It has been a busy legislative session in the Louisiana House, with several bills poised to impact libraries and library workers halted at various points, while others have been approved and moved on to the Senate. As they proliferate, grassroots library advocacy organizations are stepping up to combat them.

Jackie x 3! Consider these novels about Jackie Collins, Jacqueline Susann, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Those outside our field may marvel at—or be disconcerted by—transformations they experience as new, seismic shifts from what they understand about libraries. We know the transformation is far from sudden, and far from over. Understanding this, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is using best practices and key research to better understand and equip libraries with the tools needed to address the future needs of the diverse communities they serve.

Fifty-seven percent of academic libraries report that the use of audiovisual (AV) sources such as news reels, recordings, performances, and films have increased over the past three years—with 21 percent describing significantly increased usage—while only 15 percent say that use of these resources have decreased, according to Library Journal’s recent AV Primary Sources Survey of Academic Libraries, sponsored by AM, that netted 220 responses from academic librarians in the United States and Canada. Thirteen percent of respondents said that college and university students now prefer AV primary source materials, compared with 18 percent who prefer print and other archival primary source materials.

COVID shifts drove falling print circ and rising ebooks. But will it last? LJ's 2021 Materials Survey looks at some of the last year's trends.

This is the 13th year of the LJ Index of Public Library Service and Star Library ratings. The 2020 scores and ratings are based on FY18 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Public Library Survey (PLS). Because of that delay, they don’t reflect the impact of the coronavirus; that won’t be reflected in the data until 2022. The big news in this year’s edition is that successful retrievals of electronic information (e-retrievals)—measuring usage of online content, such as databases, other than by title checkout—joins the six other measures that determine the LJ Index.

Whether librarians are providing services in-person or virtually, reference has changed with the pandemic.

Library Journal’s annual Placements & Salaries survey reports on the experiences of LIS students who graduated and sought their first librarian jobs in the previous year: in this case, 2019. Salaries and full-time employment are up, but so are unemployment and the gender gap; 2019 graduates faced a mixed job market even before the pandemic.

From an ARL Blog Post by: Xuemao Wang, Northwestern University Christy Long, University of Oregon Catherine Steeves, Western University Cynthia Hudson Vitale, ARL At the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Spring Meeting in Boston, library and information technology leaders explored and examined the recently released ARL/CNI 2035 Scenarios: AI-Influenced Futures in the Research Environment. When utilizing […]

The Research Libraries UK (RLUK) Digital Shift Forum event video embedded below was recorded on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Title New Digital Frontiers: AI & Machine Learning in Libraries New Digital Frontiers will explore the role AI and Machine learning can play in our libraries, the platforms we use, the challenges we face and the […]

From Town Topics: Before he graduated from Yale Law School and became a MacArthur Fellow, Reginald Dwayne Betts spent nine years in prison after pleading guilty to carjacking. He was only 16. It was the availability of books, and the engagement with literature, that got him through those years without crushing his spirit. An award-winning […]

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by Tracy Bergstrom: Ithaka S+R is pleased to announce a new research study to explore and assess the current state of scholarly monograph publishing in humanities and social sciences disciplines, as well as in STEM disciplines, across the US, UK, and Europe, with support from the Mellon Foundation. The […]

When the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines began to roll out in mid-December 2020, their distribution was immediately complicated by a shortage of doses and widespread uncertainty about who would be given priority. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued suggested guidelines for phased allocation. When it was not yet clear who would be next, many library workers, leaders, and associations began advocating for public facing library workers to be vaccinated as soon as feasible.

In the messy middle of the pandemic, library leaders share how things have changed since March 2020, their takeways, and continuing challenges.

Whether librarians are providing services in-person or virtually, reference has changed with the pandemic.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of books on the subject has been increasing exponentially. This introductory list, which will be updated regularly, is meant to help collection development librarians get started on determining which books work best for their collections.

Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos wins the International Booker Prize. The winners of the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Awards and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire are announced. Library Reads and LJ offer read-alikes for Ruth Ware’s buzzy book of the week, One Perfect Couple. People previews Sally Rooney’s forthcoming novel, Intermezzo, due out from Farrar on September 24. Emma Törzs’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe will get a TV series adaptation. And NYT distills the essential Don Delillo.

Opinionated views of Elizabeth Taylor and Bette Midler make for entertaining, informative, and fascinating reads.

A memoir and a biography showcase the lives of women in the world of punk rock. 

Jess Armstrong, Ellie Brannigan, and Michael Sears offer sequels; Rob Osler launches a new quozy mystery series inspired by real-life Pinkerton detective Kate Warne; plus a list of forthcoming series titles.