From a Joint Announcement: OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide, announced today that it is acquiring Kanopy, a leading video streaming service for public and academic libraries.

LJ's ALA galley guide is available, featuring more than 150 titles. 

These selections, both memoirs and sociological reflections, spanning everything from dating to parenting, identity to self-acceptance, are perfect suggestions for Pride Month and all year round.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently appointed DeLa Dos as senior director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), effective June 7. They will lead the association’s DEI priorities, working with and providing strategic guidance to ARL’s DEI Committee and Board of Directors. LJ caught up with them and ARL Executive Director Mary Lee Kennedy to find out more about their thoughts on DEI work and the association’s ongoing efforts.

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.

Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Response to Ontario’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) Framework (via CARL) DuckDuckGo’s Quest to Prove Online Privacy is Possible (via WIRED) Investment Firm Platinum Equity to Acquire McGraw Hill From Apollo Funds for $4.5 Billion< Open Research Quarterly Update – Issue 2: June 2021 (via JISC) UK: The National Archives […]

From eLife: eLife is excited to announce a new approach to peer review and publishing in medicine, including public health and health policy. One of the most notable impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the desire to share important results and discoveries quickly, widely and openly, leading to rapid growth of the preprint server […]

From the Harvard Gazette: In a recent virtual curatorial discussion, Houghton librarian John Overholt took an item from the Colonial North America collections to share with his audience. Rather than highlighting a letter from John Hancock or a cameo of George Washington, Overholt chose a yellowed piece of paper with a faded inventory from a […]

The article linked below was recently published by Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP). Title Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of Academic Library Search Data: An Interpretive Description of Undergraduate Student Perspectives Author Laura W. GariepyVirginia Commonwealth University Source Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP)16(2); 2021DOI: 10.18438/eblip29923 Abstract Objective – This article presents findings […]

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.

All the December 2021 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a central index, a downloadable spreadsheet, and a print-ready PDF of all posts.

Oprah announces new book club pick The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. Charles Baxter wins the 2021 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. The Women’s Prize for Fiction ceremony is postponed until September while The Virtual Shortlist Festival is still on, ending its programming today. The July LibraryReads list arrives, with Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda earning the top spot. LJ releases pre-pub alerts for Pop Fiction Debuts, Memoir, Arts, and Self Help. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The Maidens, by Alex Michaelides, this week’s buzziest book. New publisher, All Seasons Press, will court “conservative writers rejected elsewhere.” Jared Kushner inks a book deal. Hanif Abdurraqib debuts a new podcast.

The 2020 Bisexual Book Awards Winners including All Adults Here by Emma Straub, Off Balance by Jay Hogan, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, Noble by Bianca Phipps, and Bi Writer of the Year Molly Wizenberg, The Fixed Stars. Jürgen Kaube receives inaugural German Nonfiction Prize. The 2021 Alberta Literary Awards are announced. The Schomburg Center Literary Festival starts its second day of programming and continues through Saturday. Participants include Chris Abani, Hanif Abdurraqib, Tressie McMillan Cottom, PhD, Ben Okri, and many more. The July Loanstars List is out, featuring #1 pick While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory.  Plus, Marlon James previews Season 2 of the podcast Marlon & Jake Read Dead People.

Told from the perspectives of Rich, Colleen, and Chub, in prose as clear as a spring-fed creek, this intimate, compassionate portrait of a community clinging to a vanishing way of life amid the perils of environmental degradation makes Damnation Spring an essential novel for our time.