A New Urban Libraries Council Leadership Brief Highlights Action Strategies for Library Executives to Lead the Charge for Anti-Racism, Starting by Looking Inward

WASHINGTON & FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has published a new Leadership Brief on Anti-Racist Executive Leadership for Public Libraries, sponsored by Gale, a Cengage company. This resource examines the deep roots and enduring harm of structural racism in public libraries and challenges library executives to take on a more active, intentional and accountable role in strengthening their libraries as anti-racist institutions. View/download the Leadership Brief, here: https://bit.ly/3ttslBk.

Introducing the Leadership Brief is the following quote from Baltimore County Public Library Director, Sonia Alcántara-Antoine, “In order to make any progress as library leaders, we need to look at our own history with humility and have the courage to recognize that we can be part of the solution.” Alcántara-Antoine is a member of ULC’s Anti-Racism action team, which informed the development of the Leadership Brief.

To guide library executives in taking meaningful steps forward in their work as anti-racists, the Leadership Brief provides key messages, action strategies and examples of leading practices. This includes recommendations not only for advancing organizational change and staff growth, but also identifying and addressing personal blind spots, biases and racist attitudes.

“Anti-racist leaders must be more than voices for change – we need to actively embrace and embody continuous growth as individuals, even when it is painful,” said ULC President & CEO Susan Benton. “This new Leadership Brief builds on the insights and deliberations of library executives across North America. It is meant to be a call to action for all leaders to own their role in addressing systemic racism.”

The Leadership Brief highlights executives from 13 ULC member libraries in the U.S. and Canada. All 13 libraries are among the 206 total systems who have signed ULC’s Statement on Race and Social Equity. For additional information about ULC’s Statement on Race and Social Equity, Anti-Racism action team and Anti-Racist Executive Leadership for Public Libraries Leadership Brief visit urbanlibraries.org.

Gale is the first corporate partner to sign ULC’s Statement on Race and Social Equity and sponsor the Leadership Brief.

“Systemic racism underpins our history and taking action is the only way to create change and promote equity,” said Paul Gazzolo senior vice president and general manager at Gale. “Gale supports ULC’s commitment to helping public libraries achieve racial and social equity and this leadership brief gives library executives the strategic direction and framework to put in the work to tackle structural racism and systemic inequities, putting them on a path to becoming an anti-racist library and safe space for all.”

To learn how Gale can help public libraries measure and reduce equity barriers and support diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism through online learning and collection development, visit: gale.com/equity.

About the Urban Libraries Council
The Urban Libraries Council is an innovation and action tank of North America’s leading public library systems. ULC drives cutting-edge research and strategic partnerships to elevate the power of libraries as essential, transformative institutions for the 21st century. More than 150 urban member libraries in the U.S. and Canada rely on ULC to identify significant challenges facing today’s communities and provide new tools and techniques to help libraries achieve stronger outcomes in education, digital equity, workforce and economic development, and race and social equity.

About Cengage and Gale
Cengage, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.

Follow Gale on:
• Twitter - @galecengage
• Gale blog - https://blog.gale.com/
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GaleCengage/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/gale/

Duluth, Ga., April 16, 2021: Equinox Open Library Initiative proudly announces the launch of its newly designed website https://www.equinoxOLI.org, featuring open source library products, services, and educational resources. Equinox Open Library Initiative, the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., celebrates fifteen years as a small business delivering “Extraordinary Service. Exceptional Value” to libraries worldwide. Equinox provides innovative open source software for libraries and consortia of all types, serving academic, public, school, corporate, cultural, and government organizations. The new website serves as the central place for current news from Equinox, information about open source library software, including Evergreen, Koha, Fulfillment, and CORAL, and details and announcements regarding Equinox’s grants, programs, and community events.

“When you choose Equinox, you’re choosing a mission-driven small business with a proven record of technical expertise and outstanding service,” said Lisa Carlucci, Executive Director. “As we launch the new website and celebrate this important milestone, we are deeply grateful to the libraries, consortia, and community partners who have trusted Equinox to provide best-in-class library technologies.”

