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Festival of Books features Native American authors Rigoberto González, Danielle Geller, and more. The Wolfson History Prize announced, and Louise Erdrich is named the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Winner. Margaret Wander Bonanno, author of several Star Trek books, dies at the age of 71. Ocean Prey by John Sandford, The Devil’s Hand by Jack Carr, On the House by John Boehner, and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe top best sellers lists. Covers are revealed for Reckless Girls and Flowers for the Sea. New DC comics to cover new Superman and Supergirl series. The director of Game of Thrones is adapting Stone Junction by Jim Dodge for television.

From Brooklyn Public Library: After Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd last summer, BPL stood in solidarity with millions of protestors around the nation who stood up against injustice. Today, that resistance achieved, if not justice, accountability.

Kathy Wang's Impostor Syndrome gets buzz as a summer must-read. Emilia Clarke wrote a comic book and signs on to Marvel’s Secret Invasion at Disney+. Simon & Schuster refuses to cancel Pence memoir despite worker protests. Alyssa Collins is awarded the Octavia E. Butler Fellowship. George W. Bush speaks on his new book Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants. Plus, The Hollywood Reporter kicks off the inaugural series "THR Talks" with Roxanne Gay and Andra Day in conversation.

The American Library Association launched two relief funds at the beginning of April. The $1.25 million ALA COVID Library Relief Fund will offer grants of $30,000–$50,000 to public, school, academic, and tribal libraries across the United States and U.S. Territories that have been affected by pandemic-influenced budget contractions. The ReMember Fund will ensure that ALA members financially impacted by COVID-19 can maintain their membership.

UPDATE:

After more than a year of uncertainty and threatened legal action, on April 8 the Biden administration stopped the sale of the Seattle National Archives, reversing the Office of Management and Budget's previous approval of the facility's sale in 2020. Selling the 10-acre property would have resulted in moving valuable records far from the tribal and regional communities that routinely accessed them.

At the University of Waterloo, after a year of transitioning content for instruction online, we have had the opportunity to iterate, moving beyond our initial efforts to a more cohesive and intentional instructional design and delivery. Looking back on the last 12 months, we have arrived at six principles that we have used, informally and formally, to guide our practice. 1) Streamline; 2) Be flexible; 3) Be kind; 4) Good enough is good enough; 5) Build comfort; and 6) Don’t get attached.

Vartan Gregorian, president of the New York Public Library (NYPL) from 1981–89, died on April 15 at age 87. Gregorian took leadership of the library during the tail end of the fiscal crisis that pushed New York City to the brink of bankruptcy and left NYPL facing a $50 million deficit, helping restore the library to solvency through substantial fundraising efforts and advocacy.

The uncut version of Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground finally gets a release and reviews. The LA Festival of Books continues this week. Dutton releases a posthumous interview with Eric Jerome Dickey for the release of his final novel The Son of Mr. Suleman.  Katherine Heiny shines with Early Morning Riser and Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart continues to get attention. Elizabeth Acevedo will release her first novel for adults in 2023 while Michaela Coel will publish debut novelin September. Downton Abbey 2 will hit theaters in December. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gets a new trio of directors at the helm, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings gets a new trailer. Plus, a reported $2M book deal for Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

A Gambling Man by David Baldacci leads holds this week. The LA Festival of Books kicks off with awards. Simon & Schuster won't distribute book by officer who shot Breonna Taylor. Four Indie Next picks publish this week. Michelle Zauner's memoir, Crying in H Mart, is out this week. Godzilla vs. Kong has another monster weekend, and Oscar coverage begins in earnest. The May issue of Entertainment Weekly arrives, and the People "Picks" book of the week is The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth.  Plus, Agatha Christie’s Wallingford home is on the market for £2.75m.

