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The winners of the Windham-Campbell Prize and longlists for the PEN America Literary Awards are announced. NYT reports how library advocates are rallying to the defense of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Jonas Brothers update fans on their previously announced forthcoming memoir. Interviews arrive with Krysten Ritter, James Whitfield Thomson, and Elie Mystal. Plus, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels will be adapted as a TV series.

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.

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.

Lethal Prey by John Sandford leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Harlan Coben, John Scalzi, Ashley Winstead, Alex Aster, and Emma Pattee. People’s book of the week is Firstborn: A Memoir by Lauren Christensen. The West Passage by Jared Pechacek wins the Crawford Award. Plus, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, will publish September 9.

The winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the shortlists for the British Science Fiction Association Awards are announced. The 2025 Canada Reads winner is A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, written with Mary Louisa Plummer. The Guardian reports how Sarah Wynn-Williams’s Facebook exposé, Careless People, came to top the NYT bestsellers list this week, despite Meta’s attempt to stifle its author. Rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot will publish a memoir in Jan. 2026. President Trump has appointed Keith E. Sonderling as the new acting director of the IMLS. Plus, Page to Screen and booklists from V.E. Schwab and David Szalay.

In the evolving world of libraries, creating programs that support your community and secure essential funding is both an art and a science. Before her retirement in late 2024, after 30 years of service, Karen Beach, deputy director of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, NC, and an expert grant writer, shared invaluable insights with members of the Library Support Network on how development professionals can serve as thought partners to library staff. Her guidance emphasized creating more compelling and competitive grant applications to improve funding success rates.

Last year, John Wilkin shared his essay Lyrasis in a Landscape of Radical Interdependence where he discussed the interdependence of libraries, archives and museums, and how Lyrasis is uniquely positioned to provide the connective tissue between them.

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.

Sergey Radchenko’s To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power wins the Lionel Gelber Prize for books about international affairs. Harriet Baker’s Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann wins the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award. The shortlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize is revealed. LJ announces the keynote speakers for this year’s Day of Dialog, taking place on Apr. 17: R.F. Kuang, Susan Orlean, and Cory Doctorow. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Phil Hanley, Elon Green, Colum McCann, and Torrey Peters.

The inaugural Climate Fiction Prize shortlist and the Jhalak Prize longlists are announced. The Virginia Festival of the Book kicks off tomorrow. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Plus, interviews with Karin Slaughter, Connie Briscoe, Jason De León, and Emma Donoghue and title suggestions for Women’s History Month.

Finalists for the Publishing Triangle Awards and the shortlist for the Kurd Laßwitz Preis are announced. PEN America’s World Voices Festival and Literary Awards events will return this year after being cancelled in 2024. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer postpones his book tour. Reviews arrive for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. April’s LibraryReads list features top pick The Sirens by Emilia Hart. Eoin Colfer’s best-selling novel Artemis Fowl will be adapted as a stage musical, while Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue is making its way to TV. Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad has died at the age of 83.

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.”

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins leads holds this week, with appeal across age levels. Also in demand are titles by John Green, Susan Mallery, Laurie Gilmore, James Patterson and J.D. Barker, and Tess Gerritsen. ALA releases a statement on a Trump administration executive order which calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park by Randall K. Wilson wins the New York Historical’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize. Plus, Canada Reads kicks off today.

The shortlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the finalists for the Nebula Awards are announced. After a complaint brought by Meta, an arbiter has blocked former Facebook employee Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting Careless People, her recently published tell-all about the company. UK bookseller Waterstones expands its Books of the Month program with YA and additional nonfiction offerings. Plus, Page to Screen, a profile of Cynthia Ozick, and interviews with Silvia Park, Kelly Link, and Athol Fugard.

The demand for audiobooks continues to grow year-over-year. Publishers are responding to consumers’ ever-increasing audiobooks appetite by looking beyond the latest front-list titles to expand catalogs and production in creative ways.

