This year, LJ eschews our traditional top ten list of best books in favor of a larger and more diverse mix across 20 categories—with 188 titles in total.

We cast a broad net and coalesced small committees for each category, each headed by an LJ Reviews editor and composed of columnists, reviewers, additional LJ editors, and/or industry experts, culminating in a compelling collection of titles that spotlight the full spectrum of the thousands of books that were published this year.

Libraries in California fire areas found themselves playing several roles at once. A number were evacuated, and still more were closed for smoke and debris cleaning even if they did not receive direct damage. Many also served as community gathering places and regional assistance centers—some as soon as they received the all-clear to reopen.

The Panorama Project—a multiyear library and publishing industry initiative focused on researching the impact that libraries have on book and author discovery, brand development, and retail sales—released its first report last week, indicating that a recent, national library promotion led to a significant sales increase for the promoted title.

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.

A photo spurred Marian Fragola to create the Making Space series at North Carolina State University (NCSU). As part of a study on the library’s gaming spaces, a student snapped a picture of herself looking into one of the rooms, her body reflected in the glass. “[It] captured her feelings of not being welcomed,” says Fragola, director of program planning and outreach. The photo brought home to Fragola and her colleagues the issue of women’s underrepresentation in the Maker movement and tech.

As director of archives and special collections at Columbia University’s Barnard Library, Shannon O’Neill practices “radical empathy,” both in the materials she selects and in the way she interacts with colleagues. The concept of radical empathy in archival practice comes from Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s “From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives,” explains O’Neill. In practice, she says, “we allow ourselves to be open to and affected by one another, and we acknowledge and actively confront oppressive structures—ones that are colonial, carceral, and racist—in archives.”

When a prospective date asked Kiara Garrett to recommend a book, she suggested Junot Díaz’s This Is How You Lose Her. He mistakenly thought the collection offered relationship advice. Garrett told him, “If you liked Jay-Z’s album 4:44, then you would like this book.”

In November 2017, a few months after she became Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library’s (EVPL) civic data scientist—one of the few in the country at a public library—Jerica Copeny volunteered at the inaugural conference of Data for Black Lives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

Best books and summaries of the year dominate the news today. Also, plenty of reviews of the best media of the year, including several adaptations. PEN America announces its 2019 Literary Awards Longlists. Forbes names the "World's Highest-Paid Authors" for 2018. Lin-Manuel Miranda releases a song that was cut from Hamilton.

Call it Best Book Day, as ten more "best of lists" arrive and #LibFaves 2018 swings into gear. NPR picks December romances and The Washington Post picks audio for the season. Godzilla and A Series of Unfortunate Events get trailers.

Prior to 2013,Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) coordinated a program styled on the “one book, one community” efforts, but its return on investment (ROI) was hard to measure. We wanted to do more and potentially reach a bigger audience. Brainstorming with our marketing team, the idea of a biennial book club conference emerged.

Pandemic by Robin Cook leads holds this week. People names its best books of 2018. Plenty of other media outlets do so as well. Priestdaddy: A Memoir by Patricia Lockwood wins the Thurber Prize For American Humor. Avengers Endgame gets its first trailer.