The new trailer for Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad gets a great deal of coverage for a May 14 release. The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Color and Sheikh Zayed Book Award shortlists are announced. Also, the 2021 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize shortlist is announced. Oprah Winfrey’s upcoming book tour and April 27 release of new book What Happened to You makes news. Terry Crews discusses the new audiobook Stronger Together, co-written with his wife with lessons from his life and marriage. Phoebe Robinson, author of Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes, speaks about the lack of diversity in publishing. A television series based on Greyboy: Finding Blackness In A White World is being developed. Concerns are being raised about a police officer’s book regarding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Lastly, there is an interview with Lawrence P. Jackson, author of a biography on Chester B. Himes on the importance of Black crime writers.

Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, vice provost for digital initiatives and dean of university libraries at the University of Washington (UW), recently announced that she will retire on June 30. Wilson has served as dean since 2001; in 2013 she took on the vice provost role as well, leading the libraries’ strategy on digital scholarship, data stewardship, and open access. The network of 16 libraries—one of the largest academic research libraries in North America, with the largest collection in the Pacific Northwest—serves UW’s Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses and Friday Harbor Laboratories.

The 2021 RWA Vivan Finalists are announced by the Romance Writers of America. Also, the 2021 Whiting Award Winners are announced. Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile top the best sellers lists. News breaks about the “Bridgerton effect” on the romance genre and an adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Prince Philip’s Century by Robert Jobson gets an early release. The Root shares newly released books that could help readers heal from trauma. There is a cover reveal of Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. Lauren Hough talks about Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing and Morgan Jerkins talks about Caul Baby.

The 2021 Hugo Award Finalists are announced including Best Novel. Rep. John Lewis’ Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation will be released on July 13, almost a year after his death while Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground, will finally come out in its original form on April 20th.  J.K. Rowling will release a new children’s book, The Christmas Pig in October. Natalie Portman will headline HBO's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's The Days of Abandonment and The Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty continues to get attention. Plus, Bridgerton is renewed for two more seasons.  

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 2021 virtual conference, taking place April 13–16, started off on a strong note with Tressie McMillan Cottom’s opening keynote. Her thoughts on how to center human rights and justice within an academic framework gave attendees much to think about as they continued on to the many panels, sessions, exhibits, and other offerings.

Jason Reynolds is set as the inaugural Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week. Fourth Estate and William Collins will introduce a modern classics list featuring titles from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Anthony Doerr, and more. Ottessa Moshfegh’s next novel, Lapvona, will be published by Penguin next summer. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard announce The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, to be released in October. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson’s memoir The Lives of Brian drops this fall. Frank Marshall and director Barry Sonnenfeld will partner to adapt Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley into a 2D animated feature.  Joe Cornish will direct the adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic Starlight and Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation will hit theaters on June 18th. Plus, a review of World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, in which the NYT asks "How Do You Write an Anthony Bourdain Book Without Anthony Bourdain?"
 

Restorative justice is broadly defined as an approach to repairing and addressing harm done within a community. It can also be understood as a practice that emphasizes the importance of every voice being heard when harm is done, in order to repair the holistic well-being of the person harmed, the person responsible for the harm, and the community impacted by the offense. These methods are used proactively and are foundational in creating systemic change within any organization.

Ocean Prey by John Sandford tops holds this week. Four LibraryReads selections arrive along with one IndieNext pick. The Orwell Prize Longlists are revealed. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Nomadland continue to garner film awards.  John Boehner's memoir On the House: A Washington Memoir gets attention and Paula McLain's When the Stars Go Dark is People's 'Pick of the Week.' 

The New York Public Library announces the Young Lions Fiction Award finalists, the Guggenheim Fellows of 2021 are announced, and the PEN America Literary Award Winners were celebrated last evening. Emma Cline, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Stephen Graham Jones, and Elizabeth McCracken get focused attention. Vanity Fair writes more about the Pence book deal and the other Trump books that are in the works. Nine new adaptations hit screens this weekend and into the week ahead. A trailer is out for The Woman in the Window.

Internships and practicums are important to learning and jobseeking. During COVID, LIS programs and students have had to get creative at a distance.