Rodrigo Fresán’s Melvill wins the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada. NYT releases its spring books preview. The nonprofit We Need Diverse Books announces its inaugural reading day, April 3. A behind-the-scenes book about the 1984 movie Spinal Tap is in the works. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Curtis Sittenfeld, Karen Russell, Carvell Wallace, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize finalists are announced. Manya Wilkinson wins the Wingate Literary Prize for Lublin. Oprah selects The Tell by Amy Griffin for her book club. Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling “Empyrean” series will be released as graphic novels. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman. Bloomsbury’s new imprint Bloomsbury Archer will publish Samantha Shannon’s Among the Burning Flowers in September. Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns will release The American Revolution: An Intimate History on November 11, ahead of its companion six-part PBS documentary series. Stephen King’s Cujo is headed to Netflix.

Libraries remained mostly strong at the ballot in 2024, but a decline in construction initiatives and tightening budgets speak to the need for increasingly strategic advocacy.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists, the Golden Poppy Book Award winners, and the British Book Awards Book of the Year shortlists are announced. Zando acquires Tin House. HarperCollins will publish Lucy Foley’s new Miss Marple novel in September 2026. In May, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle will release the new book We Can Do Hard Things, based on their podcast. Martin Scorsese will adapt, direct, and produce Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels for the big screen. Louise Penny cancels U.S. tour dates. Plus, Terry Brooks passes the baton on his Shannara series.

All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Chris Bohjalian, Karen Russell, Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles, and Colleen Oakley. People’s book of the week is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. April's Indie Next Preview features #1 pick Tilt by Emma Pattee. Plus, Hoda Kotb announces a new book, Jump and Find Joy, due out September 23.

The longlist for the Biographers International Organization’s Plutarch Award, the longlist for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction by women and nonbinary writers, the finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the shortlist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for books about international affairs are announced. Jenni Fagan’s memoir Ootlin wins the Gordon Burn Prize. The Help author Kathryn Stockett will publish her second novel in April 2026. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Abdulrazak Gurnah, Agustina Bazterrica, Zadie Smith, and Dennis Lehane.

Providing opportunities for high-quality adult education aligns with the mission of libraries to serve their communities’ educational, personal enrichment, and career development needs. Now, a new service from Gale helps libraries do this in a highly effective way. 

James Tejani’s A Machine To Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America and Kathleen DuVal’s Native Nations: A Millennium in North America win the Bancroft Prize for books about U.S. history. Sophie Elmhirst’s Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love wins the Nero Gold prize. The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist is announced. The publishing industry prepares for new U.S. tariffs. Plus, interviews with Laila Lalami, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Bruce Vilanch and new title bestsellers.

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.

The Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab (LIL) has created a data vault to download, authenticate, and provide access to copies of public government data that may be in danger of disappearing. The project will collect major portions of the datasets tracked by data.gov, federal GitHub depositories, and PubMed—information of value for researchers, scholars, and policymakers. When the public-facing site launched on February 6, the data vault had collected metadata and primary contents for more than 300,000 datasets available on data.gov.

The Libby Award winners are announced, including Kristin Hannah’s The Women and Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest. The Audie Award winners are announced, with Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra winning Audiobook of the Year. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hallis is Reese Witherspoon’s March book club pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Blood Moon by Sandra Brown. Anthony Hopkins will release his memoir We Did OK, Kid on November 4. Plus, director Jon M. Chu previews the forthcoming Crazy Rich Asians TV series, based on the books by Kevin Kwan.

Longlists for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Plutarch Award are announced, along with category winners of AAP PROSE Awards. HarperCollins will publish posthumous stories and essays by Harper Lee in a forthcoming collection, The Land of Sweet Forever, due out October 21. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is the B&N book club pick for March, and Count My Lies by Sophie Stava is the GMA pick. Interviews feature Steve Jones, Jordan Chiles, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ione Sky, Hanif Kureishi, and Linda Holmes. A rare hand-written copy of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is found in Oxford. And remembrances arrive for authors Joseph Wambaugh, John Casey and Laura Sessions Stepp.

This year's Budgets and Funding Survey showed mixed results for fiscal trends in 2024, from robust forward motion to defunding—with more uncertainty ahead.