In addition to open source products, Equinox offers library consulting, training, and technology services. Consulting topics include workflow analysis, process improvement, consortial policy evaluation and management, web design, custom training sessions and workshops, IT services and support, and data services.

"Our new website highlights our services and programs contributing to library open source software and infrastructure," said Galen Charlton, Implementation and IT Manager at Equinox. "We hope that libraries and community members find it useful as a hub for finding open source resources and learning more about Equinox."

Follow Equinox on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Vimeo for the latest updates. To receive news directly in your inbox:http://eepurl.com/hvh3g9

For more information:
Laura Barry
Communications Coordinator
Equinox Open Library Initiative, Inc.
EquinoxOLI.org
laura.barry@equinoxOLI.org
877.OPEN.ILS (877.673.6457)

About Equinox Open Library Initiative
Equinox Open Library Initiative provides innovative open source software for libraries of all types and delivers extraordinary service at exceptional value. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., Equinox Open Library Initiative builds upon more than a decade of trusted service and technical expertise, providing consulting services, software development, hosting, training, and support for Evergreen ILS, Koha ILS, and other open source library software. To learn more, please visit https://www.equinoxOLI.org/.

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ByWater Solutions, America’s forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced today that they are providing support and hosting services for the Aspen Open Source Discovery system for Washoe County Library System in Reno, Nevada. Aspen will be working with Washoe's already existing Koha ILS to provide patrons seamless access to all of the library's print, electronic, and enhanced content resources.
You can view Washoe's Aspen interface by visiting: https://catalog.washoecountylibrary.us/

Addie Van Salisbury of the Aspen Discovery Implementation Team recently commented, "Washoe was already a Koha partner of ours and they have been so excited to get live on Aspen. They really made use of all the features to customize the CSS to get the site exactly how they wanted. Washoe did a soft roll out of their site, using the Web Builder functionality to survey their patrons! Overwhelmingly, patron and staff response has been great. Washoe is a very hands on partner and I am so excited about them going live on Aspen!"

About Washoe County Library System
The Washoe County Library System began in 1904 with the opening of Reno's Carnegie Free Public Library at the corner of South Virginia and Mill Streets. Today, the Washoe County Library System operates 12 library branches.

The Washoe County Library mission is to connect people with information, ideas and experiences to support an enriched and engaged community, one person at a time.

Read more about the library system's history here: https://www.washoecountylibrary.us/about/history.php

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality Open Source support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their systems than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate implementation and support services with library systems of all sizes for the Koha ILS, Aspen Discovery, Folio LSP, Coral ERM, and Libki PC Management.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions not only lowers the cost of implementation and maintenance of OSS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: https://bywatersolutions.com.

About Aspen Discovery
Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with e-content and other 3rd party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives and enrichment from all major third party providers, improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (FRBR) and much more. Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems with less of an impact on library budgets. For more information about Aspen please visit: https://bywatersolutions.com/projects/aspen-discovery

For More Information
Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales & Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

US magazine BirdWatching has launched brand new digital subscription options for individuals and institutions through the Exact Editions platform. Subscriptions feature fully-searchable access to a growing modern archive of back issues that can be browsed seamlessly across web, iOS and Android devices.

For over 25 years, BirdWatching has been North America’s premier magazine about wild birds and birding. Each issue contains feeding and attracting tips, reviews of books, new products and news about conservation hotspots, as well as articles written by experts in the field.

The brand new archive, which stretches back to the beginning of 2019, offers intuitive navigational tools such as linked contents pages, URLs and email addresses that provide an integrated browsing experience. Additionally, an advanced Boolean search function enables readers to easily pinpoint references to specific species, topics or writers.

BirdWatching is available in the Exact Editions individual and institutional shops here:

Individuals: https://shop.exacteditions.com/birdwatching

Institutions: https://institutions.exacteditions.com/birdwatching

Jason Pomerantz, Vice-President Circulation Strategy at Madavor Media, commented: “Regardless of whether readers enjoy watching birds in their backyard or further afield, the new archive will arm enthusiasts with the information they need to find, attract, identify and understand birds.”