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman tops the bestseller lists. EarlyWord’s April GalleyChat is posted. S. & S. plans to publish Mike Pence’s autobiography. He now has a two-book deal. The April Earphones Awards are out, as are the April Loan Stars picks. Torrey Peters discusses the Women’s Prize nomination. Granta offers "The Best Of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2." Worldcon moves to December. There is cast news for the Apple TV+ adaptation of Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent and Amazon is adapting The Peripheral by William Gibson.

On April 5, the American Library Association (ALA) released its annual State of America’s Libraries Report —this year focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and how public, school, and academic libraries stepped up to meet patrons’ and communities’ needs. Issued during National Library Week, April 4–10, the report features snapshots of libraries throughout the United States—highlighting the ways they’ve adapted to the changes, restrictions, budget contractions, and opportunities created by the pandemic—and includes a list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2020.

Deesha Philyaw wins the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Northern Spy by Flynn Berry is the April Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. ALA released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books this week offering a sobering snapshot of censorship in America.  Brandi Carlile's memoir Broken Horses continues to get raves while Dave Grohl will release a memoir in October. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Sympathizer will be developed as a TV series with Park Chan-wook to direct. Plus, a rare 1938 Superman comic sells for record breaking $3.25M.

Where in our origin story and with what force did our foundation crack so deep that, without even realizing it and with just one breeze, we crumbled down on top of ourselves, unable to get back on our feet? We can’t shake ourselves and stand up again, and even if we could, we are not what we used to be before the collapse. – from I’ll Be Strong For You

The Today show's 'Read with Jenna' book club pick for April is Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. James McBride's Deacon King Kong wins inaugural Gotham Prize. The City We Became by N.K Jemisin wins the British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel. Helen Oyeyemi gets attention with her new novel, Peaces. Rachel Kushner is back with a book of essays, and Godzilla vs. Kong is still smashing records. Fonda Lee writes about ARC's and equity. Readers are picking up Hemingway again with six of his novels in the top 20 Amazon Movers and Shakers. Plus, HBO announces "The Iron Anniversary," a month-long celebration in honor of the 10th anniversary of the premiere of A Game of Thrones. 

On March 29, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp announced that it will acquire the Books & Media segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), which will be operated by one of its subsidiaries, HarperCollins Publishers. For a cash purchase price of $349 million, HarperCollins, one of the “big five” U.S. publishing companies, has significantly added to its backlist by acquiring the consumer publishing business. HMH has stated that it will transition to focus exclusively on K–12 education and digital sales.

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez tops the holds lists this week. The 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners have been announced, including Deacon King Kong by James McBride. Eight LibraryReads picks arrive this week along with five Indie Next selections. People picks Red Island House by Andrea Lee as its book of the week.  Jenny Lawson gets 4 stars from USA Today. Philip Roth: The Biography gets reviewed. Haruki Murakami's First Person Singular comes out this week. Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman earn SAG awards for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Plus, Pennie's final pick before retiring, Remember by Lisa Genova, is in April's Costco Connection.

Jackie Gosselar is a Systems and Discovery Services Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. They shared their experience as a bisexual, nonbinary librarian, and provided some insight into the value of being part of an organizational culture that makes space for all identities.

Ebony magazine publishes “From ‘Sula’ to ‘Luster’: Fiction’s New School of Black Woman Heroines.” Diana Gabaldon announces she has completed her ninth Outlander book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. More April book picks arrive: Oprah Daily offers poetry selections, EW names great romances from March, and Elle showcases an early look at Matrix by Lauren Groff. Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Good Company, and Jenny Lawson, Broken (in the best possible way), get attention. 

The challenge for libraries is, first, to obtain and spend federal funding, and second, to parlay that temporary help into a permanent paradigm shift. The new equipment will outlast the emergency. It is up to library leaders to document its ongoing impacts, so that when breakage and age take their inevitable toll, funders will find it unthinkable not to replace and upgrade the gear.

Public libraries are seeing success with virtual murder mysteries, which vary in format from Zoom events to text-based games to videos.