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.

Blood Moon by Sandra Brown leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Elle Cosimano, Deanna Raybourn, Charlotte McConaghy, and Danielle Steel. Ten LibraryReads and nine Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker. Audiofile announces the March 2025 Earphones Award winners. Adaptations won several Academy Awards last night. Plus, it’s Read Across America Week.

The March Read with Jenna pick is Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel. The NYT Book Review Book Club selects Han Kang’s We Do Not Part as its March read. The shortlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (United States and Canada), finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards, and winners of the Florida Book Awards are announced. PEN America releases its report “Cover to Cover: An Analysis of Titles Banned in the 23–24 School Year.” Doubleday launches Outsider Editions, an imprint for paperback reissues. Plus, interviews with Andrey Kurkov and Omar El Akkad.

Established in 2013 in Corvallis, OR, the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archive at Oregon State University aims to collect and preserve books, periodicals, ephemera, and artifacts about brewing and hops farming in the Pacific Northwest. The university has a department dedicated to food science and technology under its College of Agricultural Sciences, as well as its own Research Brewery, and since 1995 has offered one of the few Fermentation Science programs in the country. But it would take a department merger and a wedding to spark the creation of the archive.

Sharon Lee, author of the “Liaden Universe” novels, wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award for sci-fi that inspires space exploration. Haruko Ichikawa’s Land of the Lustrous manga wins the Japan SF Grand Prize. Publishers plan for less mass market paperbacks in the wake of Readerlink ending distribution of them. Journalist Robin Givhan is writing a biography of the late designer Virgil Abloh. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Lidia Yuknavitch, Ione Skye, and Mark Greaney.

The International Booker longlist is announced, featuring all first-time nominees. The London Writers Awards winners are announced. Hachette Book Group launches its first dedicated New Adult imprint, Requited. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for this week’s top holds title, Battle Mountain by C.J. Box. Cosmetics icon Bobbi Brown announces a forthcoming memoir. Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius turns 25 this month. Plus, Ron Stallworth’s The Gangs of Zion: A Black Cop’s Crusade in Mormon Country will be adapted for TV by Hulu.

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.

The Bram Stoker Awards final ballot is released; winners will be announced on June 14. Earlyword’s February GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. Shelby Van Pelt announces a new paperback book tour for Remarkably Bright Creatures. Interviews arrive with Daniel D’Addario, Haley Mlotek, and Ariana DeBose. Plus, Readerlink will discontinue distribution of mass market paperbacks by the end of 2025.

Battle Mountain, the 25th Joe Pickett novel by C.J. Box, leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Gillian McAllister, Lisa Unger, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Linda Holmes. People’s book of the week is Dream State by Eric Puchner. Salman Rushdie’s assailant Hadi Matar is found guilty of attempted murder. Hoopla announces it is working to remove AI-generated books from its platform.

Catherine Belton, Caroline Criado-Perez, Helen Czerski, Afua Hirsch, Guy Shrubsole, and Chris Van Tulleken have been shortlisted for the inaugural Unwin Award for nonfiction writers in the early stages of their careers. Lee Yaron’s 10/7: 100 Human Stories is selected as the Jewish Book Council’s Winter 2025 Natan Notable Book. Winners of the Ezra Jack Keats Awards for children’s literature are announced. ALA launches a public supporter program at ILoveLibraries.org that will generate donations and keep library patrons apprised of the organization’s advocacy work and grants. Plus, a sequel to Joanne Harris’s hit 1999 novel Chocolat is on the way.

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.

Artificial intelligence is not a solution—it’s a tech tool that is only useful when it actually solves problems for learners and librarians. AI is everywhere you look today, from the big three search engines to the local library. 

Shortlists are revealed for the Lukas Prizes for American nonfiction. The social media readers’ platform StoryGraph, which uses AI to offer readers tracking tools and recommend their next books, has reached 3.8 million users. Emily Bestler and Scott Glassgold launch 12:01 Books, an imprint of Atria for horror content that can work as both books and films. Plus, a posthumous book from historian David McCullough and new title bestsellers.

