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University of Washington iSchool researchers present an overview of the Open Data Literacy project's work to date, and share highlights from a survey of the current landscape of open data in Washington State's public libraries.

Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti died on Monday at the age of 101. He'll be remembered for his San Francisco bookstore City Lights, for inspiring many other independent publishers with his press City Lights Books, and for his role in the Beat poetry movement. Hillary Clinton is teaming with Louise Penny to write the political thriller State of Terror. The Audio Publishers Association announced finalists for the 2021 Audie Awards, including the Audiobook of the Year. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and Flight of the Diamond Smugglers by Matthew Gavin Frank are getting a lot of buzz in reviews this week. Plus, a series adaptation based on the series of books featuring Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins by Walter Mosley is in the works, author Brian Selznick is writing an animated adaptation of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a teaser is out for Jupiter’s Legacy, and more adaptation news.

The Horror Writers Association announced the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards finalists, which include The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, True Story by Kate Reed Petty, and many more. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Dark Fantastic by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and DIE by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans are among the winners of the British Fantasy Society's 2020 British Fantasy Awards. The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen is getting a lot of buzz in reviews this week. Plus, adaptation news about the Eternity Springs series by Emily March, The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, and more.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke leads holds this week, while other titles in high demand include The Kaiser's Web by Steve Berry, Love at First by Kate Clayborn, Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh, and Kingdom of Shadow and Light by Karen Marie Moning. LibraryReads selections out this week include Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers and The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. People's "Picks" book of the week is Send for Me by Lauren Fox. Adaptations in the works include updates of The Running Man by Stephen King and The 39 Steps by John Buchan.

Across the globe, 2020 has proved to be one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory. From COVID-19 to the US Election, gain insight into some of the many events of 2020 with OUP’s curated reading list from the What Everyone Needs to Know® series.

Despite partisan clashes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic headwinds, voters largely came through for public libraries in 2020.

The Poetry Society of America named N. Scott Momaday its 2021 recipient of the Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry. The shortlist of nominees for the 2020 BSFA Awards from the British Science Fiction Association includes The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Club Ded by Nikhil Singh, and more. Brit Bennett, Amanda Gorman, and Ijeoma Oluo are among the emerging leaders on the Time 100 Next list. New adaptations in the works include We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal, The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton, and Big Vape by Jamie Ducharme. Adaptations out this week include Nomadland, Mafia Inc., Superman & Lois, and more.

The finalists for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize are Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, and If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan. New fiction bestsellers include Faithless in Death by J. D. Robb and The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles, and new nonfiction bestsellers include Walk in My Combat Boots by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad. To honor what would have been Toni Morrison’s 90th birthday, the NYT offers suggestions on where to start with her books. Plus, Mindy Kaling's production company is working on a TV adaptation of Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian.

The University of Saskatchewan Library (USask), Saskatoon, recently wrapped up its inaugural Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence program. The pilot project appointed Lindsay “Eekwol” Knight, an award-winning hip-hop artist and PhD student at the USask Department of Indigenous Studies, to a six-week library residency; Knight presented and talked about her work, held virtual “coffee shops” where campus and community residents shared their stories, and incorporated elements of those conversations into a final project, still in progress. 

Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey, The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels, and I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Gordon C. James, are the 2021 Southern Book Prize winners. Finalists for the Baltimore Science Fiction Society's 2021 Compton Crook Award are out. What to recommend to patrons waiting to borrow A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, the top hold of the week. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer and screenwriter David Gilbert will adapt The Man Who Ate Too Much by John Birdsall, the recent biography on James Beard. Plus, the Authors Guild sent a letter to the new administration calling for, among other things, the creation of a new Federal Writers Project.

Should academic research be available to everyone? How should such a flow of information be regulated? Why would the accessibility of information ever be controversial?

The March Library Reads list is up, and the top pick is The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Nazima Abdillahi shares why she founded Muslim Voices in Publishing. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has a new four-hour series premiering tonight on PBS that's based on his book The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. Plus, Reese Witherspoon is expanding her book club with a four-episode cooking show called Eat the Book. It will feature Reese's Book Club pick authors, including Tembi Locke and Delia Owens, and premiers Feb. 18 on YouTube.

