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UPDATE: On May 13, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. issued a sweeping preliminary injunction blocking Trump administration officials from acting on the March 14 executive order to dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Furthermore, the court ordered the administration to immediately takes steps to restore the agency’s employees and grant funding activities.

President Donald Trump has fired Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden. In a two-sentence email obtained by the Associated Press, sent on the evening of Thursday, May 8, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse wrote, “Carla, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”

When Library Director Natalie Draper started at the Northfield Public Library, she discovered ideas for supporting the community through public engagement sessions. “Something we heard in the engagement that we put into our strategic plan was people needing to feel that sense of belonging in a space,” she says. “A library services community best when the staff reflect the diversity of their community.”

After a $14.9 million bond library expansion referendum failed, Lisa Kropp knew she also needed a way to keep staff morale up. She proposed that the library take on the Sustainable Libraries Initiative certification program, an idea enthusiastically accepted by staff and the library board. Lindenhurst became the third U.S. library to earn the certification. 

He calls himself an “accidental librarian,” but little of Shamichael Hallman’s work is done without intention. He began his career in ministry and found his way into libraries after discovering the fields had a great deal of overlap. While Senior Library Manager of Memphis Public Libraries’ Cossitt Library, he oversaw a significant building renovation that expanded his thinking about the opportunities public spaces provide in fostering civic engagement. 

Brittani Sterling had planned on going into social work, but when she realized she could help people through librarianship, she chose that path and never looked back. 

On March 26, the Special Libraries Association (SLA) announced its dissolution, following a unanimous vote by 2025 SLA Board members. The SLA Board is currently developing a plan for the dissolution process, which they anticipate should be complete by April 2026.

Gale recently debuted new personalization and visualization features for its Digital Scholar Lab—a cloud-based research environment designed to facilitate the access and analysis of Gale primary source materials and a researcher’s local humanities and social sciences collections.

The second Independent Publisher and Librarian Forum—IndieLib for short—was held on April 16 in downtown Manhattan, at New York University’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. The event brought together public and academic librarians, representatives from indie publishers and their distributors, and others across the field to learn more about one another’s work and concerns and imagine new ways to move forward.

While those in favor of book bans believe children should be protected from content perceived as inappropriate or abusive, those opposed worry about the societal consequences of censoring information and ideas, the infringement of First Amendment rights, and the negative impacts on authors and publishers. Researchers Uttara M. Ananthakrishnan, Naveen Basavaraj, Sabari Rajan Karmegam, Ananya Sen, and Michael D. Smith set out to examine how bans at the district level affect consumption at the national level.

Three weeks after the fire was contained, Jessica Gleason, bookmobile librarian at the Wailuku Public Library, bookmobile driver Michael Tinker, and Lāhainā branch manager Chadde Holbron, hit the road to support Maui’s West Side community.

A new documentary, Banned Together—available to stream April 10—shines a spotlight on three young freedom to read advocates, and how, together and individually, they are standing up to make a difference.

Libraries offer a key to action now and hope for the future.

A multi-state coalition files lawsuit following week of rapid changes at IMLS.

Generative AI services use a lot of electricity and water, and create a lot of e-waste. The ecological impact of the technology is just beginning to be studied and discussed.

To help coordinate and support the work of saving government data, ensure that individual efforts didn’t duplicate one another, and provide a secure, accessible repository for archived material, a group of concerned librarians created the Data Rescue Project (DRP). A “clearinghouse” for data preservation efforts, DRP builds on efforts that began during Trump’s first term. LJ spoke with DRP organizer Lynda Kellam about the project and to learn more about how to get involved.

The vital role libraries play in their communities has been well documented, yet many libraries are overlooked, and certainly underfunded, for their significant involvement in disaster preparedness and recovery. Each new disaster brings focus to the urgency around recognizing libraries as key climate resiliency partners. To that end, academics, practitioners, educators, and other leaders have created a body of work to help share stories that raise awareness.

In our Climate Crisis series, rolling out over the next two weeks, LJ writers examine climate chaos from multiple perspectives and offer their thoughts on ways to address climate impact.

Capturing and preserving information has long been part of the library mission. As the world grapples with the wide range of threats climate change presents to the environment, ecosystems, and society, we can make a difference by keeping people informed.

In January, the HBCU Library Alliance announced the award of a $1,000,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support its multipart program “Empowering HBCU Libraries with Civil Rights Preservation, Digital Innovation, and Transformative Professional Development.”