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.

Oprah selects Eric Puchner’s Dream State for her book club, and A24 announces plans to adapt the novel for TV. The LA Times Book Prize finalists are announced, and Pico Iyer will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, while Emily Witt wins the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose and Amanda Gorman wins the Innovator’s Award. The winners of the Reed Environmental Writing Award are announced. Perminder Mann is named CEO of Simon & Schuster International. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Scottish crime writer Denzil Meyrick has died at the age of 59.

With the release of its 10th-anniversary edition, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma. The March LibraryReads features top pick Saltwater by Katy Hays. The Southern Book Prize winners and Walter Scott Prize longlist are announced. PEN America will honor Sarah Jessica Parker and Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged at its gala in May. Actress Julianne Moore responds to her children’s book being removed from schools run by the U.S. Department of Defense. An Iowa House bill proposes to remove obscenity-law exemption for libraries and schools. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s memoir will be adapted for film. Plus, Hulu cancels its adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses.”

One of the good things about spending more time indoors during the winter months is having more opportunities to spend an evening with a compelling book. If you are stuck on what to read this winter, we have put together a collection of ten riveting page-turners!

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 this AI Watch, we discuss:

• The State Libraries and AI Technologies Working Group Gathering

Longlists are selected for the Reading the West Awards. Finalists are revealed for the Compton Crook Award, for best debut sci-fi, fantasy, or horror novel. Isabel Allende receives the Bodley Medal for her contributions to literature. Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child wins the Novel Prize. Publishing Perspectives analyzes the longlists for the UK Carnegie Medals for children’s books and finds a trend of books about masculinity. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Helen Fielding, Charlamagne Tha God, and Charlotte Wood.

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.

Winners of the Society of Authors Translation Prize, the Albertine Translation Prize, and the Westminster Book Awards are revealed. A shortlist is announced for the Athenaeum Literary Award for books from and about Philadelphia. Authors Against Book Bans successfully prevents a book ban in a Florida school district. Plus, a reexamination of the work of Janet Malcolm, interviews with Joe Piscopo and Brigitte Giraud, and new title bestsellers.

Margaret Atwood announces she will publish a memoir, The Book of Lives, in November. The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction longlist and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize shortlist are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes. Barbara Hoffert previews a year of titles to watch for LJ. Plus, Amy Adams will star in and produce the Apple TV+ series Cape Fear, based on John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners.

The 10th-anniversary edition of The Nightingale by patron favorite Kristin Hannah releases next week. The attempted-murder trial of the man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie onstage in 2022 begins. AAP, IPA, and other groups release a joint statement on AI and copyright. Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged warns about the dangers of banning books. Plus, Thomas Ray’s novella Silencer will be adapted for the big screen.

What is worse, these days celebrating the book might also be resented by those who owe allegiance to futuristic forms of digital reading or what one can call visual orality—the use of mixed media, rooted in TV and film technologies, to tell stories and convey information.

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Anne Tyler, Brynne Weaver, B.K. Borison, James Patterson and James O. Born, and Heather Fawcett. People’s book of the week is Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks. The March Indie Next preview is out, featuring #1 pick Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Grove Atlantic will launch the new Atlantic Crime imprint this fall. Novelist Tom Robbins has died at the age of 92.

Penguin issues new “First Impressions” editions of Jane Austen with refreshed covers, meant to appeal to young readers, romance fans, and “the BookTok demographic.” The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlist is revealed. Poets & Writers reflects on 20 years of its annual celebration of debut poets. Spotify adds audiobooks from Crooked Lane and Podium. Plus, Page to Screen and new novels from Ian McEwan and John Irving.

Preprints, or initial versions of scientific reports that researchers share before the formal peer review and publication process have been completed, have started to become more popular within academic circles—and now the Gates Foundation has changed its Open Access policy to require grant-funded research papers to appear as preprints before publication.