Next week, Sno-Isle Libraries, WA, will hold orientation sessions for its second cohort of aspiring IT professionals—nearly 50 residents of Snohomish and Island counties who will spend the next 25 weeks studying for CompTIA A+ certification, a common requirement for entry-level IT and computer service technician jobs.

When show organizer ReedPop announced in December 2020 that it would be retiring its family of major publishing trade shows—BookExpo, BookCon, and UnBound—Publishers Weekly (PW) saw an opportunity to organize its own event. Working quickly after ReedPop’s announcement, PW leadership conceived and created the U.S. Book Show, a virtual conference for the global bookselling and book publishing industry that will debut from May 25–27.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas leads holds this week. Other titles in demand include Missing and Endangered by J. A. Jance, A Fatal Lie by Charles Todd, and Relentless by Mark Greaney. Two books highlighted by both LibraryReads and Indie Next come out this week: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey and First Comes Like by Alisha Rai. In adaptation news, there's a new trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League, and New Pictures is adapting The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale as a TV series.

A series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Overstory by Richard Powers is in the works at Netflix, with Hugh Jackman and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss serving as executive producers. There's a lot of other adaptation news as well, including a look at why there are so many book to screen adaptations currently underway. This week sees the release of a few completed adaptations, including To All the Boys: Always and Forever, French Exit, and The Luminaries. Audiobook producer RBmedia has acquired the audiobook publishing business and catalog of the Spanish company Booka. Plus, remembering sci-fi writer and editor James E. Gunn, who died late last year.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah debuts at No. 1 on the NYT fiction bestsellers list and the USA Today list, while Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain tops the NYT nonfiction list and is at No. 8 on the USA Today list. The finalists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards are out, with winners to be announced April 8. The Story Prize Spotlight Award, honoring an exceptional short story collection, goes to Inheritors by Asako Serizawa. There is adaptation news about the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna, and more. Plus, lots of buzz about Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins.

The 2021 University of North Texas Rilke Prize, which honors emerging poets, goes to Kiki Petrosino for White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia. The Loan Stars list for March arrives, and The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is the top pick. Ample adaptation news includes the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Old, based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, plus new details on filming for the next season of Outlander. Books receiving a lot of buzz include No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood and Unfinished: A Memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

The 2021 Dublin Literary Award longlist is up, and features 49 books nominated by librarians from around the world. Among those honored are The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. ALA's 2021 Reading List is out, highlighting the best books from eight fiction genres for adult readers. The class-action lawsuit against Amazon over ebook pricing now includes the Big Five publishers as defendants, added as "co-conspirators" after an amended complaint was filed. Plus, lots of adaptations are in the works, including plans for Falling by T.J. Newman, Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, and The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han.

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.

Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb tops hold lists this week. The March Indie Next list is up, and the No. 1 pick is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. The February Barnes and Noble book club pick is Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan. Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen, My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee, and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad are getting a lot of buzz. Plus, Samantha Irby is one of the writers working on the upcoming Sex and the City reboot.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride wins ALA's 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs wins the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The RUSA/CODES Book and Media Awards are also announced. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, will publish the memoir Beautiful Things on April 6. Grey's Anatomy fans will want to bookmark How to Save A Life, the forthcoming book from Lynette Rice that's based on 80 interviews with those involved in the show. Time has a special project, "The Renaissance Is Black," which features an introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, several books as part of "The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance," and more. Salma Hayek’s production company is developing A Boob’s Life by Leslie Lehr as a series. Plus, a video game that lets you use authors like Saeed Jones, Jia Tolentino, and Tony Tulathimmute as fighters.

Penguin Random House will publish a young readers edition of Becoming by Michelle Obama on March 2. The Russian by James Patterson and James O. Born and Just as I Am by Cicely Tyson lead the NYT Best Sellers and the USA Today Best-Selling Books lists. The 2021 United States Artists Fellows were announced, and among those honored are 8 writers, including Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Danez Smith, and Ocean Vuong. A new podcast about library workers, librarypunk, has launched. Former Baltimore Ravens player Jason Brown discusses Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters on The Today Show.

Seoud Makram Matta, Dean Emeritus of the School of Library & Information Science (now the School of Information) at Pratt Institute, died November 24, 2020, at the age of 83 due to complications of COVID-19.

