Christian Zabriskie and Lauren Comito have partnered to make Urban Librarians Unite a powerful grassroots organization, while serving as a model for how teamwork can get things done—earning them the shared title of LJ's 2020 Librarian of the Year.

The American Library Association has appointed Tracie D. Hall as its executive director, effective February 24, 2020. Following a nationwide search, Hall was selected to succeed Mary W. Ghikas, who has worked for ALA since 1995 and served as executive director since January 2018.

The penultimate Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) will take place Jan. 24–28 in Philadelphia. This year’s programmatic offerings are timely, tackling the library role in addressing issues from service to refugees and detained migrants to disaster recovery to the upcoming 2020 Census—and election. Within the profession, grappling with structural inequity and fighting for fair ebook access are also top of mind.

Library Journal asked academic faculty how they viewed their roles in addressing textbook affordability in a recent survey sponsored by Taylor & Francis.

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 ABC Columbia: On Tuesday, University of South Carolina leaders cut the ribbon on what they’re calling the ‘library of the future’. Located on the 4th floor of the Thomas Cooper Library, the new facility includes collaborative technology pods. Read the Complete Article, View Video From the University of South Carolina: Over the winter break, […]

From The St. Cloud Times: The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John’s University received more than $1.4 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support its mission to preserve and share the world’s handwritten heritage. The grant will fund a three-year project to catalog 53,000 digitized manuscripts and create […]

From The Hill: Facebook’s program to hire third-party fact-checkers to crack down on misinformation on the platform has been ramping up, with partners adding staff and expanding their work. But the program still faces skepticism from activists and tech industry critics who say the company and its partners are still not providing the resources needed […]

From a Post by Silvio Peroni on the OpenCitations Blog: COCI is the OpenCitations Index of Crossref open DOI-to-DOI citations, all released as CC0 material… COCI is our first OpenCitations Index of open citations, in which we have applied the concept of citations as first-class data entities, each identified using a unique persistent Open Citation […]

Oprah picks American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins as her next book club title. So does B&N. The controversy over the book has now broken wide. The Edgar Award nominations will be announced today. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes makes Snow the hero. Reese Witherspoon’s HelloSunshine is hiring a Librarian-in-Residence.

Both readable and well illustrated, this is for all who delight in biographies, whether art history buffs or general readers; not only a fine complement to the exhibition for visitors, but also for art historians, art history students, and engaged general readers

For Austen fans and those seeking excellent English historical fiction; a must-purchase for libraries of all sizes

Janowitz delivers a fun, frothy tale of women falling in love and dealing with family and tradition; Maher offers a good choice for readers curious about the inner life of a royal