Alan Inouye has led advocacy and public policy for the American Library Association (ALA) since 2007, where he’s touched everything from E-Rate to copyright to ebook access, securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for libraries. His retirement from ALA this month marks a crucial moment for the association, which has weathered significant challenges in recent years and cannot afford to lose ground with relationships in Washington, DC, and across the broader library landscape.

The National Museum and Library Services Board, which serves in an advisory capacity to the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), pens a letter to new Acting Director Keith Sonderling outlining which functions it considers essential obligations of the organization.

Scott Summers, assistant director of the Media and Education Technology Resource Center (METRC) at North Carolina State University, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for his work developing a program to help new teachers understand the growing problem of book censorship in school libraries, and how to work with librarians against it. We recently spoke with Summers about why he developed the program and what it teaches.

Some AI tools are making newsrooms more efficient; others are generating incorrect headlines and news summaries, presenting new information literacy challenges.

On Friday night, March 14, President Trump issued an Executive Order that called for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and six other agencies. In FY24, the IMLS budget was $294.8 million, of which more than $211 million was dedicated to library services through the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA), the leading source of federal funding for America’s libraries. According to a statement from the American Library Association (ALA), “Libraries translate .003 percent of the federal budget into programs and services used by more than 1.2 billion people each year.”

On March 5, Clarivate issued an update  to its February 18 announcement of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections, acknowledging the need for community consultation and a new transition timeline. Because customers expressed that “the original communicated dates for the last orders would pose a considerable challenge,” the open letter stated, Clarivate will extend the ability to make perpetual purchases of print and ebooks on all platforms—including Ebook Central, OASIS, Rialto, and GOBI—through June 30, 2026.

We cannot be caught flat-footed when library funding is called into question. Doing the work of capturing stories today will help ensure we’re prepared to deal with threats that we may face tomorrow.

Sara Ring, continuing education librarian at Minitex (a joint program of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota), was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work helping develop 23 Linked Data Things and the Minitex Wikimedia Project. LJ recently spoke with Ring about what it took to build those projects and her plans for the future.

Jennie Pu, director of Hoboken Public Library (HPL), NJ, has announced her run for New Jersey’s 32nd Legislative District Assembly. Pu, who has led HPL since 2021, would be the first librarian to run for state office in New Jersey (joining librarians Kathy Zappitello, who ran for Ohio state representative in 2022, and Rebekah Cummings, who ran for Lieutenant Governor of Utah in 2024). If elected, Pu will be the first Chinese American lawmaker in the state’s history and the first Asian American woman to represent Hudson County.

Clarivate, the parent company of ProQuest and its Ebook Central platform, on February 18 announced the launch of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections. As part of the strategy, Clarivate will be phasing out the option for libraries to purchase one-time perpetual licenses for its ebooks and digital collections in 2025, including single-title purchases, upgrades, and evidence-based and demand-driven acquisitions.

Voting for the American Library Association (ALA) 2026–27 presidential campaign opens March 10, and ALA members in good standing can cast their ballots through April 2. LJ invited candidates Lindsay Cronk, dean of libraries at Tulane University, New Orleans; Andrea Jamison, assistant professor of school librarianship, Illinois State University; and Maria McCauley, director of libraries, Cambridge Public Library, MA, to weigh in on some key issues.

In July 2024, when Idaho’s House Bill 710 went into effect, libraries across the state felt its impact in large and small ways, from refining policies to removing contested titles from their shelves. The law, passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Brad Little, prohibits libraries and schools from allowing anyone under age 18 to access material containing “sexual content,” regardless of their age—the law makes no distinction between infants and 17-year-olds—or the books’ literary merit. In February a coalition of publishers, authors, parents, students, and the Donnelly Public Library (DPL) District filed a lawsuit challenging HB 710 on the grounds that it violates the First and 14th Amendment rights of librarians, educators, publishers, authors, parents, and students.

The American Library Association (ALA) has filed an amicus brief on the U.S. Supreme Court case, Federal Communications Commission, et al., Petitioners v. Consumers’ Research, et al., which stands to decide the fate of federal programs supporting broadband access for half of the nation’s public libraries. The brief affirms both the constitutionality and the value of the Universal Service Fund and the programs it administers—particularly the E-Rate program, which helps power broadband-enabled services and access in U.S. public libraries and schools.

