Industry News

One week from today, the Kirkendall Public Library, in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny, IA, will open its new maker space, the first of its kind in central Iowa. The space, officially called Hatch, will include a 3-D printer, video and audio editing equipment, an image scanner, a traditional sewing machine and a serger, and tools for digitizing VHS, vinyl, and audio cassettes.

September is a great time get your network on. On Monday September 9 at 8 pm ET, it's the very special third annual Back to School Special, featuring an idea share led by Tiffany Whitehead (Mighty Little Librarian), Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl), and the daring Gwyneth Jones. Visit the TLCafé homepage for instructions on how to join the event using Blackboard Collaborate.

Nearly 10,000 students at 20 local schools now have access to the Indianapolis Public Library's collection of nearly two million items as part of the library's growing Shared System, an inter-library collaboration that provides online circulation services and joint access to the catalogs and collections of member institutions.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) a grant in order to help preserve and curate a significant portion of its collection of approximately 50,000 video games and related artifacts, one of the world's most extensive public collections.

Later this month, cartoonists Jeff Kinney, Dav Pilkey, Lincoln Peirce, and Stephan Pastis will present “Drawn Together: Cartoonists Benefit Moore, Oklahoma School Libraries,” two fundraising events for the city of Moore, OK, in which the kid lit stars will discuss their inspiration and creative processes and answer questions from the audience.

Children’s book classics such as Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat and the Hat will be available in ebook format for the first time beginning on September 24. Fifteen of author/illustrator Dr. Seuss's (aka Theodor Geisel) beloved titles will make their digital debut on that date, keeping the original layouts and iconic illustrations from their print editions, says publisher Random House Children’s. By November 2013, a total of 41 ebooks will be available for children, parents, and educators.

Follett’s new back-to-school release of its FollettShelf hosted digital bookshelf—which includes a new HTML5 reading environment for econtent called Follett Enlight—is now available for schools to download this week via apps for GooglePlay and iOS, even though it does not yet appear in searches of Apple’s iTunes store, the company assures School Library Journal.

Sierra did the right thing, and finds herself about to be expelled from school, all because of a zero tolerance no-weapons policy. But are the rules really that black and white? Five lucky winners will have the chance to explore Claudia Mills's take on this with their own copy of Zero Tolerance.

Later this month, the Bank Street College of Education’s Center for Children’s Literature (CCL) will begin a series of three free panel discussions moderated by Leonard Marcus, curator of "The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter," the critically acclaimed exhibition currently on view at the New York Public Library. The series will be followed by CCL's 4th annual BookFest @ Bank Street on October 19, featuring the award-winning Kate DiCamillo as keynote speaker.