Strong mutual support among community partners, and a conscious shift over the past decade to investigate what each of its neighborhoods needs most, and then step up to those needs, has earned St. Louis County Library the 2024–25 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize.

Garland County Library, AR; North Bergen Free Public Library, NJ; and Queens Public Library, NY, demonstrate the resourceful programming, robust partnerships, and care for their communities that has earned them Honorable Mention for the 2020 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize.

In July 2024, when Idaho’s House Bill 710 went into effect, libraries across the state felt its impact in large and small ways, from refining policies to removing contested titles from their shelves. The law, passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Brad Little, prohibits libraries and schools from allowing anyone under age 18 to access material containing “sexual content,” regardless of their age—the law makes no distinction between infants and 17-year-olds—or the books’ literary merit. In February a coalition of publishers, authors, parents, students, and the Donnelly Public Library (DPL) District filed a lawsuit challenging HB 710 on the grounds that it violates the First and 14th Amendment rights of librarians, educators, publishers, authors, parents, and students.

Clarivate, the parent company of ProQuest and its Ebook Central platform, on February 18 announced the launch of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections. As part of the strategy, Clarivate will be phasing out the option for libraries to purchase one-time perpetual licenses for its ebooks and digital collections in 2025, including single-title purchases, upgrades, and evidence-based and demand-driven acquisitions.

From a Hanging Together (OCLC Research Blog) Post by Constance Malpas: For more than four decades, OCLC has been committed to advancing the library profession through community-facing research and community programming. Our investments in original research and programs like the OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) and WebJunction have produced a record of thought leadership, fostered […]

From WMAR (Baltimore) “To become the Librarian of Congress was really humbling because, as a person of color, people who looked like me were forbidden by law to learn to read. Also, to be a woman in a profession that’s been called a feminized profession, was also something. It was the culmination of seeing the […]

From the World Health Organization: The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), has unveiled the updated 2025 Air Quality Standards database. This resource compiles national air quality standards for major pollutants and other airborne toxics from countries worldwide. This latest update provides an overview of […]

From PEN America: The removal of books focused on people of color, race and racism, and LGBTQ+ subjects from public schools continues as part of a concerted and dangerous campaign nationwide, according to new analysis of thousands of banned titles by PEN America. These topics are highly targeted among banned books across genres and reading […]

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.

ENSHITTIFICATION. It’s a real thing—the purposeful degradation of the quality in systems in order to maximize profits. And we saw ICT as a boon to society, liberating not oppressing. Sigh. Listen in as we explore enshittification and the implications of all this profit-seeking across all types of information systems.

The March Read with Jenna pick is Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel. The NYT Book Review Book Club selects Han Kang’s We Do Not Part as its March read. The shortlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (United States and Canada), finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards, and winners of the Florida Book Awards are announced. PEN America releases its report “Cover to Cover: An Analysis of Titles Banned in the 23–24 School Year.” Doubleday launches Outsider Editions, an imprint for paperback reissues. Plus, interviews with Andrey Kurkov and Omar El Akkad.

Sharon Lee, author of the “Liaden Universe” novels, wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award for sci-fi that inspires space exploration. Haruko Ichikawa’s Land of the Lustrous manga wins the Japan SF Grand Prize. Publishers plan for less mass market paperbacks in the wake of Readerlink ending distribution of them. Journalist Robin Givhan is writing a biography of the late designer Virgil Abloh. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Lidia Yuknavitch, Ione Skye, and Mark Greaney.

Established in 2013 in Corvallis, OR, the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archive at Oregon State University aims to collect and preserve books, periodicals, ephemera, and artifacts about brewing and hops farming in the Pacific Northwest. The university has a department dedicated to food science and technology under its College of Agricultural Sciences, as well as its own Research Brewery, and since 1995 has offered one of the few Fermentation Science programs in the country. But it would take a department merger and a wedding to spark the creation of the archive.

The International Booker longlist is announced, featuring all first-time nominees. The London Writers Awards winners are announced. Hachette Book Group launches its first dedicated New Adult imprint, Requited. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for this week’s top holds title, Battle Mountain by C.J. Box. Cosmetics icon Bobbi Brown announces a forthcoming memoir. Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius turns 25 this month. Plus, Ron Stallworth’s The Gangs of Zion: A Black Cop’s Crusade in Mormon Country will be adapted for TV by Hulu.