To help break down the relevant library issues in this election year, LJ convened a roundtable of experts including John Chrastka of EveryLibrary; Nick Grove of Meridian Library District, ID; Jason Kucsma of Toledo Lucas County Public Library, OH; and Representative Ashley Hudson from the Arkansas House of Representatives. They covered everything from voter engagement strategies for libraries on the ballot to book ban advocacy in challenging districts to engaging the electorate in an important presidential election year.

Library development deserves to be on par with university and hospital fundraising. Yet many libraries find this work difficult, and few resources exist in the sector to support the professional development needed to be successful. But this is starting to change thanks to the Library Support Network.

Free reference sources, vetted, smart, and endlessly useful, are a rich resource for scholars and students. Here are our five top picks for 2023.

Captivate with these culinary-themed memoirs, featuring favorite famous chefs and humble home cooks.

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 Science: When and how should text-generating artificial intelligence (AI) programs such as ChatGPT help write research papers? In the coming months, 4000 researchers from a variety of disciplines and countries will weigh in on guidelines that could be adopted widely across academic publishing, which has been grappling with chatbots and other AI issues for the […]

From a Library of Congress Blog Post: The South Asian Digital Collection (SADC) is the new online home for the Library’s digitized books, serials, and manuscripts related to the histories and cultures of South Asian countries (i.e., Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The creation of SADC will provide easy access to a variety […]

Ad Transparency (Elections) Investigation: Every Tech Giants’ Ad Oversight Tools Fall Short in Historic Election Year AI How People View AI, Disinformation and Elections — in Charts (via Politico) Spot the Deepfake: The AI Tools Undermining Our Own Eyes and Ears (via Politico) Alabama House Passes 18 Percent Cut to State Library Operations Budget (via […]

From the US GPO: The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has added historical volumes of the United States Statutes at Large (Statutes at Large) to GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. The newly added Volumes 1–64 (1789–1950) date back to 1789 and include the text of […]

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.

This extensive database of previously unaggregated primary-source documents provides a view of the United States government’s documentation of a crucial period in U.S. and Indigenous history. A valuable resource for researchers seeking firsthand reports in U.S. political and military history.

This superbly executed open-access database offers an unprecedented gateway to different versions of Shakespeare’s First Folios. AM’s powerful search tools and thoughtfully selected tips and pointers allow for exciting research opportunities.

Two memoirs not to miss: one from cooking maven Ina Garten and another from the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

LJ Best Book author Hailey Piper offers a twist on vampire mythology; plus new books from Kelley Armstrong, Richard Chizmar, and Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Nuzo Onoh.