Managing Director of Exact Editions, Daryl Rayner, said: “The wealth of information available at the touch of a button in the digital edition of BirdWatching will be extremely valuable to anyone with an interest in birds, whether in an amateur of professional capacity.”

About Madavor Media:

Madavor is a world-class media company that produces content across multiple platforms for a diverse audience of passionate enthusiasts and those seeking to take charge of their well-being. It publishes titles spanning aviation, photography, music and wellness.

About Exact Editions:

Exact Editions is a digital publishing company based in London. It is a team of producers, developers and designers that turns periodicals and books into dynamic, user-friendly digital editions. Exact Editions specialises in digitising content, selling subscriptions and providing streaming solutions across web, iOS and Android platforms. Exact Editions are also the innovators of ‘Reading Room’ technology, so publishers can provide streaming, time-limited, access to digital editions.

Leiden – 8 April 2021

Brill, the international scholarly publisher, signed agreements with the Fachinformationsdienst (FID) Philosophie (Specialised Information Service (SIS) Philosophy) for an E-Book purchase of 1900 titles, and to collaborate on a digitization project of over 1300 titles from the publisher’s book archive.

The FID Philosophie’s goal is to simplify and optimise access to specialist literature and research-relevant information for philosophical science. The first of its kind, the partnership includes titles under the imprints of Brill, Ferdinand Schöningh, Wilhelm Fink and mentis, increasing their accessibility to the broader scholarly community.

The digitized titles will be available on the FID Philosophie platform to their community, as well as on brill.com, where they will be available for purchase to institutions and individuals worldwide. The purchased E-Books will be accessible to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie (DGPhil) and Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie (GAP) societies via brill.com.

“In the Humanities books can have a high relevance even after decades. This is one of the reasons why we are very excited about this special cooperation with the FID Philosophie. We will not only make a large collection of recent E-Books available to its patrons, but digitize more than 1300 titles from Brill’s book archive. Step by step our backlist will come to life again. Customers world-wide will get a chance to complete their collections and discover our top sellers from the past,” says Jasmin Lange, Chief Publishing Officer at Brill.

“The FID programme of the DFG funds the establishment and expansion of specialised information services to enable researchers of all disciplines – including Philosophy – to access specialised literature and research-specific information quickly and directly, irrespective of work location. The FID Philosophie would like to establish in the area of monographs a model in which a classical license is combined with making backlist titles available for the scientific community. We consider it a great success that we were able to conclude a model contractual agreement with Brill, a leading publisher for the subject of Philosophy”, says Prof. Dr. Andreas Speer, Co-Lead of the FID Philosophie, University of Cologne.

For more information about the agreement, contact Eva Wantzen, Brill’s Sales Manager | BrillOnline Europe via wantzen@brill.com. For more information about the digitization project, contact Lauren Danahy, Acquisitions Editor at Brill, via danahy@brill.com.

About Brill
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences, International Law, and Biology. With offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the USA and Asia, Brill today publishes more than 360 journals and 2,000 new books and reference works each year as well as a large number of databases and primary source research collections. Commitment to Open Access and the latest publishing technologies are at the core of Brill’s mission to make academic research available for the scholarly community worldwide. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. Brill is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information, please visit brill.com.

About FID Philosophie / SIS Philosophy
The Specialized Information Service (SIS) Philosophy is developing an online portal that is intended to simplify and optimise access to specialist literature and research-relevant information for philosophical science. At the same time, it serves to increase the visibility of research projects as well as the networking of researchers in the community. SIS Philosophy is a project managed by the University and City Library of Cologne in close cooperation with the Department of Philosophy and the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH) of the University of Cologne. The SIS Philosophy is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). For more information about the FID Philosophie contact Eric Eggert via fid-philosophie@ub.uni-koeln.de.

View this media alert online: https://brill.com/newsitem/brill-signs-agreements-with-fid-philosophie-f...