Eternal by Lisa Scottoline leads this week’s best sellers list. The winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Awards are announced. April best books list begin to arrive. Beautiful Things: A Memoir by Hunter Biden gets more focused attention. Oprah interviews Richard Wright's grandson about The Man Who Lived Underground. Randall Park will adapt the graphic novel Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine.

On March 16, the University of California (UC) and scientific publisher Elsevier announced a transformative agreement that will enable universal open access publishing in Elsevier journals for all UC research, control costs at a sustainable level, and support the university’s transition from paying for subscriptions to paying for open publishing of its research. The four-year agreement, which went into effect on April 1, is the largest of its kind in North America to date.

The Booker International Longlist 2021 has been announced. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is the top Indie Next pick for May. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia is the GMA April Book Club pick. John Lewis’s posthumous new graphic novel, Run: Book One will come out in August, while Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney arrives next week. Plus, Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning has been optioned for series development.

As early as December 2020, many were advocating for library workers to be included in early distribution categories. Even in the absence of broad recategorization, however, some library leaders have effectively lobbied to have staff across their entire systems vaccinated. Using a range of strategies, they have ensured that their state or local health department officials understand that library workers fill essential, public-facing roles, and are cared for accordingly.

HarperCollins plans to buy Houghton Mifflin’s Trade Publishing Unit. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award Announces its 2021 Shortlist. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia continues to get attention. Philip Roth: The Biography is out. Senator Tammy Duckworth, Every Day is a Gift, inspires. Netflix releases the Shadow and Bone trailer. Plus, Starz cancels Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

'The Red Book' by James Patterson and David Ellis tops this week's holds list. Two LibraryReads selections arrive this week along with three Indie Next selections. Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard is People's 'Pick of the Week.'  Tributes pour in for Beverly Cleary and Larry McMurtry. George R.R. Martin signs a massive deal with HBO. Scholastic pulls book by Dav Pilkey for 'passive racism'. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge gets attention. Plus, Sarah Maas, A Court of Silver Flames, will adapt her series for Hulu.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards are announced. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell wins for fiction. Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire by Tom Zoellner wins for nonfiction. The Dublin Literary Award 2021 Shortlist is announced as is the shortlist for The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. O: The Oprah Magazine has a report on the censorship history Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground, Native Son, and Black Boy. A new edition of Lord of the Rings will include art by J.R.R. Tolkien. New booklists arrive and there is a great deal of casting news for forthcoming adaptions.

Carmen Maria Machado wins the Rathbones Folio Prize for In the Dream House: A Memoir. In more award news, the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards Career Achievement Winners are announced, the shortlist is out for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and the Producers Guild of America honors the book-based Nomadland with its top prize. Another adaptation, The Queen's Gambit, also wins. Speaking of winning, Win by Harlan Coben starts at No. 1 on both the NYT Best Sellers list and the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Liane Moriarty’s forthcoming Apples Never Fall has already sold adaptation rights.

When Bernard “Bud” Barton was hired as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Library of Congress in September 2015 he was faced with the Government Accountability Office’s list of 31 recommendations to overhaul and modernize the library’s IT infrastructure. Five years later, those recommendations have been implemented. LJ caught up with Barton to discuss his team's work, and what’s ahead as the Library of Congress continues to modernize its IT.

Jessica Goudeau, After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America, and William G. Thomas III,  A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War named winners of the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards. NAACP announces winners in the literary category, including Barack Obama, A Promised Land and Walter Mosley, The Awkward Black Man. Paris Review gets an new editor. Variety’s executive editor to pen nonfiction book on reality TV show The Apprentice. NYT interviews Sharon Stone, The Beauty of Living Twice. Plus, Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know, writes an essay for Time.

The Audie Award winners are announced and Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor, takes the top prize. More authors speak about anti Asian-American bias. News is out about Susan Orlean’s On Animals. LitHub and Kimpton Hotels partner on a book club for travelers. CBC has read-alikes for Hench. Eater has a guide to 17 cookbooks for Spring.