Although considerably smaller than ALA’s Midwinter and LibLearnX conferences of the past, there was a palpable sense of community and nostalgia around the last midwinter gathering.

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.

The winners of the UK PEN Translates Awards are announced. Notes to John, Joan Didion’s diary from 1999, will be published by Knopf. Literary organizations release a joint statement decrying the Trump administration’s anti-trans executive order. Plus, a new horror novel from Nick Medina, interviews with Sarah Chihaya, Elinor Lipman, and Alton Brown, and new title bestsellers.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction longlist is announced. LJ reveals the Best Media of 2024. Reese Witherspoon selects Isola by Allegra Goodman for her February book club. Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story gets a four-star review from USA Today. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Deep End by Ali Hazelwood. Forthcoming memoirs from Christie Brinkley, Debbie Gibson, and Christine Brown Woolley gather buzz. PEN America releases the Banned Books List 2025, while the Big Five U.S. publishers sue Idaho over book-removal language in House Bill (HB) 710.

The Libby Book Awards finalists are announced. Mac Barnett is named U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limón, is the 2025 Seattle Reads pick. February book club picks include This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Read with Jenna and B&N), Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (GMA), and Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su (Amazon’s Sarah Selects). Clarkson Potter plans to reissue Martha Stewart’s 1982 book Entertaining, after it finds appeal with a new audience. Mat Youkee’s forthcoming Forty Days in the Jungle will be adapted for the big screen. Plus, authors weigh in on the pros and cons of blurbing.

You may have wondered why so many publishers are announcing pilot projects on open access (OA) publishing. The theme of Open Access Week (October 21-27), Community over Commercialization, hints at the reason: publishers want to engage with the community’s request for new models but can’t afford to make a loss on OA (and shouldn’t be expected to).

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.

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by J.D. Robb, Tessa Bailey, Jonathan Kellerman, Pam Jenoff, and Bill Gates. Jimmy Carter wins a posthumous Grammy for the audiobook Last Sundays in Plains. Finalists for the Gotham Book Prize are announced. Audiofile announces the February 2025 Earphones Award winners. This month’s Read with Jenna pick is Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story. People’s book of the week is Too Soon by Betty Shamieh. Plus, February booklists arrive.

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 longlist for Scotland’s Highland Book Prize and the shortlist for the Inside Literary Prize are announced. United States Artists announces its 2025 USA Writing Fellows. Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm is the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years, having sold 2.7 million copies in its first week. A new “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” book is on the way. Independent bookstores across six continents will participate in the first synchronized Global Bookstore Crawl on April 26. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Imani Perry, Bill Gates, and Neko Case.

The National Book Foundation and the Sloan Foundation announce 2025 selections for the Science + Literature program: The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong, and Meltwater: Poems by Claire Wahmanholm. Chimwemwe Undi is selected as Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate. Wole Soyinka receives the Sharjah Lifetime Achievement in Literature Award. The future of libraries and arts agencies is unclear amid a federal funding freeze (that has been halted for now). NYPL releases a study on public libraries’ connection to their patrons’ well-being. Plus, new title bestsellers.

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.

The Oregon Book Award finalists are announced. The 2025 judges of the British Book Awards are announced, including Bonnie Garmus. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Freida McFadden’s The Crash. Mitch Albom announces a new novel publishing in October. Forthcoming memoirs by Bill Gates and Jeremy Renner gather buzz. Plus, adaptations of Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five Star Weekend and André Aciman’s Enigma Variations are in the works.

ALA announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards on Monday; Erin Entrada Kelly wins the Newbery Medal for The First State of Being, and Rebecca Lee Kunz wins the Caldecott Medal for Chooch Helped, written by Andrea L. Rogers. Interviews arrive with Bill Gates, Michael Connelly, Lola Kirke, and Mike Miley. Elle asks 21 influencers for their predictions on the the future of book publishing. Plus, Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, announces a new tour.

