In this podcast, Michael Cart says goodbye to some well known literary giants. Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, probably best known for the classic novel 100 Years of Solitude, passed away on April 17. Peter Matthiessen, the American author of The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, passed away in early April.

The third in a series of IMLS Focus events took place June 5 at the Chicago Public Library and brought together a diverse group of library stakeholders to consider STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Learning in Libraries.

  In this edition of In the Library with a Comic Book, Jack Baur and Amanda Jacobs Foust chat about faves and answer reader questions.

June, we have been celebrating across nearly two decades now, is Audiobook Month. In many parts of California, the audiobook experience is tied to car-based commuting, and, in agricultural areas, tractor driver companionship. California is also the birthplace of Earphone English secondary school programming targetting English Language Learners in a long-running public/school library collaboration.

One of this year’s recurring topics at Book Expo revolves around the current book industry reconsideration of DRM (the digital rights management coding that essentially keeps ebooks and eaudio locked from the user’s attempt to copy–and, too often, from accessing a rightfully owned file  due to technical incompatibilities between  file and player or other downloading snafus).

A week ago, during a multi-organization meeting about how public libraries play a role in connecting federal and state policy information to the community members in need of the real scoop, the topic of broadband access was teased out in a couple salient directions. One I found particularly wanting further discussion is how disconnected a community can become from changing government directions (think the Covered California insurance marketplace as an example) when its online access is limited to public computers?

In episode 10 of In the library with a comic book, Jack and Amanda discuss the Eisner nominations and Amanda interviews members of the Fantastic Ladies Comics Club in Berkeley, CA:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation released yesterday  its 2014 report on Who Has Your Back –a quick, clean way to see which online company platforms protect user privacy to what degree. It’s essential reading and a good guiding document for discussing privacy issues, advocacy, concerns, and practices with your library community, including students, the general public, and library boards.

A few hours ago, we hosted a webinar on Using Twitter for Professional Development–right up to the moment when the interwebs decided to shut down. Happily, Infopeople’s planful staff had been collecting accruing questions over the previous 52 minutes and Adobe did not erase them when it made like a newspaper and folded. So, here’s a belated series of responses, an expression of thanks for your patience, and a really truly unintended extra plug to consider the webinar’s encouragement to go Twitter.