How do you reopen a library with no guidelines or best practices to work from? That’s the question public leaders and staff are considering as library buildings gradually open across the country.

In many towns across the United States, seeing members of the police in the public library is common-place. Off-duty officers moonlight as library security guards. Library programs like “Coffee with a Cop” aim to help the police develop closer bonds of trust with the community. And police are often called to deal with behavioral issues or threats to patron or staff safety. But as the past weeks of protest after the police killing of George Floyd, among others, make plain, for a substantial portion of patrons and staff, the presence of the police is itself a threat.

Horror and dark fiction are trending in a big way. Here are the titles and trends to keep an eye on in the coming months, including a downloadable list of every book mentioned.

Held online from June 24–26, ALA Virtual—Community Through Connection saw 7,349 attendees and 651 exhibitors and featured more than 50 sessions, live chats with authors and speakers, more than 75 publisher and exhibitor sessions on new titles, a virtual exhibit floor with more than 600 participating exhibitors, 11 featured speakers, and a Swag-a-Palooza with hundreds of free items.

During the week of March 19–23 MIT Libraries convened experts from across disciplines and domains to identify and address grand challenges in the scholarly communication and information science landscape.

Suppose a librarian receives an email from a man named Greg Walsh, wanting to become a cardholder or simply inquiring about the open hours. Would the librarian reply? And, if so, would the reply be polite, including for instance some form of salutation, such as “Hello” or “Good morning”? Does your answer change if the guy is called Tyrone Washington? Is a librarian treating Jake Mueller differently from DeShawn Jackson?

A detailed look at pain management implementing the use of medical cannabis rather than opioids; A complex look at the issue of opioid abuse backed up with research and first hand stories; A valuable addition to the conversation about addiction filled with case studies illustrating the complexities of the disease

Editor Sarah Janssen discusses editing The World Almanac in an age where being attuned to "fake news" is especially vital.

From the Federal Trade Commission: The Federal Trade Commission launched a new tool that explores data about problems military consumers may experience in the marketplace. For the first time, data about reports the FTC has received from active duty service members and veterans will be available online in an interactive dashboard at ftc.gov/explore data. The military […]

From the National Endowment For the Humanities: As part of these grant awards, ten university presses received NEH CARES funding to sustain academic publishing efforts. These grants will support the editing and publication of new books and journals on humanities topics, facilitate scholarly communication, and enable the digitization of scholarly ebooks to make humanities research […]

The following paper was published today by Scientific Data. Title A Dataset Describing Data Discovery and Reuse Practices in Research Author Kathleen Gregory Data Archiving and Networked Services Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences Source Scientific Data (Sci Data) 7,232 (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-0569-5 Abstract This paper presents a dataset produced from the largest known […]

From AAP: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for May 2020 reflecting reported revenue for all tracked categories, including Trade (consumer publications), K-12 Instructional Materials, Higher Education Course Materials, Professional Publishing, and University Presses. Total revenues across all categories for May 2020 were approximately $1.0 billion, a decline of 12.1% […]

How do you reopen a library with no guidelines or best practices to work from? That’s the question public leaders and staff are considering as library buildings gradually open across the country.

With some libraries reopening for at least limited services, and many others doing curbside pickup, face masks are a necessity for library workers and patrons alike. These library- and book-themed offerings can make it fun and show your library love all over your face.

Most public libraries stopped distributing materials during the pandemic to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But that doesn’t mean they stopped distributing anything. Some leveraged their expertise at getting resources into the hands of patrons to help those suddenly struggling with the bare essentials of life: food, diapers, the means to clean up, or a place to sleep.

IMLS: In the first phase of a project to disseminate and develop science-based information about how materials can be handled to mitigate exposure to staff and visitors, scientists have found that the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is not detectable on five common library materials after three days.

This July, LJ launches #LJReads, a community-wide read; our first book will be Curtis Sittenfeld's Rodham.

Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump leads holds this week, even as a judge continues to prevent Dr. Trump from prompting or discussing her work. Colson Whitehead wins the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction for The Nickel Boys. The Shirley Jackson Awards are out. The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter wins for best novel. People’s "Book of the Week" is Gatecrasher by Ben Widdicombe. The National Book Awards will be all digital in 2020 due to the pandemic. The ceremony will take place, online, on Nov. 18.

In 1988, Qiu Xiaolong came to St. Louis, planning to stay for one year at Washington University to research T. S. Eliot, whose poems he’d translated. Following political upheaval in China, Xiaolong decided to make his home in America.

As they anticipate hits from lowered enrollment and decreased endowments, as well as declines in state funding for public universities and community colleges, and potential rollbacks of money that has already been authorized, academic institutions have begun hiring freezes and reductions, including furloughs, layoffs, and reduced hours for non-tenured faculty and staff. Many campus libraries are seeing reductions in workforce that threaten to affect their ability to serve students, faculty, and researchers.