Library

Learn how to use Asana to track tasks, known issues, and patron requests. Asana is task management software that is intuitive, flexible, and free for up to 30 users. A small private university library started using Asana as a solution for team projects but quickly found that some features worked very well for student staff task assignment, known issue tracking, and requests for library services.

"In this public letter, provided in response to the U.S. Copyright Offices notice of inquiry regarding their "Study on the Desirability of and Means for Bringing Sound Recordings Fixed Before February 15, 1972, Under Federal Jurisdiction," I argue in favor of federal copyright protection of this class of sound recordings.

Using examples from my digitization internship and case study on the Jesuit Tape Collection, a collection of reel-to-reel sound recordings from the 1950s and 1960s held by the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, I show the difficulties faced in digitization and digital preservation of this class of sound recordings that develop as a result of legal barriers. Federal protection of this class of recordings could lead to a reduced risk of losing significant cultural heritage as these materials degrade over time.

For further details on the U.S. Copyright Office's study, visit their website: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sound/

"The Look Book provides images from the time of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, and Frank Galati's play of the same title. This book was designed for use by the cast, crew and production team of the 2011 production of the play at Chabot College in Hayward, California.

It is divided into three sections. At Home with the Joads focuses on farm life and the Dust Bowl. On the Road with the Joads shows images of life on the road. The Joads traveled from Eastern Oklahoma to California, where they stayed on the road, moving from camp to camp, trying to stay in work. California with the Joads focuses on the life of the migrant worker in California.""

This article describes initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) led by library professionals who use California’s statewide Library Services Platform (LSP), which is shared by 110 community colleges. Because the LSP is shared, we have the opportunity to make changes centrally that impact students and other library system users across our state. This article illustrates how two projects have independently progressed to address the display of racist and dehumanizing subjects in OneSearch (Primo VE), the public search interface of the LSP. The path forward for these projects has at times been winding and delayed, and the type of solution for each project has been different, involving diverse stakeholders, and requiring varied strategies.

As we launch DEI-focused projects such as these, we call upon our community of information professionals to examine our library systems and structures, interrogate our personal practice as library professionals, and question decisions about policy, procedure, practices, guidelines, and recommendations. Our systems of knowledge reflect white supremacy culture due, among other reasons, to inherited corporate and other metadata. As such, we are responsible for establishing mechanisms to address such negligence; we must continually monitor, identify problems, and proactively make change within our library systems. Every time we delay this work, we uphold structural oppression and allow systemic harm to continue.

In 2010-2011, the U.S. Copyright Office requested written comments from interested parties regarding Federal coverage of pre-1972 sound recordings. In response, I shared results of a case study including research for and development of an intellectual property assessment report, on an emerging digitization project of pre-1972 sound recordings. The ongoing project at the Graduate Theological Union's (GTU) Flora Lamson Hewlett Library in Berkeley, California, seeks to digitize a collection of unpublished pre-1972 sound recordings. The sound recordings are on reel-to-reel magnetic tape, were originally recorded in the late 1950s and 1960s, and have reached the end of their life span, meaning preservation of the analog tape itself is only a temporary measure. Some tapes are already deteriorating and brittle, making digitization and digital preservation difficult if not impossible, in certain cases. Yet, many of the tapes have high research value, due to the underlying content presen...