After a Stomach-Churning Year, Feed Your Head With Terrific Nonfiction

Zócalo’s 10 Favorite Books of 2016

Looking back over the last 12 months, many see a year of horrors—from political turmoil to mass shootings in Orlando and Dallas to the deaths of pop culture giants David Bowie and Prince. But 2016 was also a year that delivered a bounty of great nonfiction, some the best of which we at Zócalo have compiled here, in our annual list of 10 favorite books. The works we love this year explore the worlds of the smallest microbes, the weirdest sea creatures, and the grandest trees; plumb the internal lives …

UCLA Deputy University Librarian Susan Parker

I Root for Reading Banned Books

Susan Parker is deputy university librarian at UCLA, where she leads building design and renovation projects and serves as the library’s chief financial officer. Before participating in the Zócalo/WeHo Reads …

If You Think Libraries Are Redundant, Read This

More Than Strict Rules And Dusty Stacks, Libraries Build Community

Twenty-first century librarians do not wear their hair in buns. They don’t relish levying fines on forgetful patrons. They won’t scold you for bringing a cup of coffee into the …

Why Libraries’ Survival Matters

They Offer the Kind of Space the Internet Never Will

The internet as we know has been around for over 25 years, but we’re only beginning to grapple with how it is fundamentally changing our daily lives. More than society …

What Disappears When Ancient Documents Get Digitized?

The Osher Map Library’s Online Archive Is Astoundingly Detailed and Inherently Incomplete

The Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine is a treasure trove for the cartographically inclined. Its collection, which contains close to 450,000 items, spans the centuries, covering …