News

Proponents of "grit" claim that developing a combination of passion and perseverance is the most significant factor shaping one’s life. The problem is, this contention ignores a great deal and has unintended negative consequences.

Library trustees are charged with evaluating the ­director’s performance—and, often, securing a director when the position opens up. Trustees need to act efficiently, in these moments of pending vacancy, to secure leadership for their library. There are many considerations that arise when a director submits that dreaded resignation letter. Here are a few.

When Clyde Scoles, longtime director of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL), OH, died unexpectedly in February, Deputy Director Jason Kucsma stepped up as acting director for the 21-branch system. Scoles had announced his retirement only a few weeks before, and Kucsma was already considering his next steps. On August 1, the TLCPL board of trustees voted to appoint Kucsma as executive director and chief financial officer. 

The Leander Public Library (LPL), TX, has drawn criticism for proposed changes to meeting room and speaker policies—instituted not by the library, but by city government of this suburb north of Austin. LPL has been run by private library administrators Library Systems and Services since it was established as a city department in 2005. In the wake of several recent instances of programming deemed “controversial” by city leadership, amendments to library policy have drawn the attention of residents, city council members, and library and civil rights associations.

Within the past month, Hachette Book Group replaced its perpetual licensing model for libraries with a two-year ebook and digital audiobook lending model. Simon & Schuster eliminated perpetual licensing on digital audiobooks and replaced it with two-year licensing, announced per-circ pricing for select ebook titles, and made additional changes to its library ebook model. And audiobook provider Blackstone Publishing announced a new 90-day embargo on sales to libraries.

Libraries across the country are finding new ways to support patrons experiencing mental health challenges—as well as the staff who serve them.

Brian Bannon, commissioner of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system since 2012, was recently named the Merryl and James Tisch Director of the New York Public Library (NYPL). LJ caught up with Bannon during his last month in Chicago to hear about the inspiration for his move to NYPL and his strategies for leaving a thriving CPL.

In the same way that fitness trackers offer reality checks for sedentary lifestyles, diversity audits cast light on the homogeneity embedded within library collections, providing data that identifies gaps in representations of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other traditionally marginalized perspectives.

As America’s opioid crisis becomes a tragic new normal, libraries have stepped up in a variety of ways. While the role of library workers—as first responders, training staff to save lives by administering Narcan to patrons who overdose in the library—has understandably received the most mainstream media attention, library responses are deeper and more proactive than that emergency ­intervention.