Strong mutual support among community partners, and a conscious shift over the past decade to investigate what each of its neighborhoods needs most, and then step up to those needs, has earned St. Louis County Library the 2024–25 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize.

Garland County Library, AR; North Bergen Free Public Library, NJ; and Queens Public Library, NY, demonstrate the resourceful programming, robust partnerships, and care for their communities that has earned them Honorable Mention for the 2020 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize.

In contrast to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s characterization of fact-checking as unwanted censorship, most Americans actually agree that the U.S. government and technology companies should each take steps to restrict false information and extremely violent content online.

The Prison Library Support Network, established in 2015, works to meet the information needs of people who are incarcerated through a nationwide letter-writing project. Since the reference by mail program started in 2021, the New York City–based collective of librarians, graduate students, and activists has responded to nearly all of the 3,000 queries it has received from people in prisons across the United States, with the majority of letters coming from Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida.

Nardia Cumberbatch, librarian at Florida’s Valencia College, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work in helping the college achieve the Sustainable Library Certification Program, the second academic library in the country and the first library in Florida to have done so. We recently spoke with Cumberbatch about what it took to earn that certification and its resulting impact.

We have now passed the point of no return: We have not acted fast enough to slow the increasing frequency and severity of the impacts of the climate emergency in our lifetime. Even if we were to do everything “right,” climate scientists predict we have at least 30 more years of increasingly dire impacts from climate change. We now find ourselves facing this reality with an incoming administration that has already declared plans to roll back environmental protections that would have helped us do things “right” for future generations. So, what now?

Welcome to our first AI Watch column! The three of us talk monthly in the Libraries Lead Podcast (available at librarieslead.libraryjournal.com), and now we share content from that segment of the podcast in digital and print form through Library Journal.

In a significant decision for the freedom to read, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas recently declared two key sections of Arkansas Act 372—which expose librarians and booksellers to criminal penalties—unconstitutional. Section 1’s criminal penalties for “furnishing harmful items to minors” were deemed overly broad; Section 5’s process for giving decisions on book challenges and appeals to local government officials lacked constitutional safeguards and threatened a chilling effect on library staff and users alike.

On December 9, the American Library Association (ALA) announced that it will receive an approximately $25 million bequest from James W. Lewis, senior vice president and senior relationship manager of the Lewis Group, an investment company within the Washington, DC, office of Merrill Lynch, to fund library school scholarships for students with demonstrated financial needs. The bequest is the largest in ALA’s history.

Philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York on December 9 announced a new $5 million pool of grant funding available for public libraries nationwide. The new initiative—Libraries as Pillars of Education and Democracy—“will help public libraries deliver critical services that promote socioeconomic mobility, civic participation, and social belonging,” according to an announcement. The $5 million will be awarded to 10 to 15 library systems in regions serving 500,000 people or more, with each system receiving up to $500,000 in funding over 24 months.

Library vendors have announced several new products, partnerships, and programs during the past two months. Here’s a sampling of recent news. 

One painful part of living through the pandemic for me was the sense that Americans were failing one another. Recent catastrophic weather events have brought back that same sense of unease. When deadly Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall last month, conspiracy theorists suggested they were manufactured for political benefit. Federal relief efforts were stymied by online misinformation, and a man was arrested for threatening FEMA workers. America, we’re not okay.

Whatever our personal politics across library land, the truth is that we live in a nation where a majority of voting Americans chose the candidate whose positions run counter to many policies and values that libraries support. So, what are we going to do about it?

Tarida Anantachai, director of inclusion and talent management for North Carolina State University Libraries, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work rethinking how to approach recruitment and hiring through a more inclusive, diversity-focused approach. LJ recently spoke with Anantachai to learn more about her work in this area.

The American Library Association and the Sustainable Libraries Initiative have announced the new National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and created an implementation guide to help libraries incorporate climate action locally into strategic and facility plans.

Library Journal is proud to announce a new partnership with the “Libraries Lead” podcast. Hosted by Mike Eisenberg (Professor and Dean Emeritus, U. of Washington iSchool), David Lankes (Virginia & Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship, University of Texas at Austin), and Beth Patin (Assistant Professor, Syracuse University's School of Information Studies), the show explores the various social, cultural, and technological issues shaping (and being shaped by) libraries and librarians. New episodes drop monthly, and past episodes are now available at librarieslead.libraryjournal.com.

