Elaine Rice Bachmann is the new Maryland State Archivist, Ralph Bingham is named Director of LibraryLinkNJ, Allison Grubbs takes the helm at Broward County, and more library people news for September 21, 2021.

There's much to celebrate about the onset of autumn, from hay rides to apple cider to scary movies. We offer some great DIY concepts for you to adapt as your own.

The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently released the syllabus of the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, focused on libraries and archives, as an open source interactive PDF. The syllabus was created as part of the multipart Reckoning Initiative at University Libraries.

From the Federal Communications Commission: The Federal Communications Commission today announced that it has received requests for $5.137 billion to fund 9.1 million connected devices  and 5.4 million broadband connections as part of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Program. In view of outstanding demand and the recent spike  in coronavirus cases, the FCC will open a second application filing window for schools and  libraries to request funding for connected devices and broadband connections for off-campus  use by students, school staff, and library patrons for the current 2021-22 school year.

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 Invest in Open Infrastructure Blog Post by Kaitlin Thaney: Over the next few months, we’ll be working to interview project leads, budget holders, and funders invested in open infrastructure to learn more about the underlying development and maintenance costs for leading infrastructure projects, map existing sources of funding and capital, and examine additional […]

From a Post by David Prosser, Executive Director, Research Libraries UK (RLUK), While some have been thinking about issues around Controlled Digital Lending for many years, there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way we view the digital. The shutting of university buildings suddenly cut off access to physical copies for […]

From Apple: With the release of iOS 15, Apple Maps gets its biggest update ever with a city experience that offers rich details, driving routes with better navigation, immersive walking directions shown in augmented reality, and much more. The update, which expands on the new map that Apple spent years building from the ground up, […]

Announcing a New PLOS Policy on Inclusion in Global Research (via Public Library of Science) Brooke L. Clement Appointed Director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum (via NARA) CLIR Invites Applications for Digitizing At-Risk Audio and Audiovisual Materials (via (Council on Library and Internet Resources) Partnership For Shared Book Collections Publishes September […]

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven a mental health crisis as many have dealt with isolation, grief, and loneliness. Gaming can provide a shared experience and a way to fill this void. Libraries have done wonderful teen gaming programs over the last year. However, there is also an adult audience for video games.

As the pandemic continues, we're all missing the things that made travel so appealing, including sharing new experiences with loved ones. The following sites can help you explore staycation options with ease.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr leads holds this week. Four LibraryReads selections and five Indie Next picks publish this week. October’s issue of Entertainment Weekly is out with a feature on Colson Whitehead, a Q&A with Stanley Tucci, and more. People's book of the week is The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg. The National Book Awards ceremony will be virtual. Anita Hill publishes her book this week. Interviews arrive with Laurie Woolever, Laurie Halse Anderson, Cassandra Peterson, Isabel Allende, Sandra Cisneros, and Dan Savage. Plus, a first look at Netflix’s forthcoming series The Sandman, developed by Neil Gaiman.

Shortlists are announced for the 2021 Cundill History Prize and the 2021 Financial Times Business Book of the Year. Interviews arrive with Alice McDermott of What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction, Amor Towles of The Lincoln Highway, Hope Mohr of Shifting Cultural Power: Case Studies and Questions in Performance, Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano of Black, White, and the Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant, Gabrielle Union of You Got Anything Stronger?, Megan Abbott of The Turnout, and Colson Whitehead of Harlem Shuffle. There is adaptation news for Hugh Howey’s Wool.