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.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse is Reese Witherspoon's February book club pick. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones is the GMA February book club pick. The longlist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is out, as are nominees for the 52nd NAACP Image Awards, which includes a large literary category. Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO, but will stay involved as executive chairman, of Amazon. NetGalley, along with its parent company Firebrand, have been sold to the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Media Do. George R.R. Martin says he wrote a whole lot of The Winds of Winter last year, but adds, "I will make no predictions on when I will finish." Plus, Ken Burns has a documentary about Ernest Hemingway in the works.

Jenna Bush Hager selects two books for her February "Read with Jenna" book club: Send for Me by Lauren Fox and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. In other book club news, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard has launched his own club, and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is this month's PBS NewsHour/NYT pick. The February Earphones Award winners are up at AudioFile. The New York Public Library has launched the Woodson Project, featuring book lists, events, and more, to honor Black History Month. Plus, the forthcoming novel The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, which is due out June 15, has been optioned for a TV series.

From the Federal Communications Commission: The Federal Communications Commission today began seeking comment on several petitions requesting permission to use E-Rate program funds to support remote learning during the pandemic.

In the messy middle of the pandemic, library leaders share how things have changed since March 2020, their takeways, and continuing challenges.

It’s evident that the role of medical libraries and librarians has changed considerably since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The degree to which this has happened is discussed by Siemensma with Rolf Schafer and Elle Matthews, Library Manager and E-services Librarian, respectively, from St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah leads holds this week. Other titles in high demand include The Survivors by Jane Harper, Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman, Girl A by Abigail Dean, and more. PopSugar picks The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson for its February book club, and Luster by Raven Leilani is Vox's February book club selection. The Authors Guild, the National Writers Union, and others sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking it to block the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House. Following news of her death, Cicely Tyson's memoir Just as I Am hit No. 1 on Amazon, and also sold out of copies available there.

Congratulations on your inauguration. I know you face urgent challenges and must take decisive action at scale. I write to urge you to keep libraries in mind as you design structural remedies to ameliorate the immediate crises and prevent the next.

In an effort to archive all aspects of America’s political life, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History is in the process of collecting items from the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol Building during the counting of the Electoral College votes.

Full text of a recent submission (Jan. 26, 2021) by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the American Library Association virtual Midwinter Meeting, the association continued its ambitious three-pronged strategy of self-reinvention. The Forward Together plan, which for several years has pursued a streamlined and less siloed governance structure, is joined by a revision-in-progress of the Operating Agreement, which defines the relationship of the association to its divisions and roundtables, and the Pivot Strategy, which addresses how association management and staff do the work. These three parallel threads ran through the virtual membership meeting, the executive board, and of course, Council convenings.

Actress Cicely Tyson, whose memoir Just as I Am was released this week, died yesterday at age 96. With massive demand following her reading at Joe Biden's inauguration, poet Amanda Gorman's three unreleased books will see a print run of one million copies each. Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt from Billy Summers by Stephen King, which is due out Aug. 3. Lala Kent of The Vanderpump Rules has a memoir, Give Them Lala, coming May 4. Adaptations out this week include Finding You, based on There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones and Firefly Lane, based on the book by Kristin Hannah. Plus, the graphic novel The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag will be adapted as an animated musical for Netflix.

“The troublesome tech landscape is a vast and ever-evolving place,” said Callan Bignoli, library director of Olin College of Engineering. Needham, MA, kicking off an hour-long presentation on technology and surveillance—including the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic surveillance—at the American Library Association's 2021 Midwinter Virtual Meeting.

Deepfakes, a portmanteau of “deep learning” artificial intelligence (AI) and “fake media,” are becoming more common, and a better understanding of what they are and how they work “is vital in the current information landscape,” said John Mack Freeman, Suwanee branch manager for Gwinnett County Public Library, GA, in an hour-long presentation as part of this year’s Core Top Tech Trends panel at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Virtual Meeting.

Actor Seth Rogen's first book, Yearbook, is due out May 11, and his mother provided a statement for the press release. Moneyball and The Big Short author Michael Lewis has a forthcoming pandemic novel, The Premonition, while The End of October author Lawrence Wright has a nonfiction pandemic book coming called The Plague Year. More forthcoming book news includes work from Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, The View co-host Sunny Hostin, and others. Poet Amanda Gorman will read at the Super Bowl. Plus, news on upcoming adaptations of Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, and more.