Two days after the 2024 election, public library leaders from across the nation gathered at Richland Library in Columbia, SC, for Library Journal’s annual Directors’ Summit. This year’s program explored the ways public libraries are called upon to respond to complex community challenges and opportunities. From housing insecurity to low literacy rates to political polarization, public libraries are often part of solutions to address the very issues that impact the livability and resiliency of their communities. Together, library leaders sought answers to questions about the role libraries are uniquely positioned to play, where efforts can be best directed to support diverse community needs, and defining a library leadership agenda.

The RUSA Book and Media Awards are announced, including the Notable Books List, Reading List, Listen List, Essential Cookbooks, Dartmouth Medal, and Outstanding References Sources List. Percival Everett’s James and Kevin Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon win Andrew Carnegie Medals. Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni is awarded the Sophie Brody Medal. The Crash by Freida McFadden leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Going Home by Tom Lamont. Plus, ALA responds to the U.S. Department of Education regarding book bans.

The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the longlist for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize are revealed. Mick Herron wins the Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement. Novelists are wondering if their careers will survive without BookTok. Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann has agreed to a strategic partnership with OpenAI. Plus, Page to Screen and new spring titles from Martha Stewart, Jeremy Renner, and the Dalai Lama.

The Edgar Award nominees and Audie Awards finalists are revealed. USA Today launches its Winter Book Challenge, a bingo card full of book categories, to help readers stretch and track their reading goals. Christian rom-coms are flourishing. Plus, new title bestsellers.

Chartered by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, Gallaudet University, in Washington, DC, holds the distinction of being the only bilingual university for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and other Deaf Disabled students in the world. Consequently, it has the world’s largest archives of materials related to deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, with a mission to preserve “the institutional memory of the University and historic material from the global Deaf community,” according to the Gallaudet website.

“Don’t trust the sanitized versions of history…We’ve got to get to the roots,” writes rapper Chuck D in the foreword to The Transatlantic Slave Trade, a new title from SelectBooks highlighted in this feature. That viewpoint is the guiding compass behind new Black history books on publishers’ lists for spring 2025.  

Ayelet Tsabari wins the Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award for her novel Songs for the Brokenhearted. Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced her forthcoming memoir, A Different Kind of Power, which arrives in June. Vanessa Bryant will publish Mamba & Mambacita Forever in August. Also buzzing are memoirs from Rick Astley, Neko Case, Keeonna Harris, and Lola Kirke. Anne Allan’s royal biography Dancing with Diana will become a feature documentary, while John Ridley is developing Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel for the big screen. And Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer has died at the age of 95. 

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?

“Self-help had a bad rap in the past,” says Olivia Peitsch, marketing manager at Baker Publishing Group. “But a new generation is coming into the reading space, and self-help is becoming more widely accepted. It isn’t considered gimmicky anymore; it’s bravery.” 

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett. The Novel Prize shortlist is announced. Elizabeth Gilbert and Rebecca Ross announce forthcoming fall titles. Plus, this week’s new releases.

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.

The Canada Reads 2025 longlist arrives. Poets & Writers publishes its 20th annual look at debut poets. Longlists are announced for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, which honors books published by small presses. Sustainable Marketing: The Industry’s Role in a Sustainable Future by Paul Randle & Alexis Eyre wins the Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award. Harlequin is eliminating its Canary Street Press and Graydon House imprints. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Neko Case, Pagan Kennedy, and Charles Baxter.

Kirkus publishes its spring 2025 preview. Mystery Writers of America names Laura Lippman and John Sandford as its Grand Masters for 2025. Matt Bomer will narrate a new audiobook of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. Melville House plans to publish a paperback version of the Jack Smith report shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Fantasy Magazine will be relaunched this spring. Plus new title bestsellers and interviews with Mike Mignola, Scott Turow, and Pico Iyer.

The Dublin Literary Award longlist is announced. Jose Ando and Yui Suzuki win Japan’s Akutagawa literary prize, and Shin Iyohara wins the Naoki prize. The Millions releases its “Great Winter 2025 Preview.” LJ recognizes four reviewers of the year. Neil Gaiman responds to misconduct allegations. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly. Interviews arrive with Rebecca Yarros, Aria Aber, Shane Burcaw and Hannah Burcaw, Jinger Duggar Vuolo, and Marie Kondo. Plus, People shares an excerpt from Suzanne Collins’s forthcoming “Hunger Games” novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, due out March 18.