A former Chattanooga Public Library employee, Cameron “C-Grimey” Williams, was fired after removing weeded library books by conservative authors in early December 2020. A video of the books being burned was posted on Williams’s Instagram account, though the post has since been taken down. Williams stated that his supervisor told him that he could take the books in question, and that he was never informed of library policy to the contrary. However, a hearing on February 5 determined that Williams “violated City and Library policies by improperly removing items from the Library’s collections.”

Discover how to optimize your usage with our user-friendly infographic. Get the most out of your electronic resources by exploring various ways to make your collections more efficient.

The Bounty by Janet Evanovich & Steve Hamilton leads holds this week. Three LibraryReads selections arrive this week along with four Indie Next choices. The April issue of Entertainment Weekly is out. Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, Celeste Ng and others are collaborating on a pandemic novel to be titled Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering. Variety has the full list of Writers Guild Award Winners, including Netflix’s win in Adapted Longform for The Queen’s Gambit, based on the novel by Walter Tevis.

Many libraries and library organizations have issued statements recognizing and condemning the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States during the past year.

As voting for the American Library Association (ALA) 2022–23 presidential campaign continues, LJ invited candidates Stacey Aldrich, state librarian at the Hawaii State Public Library System in Honolulu; Ed Garcia, director of Cranston Public Library, RI; and Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, adult services assistant manager at Palos Verdes Library District in Rolling Hills Estates, CA, to weigh in on some key issues pertaining to ALA and librarianship; further information can be found on ALA’s Election Information page.

Library groups, authors, bookstores, and more have been speaking out against a recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and the recent murders in Atlanta, including pieces in the L.A. Times by Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay, and Sanjena Sathian, Gold Diggers, and interviews with Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings. Forthcoming book news includes Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt, and Child of Light by Terry Brooks. Joe Pickett, a 10-episode series based on the C.J. Box novels, is in the works. Plus, some adaptations out this week are City of Lies, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and The Runaway Bunny.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson starts at No. 1 on both the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new nonfiction titles debuting on bestsellers lists include Everything Will Be Okay by Dana Perino and How to Do the Work by Dr. Nicole LePera. Forthcoming book news includes the first English translation of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Character Files, a memoir from renowned sports agent Rich Paul, and a book of essays from comedian and actress Iliza Shlesinger. The shortlist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is up. City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit by Elmore Leonard will be adapted as a series for FX by the creators of Justified, and Warner Bros. and DC Films will adapt the comic Hourman as a feature film. Plus, the American Booksellers Association calls for the break up of Amazon.

On March 17, Ithaka S+R released results from its most recent survey of more than 600 academic library deans and directors across the United States. The report, “National Movements for Racial Justice and Academic Library Leadership,” looks at how their perspectives and strategies around diversity, equity, inclusion (EDI), and antiracism have changed over the last year, as well as their perceptions of COVID-19’s financial impacts on staff and faculty of color.

Oprah's latest Book Club focuses on the four Gilead novels by Marilynne Robinson: Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack. The April book club pick from BuzzFeed is Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. Nicole Krauss has won the 2021 Sami Rohr Inspiration Award for Fiction. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch will narrate the audiobook version of Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn. The forthcoming In the Heights: Finding Home will look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway debut. Plus, the NYT speaks with a woman who recently returned a book to the Queens Public Library in New York—it was 63 years overdue.

The April Library Reads list is up, and the top pick is The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan. The Year of Peril: America in 1942 by Tracy Campbell wins the New-York Historical Society’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, and the finalists for the Nebula Awards and the Lambda Literary Awards are out. In forthcoming book news, actor Idris Elba is working on several children's books, and Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano is due out Oct. 5. Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel gets a 4-star review from USA Today. Plus, see a trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

With library branches closed or offering limited in-person services during much of 2020, that has often meant shifting to virtual offerings. But many people faced challenges accessing those online resources, according to “Public Libraries and the Pandemic: Digital Shifts and Disparities to Overcome,” a report published this month by New America, a Washington D.C.–based public policy think tank.