For more than 60 years, Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) member schools have combined purchasing power and shared software licenses, aggregated course sharing and information technology services, and maintained an extensive faculty community. In mid-January, the library deans and directors of the BTAA announced the next step in the consortium’s collaboration: the BIG Collection, which will manage the institutions’ separate library collections as a single entity.

Cindy Altick Aden, Leon A. Wilson, and Gina J. Millsap share wisdom on how librarians can become stronger advocates for their community, and better understand issues facing patrons in need.

Gerry Smyth discusses his book Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas and ponders the newfound popularity of the art form on social media.

From the Podcast Description (via MSNBC): In 2021, [Hayden is] leading a new Library-wide initiative, Of the People: Widening the Path, to connect the national library more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other underrepresented communities.

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey wins the 2020 Costa Book of the Year award. The forthcoming book The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon has been optioned for a series by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton's new production company. Other adaptations in the works include Outlawed by Anna North, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more. Plus, the Library of Congress receives a $15 million grant to improve diversity programs.

The American Library Association (ALA) closed out its first virtual Midwinter Meeting—which was also its last Midwinter Meeting, as the 107-year-old conference format will be replaced next year by ALA’s LibLearnX event—with a highly anticipated conversation between ALA President Julius Jefferson and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

Nominees for the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards are out, and include When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole, These Women by Ivy Pochoda, Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch, and many more. See the winners of the Alex Awards, the Printz Award, and all the other 2021 ALA youth media award honorees. Forthcoming book news includes an essay collection edited by Tarana Burke, an instructional tome on talking dogs, and the Dragonlance trilogy. Plus, HBO Max is looking to develop a live-action Harry Potter series.

Full Text of a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Statement: Today a coalition of education advocates petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to close the remote learning gap for the estimated 15 to 16 million students who lack home internet access.

Natalie Baszile discusses We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy.

Finalists for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards are out and include Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Memorial by Bryan Washington, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, and more. The Russian by James Patterson and James O. Born leads holds this week. The People "Picks" book of the week is American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption by Gabrielle Glaser. Plus, reviews and more buzz for Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion.

The session “Small and Rural Libraries: A Candid Discussion,” held at the American Library Association (ALA) 2021 virtual Midwinter Meeting, began—as one might expect, during a year of pandemic, budget cuts, and major disruptions—by looking at the challenges small libraries face. But it quickly turned into a celebration of how they are meeting the needs of patrons, communities, and staff with imaginative, humane solutions.

The ALA President’s Program at the American Library Association Virtual Midwinter Meeting 2021 featured U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo in conversation with fellow poet and memoirist Jill Bialosky, an executive editor at W. W. Norton.

The Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) presented “Exploring Ways to ‘Jazz Up’ Your Library's Bookmobile, Outreach, or Book Bike Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic with the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services” during the American Library Association (ALA) Virtual Midwinter Meeting. The session was notably encouraging and upbeat, urging outreach librarians to reframe their services during the pandemic.

The books most in demand by garden readers are about houseplants, cottage designs, native plants, and saving seeds.

Historians Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain discuss their latest work, Four Hundred Souls, and how they sought to bring together a community to reflect on, and make, history.

HBO is working on a series adaptation of Tales of Dunk and Egg by George R. R. Martin, a prequel to Game of Thrones. The 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize longlist is out and includes Just Us by Claudia Rankine, The Actual by Inua Ellams, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, among others. The White Tiger, Penguin Bloom, and Resident Alien are some of the adaptations premiering this week. In more adaptation news, Bridgerton, based on the series by Julia Quinn, is getting a second season.

When Baltimore County Public Libraries (BCPL) implemented its successful Lawyers in the Library program at its Essex branch in 2016, it was a way to offer legal help to those in need who didn’t have the means to hire a lawyer on their own. However, library staff began to realize that there was more that could be done. So the library and Maryland Legal Aid decided to create the Mobile Library Law Center.

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman made headlines—and book sales—following her reading at Joe Biden's inauguration. New releases on the NYT and USA Today bestsellers lists include The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, and more. Nominees for the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award are out. Plus, buzz for The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura, Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor, and others.

