After six years at the helm of the fourth busiest library in the world, Kate Torney has taken on a new challenge: supporting research into cancer. (6 Sep 2021) When Kate Torney was announced as the new CEO of the State Library Victoria (SLV) in 2015 she was an outsider. The first non-library trained CEO…
(2 Sep 2021) The Asia Foundation is introducing its innovative Let’s Read initiative to Mongolia to promote reading and improved education outcomes. The initiative helps parents and caregivers use children’s books as critical tools in actively contributing to early childhood development. Let’s Read Mongolia is made possible with generous financial support from the Lorinet Foundation.…
(4 Sep 2021) The Philippines recently received its first-ever award from the prestigious Venice Biennale since it first joined the exhibition in 1964. The recognition was for the exhibition “Structures of Mutual Support,” a stunning wooden structure inspired by the concept of bayanihan, the Filipino tradition of mutual support, following the biennial architecture fair’s theme of how…
(12 Sep 2021) In response to a request from Tochigi Library in the city of Tochigi, the Tochigi Animal Therapy Association chose from approximately 20 registered dogs belonging to volunteers to begin training. On the importance of reading therapy dogs during the coronavirus pandemic, Hirokazu Kurokawa, the library’s 46-year-old head, said, “It’s not a bad thing…
(13 Sep 2021) In a global survey fielded last month, more than half of those who are unvaccinated in more than 50 countries indicated they definitely or probably won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine. A new dashboard launched today by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) unpacks the survey findings and helps explain why—and how experts can…
(9 Sep 2021) How can the library be best positioned to continue enabling student and institutional success? The Community College Academic and Student Support Ecosystem research initiative seeks to examine how student-facing service departments—including academic libraries—are organized, funded, and staffed at community and technical colleges across the country. In February 2021, [Ithaka S+R] surveyed 321 community…
(7 Sep 2021) From Retraction Watch: Two years ago, we reported on a website based in Russia that claimed to have brokered authorships for more than 10,000 researchers. (Apparently, neither our coverage nor a cease-and-desist letter from Clarivate Analytics had any effect on the site’s operations.) And now, we bring you news of what…
(2 Sep 2021) As part of our series on the ongoing negotiations between Elsevier and the UK university sector, this post by Michael Williams, Head of Collection Development & Management at Cambridge University Libraries, explores the University’s plans for continued research access in the event that an agreement cannot be reached. As negotiations continue…
(1 Sep 2021) The Library of Congress announced today its third release of records in its online catalog for free bulk download for research and discovery. The release supports the Library’s effort to continuously expand open access to its vast collections. This MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging Records) release surpasses previous releases and adds more than…
(1 Sep 2021) From American Libraries Magazine: [T]his year’s slate features building projects completed during the pandemic makes them even more noteworthy. Despite libraries being temporarily closed or operating at reduced hours because of COVID-19 restrictions, beautiful new facilities and innovatively renovated spaces continued to open to the public over the past year and…