The winners of the Nero Book Awards are announced. Peter Gizzi wins the T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection Fierce Elegy. Kaya Press receives the Constellation Award. Earlyword’s January GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. The Giller Prize will feature writers longlisted for the 2024 award in a new online book club. Multiple women accuse author Neil Gaiman of sexual abuse in a new Vulture story. CrimeReads shares an excerpt from Ruth Ware’s forthcoming novel, The Woman in Suite 11, due out July 8. Plus, a new £2 coin in Britain will feature George Orwell to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the author’s death.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Robert Crais, Grady Hendrix, Layne Fargo, and Scott Turow. People’s book of the week is I’ll Come To You by Rebecca Kauffman. The Philip K. Dick Award nominees and the Story Prize finalists are announced. Brooke Shields discusses aging and her new memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old. SLJ shares how to help those impacted by the California wildfires. Jim Murphy’s Inner Excellence hits #1 on Amazon after a viral video captured Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown reading it during Sunday’s NFC wild-card game. Plus, NYPL acquires the archive of Jhumpa Lahiri.

Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon wins the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South. Winners of the Silvers-Dudley Prizes, for literary criticism, arts writing, and journalism, are announced. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, has launched Storehouse Voices, a new imprint devoted to elevating Black voices, and Simon & Schuster has announced a new audio-first imprint, Simon Maverick, focused on self-published authors. Publishers Weekly has Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2024. Plus, interviews with Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Stuart Turton, and Tracy Clark.

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.

Winners of the Pacific Northwest Book Awards are announced. The shortlists for the Westminster Book Awards, for political books and books by UK parliamentarians, are revealed. Jenna Bush Hager, host of the Read with Jenna book club, is starting her own publishing venture with Penguin Random House. Plus interviews with Graham Norton, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Liz Moore.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joy-Ann Reid, Alyssa Cole, Essie Chambers, and more are nominated for NAACP Image Awards. Oprah picks Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose for her 110th book club. Other January book club picks include Kate Fagan’s The Three Lives of Cate Kay (Reese Witherspoon and Target), Emma Knight’s The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus (Read with Jenna and Barnes & Noble), and Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking (GMA and Good Housekeeping). LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams. Reba McEntire will star in and produce an adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. Plus, Eliza Kennedy’s forthcoming novel Lucky Night will be adapted for the stage.

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.

Los Angeles Public Library director John F. Szabo connects with every corner of his adopted city through innovation and compassion.

LitHub releases the list of its most anticipated books of 2025. New year previews also arrive from Electric Lit, BookRiot, and Vogue. Barnes & Noble announces plans to open 60 new stores in 2025. Meta signals an end to its third-party fact-checking program. Diana Gabaldon shares a new Outlander excerpt. Vox examines: “Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?” Bestselling thriller author Andrew Pyper has died at the age of 56.

Are libraries the key to living your best life?

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, Fiona Davis, Danielle Steel, and Alafair Burke. People’s book of the week is Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin. Audiofile announces the January Earphones Award winners. Jenna Bush Hager selects The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight for her January book club. The film and TV adaptations for Conclave, Wicked, Shōgun, I’m Still Here, and The Penguin win Golden Globes. Plus, what to read in 2025.

Aisha Johnson, associate dean for academic affairs and outreach at the Georgia Institute of Technology Libraries, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work on Sustainable Leadership as a Solution for Representation and Inclusion in LIS: A Bibliography and Toolkit. We recently spoke with Johnson for insights and updates on her work.

On December 3, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem released the state budget for FY26, which includes devastating news for the State Library in Pierre, the state capital. The institution will have its budget cut by 12.5 FTE in staff, $1,030,267 in general funds, and $1,399,443 in federal fund expenditure authority. The library currently has 21 staff members, but if the measure passes, seven remaining staff members will work in accessibility services for disabled users, leaving two employees to cover everything else.