From the University of California: The University of California today (March 16) announced a pioneering open access agreement with the world’s largest scientific publisher, Elsevier, making significantly more of the University’s research available to people worldwide — immediately and at no cost.

How are librarians around the world innovating to improve user experience? How can librarians use space design to influence patron behavior? This curated collection of articles and book chapters from Taylor & Francis brings together perspectives from global librarians on important topics and challenges facing librarians today.

Laura Dave is the national and international bestselling author of #1 LibraryReads pick Eight Hundred Grapes, LibraryReads pick Hello Sunshine, and various other novels. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Ladies’ Home Journal; Glamour; Redbook; Self; and The New York Observer. 

This project celebrates local authors while promoting libraries as an essential literary and civic hub. In 2020, the collaboration’s inaugural Communities Create Award went to Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute, led by Dr. Artika Tyner, for the novel Justice Makes A Difference.

Win by Harlan Coben leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, The Dating Plan by Sara Desai, and Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson. The People "Picks" book of the week is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. In awards news, Blowout by Rachel Maddow won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, and the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, which honor the authors and directors of adaptations, go to Nomadland and The Queen’s Gambit. The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin has been optioned for series development. Plus, information about $135 million in relief funding that the NEH will distribute to libraries, archives, academic institutions, and more. 

Providing accurate and reliable information is a cornerstone of public librarianship, but over the last year librarians have been especially challenged by the pandemic, the election, and the increased visibility of conspiracy theories. Nonetheless, public librarians remain active on the front lines of the fight against misinformation and disinformation and continue to seek out new and more effective ways of helping their patrons apply information literacy principles in their daily lives.

Zack Snyder's Justice League, the four-hour director's cut of the 2017 film based on the DC Comics superhero team, premiers on HBO Max next week. In other news, a feature based on Writers & Lovers by Lily King, a series based on City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, and a limited series of Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner are all in the works. Books getting positive reviews include Her Here by Amanda Dennis, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becke, and The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. Plus, a look at legislation in progress in Maryland regarding ebooks and public libraries.

From The Washington Post: Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal on Thursday to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide, aiming to remedy some of the digital inequalities that have kept millions of Americans offline during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lives and experiences of African Americans past and present in California’s Silicon Valley will be featured in a new collection at Stanford Libraries. Set to debut online later this year, “Histories of African Americans in Silicon Valley” is a project within the university’s Silicon Valley Archives. Dedicated to documenting the scientific and technological innovations that define the Bay Area’s high-tech region, the archive has existed for more than 30 years.

Among the many problems, including daunting refrigeration requirements, difficulty in traveling to centralized sites, and hesitancy driven in part by misinformation, was that most vaccine appointment registration is available only on the internet. And as few know better than librarians, a significant portion of the population lacks the devices, the connectivity, or the skills to use the web. 

Life After Death by Sister Souljah debuts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list and No. 2 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new titles on fiction bestseller lists this week include Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Later by Stephen King, and Dark Sky by C.J. Box. Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff and Beyond Order by Jordan B. Peterson are new to the nonfiction bestseller lists. Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis, a new release about Amazon, gets positive reviews from the L.A. Times and the NYT, while The Washington Post digs into Amazon's ebook policies and how they're impacting libraries. In awards news, the 2021 Shortlist Finalists for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize are announced, with Danielle Evans, Jenny Offill, Darin Strauss, and Lysley Tenorio up for the $50,000 prize; and the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is also out. Adaptation news includes series in the works for Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor.

In a significant show of support, Congress earmarked billions of dollars in recovery funding for academic, public, and school libraries on Wednesday, March 10, as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received $200 million, the largest single boost in the agency’s 25-year history. The relief package also includes money for library-eligible programs such as the Emergency Education Connectivity Fund through the FCC’s E-rate program.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw wins the 2020 Story Prize, which awards a $20,000 prize to collections of short fiction. Author Norton Juster, best known for The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, has died at age 91. The Off-Broadway opening for Blindness, an immersive audio adaptation of the book by José Saramago, is set for April 2. Adaptations in the works include an animated series based on the graphic novel series Slam! co-creted by Pamela Ribon and Veronica Fish, and a series based on The Wives by Tarryn Fisher. Plus, the Loanstars April list is up, and EarlyWord's GalleyChat for March is out.