Nicollette Davis, assistant librarian for kinesiology, social work, and health sciences at the Louisiana State University library system, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work advocating for BIPOC people, both in the library system and in the community. We recently spoke with Davis to learn more about her projects.

Between September 22 and 28, the nation’s library community once again “celebrates” Banned Books Week, an annual event established in 1982 by the American Library Association (ALA) to profile acts of censorship and book banning in schools and libraries across the nation. Beginning with a “Library Bill of Rights” that ALA adopted in 1939, library leaders worked hard during the 20th century to hone a national image as defenders of intellectual freedom, opponents of censorship, and proponents of the freedom to read. But between 1939 and 1982 that image evolved to become an information silo of librarianship’s own making, one that was silent on or indifferent to issues of race and libraries.

During Banned Books Week, this year September 22–28, LJ has seen a wide range of libraries celebrating the right to read in their communities: public, K–12, and academic; urban and rural; large and small—and, now, little. Little Free Libraries, the birdhouse-sized book exchange structures scattered across neighborhoods around the world, have joined forces with the American Library Association (ALA) and PEN America to encourage the distribution of banned books in the areas they’re needed most.

For the past four years, EveryLibrary has been working to fight the book-banning movement. A large part of that fight is developing effective messaging against book bans, as well as conducting extensive message testing, surveys, and focus groups to understand the impact of messaging and determine which messages perform best.

Two and a half years after launch, Books Unbanned has continued to grow as a vital resource for people in schools and communities where book challenges otherwise put content out of reach.

On August 13, a New College of Florida student posted images to social media showing a dumpster full of books situated outside the campus library. As the story and images went viral, New College issued a statement that the library’s weeding project was separate from the removal of items from the GDC, and that the center was being “repurposed.”

Penguin Random House’s Banned Wagon will hit the road for the second year in a row to connect with communities impacted by censorship during Banned Books Week.

ALA has recently issued a revised document, Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or Detained. It will help support libraries and library staff to meet the literacy, learning, and recreational needs of people held in jails, prisons, detention facilities, juvenile facilities, immigration facilities, prison work camps, and segregated units within any facility, whether public or private, military or civilian, in the United States and its territories. 

This Prison Banned Books Week, we’re calling for public library catalogs to be made available on prison tablets.

During voter education week, public and academic libraries step up efforts to ensure voters have what they need before they go to the polls.

Over 60 percent of libraries are currently evaluating or planning for artificial intelligence (AI) implementation, according to a global survey of more than 1,500 librarians by Clarivate, the parent company of ProQuest, Ex Libris, Web of Science, and more. According to Clarivate’s first “Pulse of the Library” report, which combines feedback from the global survey and qualitative interviews of librarians working at academic, public, and national libraries, “the potential rise of AI adoption in the coming year is high."

On September 4, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a March 2023 ruling that the Internet Archive’s (IA) program of scanning print books and distributing digital copies on a one print-book, one-ebook, one-user basis for free is not protected by fair use doctrine. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House in June 2020.

I realize that genealogical research has long been associated with the retiree demographic, something one’s grandparents might do in their free time, and not what today’s students would gravitate toward on their own initiative. But that is where the wonder of the required assignment comes in, and where budding amateur genealogists are made. As the great American novelist William Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” And that’s what I try to instill in the students I teach about the wonders and magic of genealogical research.

Perhaps one of the truest versions of life in America’s small and rural communities can found each day in their public libraries, where residents connect.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Public Library (CPL) on August 15 announced the launch of “Chicago Book-Wrapped,” a new popup initiative offering instant access to a curated collection of ebooks and e-audiobooks with no hold times or library card requirements during special events in Chicago. The initial collection was curated to celebrate the Democratic National Convention.

Dr. Colleen Shogan took the oath of office as the 11th Archivist of the United States—the chief administrator of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—in May 2023, succeeding former Archivist David Ferriero. She is the first woman to permanently hold the role. LJ caught up with Shogan to hear about her national tour of presidential libraries, NARA’s stepped-up digitization efforts, and preserving the record of presidential cat Socks.

Representing approximately 80 percent of the trade book market, the Big Five publishing houses—Hachette, Harper­Collins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster—are key stakeholders in the library value chain. In Five Questions with the Big Five, LJ interviews publishing’s top brass to better understand the issues they’re facing, the trends that have their attention, reading culture, and where they see library and publishing interests aligned. We kick off this series with Jonathan Karp, President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster, as he reflects on the state of publishing and his company's 100th anniversary.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) today announced a new model that will give libraries ownership rights to ebooks purchased from Austin Macauley, Arcadia Publishing, Dynamite Entertainment, Dover Publications, JMS Books, and dozens of other independent publishers.

