Libraries offer a wealth of services that can help people leaving prison get back on their feet, but the pandemic has led libraries to curtail services or move them online, which makes access challenging. Social worker Nicole Warren has tried to take confidential client meetings to outdoor places, but clients worry they'll be overheard, and some therapists have been helping clients by phone.

The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department and Phoenix Public Library are creating a StoryWalk display at Cesar Chavez Park in honor of the labor leader. The display will feature a bilingual children's book about Chavez and fellow activist Dolores Huerta.

Proceeds from a GoFundMe campaign will help OlaRonke Akinmowo's 6-year-old Free Black Women's Library find space in a building and purchase a vehicle to serve as a bookmobile. Akinmowo has also "started a collection of Black nonbinary authors" to ensure that she recognizes "not just Black women, but Black nonbinary authors, Black gender-nonconforming authors, Black agender authors, Black queer authors" because, she says, "I claim them as authors whose voices need to be amplified."

Forest fires have torched the reading room in the University of Cape Town's main library, destroying "irreplaceable documents and records from the country's past," such as those dealing with working-class and Black life. UCT's Executive Director of Libraries Ujala Satgoor said, "Some of our valuable collections have been lost" but that "a full assessment can only be done once the building has been declared safe and we can enter the building."

The Check Out Colorado State Parks program sets up libraries to loan state park passes and backpacks equipped with outdoors supplies. Jill Kleven of the Pueblo City-County Library District says the program eliminates the cost barrier that prevents some people from visiting parks.

An app-based digital reading library with books in Spanish and a read-aloud function have helped Amanda Banuelos' second-grade dual-immersion students in a Utah school district. In this interview, Banuelos notes that the app offers many titles in Spanish, which solves the problem of students lacking such books at home.

North Carolina State University's Department of Nuclear Engineering has joined with the university's libraries department to establish a small modular reactor technical library. "The body of literature in this area has been growing due to increased domestic and international interest in these technologies," said Joseph Doster, director of the Nuclear Engineering Undergraduate Program.

The Library of Congress will use a $15 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant "to expand the National Archive to include diverse experiences and to help better understand America's past," says PBS NewsHour Weekend anchor Hari Sreenivasan. Applications are being accepted to fund community-based documentarians, paid internships and fellowships, and digital projects that focus on "Black, Latinx and indigenous voices," explains PBS anchor Ivette Feliciano.

Vega Discover has completed full Hoopla account integration, enabling patrons to view and check out Hoopla items directly in their account. Read the press release.

Explore the benefits of floating collections in Polaris or learn more about Innovative's new patron mobile app in our spring webinars. Find registration details here.

The Sierra 5.3 general release introduces several improvements in Manage Holds, Create Lists, INN-Reach and more. Read the press release.