While those in favor of book bans believe children should be protected from content perceived as inappropriate or abusive, those opposed worry about the societal consequences of censoring information and ideas, the infringement of First Amendment rights, and the negative impacts on authors and publishers. Researchers Uttara M. Ananthakrishnan, Naveen Basavaraj, Sabari Rajan Karmegam, Ananya Sen, and Michael D. Smith set out to examine how bans at the district level affect consumption at the national level.

This year, we cast both a look back to see what can be learned from the past, and a look forward to consider what might be heading our way in the coming years.

The second Independent Publisher and Librarian Forum—IndieLib for short—was held on April 16 in downtown Manhattan, at New York University’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. The event brought together public and academic librarians, representatives from indie publishers and their distributors, and others across the field to learn more about one another’s work and concerns and imagine new ways to move forward.

Matt Huculak was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for his work with researchers, artists, Holocaust survivors, and educators to help develop a graphic book about the Holocaust. We recently spoke with Huculak, who is now director of KULA: Library Futures Academy at the University of Victoria, about the vital importance and relevance of that work and how it came about.

AI Why AI Literacy is Now a Core Competency in Education Infrastructure Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) Releases 2025 State of Open Infrastructure Report Publishing ACLS Announces Finalists for 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards OASPA’s ‘Next 50%’ Project: Your Voice Matters at a Critical Moment for Open Access

The article linked below was recently published by The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Title Supporting Early Career Academic Librarians: A Scoping Review of Research Literature on Early Career Professional Development Initiatives Authors Sally Smith Clemson University Lindsey Baird University of Alabama at Birmingham Karen Burton Clemson University Amanda McLeod Clemson University Shelby Carroll Clemson University […]

From the New Hampshire Bulletin:  If New Hampshire adopts a law to make it easier to remove books from school libraries, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult could be one of them. The 2011 novel, set in the fictional Upper Valley New Hampshire town of Sterling, depicts a deadly school shooting committed by a student who […]

From WyoFile: A Wyoming legislative committee decided Tuesday to draft bills to police books in libraries, taking steps down a constitutionally fraught path out of concern that literature dealing with sexuality and gender identity can corrupt minors. Lawmakers are reviewing the content of library books, which has become a national crusade by religious conservatives, as […]

It’s March Madness time! So, check your brackets, grab a beverage and snacks, root for your favorite teams, and join Beth & Mike as they share and challenge each other’s perceptions and predictions with their library & information science perspectives on the whole phenomenon.

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.

Nam Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem wins the New South Wales Book of the Year Award. Winners of the League of Canadian Poets Prizes are revealed. Dawn Macdonald’s poetry collection Northerny wins the Canadian First Book Prize. Clare Pollard’s The Modern Fairies wins the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize. The shortlist is announced for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing. The Community of Literary Magazines & Presses announces the finalists for the Firecracker Awards. NYT, Vulture, and CrimeReads preview titles coming out this summer. LJ offers beach reads. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Madeleine Thien, Alison Bechdel, and Naomi Xu Elegant.

Library Open Workflows is a new no-code solution from Ex Libris that empowers libraries to create customized, secure, and efficient workflows across their systems. Designed for accessibility and innovation, it simplifies complex integrations and enhances operational agility. General availability is expected in May 2025.

RIPM Jazz Periodicals captures a rich and fascinating slice of history and music culture. An excellent resource to support research on 20th-century U.S. history, Black history, entertainment, and music education. This singular primary-source collection is not easily matched.

Library displays highlight the collection and aid readers as they browse and find their next read, view, or listen. To help prompt display ideas and find titles to keep them stocked, LJ offers Display Shelf. Use this list to generate a quick display on the circulation desk or to fill an end-cap. The suggestions also offer RA librarians a handy list of popular titles on a range of high-interest genres and subjects. This list features books perfect for a summer escape.