From an American Libraries Association Statement: Libraries are eligible for billions of dollars in recovery funding as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 passed by Congress on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

LJ caught up with Dr. Nicole Cooke, Augusta Baker endowed chair and associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, to ask what librarians need to know about how misinformation and disinformation work in the modern era and how they can be combated effectively.

The self-help industry has exploded in recent years: According to NPD Group, U.S. sales of self-help books grew annually by 11 percent from 2013 to 2019, reaching 18.6 million volumes. Meanwhile, the number of self-help titles in existence nearly tripled during that period, from 30,897 to 85,253.

The works of Octavia E. Butler have have seen a resurgence in popularity, most recently with news that a pilot for an adaptation of her 1979 novel Kindred is set for FX. In other adaptation news, The Queen's Gambit will see a stage musical adaptation, and Daniel Friedman’s Buck Schatz trilogy has been optioned for a limited series. In forthcoming book news, Alyssa Cole is teaming with illustrator ONeill Jones on the graphic novel Reject Squad, which is due out in 2024. Plus, ALA outlines information about the $5 billion Build America's Libraries Act.

The Califa Group—a nonprofit membership consortium of public, academic, school, research, corporate, medical, law, and special libraries across California—was recently awarded an Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant for the Libraries as Second Responders project, which will help train library staff to serve communities that have been, and continue to be, highly impacted by COVID-19. LJ caught up with Califa Assistant Director Veronda J. Pitchford to find out more about the project.

To help you establish your socially-distanced library, Taylor & Francis has created a quick checklist of ideas and actions Tips for Reopening Libraries from our webinar series.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert, Fast Ice by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown, The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, and Transient Desires by Donna Leon. The People "Picks" book of the week is Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. The prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters has added 33 new members, honoring several writers including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Joy Harjo, and Sigrid Nunez. The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin wins the 2020 L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize. Plus, after more than 35 years since Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to adapt The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, it's finally in the works as a series.

Tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King will publish All In: An Autobiography in August. Other forthcoming book news includes the first print volume of the romance webcomic Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, and a a graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story Chivalry. Torrey Peters will write and produce the series adaptation Detransition, Baby, and other adaptions in the works include The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa, and Gun Love by Jennifer Clemen. Adaptations out this week include My Salinger Year, based on the book by Joanna Rakoff, and Chaos Walking, based on The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Plus, a new Black studies book series is being established at Columbia University Press.

Academic librarians have the tools to help students fight misinformation both in their studies and in their daily lives.

The NYT Audio Fiction top bestseller for March is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. New releases hitting the fiction bestseller lists this week include The Kaiser's Web by Steve Berry, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke, and Kingdom of Shadow and Light by Karen Marie Moning. In forthcoming book news, Joe Exotic is working on Tiger King: The Official Tell-All Memoir, and Joy Williams will publish her first novel since 2000 with Harrow. Keanu Reeves has a new comic book series, BRZRKR, with the first issue out this week. Plus, Rebekah Taussig will co-write and executive produce the series adaptation of her memoir Sitting Pretty and Gore Verbinski will direct a feature adaptation of Sandkings by George R.R. Martin.

A vote by the Lafayette Public Library, LA, Board of Control to reject a grant for a discussion on voting rights, which resulted in former director Teresa Elberson abruptly opting to retire, has highlighted longstanding issues between the board and library administration, and fears for the library’s future.

