News & Features

Tinkerers of all ages are flexing their creative muscles during the Summer of Making and Connecting, a global project geared to empower digital crafters and match people with maker activities, online or on the street.

Calling all performance-inclined library media specialists. Think you can pull off a song about what librarians do—as a rap? Flocabulary, creator of multimedia K–12 lessons to a hip-hop beat, wants you.

Receiving student book requests is kind of like when someone tells you what they want for Christmas. You don’t quite get the fleeting pleasure of feeling like a creative gift-giving wizard, but you get the deep satisfaction of knowing they’ll love it. That’s the part that counts most. It’s common for books we purchase based on [...]

"Someone broke into Famke Janssen’s home and left a weird doll book"... and more.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez, who last month warned that 22 of the county’s 49 public libraries could be shut down this fall due to deep budget cuts, announced that his administration now expects to shutter only four, according to the Miami Herald.

The importance of advocacy is evident to us during a crisis. When our libraries are threatened or our staff faces cuts, then we leap into motion. But we should be mindful of advocacy every day. Mapping a yearlong effort keeps advocacy from getting lost in the daily shuffle.

You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Joyce Valenza shares some creative ways to do a library orientation. (Zombies included.)

Read about what your peers think about the correlation between a thriving library and student success, the importance of administrators' support for certified librarians, and more.

Nearly 50 children’s and teen librarians met last week at Darien Library (CT) for the fifth annual KidLibCamp, a free “unconference” in which the discussion topics, panels, and workshops are voted on by the participants. Attendees explored best practices in 12 interactive breakout sessions with several common takeaways: that innovative programming can be achieved at little start-up cost; librarians need to better market existing programs to their patrons; and partnering with schools and communities is critical to the future of our libraries.