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ALSC Member Profiles
No full textEwa Wojciechowska,Youth Services Librarian,New Castle (DE) Public LibraryWhy do you stay involved with ALSC?ALSC is full of inspirational library workerswho I continuously love working withand learning from. Whenever I meet withcommittee members, I become evenmore excited about my own work, as I’mable to speak with other passionate professionalsfrom all over the country
Growing Together: School Outreach and Advocating for Staff Growth
No full textPrior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the children’s department at the North Platte (NE) Public Library had four staff members, two full-time and two part-time. Our library serves Lincoln County, with a total service population of around thirty-two thousand.When I came onboard in late 2021, it had dwindled to just a full-time librarian and a part-time assistan
Should national library associations consider having a register to record censorship challenges in libraries? Two case studies.
No full textResearch Problem:Some national library associations keep registers to receive reports of actual or attempted censorship in libraries. Countries without a register can look at the data shared by overseas associations to predict and understand censorship trends. However, overseas organisations do not capture local trends of challenges, nor challenges unique to a country, its history and culture. The Library and Information Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (LIANZA) does not have a register, and looking at overseas data does not capture local trends unique to their country, particularly challenges around Indigenous Māori. The objective of the study is to examine the benefits of national library associations having a register to collect data on censorship challenges in libraries, what practical considerations there are for setting up a register, and what data would need to be captured to make a register meaningful in Aotearoa New Zealand.Methodology:The research took two national library associations as case studies and generated qualitative data through semi-structured interviews via thematic analysis in the style of Braun and Clarke (2006). Results:Four themes emerged; that a register was beneficial in supporting staff, added value to a library association, enhanced advocacy efforts, and required certain practical considerations for successful management. Both interviewees recommended library associations have a register as part of a wider suite of resources to support staff by having localised data and knowledge of local trends, and to demonstrate their commitment to intellectual freedom principle. Implications:The outcome has practical implications for library associations who do not have censorship registers, such as LIANZA, to consider setting up such a register. Future research could examine the need for a register in non-English speaking, western democratic countries, or could examine trends around challenges towards Indigenous content.Keywords:Libraries, censorship, challenges, registers, intellectual freedom, library association(s
Freedom and Neutrality: Reframing the Debate
No full textNeutrality is library science’s ultimate ethicalbogeyman. It is our enemy, our goal, our Achilles’ heel. Often portrayed either as an indispensable boon or an illusory bane, this contentious and contested concept haunts our literature, acting as a cartoon barometer for the disciplinary mood. Some commentators view neutrality as a democratic lynchpin, an essential stance; others see it as an ironic tool of insidious oppression. From the nineteen-sixties to today, an urgent question has echoed: is impartiality a necessary precondition for protecting intellectual freedom? Contemporary incarnations of this historic debate are sometime scharacterized as moot, or needlessly unproductive, in the eyes of external observers. These complaints, however distressing, are well founded: our discourse doestend to lack a solid semantic substrate. Although some recent contributions have sought to calm the epistemological storm, many authors remain unwilling or unable to overcome key communicational roadblocks. Essential philosophical considerations are frequently omitted, insufficiently examined (and articulated), or simply considered unimportant. Terms are left undefined, often assuming so many different ideological valences that their usefulness is diminished. Most interventions are made in good faith, and participants generally speak from the heart—but what are they truly speaking of? Is our current approach one which might create real change, or has an uncareful discourse produced “manufactured controvers[ies]” and “meaningless [...] battle[s]”?3 Does our disciplinary lexicon—and the organization or ‘grouping’ of ideas/ideologies that it implies—mask underlying commonalities or possibilities for agreement? Does it obscure real routes toward resolution? This paper argues that a new framework—a new lens for viewing the tension between neutrality, social values, and intellectual freedom—is not only necessary but possible and productive.
Child Development Strategies That Work with ALL Children
No full textOn November 15, 2024, we attended the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children Infants and Toddlers Conference. The purpose was to provide a day of inspiration, learning, and networking for early childhood professionals, exploring the latest research, best practices, and innovative strategies for supporting infant and toddler development.Although the conference was geared for caregivers of infants and toddlers, home-based caregivers, Early Head Start, Early On, Even Start, First Families, and administrators, children’s librarians would have felt very comfortable there
Resisting Censorship and Defending the Integrity of Federally Supported Information
No full textFederal information is under significant threat from the Trumpadministration’s unprecedented levels of censorship, expressedthrough direct suppression of specific terms, distortion anddeletion of research, and targeted cuts to agencies’ funding andstaffing that are the engine of federal information generatio
Helping or Overstepping?: Adult Services Librarians Talk About Social Services in Public Libraries
No full textPublic libraries are increasingly seeing patrons with a variety of social services needs. Often, the adult services librarianis the first, and sometimes only, point of contact for these patrons. It is important, therefore, to explore adult serviceslibrarians’ perspectives on and experiences with addressing patrons’ social services needs. Two online focus groupswere held with a total of 13 adult services librarians from across the United States. Findings indicate that these librariansare seeing patrons with myriad social services needs, and they are collaborating with community partners and, in somecases, social workers to address them. They generally do not feel that their LIS education prepared them to adequatelyprovide these services. Moreover, feelings are mixed about the extent to which librarians should be expected to performthis kind of work. Overall, they desire clearer guidelines about the librarian’s role and what the professional boundariesare in this context
Placement of the Library at the Heart of GenAI: Marketing Opportunities For Us All
No full textA successful marketing campaign begins with strong relationships, a visible presence on campus orin the community, and a strategic approach.Generative artificial intelligence (abbreviated as “gen AI” or just “AI” in this column) presentslibrarians with new opportunities to consider, discuss, and adapt. While our core values remainunchanged, our services, support, and access to information are now shaped by the ways ourpatrons engage with this rapidly evolving technology. The need for digital AI literacy is pressing,alongside the ethical and responsible use of gen AI, and the ability to assess the information itprovides. Branding the library as the AI learning destination is leaning int
Advancing AI Literacy: An Analysis of AI Library Research Guides at R1 Universities
No full textThe introduction of ChatGPT in 2022 renewed interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), sparking a wave of integration of AI technologies across higher education. However, many users still lack AI literacy competencies essential for the effective use of these tools. This study employed a mixed-method approach to examine AI library research guides at R1institutions, focusing on their content and coverage. By analyzing 102 research guides, the study uncovered significant variability, with many guides failing to address critical topics in AI literacy, such as prompt engineering, AI biases, and the ethics of AI us
Core Competencies in Practice: Exploring Catalogers’ Alignment with Professional Standards
No full textThe purpose of this article is to report on a recent study that explores how well the self-assessedknowledge and skills of cataloging and metadata librarians correlate with the knowledge andskills described in the Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professional Librariansthat was revised in 2023 by a group formed by the American Library Association’s Core Metadata Collections Leadership Team. A questionnaire gathered basic demographic information andinvited participants to rate their understanding of the Knowledge core competencies, as well as ratehow often they utilize the Skill/Ability core competencies. The results suggest that cataloging andmetadata professional librarian participants of this study view themselves as having a good or fullunderstanding of most Knowledge core competencies, even if many participants did not regularly usethe Skill/Ability core competencies that include that knowledg