NYT selects the 10 Best Books of 2023. Ed Yong wins the Royal Society Science Book Prize for An Immense World. Robbie Arnott wins the Voss Literary Prize for his novel Limberlost. NPR’s Morning Edition reports on how some groups are hoping to change how selection is handled in public libraries. Interviews arrive with Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, Nita Prose, Sam Wasson, Maru Ayase, Kenneth Womack, and more. Anon Pls. by Deuxmoi will be adapted for TV. Plus, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”

Paul Lynch wins the Booker Prize for Prophet Song. The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose leads holds this week. Jenna Bush Hager picks We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein (also People’s book of the week) for her book club. Two LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. NPR releases Books We Love, NYPL publishes its Best Books of 2023, and NYT announces its 100 notable books of 2023. Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying turns 50. Plus, a new documentary, The ABCs Of Book Banning, explores the impact of book bans in Florida public schools.

It’s easy, as librarian-educators, to be overwhelmed and intimidated by the pace of technological change, as well as dismissive of the need for educating students and patrons about privacy on the assumption that they have fully embraced these technologies and likely don’t care. But the reality is that students do care about privacy, and want to be able to make informed, intentional choices about how they are known by and accessible to others.

Over the years, Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service and Star Library ratings have focused on recording and reporting data for the purpose of promoting libraries through quantitative data; helping improve the pool of nationally collected library statistics; and encouraging library self-evaluation. Libraries have effectively used the LJ Index to track progress on outputs including circulation, visits, program attendance, public internet computer use, and, more recently, digital circulation and website traffic. It’s a finely calibrated thermometer.

John Vaillant wins the Baillie Gifford Prize for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. Kim Stanley Robinson wins the Hans Carl von Carlowitz Sustainability Award for The Ministry for the Future. The winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards are announced. Waterstones shares its books of the year for Scotland and Wales; Blackwell’s also announces its books of the year. The shortlist for the CBC Poetry Prize is released. Washington Post and Book Riot name their best books of 2023.

Regina Gong was named a 2023 LJ Mover & Shaker for her work developing a student-centered Open Educational Resources (OER) program at Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries to help make education more accessible and equitable, especially for underserved populations. Since being named a Mover, she’s moved on to a position that’s providing her a wider range of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) opportunities. 

The winners of the National Book Award are announced: Justin Torres’s Blackouts, Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, Craig Santos Perez’s from unincorporated territory [åmot], and Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain, tr. by Bruna Dantas Lobato. Halik Kochanski wins the Wolfson History Prize for Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939–1945. Kirkus lists its best fiction of 2023. Washington Post shares more picks for the best books of 2023. Plus new title best sellers.

Sarah Bernstein wins the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Study for Obedience. ALA unveils the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals finalists. Two sponsors have withdrawn ahead of tonight’s National Book Award ceremony, due to planned author statements over the Israel-Hamas war. Amazon selects its best books of 2023, including #1 pick The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Time reveals its 100 must-read books of 2023. Plus, Publishers Weekly reports on Hachette’s “major and largely unprecedented” restructuring.

James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is named the 2023 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. B&N’s Author of the Year is David Grann. The Edge by David Baldacci leads holds this week; titles by Martha Wells, Mitch Albom, Michael Cunningham, and Jonathan Karl are also in demand. Six LibraryReads and six Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan. Plus, the singer Pink announces she will distribute banned books at her Florida concerts.