The Mohegan tribe recently partnered with Cornell University Library to repatriate the papers of Fidelia Fielding, one of the last fluent speakers of the Mohegan language, as part of the tribe’s efforts to revive it as a spoken tongue. Below, tribal and library representatives share their story as a potential example to be adopted and adapted by other libraries, archives, and museums in collaboratively repatriating papers and artifacts.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is getting a lot of buzz—it's Reese Witherspoon's Book Club selection for March, gets a good review in The Washington Post, and she's profiled in Esquire and appears on the Reading Women podcast. For its book club, Good Morning America picks Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. In awards news, the five finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction have been announced, finalists for the 41st annual L.A. Times Book Prizes are out, and more. Action Bronson has a new book, F*ck It, I’ll Start Tomorrow: A True Story, coming in April. Sister Souljah shares why she waited 22 years to write Life After Death as a follow-up to The Coldest Winter Ever. Plus, Disney's 20th Television picked up the rights to We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker, which debuted this week.

Kelvin Watson has moved to Las Vegas–Clark County,  Jennifer Nelson is the new New Jersey State Librarian, Denise Stephens has been named University of Oklahoma Dean of Libraries, and more library people news for March 2, 2021.

What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster is getting a lot of buzz this week—it's the March Read With Jenna pick, the NYT has a favorable review, and Coster is interviewed by several media outlets. The Barnes & Noble Book Club selection is Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan, and its YA Book Club pick is Wings of Ebony by J. Elle. The PBS NewsHour/NYT book club selects Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder. Lots of lists are up highlighting the best books of March. There's forthcoming book news on You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi and You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn. Plus, the documentary Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, about the comic book artist known for creating Hellboy, is in the works.

Knowledge Unlatched was established in 2012. Knowledge Unlatched (KU) offers free access to scholarly content for every reader across the world. Their online platform provides libraries worldwide with a central place to support Open Access models from leading publishing houses and new OA initiatives.

Dark Sky by C.J. Box leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Affair by Danielle Steel, and Later by Stephen King. New books out this week include the top LibraryReads pick of the month, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, and the top Indie Next choice, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. The longlist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction is out. The March pick for the Vox book club is The Power by Naomi Alderman. In adaptation news, Nomadland, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, won the Golden Globe for best picture drama, and Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Superman feature.

Much emphasis on STEM in libraries has focused on preparing patrons for careers in related fields, whether they are kids and teens or adults looking to retrain. But providing everyone with the tools necessary to grapple with the impact of STEM on their medical decisions, votes, and consumer choices, even if they never work in scientific fields, is just as crucial.

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne, and After the Last Border by Jessica Goudeau are among the books on the 2021 shortlists for the Lukas Prizes from the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Adaptations coming out this week include Cherry, based on the book by Nico Walker, Moxie, based on the book by Jennifer Mathieu, and The Mauritanian, based on Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi. BuzzFeed Book Club's March pick is Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll. Plus, the official trailer for The Underground Railroad, based on the book by Colson Whitehead, is out, as is a premier date: May 14.

From The Washington Post: The Federal Communications Commission late Thursday finalized a $3.2 billion program that will provide a monthly discount to millions of cash-starved Americans struggling to pay their Internet bills — the country’s most ambitious effort yet to close the digital divide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Budgets, modestly up, reflect pre-COVID planning, but how they’re spent has changed drastically: Circ, hours, and staffing see major pandemic drops while tech, e-content, and safety spending rise.

Even before the pandemic emerged, libraries were investing in new technologies designed to save time and improve efficiency by supporting customer self-service, freeing up library staff to focus on more strategic work. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend and in the process, is transforming how libraries function in the 21^st century.

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.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas debuts at No. 1 on both the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. In nonfiction, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates starts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and No. 3 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Former Beatle Paul McCartney will publish The Lyrics, a memoir of sorts with more than 900 pages across two volumes and a list price of $100, this fall. The longlist for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is out. Adaptations in the works include The Silence by Don DeLillo, The Killer by Alexis Nolent, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez, and more.

On February 22, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Library launched the inaugural Art of Science Contest, inviting UCSD researchers to submit the most beautiful image “that explains their work in a way that is both engaging and accessible to non-scientists.” The contest runs through March 21; voting will take place from March 29–April 18, with the winning images announced on May 3.

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.

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.

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.

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.