tandem, instead of using intellectual freedom arguments to further disenfranchise marginalized groups. As a result, it may appear that intellectual freedom and social justice do not work together, but they are indeed not mutually exclusive. We need to give more care and consideration to how they do work together, and how they can work together in even better and more cohesive ways