When Slave Biographies: The Atlantic Database Network launched in 2011, it aggregated data on slavery and enslaved people from three scholarly sources. Nearly 10 years later, Enslaved.org: Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade—built on the original project and using linked open data technology for a new, more comprehensive iteration—launched in December 2020.

Project MUSE has released "MUSE in Focus: Roots of the Attack on Democracy,” insurance analytics company ValChoice has extended a free unlimited access subscription for libraries, and Kanopy expects the growth of streaming video services to continue based on a recent survey of librarians.

At a time when more students are learning remotely and many office spaces have remained closed, libraries have been instrumental in making sure that community members without home broadband access aren’t left behind.

The February LibraryReads list is announced, and the top choice is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. The Gotham Book Prize announces the finalists for its first $50,000 award, which honors New York City-based books. After becoming friends with fellow stutterer Joe Biden, 13-year-old Brayden Harrington now has a book deal, with the picture book Brayden Speaks Up due out in Aug. See the trailer for The Luminaries, based on the book by Eleanor Catton, which premiers Feb. 14. Books set for TV and film adaptations include The Whistler by John Grisham, Libra by Don DeLillo, The Walled City by Ryan Graudin, and more.

A university’s research output is only beneficial when others can easily find it. This is where libraries can add tremendous value to the research process: By leveraging their expertise in collecting, organizing, and making information easily discoverable, academic libraries can help raise the profile of their institution’s research

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman will read at Joe Biden's inauguration. Meanwhile, more than 250 authors, editors, agents and others signed an open letter opposing any book deals for Donald Trump and members of his administration. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner leads holds this week. A class-action lawsuit accuses Amazon of colluding with the "Big Five" publishers to inflate ebook prices. CNN anchor Don Lemon announced his forthcoming book, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism. Plus, Netflix is developing three anti-racism projects that will be executive produced by Ibram X. Kendi and based on his books Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, and Antiracist Baby.

On Thursday, January 14, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio released his preliminary FY22 budget, as well as outlining cuts to be enacted this year. All three of the city’s library systems—Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), New York Public Library (NYPL), and Queens Public Library (QPL)—will see cuts to their operating budgets, with subsequent reductions spread out through 2025.

With most patrons still unable to browse the stacks, public librarians are finding creative ways to provide the experience of serendipitous discovery through book bundles and grab bags.

Noah Baumbach will direct Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig in a feature adaptation of White Noise by Don DeLillo. In other adaptation news, there are first-look deals on The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw and Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. HarperCollins nabbed a three-book deal with Jeffrey Archer. First up this fall is the next book in his William Warwick series, Over My Dead Body. One Book, One Philadelphia at The Free Library of Philadelphia selects the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poems The Tradition by Jericho Brown. YALSA picks "2021 Great Graphic Novels for Teens."

Lack of reliable broadband access has long posed challenges for many rural communities. As the pandemic ramps up the need, libraries continue to help with innovative solutions.

HVAC systems may be an important tool for reducing COVID risk in library buildings; the details make all the difference.

PEN International honors activist and author Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body, with its 2021 Award for Freedom of Expression. This week's new best sellers include Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, Neighbors by Danielle Steel, The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, and Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta. Connecticut is looking into whether Amazon engaged in anti-competitive behavior in its ebook distribution agreements. Plus, see the trailer for To All the Boys: Always and Forever, the film adaptation of Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han.

Sally Rooney's next book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, will be published Sept. 7. In other forthcoming book news, Billie Eilish announced a photobook and Margaret Josephs, one of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, has written a memoir. Learn even more about buzzy books during several virtual events at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The 2020/21 finalists for The Story Prize are Likes by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Powell's Books closed early following protests surrounding a controversial upcoming book. Plus, Ben Affleck is set to direct the Disney adaptation of Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger.

The February Indie Next list is out, and The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles is the top pick. The American Library Association announces the winners of the I Love My Librarian Awards. A Promised Land by Barack Obama led book sales in 2020. The Millions, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, BuzzFeed, and others preview the best forthcoming books of the year. David E. Kelley is working on the TV adaptation of Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer series for Netflix.

Following the demise of BookExpo, new book fairs from Publishers Weekly and Edelweiss are launching later this year to fill the void. The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child leads holds this week. The People "Picks" book of the week is Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne. Senator Amy Klobuchar's new book, Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power From the Gilded Age to the Digital Age, will be out in April. Plus, in adaptation news, BCDF Pictures purchases the rights to adapt The Girl at Midnight series by Melissa Grey for TV, and there's a trailer for Cherry, based on the book by Nico Walker.

