News

At a talk at the New York Public Library, Peter Sokolowski, the dictionary's editor at large, discussed Merriam-Webster's evolution and the power of its online presence.

Library legislation news has been tentatively positive, according to the panel discussion “173 Days of Congress: An Examination” at the 2019 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Congress in Washington, DC. Representatives from ALA’s Washington Office and the U.S. Copyright Office looked at the successes and challenges libraries have confronted during the first six months of the 116th Congress, and identified a number of upcoming issues that advocates will want to keep an eye on.

Ex Libris today announced the acquisition of RapidILL, the resource sharing system developed by Colorado State University Libraries that now provides more than 330 academic libraries in the United States, Canada, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand with interlibrary lending services for articles, returnables, and open access materials.

On June 14, Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Council reached an early agreement on the FY20 executive budget that included $33 million in additional funds for the city’s three library systems—Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library, and Queens Public Library—after they joined forces on a citywide advocacy campaign pushing back against more than $11 million in proposed cuts.

Sustainability is no longer to be relegated to the “green team” (as awesome as they can be!). It is no longer a once-a-year theme we address in April or on Earth Day. This topic is, or should be, front-and-center in how we think about everything we do.

When Emma Boettcher, user experience resident librarian at the University of Chicago (UChicago) Library, won the episode of Jeopardy! that aired on Monday, June 3, she unseated reigning champion James Holzhauer, ending his 32-game winning streak. LJ caught up with her following her win to find out more about her background and what librarianship and Jeopardy! have in common—as well as what they don’t.

The Panorama Project—a multi-partner library and publishing industry initiative to research the impact that libraries have on book and author discovery, brand development, and retail sales—this week announced the launch of “Panorama Picks,” a free program offering librarians, publishers, and booksellers a topline assessment of regional library demand for recently published ebook titles.

Dinosaurs, coral, and tectonics top the list of best-selling academic titles on geology, as compiled by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

McGraw-Hill and Cengage on May 1 announced an all-stock merger. Paul Gazzollo, senior VP and global general manager of Gale Publishing, a Cengage company, told LJ that libraries can expect "business as usual at Gale"