Tag Archives: Public Library

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Web & Technology

How to Protect Your Local Library From Book Ban Campaigns – Bloomberg

May 1, 2023 DrWeb

Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back.

By Ariel Aberg-Riger, April 26, 2023 at 6:12 AM PDT

National Library Week in the US comes amid a period of turmoil for libraries, as efforts to censor books intensify.

Visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger explores the threats libraries face, their historical context and how activists are mobilizing to protect a diversity of thought.

For more on how libraries came to be a critical piece of social infrastructure, read her History of the American Public Library.

Editor’s Note: For free tools for National Library Week 2023, go here.

Source: How to Protect Your Local Library From Book Ban Campaigns – Bloomberg

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics

Opinion | Book bans raise the question: Have we forgotten what a library is for? – The Washington Post

October 10, 2022 DrWeb

By Deborah E. Mikula and Loren Khogali, September 30, 2022 at 12:18 p.m. EDT

*The Patmos Library on Aug. 11 in Jamestown, Mich. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)*

Deborah E. Mikula is executive director of the Michigan Library Association. Loren Khogali is executive director of the ACLU of Michigan.

Imagine a town without a library.

In August, people in Jamestown, Mich., just outside Grand Rapids, signaled with their votes that they would rather defund — and possibly shutter — their only public library than keep books with LGBTQ themes on the shelves.

The impact of such a vote is deeply concerning. And the place from which it stems — a small but vocal minority trying to dictate what others can and cannot read — is even more troubling.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/02/jamestown-patmos-library-defund-book-bans-lgbtq/

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Pleasures, Television, Times They Are A-Changing, Web & Technology

Welcome to the library of the 21st century – CBS News

August 3, 2022 DrWeb

Welcome to the library of the 21st century

July 24, 2022 / 9:11 AM / by CBS News

from show/article…

On a recent Monday morning, the citizens of Kanawha County, West Virginia, came to check out a new chapter in the life of an old institution.

After more than two years and $32 million in renovations, downtown Charleston’s public library reopened to the public – less a warehouse of books, and more a marketplaces of ideas.

Inside, visitors discovered a brand-new cafe, a tool-lending library, and an “idea lab” full of the latest technology. From podcasting booths to computerized sewing machines to augmented reality screens, the facility has been updated for the modern age.

Source: Welcome to the library of the 21st century – CBS News