Simon & Schuster will no longer publish Senator Josh Hawley's forthcoming book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, which was due out June 22. U.S. print book sales were up 8.2 percent in 2020, according to the NPD Group, with A Promised Land by Barack Obama leading the sales numbers. New adaptations out this week include All Creatures Great and Small and the new season of American Gods. The English translation of Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO will be released on April 13. Merriam-Webster reports the top words searched for on its site on Wednesday included sedition, coup d'état, and fascism, and the NYT speaks with historians about the evolution of some terms.

Vulture previews 46 top reads for 2021, including The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee, and The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Wiley has acquired open access publisher Hindawi for $298 million. Danez Smith reviews The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. for the NYT. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters is getting buzz, with a review in the L.A. Times and interviews in Vulture and Kirkus. Plus, Shelf Awareness has a look at how the chaos in Washington, D.C. impacted bookstores there.

From the American Library Association:  ALA forcefully condemns the violent attempts to undermine the integrity of our electoral process and our democracy. The threats, destruction of government buildings and looting witnessed on January 6 do not constitute peaceful protest, but domestic terrorism.

January book club picks are out: The Read With Jenna selection is Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour, the GMA book club title is The Push by Ashley Audrain, and for Reese Witherspoon's book club, it's Outlawed by Anna North. Lit Hub, Electric Lit, Book Marks, Entertainment Weekly, and others preview some of the most anticipated books of 2021. Read memorials for author Eric Jerome Dickey, who has died at age 59. His final book, The Son of Mr. Suleman, is due out April 20. Plus, Vulture has an in-depth feature on the pre- and post-publication controversies of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

On the afternoon of January 6, as Congress prepared to count the electoral votes to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump—many of them armed—stormed the Capitol Building. The Capitol was evacuated and placed on lockdown, including the Library of Congress offices in the James Madison Memorial Building.

As announced in August 2020, the final incarnation of the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits, originally scheduled to be held in Indianapolis, IN, will instead take place virtually January 22–26. Registration will be open until January 15. Here are LJ’s editors’ picks from the program.

Librarians Elaine R. Hicks, Stacy Brody, and Sara Loree have been named LJ's 2021 Librarians of the Year for their work with the Librarian Reserve Corps, helping the World Health Organization manage the flood of COVID-19 information.

When I look at the state of the nation, my first reaction is frustration with squandered opportunities for the federal government to address both pandemic spread and economic hardship. Both could have been considerably ameliorated with sustained, coordinated action from the top over the past 10 months.

LJ Horror columnist Becky Spratford interviews Usman T. Malik, author of Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan. She writes “his talent is blinding and his trajectory reminds me of Stephen Graham Jones, who I also found, like Usman, in Ellen Datlow collections first.” They discuss his work, influences, and the current landscape of horror fiction.

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson is the January Barnes & Noble book club pick. Recommendations for upcoming new releases come from The Millions, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, Shondaland, Essence, and others. Buzzy reviews for The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., Nick by Michael Farris Smith, Exercised by Daniel Lieberman, and more. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud and other winners of the 2020 Costa Book Award winners are announced. Plus, Tiffany Haddish will star in an upcoming adaptation of Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson.

From Wiley: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Hindawi Limited, an innovator in open access (OA) publishing and one of the world’s fastest growing scientific research publishers, for a total purchase price of $298 million.

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries has developed CAMPI, a new web application that uses computer vision to assist librarians processing digital photograph collections.

Neighbors by Danielle Steel tops library holds lists this week, and other popular titles include All the Colors of Night by Jayne Ann Krentz, The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, and Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta. Future First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will address the ALA  Midwinter virtual meeting on Jan. 25. See previews for books coming out this year from Autostraddle, Kirkus, Electric Lit, and more.

From ALA: The American Library Association (ALA) announced today that the next First Lady, Jill Biden, Ed.D, will participate in ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits virtual meeting on Monday, Jan. 25, from 11:15 a.m. – noon CT. Dr. Biden will join a conversation with ALA President Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., which will serve as the event’s closing session.