LJ recently spoke with Rebekah Cummings, a librarian for the University of Utah's Marriott Library, who is currently running for Lieutenant Governor of Utah.

Voting on proposals for 2025 SXSW and 2025 SXSW EDU panels opened on August 6, and libraries are well represented among the many panels submitted for consideration.

On the evening of July 31, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) celebrated its 2024 National Medal for Museum and Library Service at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. IMLS Acting Director Cyndee Landrum presented the National Medals to the award recipients, which included a range of libraries from across the country.

Several major companies—including Clarivate, EBSCO, OCLC, and OverDrive—are introducing new AI tools and features that will impact researchers, patrons, and library work directly.

Artificial intelligence—a creative’s job killer or a game changer?

On July 30, the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) 91–3.  Supporters of the bill say that it will help protect children from the potential harms of social media platforms and other online services, but critics say that if the legislation passes the House and becomes law, it will lead to online censorship—potentially including politicized censorship by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general who would enforce the law.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on July 24 announced the availability of almost $1 billion in competitive grant funding for programs that “support efforts to achieve digital equity, promote digital inclusion activities, and spur greater adoption and meaningful use of broadband,” according to a notice of funding opportunity posted by the agency. Application materials are available on NTIA’s BroadbandUSA website, and must be submitted through the NTIA Grants Portal by September 23.

Many accessibility options are available to academic librarians and library workers, but the costs involved in training staff, reworking spaces, and purchasing tools can be limiting. It therefore falls on each library to best allocate their resources. In order to bring to light possible approaches, Osama Youssef Smadi, associate professor of special education at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, surveyed students with disabilities. In the 2021–22 academic year, 160 students with physical, health, visual, and hearing disabilities registered with the university’s Special Needs Services Center.

Nevada’s libraries have long been an important part of the state’s workforce development programs, and in June, the state’s Board of Examiners approved a new librarian-in-residence program for two municipal systems—the North Las Vegas Library District and the Carson City Library—that will boost those efforts. For two years beginning last month, these librarians-in-residence will facilitate an Individual Career Mapping and Training Delivery Model program developed by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development with libraries throughout the state. The program includes innovative features such as hands-on virtual reality “field trips” and access to NCLab’s Career Readiness Assessment to build STEM skills.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 18 voted to allow libraries and schools to use funding from the federal E-rate program to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots for lending. A component of FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s Learn Without Limits proposal—which was announced at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago—integration of hotspots into the program was aimed at responding to increasing connectivity needs and modernizing the E-rate program.

The American Library Association’s 2024 annual conference and exposition included many announcements from library vendors. Here’s a roundup of some of the news from this year’s show floor.

Keynoters and other speakers at American Library Association (ALA) conferences over the years have come to the conference from a wide range of disciplines, but their speeches all incorporate at least a few minutes attesting to the value of libraries in their lives—some landing more powerfully than others. At this year’s ALA Annual, held June 27–July 2 in San Diego, CA, a few speakers went beyond tales of being avid library users as children to tell stories that painted vivid pictures of what libraries, literacy, and unfettered access can mean to a kid who is looking to understand their world a little better.

Frankly, I should have seen it coming, but personal growth and change can be so subtle that you sometimes don’t realize you’re doing it until you’ve done it. When I literally squealed with delight upon discovering “Gardening with Monty Don” on the Hoopla BingePass at PLA 2024, it dawned on me that I was no longer someone who just liked plants...I’d become a gardener.

On Thursday, June 27, at the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, CA, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced the launch of its nationwide Information Literacy Initiative. The multipartner project provides a website, InformationLiteracy.gov, that offers a wide range of ready-to-use tools and resources for library and museum professionals—trusted educators—to engage their communities to find, understand, evaluate, and share accurate information.

A Minnesota bill with a section prohibiting book bans in public libraries, and libraries or media centers in public postsecondary institutions and schools, was signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz on May 17. Senate File 3567, an omnibus education reform bill—which also includes rulings on cell phone use in schools, student performance data, and student journalism, among other items—went into effect immediately.

