Celebrating Baseball in Children's Books

With the airing of Ken Burns' baseball series "Baseball: The Tenth Inning" on PBS this week, it's time for a review of great children's books about the history of the sport.

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Volunteering in the West Bank

Summer term is often a time for students to do something a little bit different than the rest of the year. Before I began at UCLA in the Information Studies department last year, I studied archaeology. So, this summer I spent most of my time working as registrar on an archaeological excavation in southern Turkey (an excellent way to combine a love of archaeology and information studies by the way)!

A second way that I combine my love of archaeology and libraries is as chair of the World Archaeological Congress’ Global Libraries Program. The program works to enhance the literary collections of archaeological and cultural heritage research institutions around the globe.

During the summer of 2009, I attended an archaeological conference in the Palestinian town of Ramallah in the West Bank. There, we began collaborating between the Global Libraries Program and the Institute of Archaeology at Birzeit University. While housed in a major university, the Institute has been plagued by a lack of funding, a lack of a full-time librarian, and a lack of new research materials for the last ten years.

Following my excavation this summer, I again visited the West Bank (and this time I brought my friend and archaeological colleague, Sarah Hawley). We spent a week this August volunteering in the Birzeit Institute of Archaeology library. We brought some archaeological journal donations in our suitcase, and we donated our time that week to help organize the materials in the library so that they can be accessible for students and professors to research.

As an MLIS student at UCLA, I have the skills to catalog and sort the books in the library (that were out of their boxes but not cataloged or in any useful order). Unfortunately, the computers were not working and therefore we were not able to access LCC for cataloging. Instead, Sarah and I (alongside Birzeit students who came and helped) took more of an archival approach.

We sorted through all of the libraries loose papers and organized all of the individual journal articles and off prints dispersed through many shelves and boxes. We organized the articles by author and year and they are now a resource for students and faculty.

I want to say thank you to the UCLA ALA Student Chapter for helping me defray part of the cost of traveling to Birzeit University this summer. Sarah and I were able to accomplish a lot in organizing the library. However, even more importantly, our presence was an encouragement to the faculty at the school who are working so hard to make the Institute succeed. In addition, some of the students in the program were not even aware that there was a specialized library available to them. We were an impetus for these students to take ownership of their Institute and a few now plan on volunteering this term to continue the work on the library. I’m just glad that we could help work together to transform the library into a valuable resource.

--Ashley Sands

UCLA ALA Student Group, Co-Treasurer

Unslam the Doors: Protesting the Cuts at LAPL

On Monday, July 19th, 2010, a protest was held to mark the first non-holiday Monday that Los Angeles Public Library was closed.  The protest, sponsored by the Librarian's Guild, was held at the Central Branch of LAPL and addressed staff layoffs and the move to a schedule that leaves all libraries in the system open only five days a week.  

Several speakers, including UCLA professor emerita Dr. Virginia Walter, called attention to the importance of libraries to a community, and how those services are affected by the cuts in staff and hours.  The cuts have been prompted by Los Angeles' fiscal shortcomings; LA City Council also opted to not place a $39 parcel tax that would have supported library services on the November 2010 ballot, despite a poll taken in May that shows 68% of voters would have voted in favor of the tax.

For more information on LAPL and how to help restore hours, please visit savethelibrary.org, where a letter campaign is currently taking place urging LA City Council to restore library hours.  For a national view on the library crisis, visit losinglibraries.org where a map of libraries affected by closures, layoffs, and budget cuts is available.

UCLA’s ALA Student Chapter Fundraises for Spectrum Scholarship

In support of the ALA’s Spectrum Presidential Initiative the ALA Student Chapter at UCLA recently organized a successful BBQ for Spectrum Scholars fundraiser at the home and garden of Tim Ahern and former CLA President Cindy Mediavilla. The UCLA Student Chapter brought together nearly 30 MLIS graduate students, professors, and library professionals from our community to support this important scholarship to increase diversity within the our profession. We are proud to say that our BBQ helped raise more than $1,000 for the ALA’s Spectrum Scholarship Program.

Among our distinguished guests were numerous professional librarians including Los Angeles City Librarian, Martín Gomez. Mr. Gomez was appointed City Librarian by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2009 and we were honored that he could attend and show support for the fundraiser. Also in attendance was one of our own library science graduate students, Jeannie Chen! Jeannie is a former UCLA Spectrum Scholar who came out to support our fundraiser. Jeannie just graduated from the UCLA MLIS program this year so congratulations to her!

Our BBQ menu included grilled burgers, hot dogs, dips, salads, fresh veggies, and a delicious homemade lemon cake baked by our own former Student Chapter Co-President Lindsay Klick. We are also extremely grateful to Ahern and Mediavilla for opening their home to this important fundraising event. Their beautiful backyard garden is a stop on the annual Theodore Payne Foundation’s Spring Garden Tour, and the diversity fundraiser could not have been in a more appropriate setting than a garden resplendent with a diversity of native California plants.

The ALA Student Chapter at UCLA recognizes the importance of increasing diversity within the library profession, and we were honored to help support the ALA’s national efforts to increase academic opportunities for underrepresented populations.

E-book updates...

British Library Releases Thousands of E-Books

The British Library will be making available 65,000 e-books from the library's collection this spring. Users can read from the pages of the books in the original condition and typesets. The works will also be available for order in printed form on Amazon. More details are available here.