City of Library Love | ALA Annual 2025 Preview

City of Library Love | ALA Annual 2025 Preview

ALA held its first Annual conference, in 1876, in Philadelphia. While the city has seen a number of Midwinters and Public Library Association meetings, Philadelphia has hosted only five Annuals in ALA’s history, the most recent in 1982. If any year called for reconnecting with American roots and ideals, however, this one is it.
LIBRARIES LEAD PODCAST
LIBRARIES LEAD PODCAST
LIBRARIES LEAD PODCAST
LIBRARIES LEAD PODCAST

EXPLORE LJ

Movers & Shakers 2025

May 05, 2025
A lot has happened in the library world since LJ opened up Movers nominations last fall, and the landscape looks decidedly different. But just as pandemic challenges drove new, creative processes, we think the 50 Movers profiled here demonstrate the strong work and resilience of libraries, now and to come.

Library Collection Decisions Not Protected by First Amendment Says Fifth Circuit Court

Lisa Peet, May 29, 2025
In a judgment that is likely to impact freedom to read challenges across the country, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that library collection decisions are “government speech” and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. The 10–7 decision reversed the preliminary injunction issued in Little v. Llano County, a lawsuit filed in April 2022 by patrons of Llano County Library System, TX, over the removal of 17 books from one of the system’s three branches.

Telling Railroad Stories at the California State Railroad Museum | Archives Deep Dive

Elisa Shoenberger, May 15, 2025
The mission of the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) in Sacramento, CA, is to collect, preserve, and share the deep history of railroads and railroading in California and the rest of the western United States. The organization is also home to a large 19th-century reconstruction of a railroad station and railroad depot, with a still-functional train that gives tours to patrons.

Report: “Federal Judge Orders IMLS to Be Restored”

Filed by Gary Price, May 14, 2025
From Words and Money: On May 13, federal judge John G. McConnell in Rhode Island issued a sweeping preliminary injunction blocking Trump administration officials from acting on the president’s March 14 executive order to dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Furthermore, the court ordered the administration to immediately takes steps to restore the agency’s employees and grant funding activities.

Gary Price, Jun 16, 2025
The article linked below was published today (June 16, 2025) by Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL). Title Prospects of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for Academic Library Search and Retrieval Authors Ravi Varma Kumar Bevara Department of Information Science, University of North Texas Brady D. Lund Department of Information Science, University of North Texas Nishith Reddy […]
Gary Price, Jun 15, 2025
The article linked below was recently published by Communications in Information Literacy. Title What Language Are We Speaking?: Marketing Information Literacy on University Library Websites Author Aleksandar Golijanin York University Source Communications in Information Literacy Vol. 19, No. 1, 2025 DOI: Abstract This study investigates how Canadian university libraries communicate information literacy (IL) to non-library […]
Gary Price, Jun 14, 2025
From the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA): The Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section, ENSULIB, is proud to announce the publication of its new book, Libraries Driving Education for Sustainable Development. This is number 186 in the IFLA Publications Series, and is published open access. The world is facing urgent and dramatic environmental, […]
Gary Price, Jun 14, 2025
Title Automation of Systematic Reviews with Large Language Models Authors Christian Cao (University of Toronto), Et al. Source medRxiv (June 13, 2025) DOI: 10.1101/2025.06.13.25329541 Abstract Systematic reviews (SRs) inform evidence-based decision making. Yet, they take over a year to complete, are prone to human error, and face challenges with reproducibility; limiting access to timely and […]
In this episode, we share our disgust and anger at the devastating actions by the Trump administration. This is a gut punch and we need to catch our collective breaths, celebrate this outstanding agency, and then figure out what we can do individually and together to fight back.

Mike Eisenberg, Apr 01, 2025
It’s March Madness time! So, check your brackets, grab a beverage and snacks, root for your favorite teams, and join Beth & Mike as they share and challenge each other’s perceptions and predictions with their library & information science perspectives on the whole phenomenon.
Mike Eisenberg, Mar 03, 2025
Find out what's it like to look at the world from an information perspective, to put on your"information colored glasses!
Hallie Rich,  Jun 16, 2025
In March 2020, Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Patti Callahan Henry—along with founding cohost Mary Alice Monroe, who left the show in 2021—gathered on Zoom to talk about how they could best reach readers and support independent bookstores and libraries. From their casual conversation, the idea for Friends & Fiction was born.

Kate Merlene,  Jun 16, 2025
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Kristin Harmel, Laura Lippman, Nikki Erlick, and Liv Constantine. Four LibraryReads picks and four Indie Next picks publish this week. Andrew Miller wins the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his novel The Land in Winter. The James Beard Media Award winners are announced. People shares its must-read summer recommendations.

Sourcebooks,  Jun 16, 2025
Acclaimed author and librarian Terah Shelton Harris portrays the healing power of storytelling in her new novel, Where the Wildflowers Grow.

Sarah Wolberg,  Jun 13, 2025
Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction, while the nonfiction prize goes to Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life. Winners of the Reading the West Book Awards are announced. NYT updates its list of the best romance novels of the year. NYPL celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association will be subsumed into the Association for Library Service to Children. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with E. Jean Carroll, Peter Mendelsund, and Vikas Adam.

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