In October, the Libraries welcomed Alexia Hudson-Ward as the new associate director for Research and Learning. Previously the Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries at Oberlin College, Hudson-Ward provides strategic leadership for the community-facing service portfolio of the Libraries. She recently talked to Bibliotech about the MIT Libraries’ vision, working through a pandemic, what “mind and hand” can mean for libraries.
From the Interview:
You’ve talked about your interest in “balancing a computational future and haptic traditions” in libraries. What does that mean to you?
I was very attracted to the motto of the Institute, “mind and hand,” and I think about the ways in which libraries have always represented that. After all, at one time in history, the book was considered new technology. One of the things I’ve learned in my career is that you can balance a computational present and future with a connection to the haptic. There is a lot of interesting dialogue, from a neurodiversity standpoint, around the differences between reading material electronically versus in print. We can have different types of learning labs that allow for creativity by mind and by hand. For me, that’s a way to wed our “digital first” vision with the ways in which we know people learn by touch, and the MIT Libraries is the best place to explore those dimensions.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
From a SAGE News Release: Sage has launched a new collection of free-to-read research highlighting the effects of academic censorship on democracy, social-emotional learning, higher education, and more. Categories in ...
Here’s the Full Text of Today’s Annoucement From the University of Maryland Libraries: The University of Maryland Libraries announces the debut of a significant, newly digitized collection, making available online for the ...
From The New York Times: President Biden plans to announce on Thursday that he will devote federal money to create a new library and museum dedicated to his old friend ...
Here’s the Full Text of Today’s Boston Public Library Announcement: The Boston Public Library (BPL) is joining the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned initiative to fight censorship and book banning by offering teens and ...
From the M-W Website: Signs of a healthy language include words being created, words being borrowed from other languages, and new meanings being given to existing words. Based on our ...
Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Public Library’s Leigh Hurwitz on Helping Young People Resist Censorship (via LitHub) Connecticut Local Libraries Investigating Book Thefts After Titles Go Missing (via NBC Connecticut) Copyright ...
ACM Tech Brief: Generative Artificial Intelligence AI Now Computational Power and AI (Report) Anthropic Amazon is Investing Up to $4 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic in Growing Tech Battle (via ...
From an EveryLibrary Release: The “Public Libraries and Book Bans – Parent Perception Survey” gathered insights from 853 parents and guardians with children under 18 during September 2023. The survey ...
From The Coeur d’Alene Press: “Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said he has heard from both sides about reportedly inappropriate materials available to youth at local libraries. One side argued ...
AI Generative AI Has Disrupted Education. Here’s How It Can Be Used For Good – UNESCO (via WEF) University of Leeds Research Report on Potentials for AI in Libraries (via ...
UPDATED POST (Sep. 27, 2023): ALA Welcomes FCC Chair Rosenworcel’s Proposal to Reinstate Network Neutrality Rules —End Update— From a FCC Fact Sheet: The internet is too important to our ...
Advocacy ‘A Toolkit for Knowledge Rights Advocacy’ – KR21 Workshop Report (via LIBER) Legal Appeals Court Temporarily Stays Injunction Blocking Texas Book Rating Law (via PW) Open Book Collective Report ...