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When Times Are Worse, Turn to Verse! Poetry during a Pandemic
No full textThe lockdown last spring shut down everything—our daily routines, our travel plans, in-person conferences, and—for many people—even our usual reading habits. It was difficult to concentrate. We were all hungry for news and guidance, yet we could hardly grasp it. Authors and illustrators began reading their books out loud and sharing those recordings online; publishers widened their permission rules to allow this sharing of content and images
For the Record
No full textColleges and UniversitiesGovernmentJournalism and MediaNet NeutralityPrivate IndustrySchoolsInternationa
TRAIL Spotlight: Ionospheric Radio Propagation
No full textHow can our radios receive signals from stations beyond our line of sight? One common mode of transmission and reception of radio waves is “skywave,” or ionospheric propagation. In skywave transmission, a radio station transmits medium or high frequency (MF or HF) radio waves away from the Earth and toward the ionosphere, an atmospheric layer extending from approximately 50-400 miles (approximately 80-640 km) above the ground. The ionosphere gets its name from the high concentrations of charged ions and free electrons present at this altitude. These charged particles act as a mirror for the transmitted radio waves, reflecting them back toward Earth. The skywave can bounce once, or many times, between the ionosphere and the Earth, before reception by a radio receiver. We experience skywave reception with long-distance AM radio reception, as well as for shortwave radio and many of the radio bands used by amateur radio “hams.
Chapter 4. Training with the Toolkit
No full textChapter 4 of Library Technology Reports (vol. 57, no. 8), “Using the Toward Gigabit Libraries Toolkit,” discusses the origins of the toolkit and how the author built upon field experience in small libraries in Colorado and Texas to discover areas where libraries needed technical guidance. It also illustrates some of the ways the toolkit has been used by various organizations to better library services and technology
Meaning Makers: Leading Book Discussions that Actually Work
No full textA book club where you don’t even have to read the book? Sounds odd, but we promote our library’s monthly book club for fourth and fifth graders as more of a social club, a place to make new friends.We don’t aim to improve reading comprehension; we don’t even require kids to read the book (although that is encouraged!). We simply want kids to experience reading as a fun social activity
Creating Workflows for Oral History Transcription and Curation: A Case Study Involving Oral Histories in Satellite Meteorology
No full textThis article presents a case study of the transcription and curation of a set of oral histories conducted by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in collaboration with the Schwerdtfeger Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. The oral histories will become part of the AMS Oral History Project and the Schwerdtfeger Library’s Digital Collections. Oral history interviews were conducted with prominent figures in satellite meteorology at the AMS Joint Satellite Conference in Boston, Massachusetts in 2019. These interviews invited leading remote sensing scientists to share perspectives on their careers, the innovations in and evolution of satellite capabilities and intersections with their careers, as well as future directions of the field. They elaborated at length on subjective details of their lives and work that might otherwise not have been captured in scholarly literature or in other locations. Interview transcripts were processed to conform to the Smithsonian’s Oral History Program Style Guide and were archived according to the Oral History Association’s Manual of Best Practices for Archiving. This paper seeks to examine the processes involved in transcribing and preparing files for curation as a case study for other institutions considering similar projects in the sciences
Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Bibliography to Foster Discussions and Reassure Children
No full textAdverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are most often associated with traumatic events involving violence, abuse, or severe neglect. But federal government statistics on ACEs also consider the strain related to a child’s unstable home life. Highly stressful situations such as an incarcerated parent, living with a substance abuser, refugee status, prolonged separation from a parent, or a difficult parental divorce are all considered causes of ACEs
The “Bane of the Bassinet”? Graphic Novels as Informational Texts
No full textOriginally, the authors were accepted to present this topic at the 2020 ALA Annual Conference as an Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Hot Topic. As the conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, information from the presentation was adapted for this article
Book Review: Telling the Technical Services Story: Communicating Value
No full textProfessional discussions about the value of library technical services have long been the subject of the library literature and conference presentations. Often not fully understood until experienced first-hand, technical services work can appear mysterious to our library and organizational colleagues, and conveying the impact of our work is even more of a challenge to explain to library patrons engaged in teaching and learning. Because of this disconnect, many technical services librarians see advocacy as part of their role. The business of technical services evolves constantly in response to changing acquisitions models, data and discovery requirements and capabilities, and technological innovations, and therefore, it is no surprise that at the heart of advocacy lies communication. Telling the Technical Services Story: Communicating Value is a compilation of interesting case studies, primarily from academic libraries, that underline the importance of communication in conveying the impact of library technical services. Editors Edwards and MacKenzie note in their introduction that technical services work has moved beyond the back room and remains a critical part of fulfilling the library’s mission. Due to the positioning of technical services, a communication strategy is often needed and sharing these practical ways to carry out this strategy is reflected by the publication of this title