Barnes & Noble lists forthcoming books already getting a lot of buzz, which include The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., and Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. Adaptations out this week include Elizabeth Is Missing, based on the book by Emma Healey, and The Watch, based on the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The Audacious Book Club from Roxane Gay launches in January, and will be accessible via a newsletter. Plus, following the success of the biopic Mank, the biography Competing with Idiots by Nick Davis about brothers Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz is coming next year.

Will the popularity of the new Shonda Rhimes's Bridgerton series eliminate some of the obstacles that have kept more mass-market romance books from being adapted into TV shows and movies? Lit Hub highlights some of the best but lesser-hyped books of 2020, while AARP and Bustle preview books that will be released in the months ahead. Nurturing Healing Love by Scarlett Lewis, a memoir about the loss of her son in the Sandy Hook massacre, is set to be adapted as a TV movie.

Hush-Hush by Stuart Woods tops library holds lists this week. More best-of 2020 books lists are out from The Atlantic, HuffPost, and Vogue. Time offers a look at what happens when copyright on The Great Gatsby expires Jan. 1. The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk will be adapted by the creator of The Shield, and a limited series of Sex and the City may be in the works. Plus, remembering author Barry Lopez, who died at age 75.

Teacher, raconteur, debater, mentor, advocate, editor, and above all, librarian: Colleagues and friends from the field recall John N. Berry III’s vital voice.

The longlists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards are out. Finalists will be announced in Feb. A film adaptation of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is in the works. Adaptations being released this week include The Midnight Sky, News of the World, Wonder Woman 1984, and Bridgerton. Plus, The New Republic looks into ebook licensing at school libraries.

Roxane Gay is launching The Audacious Book Club in 2021. The first read for January is Black Futures edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham. More best-of 2020 book lists are out from CrimeReads, BuzzFeed, the CBC, and others. Read excerpts of Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman and Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe by Dr. Bonnie Henry and Lynn Henry. Plus, adaptation news about The School For Good And Evil series by Soman Chainani.

AHC Library enables students to access digital course reserves from any device, TLC Migrates to Oracle Cloud, and ProQuest Launches a new text and data mining visualization interface.

On the afternoon of December 21, Congress released and passed a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package. The FY21 budget, along with a $900 billion Emergency COVID Relief spending package, includes a $5 million increase from FY20 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), including nearly $2 million for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The bill did not, however, include direct funding for libraries.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett leads 2020 checkouts at the New York Public Library. Toaster Oven Perfection by America's Test Kitchen tops library holds lists this week. The January issue of Entertainment Weekly is out, featuring reviews of The Push by Ashley Audrain and Girl A by Abigail Dean. Above the Ether by Eric Barnes wins the best novel category for the 2020 Darrell Awards. Sarah Polley will direct and Frances McDormand will produce and star in the film adaptation of Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

Gina Millsap, CEO and director of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (TSCPL) for the past 15 years, retired on December 1. LJ caught up with her on her next-to-last day at TSCPL to find out more about her achievements, her challenges, and what’s next on her agenda.

The National Endowment for the Humanities teams up with the UK-based Arts and Humanities Research Council, ALA and Humble Bundle team up to offer library supporters and advocates an opportunity to fund ALA initiatives supporting social justice and intellectual freedom, The Canadian Research Knowledge Network and the National Information Standards Organization have announced a consortium agreement, and more news briefs.

Every public library is a star to the community it serves. LJ’s Star Library Ratings and the LJ Index of Public Library Service spotlight the best of the best across America. The 2020 edition is the 13th. This year, 5,608 U.S. public libraries are scored on the LJ Index, and there are 262 Star Libraries.

Barack Obama's 17 favorite books of the year include Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Deacon King Kong by James McBride, and Jack by Marilynne Robinson. BOMB looks at new titles released by small and independent presses during 2020, plus other best-of lists from the L.A. Times, CrimeReads, Book Riot, and more. The audiobook version of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders has a star-studded narration. Jennifer Lopez is producing and starring in a feature adaptation of The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado for Netflix.

Paul Farmer, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History, wins the $1 million 2020 Berggruen Prize. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's new book, Persist, will be out April 20, 2021. More lists of the best books of the year arrive from Town & Country, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, and more. Read excerpts of Godspeed by Nickolas Butler and This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron. Plus, adaptation news about His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, and more.