Libraries remained mostly strong at the ballot in 2024, but a decline in construction initiatives and tightening budgets speak to the need for increasingly strategic advocacy.

On March 5, Clarivate issued an update  to its February 18 announcement of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections, acknowledging the need for community consultation and a new transition timeline. Because customers expressed that “the original communicated dates for the last orders would pose a considerable challenge,” the open letter stated, Clarivate will extend the ability to make perpetual purchases of print and ebooks on all platforms—including Ebook Central, OASIS, Rialto, and GOBI—through June 30, 2026.

We cannot be caught flat-footed when library funding is called into question. Doing the work of capturing stories today will help ensure we’re prepared to deal with threats that we may face tomorrow.

Voting for the American Library Association (ALA) 2026–27 presidential campaign opens March 10, and ALA members in good standing can cast their ballots through April 2. LJ invited candidates Lindsay Cronk, dean of libraries at Tulane University, New Orleans; Andrea Jamison, assistant professor of school librarianship, Illinois State University; and Maria McCauley, director of libraries, Cambridge Public Library, MA, to weigh in on some key issues.

The article linked below was recently published by ital: Information Technology and Libraries. Title The 2023 Rhysida Ransomware Attack on the British Library: Prioritisation, Expertise, and Funding Issues Authors Frank Houghton Technological University of the Shannon Michael Winterburn Technological University of the Shannon Ken Oakley Technological University of the Shannon Source ital: Information Technology and […]

From the Associated Press: The public library in Fairhope, Alabama — a picturesque city on the shores of Mobile Bay — has found itself in the crosshairs of battles over library content. The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Trustees voted Thursday to withhold state funding from the Fairhope Public Library after complaints from conservative […]

From a CMU Libraries Announcement: The Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh has announced an $8 million commitment to support the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries Special Collections — the university’s repository for rare books, manuscripts, and early calculating devices and cryptographic machines. “We are deeply grateful to the Posner Foundation and the Posner family for this incredible commitment and […]

  From CTV: A small town in southern Quebec says American authorities have decided to close the Canadian access to an historic library that sits on the border between the two countries. Inside the Haskell Free Library and Opera House there is a worn strip of black tape on the floor marking the U.S. and […]

Find out what's it like to look at the world from an information perspective, to put on your"information colored glasses!

From the Libraries Lead Podcast - February 2025, AI Watch Segment. Dave Lankes explains and demonstrates DeepSeek - the Chinese-based AI system. Go "under the hood" on DeepSeek and see how it performed better than any other current AI on Beth's query about integration in Alabama schools.

Maybe it’s time to move on from a piecemeal “customer” focus, and consider to a more complete “whole people in communities” approach.

Alan Inouye has led advocacy and public policy for the American Library Association (ALA) since 2007, where he’s touched everything from E-Rate to copyright to ebook access, securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for libraries. His retirement from ALA this month marks a crucial moment for the association, which has weathered significant challenges in recent years and cannot afford to lose ground with relationships in Washington, DC, and across the broader library landscape.

Lethal Prey by John Sandford leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Harlan Coben, John Scalzi, Ashley Winstead, Alex Aster, and Emma Pattee. People’s book of the week is Firstborn: A Memoir by Lauren Christensen. The West Passage by Jared Pechacek wins the Crawford Award. Plus, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, will publish September 9.

The winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the shortlists for the British Science Fiction Association Awards are announced. The 2025 Canada Reads winner is A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, written with Mary Louisa Plummer. The Guardian reports how Sarah Wynn-Williams’s Facebook exposé, Careless People, came to top the NYT bestsellers list this week, despite Meta’s attempt to stifle its author. Rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot will publish a memoir in Jan. 2026. President Trump has appointed Keith E. Sonderling as the new acting director of the IMLS. Plus, Page to Screen and booklists from V.E. Schwab and David Szalay.

In the evolving world of libraries, creating programs that support your community and secure essential funding is both an art and a science. Before her retirement in late 2024, after 30 years of service, Karen Beach, deputy director of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, NC, and an expert grant writer, shared invaluable insights with members of the Library Support Network on how development professionals can serve as thought partners to library staff. Her guidance emphasized creating more compelling and competitive grant applications to improve funding success rates.