Rebuffing a move to ban so-called “socially divisive” material from its collection, the Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library in eastern Kansas got a new lease for its main branch last month. But its longtime director says it was alarming to see the usually routine lease renewal process used as leverage in a months-long battle over censorship.

Punk rock music has lived many lives, but its spirit has always meant the freedom to question everything, and to create or think for yourself. So how does one take the heart of this movement and archive it? That’s a question curator John Davis and Ben Jackson, manager of the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, had to ask themselves while creating their online exhibit, Persistent Vision: The D.C. Punk Collections at the University of Maryland.

Brooklyn Public Library's Nick Higgins, Amy Mikel, Karen Keys, Jackson Gomes, and Leigh Hurwitz have been named LJ's 2023 Librarians of the Year for their work on Books Unbanned, providing free ebook access to teens and young adults nationwide to help defy rising book challenges across the country.

To combat the digital divide, reduce barriers to service, and add even more ways to engage with the library outside our walls, Pioneer Library System took action to install solar benches in all the communities we serve.

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.

The article linked below (full-text) was recently published Reference Services Review. Title Libraries Advancing Health Equity: A Literature Review Authors Amanda J. Wilson National Library of Medicine Catherine Staley National Library of Medicine Brittney Davis National Library of Medicine Blair Anton National Library of Medicine Source Reference Services Review Ahead-of Print 2 February 2023 DOI: […]

From the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board: Anyone who has spent time on a bookmobile has learned enough to know nothing withstands the change of time. Still, we lament the slow passing of bookmobiles from our communities. Most recently, the Warren-Newport Library in Gurnee discussed ending neighborhood service with its bookmobile. That follows a long nationwide […]

From The Library of Congress (via a 4 Corners of the World Blog Post by Anchi Hoh): The African and Middle Eastern Division is delighted to announce the rerelease of the Africana Historic Postcard Collection. Originally made available online in PDF in 2017, the collection is among the most popular resources on the AMED website. Former […]

From the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA): The chart [monitoring report]…is an updated version of previous monitoring reports. Where a country has been updated or added since the last report, this is indicated with an asterisk. Information is sourced from contacts with library associations and associations representing people with print disabilities. In […]

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.

Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes leads holds this week and is also People’s book of the week. Viola Davis achieves EGOT status after winning a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album with Finding Me. Five LibraryReads and eleven Indie Next picks publish this week. Plus, the March Indie Next list is out, featuring #1 pick I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. 

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, focused on nonfiction, releases its shortlist. Finalists are out for the Minnesota Book Awards. Book banning in Florida makes more news, and the backlash against Colleen Hoover gets another think piece. Plus, Page to Screen. 

Awards announcements include the Center for Black Literature Octavia E. Butler Awards and the Romantic Novel Awards shortlists. Also, the Romantic Novelists Association names A Christmas Celebration by Heidi Swain as the winner of the 2023 Popular Romantic Fiction Award. Starting at the top of the best-seller lists are Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love by Mike Pompeo and Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass. There are interviews with authors Natasha Lester, Siddharth Kara, Hafizah Geter, Eleanor Shearer, and Annalee Newitz. Toni Collette stars in the new adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s The Power; meanwhile, the adaptation Kindred, based on the work of Octavia Butler, has been canceled after one season.

The Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI, and the Archives at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, have extensive circus collections, from posters and programs to performers’ scrapbooks and diaries.