2015 State of America's Libraries Report

The American Library Association released its 2015 State of America's Libraries Report, detailing issues and trends of the previous year affecting America's public, academic and school libraries. The highly anticipated report includes the 2014 list of Top Ten Most Challenged Books as reported to ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. Here's an overview of the report's key findings:

Libraries provide people of all ages and backgrounds with unlimited possibilities to participate in a media- and technology-enriched society. As community anchors, libraries touch people’s lives in many ways and stand as protectorates of the tenets of a democratic government. This report discusses current issues, developments, and practices of academic, school, and public libraries.

Academic libraries provide resources and services to support the learning, teaching, and research needs of students, faculty, and staff. Surveys show that both students and faculty value high-quality digital and print collections and the instructional support that helps them use these resources. Academic librarians are finding creative ways to repurpose library spaces and make optimal budgeting choices.

School libraries provide learning environments that enable students to acquire the reading, research, digital literacy, and citizenship skills necessary for college and career readiness. Certified school librarians ensure that 21st-century information literacy skills, dispositions, responsibilities, and assessments are integrated throughout all curriculum areas.

Public libraries serve as community anchors that address economic, educational, and health disparities in the community. They offer educational programs, print and digital books, access to databases, meeting spaces, and instruction on how to use new technologies. More than two-thirds of Americans agree that libraries are important because they improve the quality of life in a community, promote literacy and reading, and provide many people with a chance to succeed.


More from I Love Libraries

America is in love with its libraries

From Boing Boing:

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report entitled How Americans Value Public Libraries in Their Communities (PDF), that shows a very large majority of Americans value libraries, viewing them as critical to their communities and vital to providing services that ensure equality of opportunity for people who would otherwise be at a terrible disadvantage in life.

This is in contrast to a few privileged blowhards who've opined that the library is an obsolete institution in the age of the Internet -- and worse, an unaffordable luxury in a time of austerity and recession. The mission of libraries is to help the public navigate information and become informed -- a mission that is more important than ever.

Regents Advisory Council for Libraries issues second draft of Creating the Future, a 2020 Vision

The New York State Regents Advisory Council for Libraries has released the second draft of Creating the Future, a 2020 Vision and Plan for Library Services in New York State: Preliminary Recommendations of the New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries to the New York State Board of Regents. The deadline for submitting written comments about the second draft is February 15, 2012.

Learn online about health & wellness from the National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine can help you learn about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions. From Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms to Varicose Veins, and many topics in between.

Created for patients, you can learn about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions. Also learn about surgeries, prevention and wellness.
Each tutorial includes animated graphics, audio, and easy-to-read language

Library Statistics

The latest update of the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) data is now available on the IMLS web site. This survey has a CENSUS URL, not so incidentally.

National Jukebox

Exceedingly cool!

Historical Recordings from the Library of Congress



The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings.

At launch, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will be increased regularly, with additional Victor recordings and acoustically recorded titles made by other Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia, OKeh, and others.

NewYorkHeritage.org adds collections

New York Heritage Digital Collections has recently added twelve new collections to its cooperative site at newyorkheritage.org, including the Bowers Collection from the Broome County Historical Society, Historic Paintings Unwrapped from the History Center of Tompkins County, the Daughters of Charity Collection from the Lourdes Hospital, the Crandall Public Library Center for Folklife, History, and Cultural Programs Digital Collections, and the Digital Collections of Albany Law School.

NewYorkHeritage.org is a project of the NY 3Rs Association, which uses OCLC’s CONTENTdm Multisite Server to bring previously digitized collections together, allowing researchers to search across all items simultaneously. This project provides free, online access to images of cultural and historical significance in New York State.

Participants in New York Heritage Digital Collections are committed to enhancing the site by adding both content and contributing institutions on a regular basis. The goal of the project is to eventually connect one thousand collections and one million items from throughout New York State. All institutions interested in participating in the project are encouraged to complete this online form.

The New York 3Rs Association is a partnership among New York’s nine reference and research resource systems. The New York 3Rs was incorporated in 2003 to further the ability of those systems to provide statewide services. The members of the New York 3Rs Association are: the Capital District Library Council, Central New York Library Resources Council, Long Island Library Resources Council, Metropolitan New York Library Council, Northern New York Library Network, Rochester Regional Library Council, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, South Central Regional Library Council, and Western New York Library Resources Council.

Librarians!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides some information about the number of librarians in the US. Also, OCLC provides some global library statistics that I find interesting.

Number of Libraries in the United States

250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives

This list contains over 250 libraries and archives that focus mainly on localized, regional, and U.S. history, but it also includes larger collections, eText and eBook repositories, and a short list of directories to help you continue your research efforts.

Public Libraries and Department of Labor Employment Centers

New York's unemployment numbers now show that 762,600 workers statewide are unemployed. Because of the tremendous need for assistance with employment and retraining information and assistance, the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) is interested in placing some DOL employees who could provide employment counseling, programs and training, to work in public libraries across New York.

The State Library and the public library systems are working with the DOL to assess interest and capacity for hosting such staff in public libraries. The public library systems are surveying member libraries this week and next and results will be shared with the Department of Labor as soon as results are complete.

Public Library Systems and public libraries continue to work individually in many regions of the state to collaborate on job/career information training and workshops for both library staff and the public.

For additional information on the survey please contact: Cassie Artale, New York State Library / Division of Library Development, 518/474-1479, cartale@mail.nysed.gov

Amendment to cut libraries out of broadband package in Senate stimulus bill

Calls to ALL Senators are needed IMMEDIATELY to protect $200 million for libraries, community computing centers and related institutions in the original language of the Senate stimulus bill, H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The American Library Association has just been advised that Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are expected to introduce Senate Amendment 501 which would strip funding for libraries and broadband to put additional funding in FDIC. If introduced, the vote could take place this afternoon.

The message is: keep the $200 million for libraries and broadband in H.R. 1 - defeat amendment 501. Libraries provide information on jobs, employment skills, and all other types of job-seeking information. More people are using libraries during these difficult times and the demand for broadband is greater than ever.

Depository Libraries-GIO: Ask a Librarian

by Barbara Quint

A formal agreement between the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO; www.gpo.gov) and a network of 20 depository libraries has relaunched and expanded the scope of a virtual reference service called Government Information Online: Ask a Librarian (GIO; http://govtinfo.org). Be careful about using the dot-org. Typing "govtinfo.gov" will switch you to the USA.gov site. That may not be too much of a mistake in time. One of the primary strategies of the GIO service is to promote its existence through links from other leading dot-gov sites, such as USA.gov and Thomas. The engineering of such linkages falls mainly to GPO. The depository library participants, led by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and managed by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC; www.cic.net), will handle providing the free chat- and email-based virtual reference service.

Reference librarians from 20 academic, state, and public depository libraries will be available to direct users to information from government agencies, in particular federal, but state, regional, and local agencies as well. The federal government coverage should be consistently strong, as all the libraries involved are federal depositories. Coverage of state and local collections will vary, along with other expertise. John Shuler, project manager and bibliographer for urban planning and government information at UIC, describes the expertise of participant library collections and staff as stretching outside the GPO collection. "We draw on multiple sources and all levels, including specific local expertise. While all have generalized expertise for the federal

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