June 24 marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making abortion a state’s issue. As of this writing, abortion is banned or severely restricted in 21 states. However, abortion is just one part of the larger landscape of Reproductive Justice and reproductive health. Whether you are providing reproductive health information, especially abortion information, in your collections, at the reference desk, or through programming, consult with a legal expert about your options. This may include what type of information you can provide and where in your collection it’s located.

The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is continuing to recover from a ransomware attack on Saturday, May 25. At press time, all branches were open, in-person and virtual programs and events were still being hosted, books and other physical materials were available for checkout, and online services provided by third-party vendors including ProQuest, Hoopla, Kanopy, and others were available to patrons. However, access to SPL’s ebooks and e-audiobooks, public computers, in-building Wi-Fi, printing and copying services, pickup lockers, museum pass services, interlibrary loan services, and some other online resources remained unavailable.

In a divided three-judge panel, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a majority decision largely upholding a preliminary injunction ordering Llano County Library System to reshelve several titles that were previously removed.

In recent years, the scholarly nonprofit Ithaka has prioritized advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), both within the organization and in its outward-facing work. As that process evolved, Kate Wittenberg, managing director of Ithaka’s digital preservation service, Portico, saw that its archival conservation mission aligned in many ways with social justice ideals. In summer 2021, she began to identify underrepresented community collections that might be at risk without a preservation strategy, and in 2023 Portico launched a pilot project connecting the curators of those archives to its expertise and resources.

In their shared hometown of Columbus, OH, at an event where readers celebrated their writing, Hanif Abdurraqib and Jacqueline Woodson sat with Library Journal for a conversation about libraries, book bans, and censorship.

As a book lover who works in the book industry, I have a job that aligns with my love for reading—and I get to work with librarians! Witnessing the sharp rise in attempts to ban books nationwide in recent years, I have become a vocal supporter of the First Amendment in ways that I didn’t expect when I began in publishing in 1988.

Frederick Douglass famously said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” This powerful and inspiring idea continues to resonate more than a century later, at a time when the essential services that libraries provide are more vital than ever.

Growing up in India as a young Sikh boy to aspiring middle-class parents, I understood their singular focus was to educate their children. Books were the windows that allowed me to gaze into a world far beyond my limited surroundings or imagination. The ancient tales of equality, courage, and righteousness from our scriptures, region, and history of valor ignited my imagination as I got older. At the same time, contemporary literature exposed me to the rich tapestry of cultures that coexisted in our vibrant nation.

Two and a half years ago, I was fired by the High Plains Library District (HPLD) in Weld County, CO, after I objected to cancelling programs for LGBTQIA+ teens and youth of color because they were “polarizing.”

Freedom to read issues are generating legislation—both library-adverse and library-protective—across the country.

This year’s standout selections from the American Library Association’s Government Documents Roundtable.

When the LJ team decided to focus our June issue on censorship, I couldn’t get the idea of exploring the personal nature of book bans out of my head. Yes, the broad societal impacts of affronts to intellectual freedom are significant—but what do they look like and mean for individual readers?

The U.S. Book Show, presented by Publishers Weekly—this year in collaboration with the Association of American Literary Agents—held its fourth annual event on May 22. The conference, which launched as a virtual symposium in 2021 to replace the defunct BookExpo America, offered a day of industry-centered conversation for publishing professionals, agents, editors, marketers, and authors.

JSTOR’s Path to Open pilot project and MIT Press’s Direct to Open program are both demonstrating that open access (OA) monographs are receiving significantly more use and are cited more often than non-open counterparts, according to a recent JSTOR webcast and an impact report released last week by MIT Press. 

In celebration of National Bike Month (May in the United States, June in Canada), libraries are offering innovative ways to support bicycling all year round.

When Angel City Press (ACP) cofounders Paddy Calistro and Scott McAuley began thinking about retiring a few years ago, they knew they wanted to make sure ACP remained a local operation. Several years, a few lawyers, and much due diligence later, the donation of ACP to the Los Angeles Public Library has been approved by Los Angeles City Council, and ACP will now be known as Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Those outside our field may marvel at—or be disconcerted by—transformations they experience as new, seismic shifts from what they understand about libraries. We know the transformation is far from sudden, and far from over. Understanding this, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is using best practices and key research to better understand and equip libraries with the tools needed to address the future needs of the diverse communities they serve.

It has been a busy legislative session in the Louisiana House, with several bills poised to impact libraries and library workers halted at various points, while others have been approved and moved on to the Senate. As they proliferate, grassroots library advocacy organizations are stepping up to combat them.