11h
YALSA has selected five books as finalists for the 2018 William C. Morris Award, which honors the year’s best books written for young adults by a previously unpublished author. The division will name the winner at the Youth Media Awards on February 12 at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. YALSA will host a reception honoring the finalists and the winner.
YALSA, Dec. 5
11h
Justin Pot writes: “The internet is down, but you know what to do: Unplug your router or modem, wait 10 seconds, then plug it back in. It’s second nature at this point, but why does it actually work? And is there some magic to the 10-second number? And the even bigger question: Is there some way you can stop doing this? Routers can feel mysterious, but they’re not. And if you know what’s going wrong, you can usually solve the problem.”
How-To Geek, Dec. 4
11h
Jason Cipriani writes: “There are plenty of options for keeping your phone or tablet charged while on the go. USB car chargers don’t differ from each other all that much. Some have an indicator light, others have illuminated ports. Some feature Quick Charge for devices that support it, others don’t. One attribute they all share, however, is two USB ports—meaning the days of the single-port car charger are long over. Spigen’s Quick Charge 3.0 charger is the best: It’s inexpensive, offers QC3.0, and has a minimal design.”
PC World, Dec. 5
12h
Libraries across Michigan are signing on to help the Kent District (Mich.) Library’s “Books for Texas” donation program that is working to get donations of more than 50,000 books to help the Port Arthur (Tex.) Public Library that was nearly wiped out by Hurricane Harvey. Brian Mortimore, KDL director of human resources, said since a news story was published in November, more than 15,000 books have been donated and several other Michigan libraries have signed on to help collect books.
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Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, Dec. 4
12h
Con Lehane writes: “In my most recent book, Murder in the Manuscript Room, one of the characters, a librarian, says after discovering she’d been under surveillance in the library and elsewhere, ‘Everybody’s spying on everybody.’ ALA, founded in 1876 to promote and protect libraries and the profession of librarianship, sees its job as protecting the right of citizens to get information. I, for one, appreciate that our public libraries cherish their long-established policy and practice of protecting my rights to privacy, confidentiality, and intellectual freedom.”
HuffPost, Dec. 4
12h
Valerie Nye writes: “I interviewed John Harer about a faculty member’s request to remove Holocaust denial books from a large academic library circulating collection. The incident happened in the mid-1990s but has lasting ramifications today. Harer is currently at East Carolina University. In 1995 he worked at an academic library in the Southwest where a journalism faculty member met with the dean of library services to object to the inclusion of seven Holocaust denial books that were in the library’s collection.”
Intellectual Freedom Blog, Dec. 4
13h
The nominations deadline for the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award has been extended until December 15. Works that have been published in 2016–2017 are eligible to be nominated for this award that honors the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. The award was named for Eli M. Oboler, the extensively published Idaho State University librarian known as a “champion of intellectual freedom.”
Intellectual Freedom Round Table, Dec. 4
