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Articles on Libraries

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Kate Winslet in the 2015 film The Dressmaker. The film was based on the novel by Australian writer Rosalie Ham. Screen Australia, Film Art Media, White Hot Productions

Gail Jones: Australian literature is chronically underfunded — here’s how to help it flourish

Literature funding has been cut brutally in recent years and writers’ incomes are disastrously low. Yet books shape our national identity, forming an often invisible bedrock for the wider economy.
Canada lags behind some countries with preserving public digital records. (Flickr/BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives Canada)

2020 is a year for the history books, but not without digital archives

Policymakers should mandate Canada’s national library to archive the entire Canadian web domain so future reserachers can make sense of 2020 and ongoing responses to the pandemic.
Despite an increasinly online-only world, libraries can still reveal the lives of the people who once owned the books within them. (Shutterstock)

As libraries go digital, paper books still have a lot to offer us

What stories will we tell about library collections in the future? As digitization takes over libraries, margin notes and scribbles are still part of the research process.
Helping children develop strategies for personal resilience has become a vital part of parenting and education. (Shutterstock)

These children’s picture books nurture grit, determination and hope

Literacy researchers analyze cross-Canada favourite books for kindergarten to Grade 2 readers, and suggest great “gritty” reads that can help normalize conversations surrounding failure and growth.
Reading and books are more important than ever for contemporary society. Here an image of The Rose Main Reading Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (also known as New York Public Library Main Branch) – an elegant study hall in the heart of Manhattan. Patrick Robert Doyle /Unsplash

Libraries can have 3-D printers but they are still about books

Today’s libraries build communities and provide space for learning new technologies but it is critical that they continue to be about books and reading too.
Public libraries can use their status as community hubs to engage the public in scenario planning for the future. Mosman Library/Flickr

How public libraries can help prepare us for the future

We commonly think of libraries as repositories of knowledge accumulated over centuries. But the public library also connects people in ways that can enable communities to plan for their future.
For now, it’s going to be trickier for the University of California community to access some academic journals. Michelle/Flickr

University of California’s showdown with the biggest academic publisher aims to change scholarly publishing for good

The UC libraries let their Elsevier journal subscriptions lapse and now the publisher has cut their online access. It’s a painful milestone in the fight UC hopes may transform how journals get paid.
China’s five-storey Tianjin Binhai Library occupies an area of 33,700 square metres with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which can contain up to 1.2 million books. Roman Pilipey

Friday essay: the library – humanist ideal, social glue and now, tourism hotspot

In our world of pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. Their core purpose as accessible places is vital – yet they are also now popular tourist destinations.
Libraries are offering new and innovative things that belie their historic image as silent places to read.

7 unexpected things that libraries offer besides books

With advancements in technology, libraries are offering much more than something to read. A library researcher offers a sampling of some unexpected items that library patrons can check out these days.
Library subjects and call numbers can be the subject of controversy. jakkaje808/shutterstock.com

The bias hiding in your library

The way books are sorted at the library can be highly political, touching upon issues of race and identity.
Libraries subscribe digitally to academic journals – and are left with nothing in the stacks when the contract expires. Eric Chan/Flickr

University of California’s break with the biggest academic publisher could shake up scholarly publishing for good

Digital publishing hasn’t resulted in the free and open access to information many envisioned. Universities are increasingly fed up with a system they see as charging them for their own scholars’ labor.

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