While most people think of postcards as inexpensive media showing iconic places, they may not realize the opportunities that postcards can hold for understanding the past. The Chicago-based Newberry Library houses one of the largest collections of postcards in the United States.

Disability in Publishing, a United States–based organization of disabled individuals who work in traditional publishing, launched in late July via a virtual town hall. The group’s mission to “create community, provide resources, and increase accessibility across the industry in order to increase disability visibility and retain the talent of disabled publishing professionals” was well represented in the highly accessible event, which was simulcast on YouTube and Twitter and attended by people who are personally disabled and others looking to make their organizations more inclusive. 

The proposed merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has attracted the attention of the Justice Department, which is concerned that the $2.2 billion deal will shrink opportunities for writers, and hurt consumers, by turning the Big Five publishers (once the Big Six, until Penguin and Random House completed their merger in 2013) into the Big Four. Its antitrust trial against the merger began in early August and ended Friday. A decision is expected in the fall.

LJ focuses on the most promising debut novels for fall, with titles ranging widely in theme and genre. 

COVID shifts drove falling print circ and rising ebooks. But will it last? LJ's 2021 Materials Survey looks at some of the last year's trends.

This is the 13th year of the LJ Index of Public Library Service and Star Library ratings. The 2020 scores and ratings are based on FY18 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Public Library Survey (PLS). Because of that delay, they don’t reflect the impact of the coronavirus; that won’t be reflected in the data until 2022. The big news in this year’s edition is that successful retrievals of electronic information (e-retrievals)—measuring usage of online content, such as databases, other than by title checkout—joins the six other measures that determine the LJ Index.

Whether librarians are providing services in-person or virtually, reference has changed with the pandemic.

Library Journal’s annual Placements & Salaries survey reports on the experiences of LIS students who graduated and sought their first librarian jobs in the previous year: in this case, 2019. Salaries and full-time employment are up, but so are unemployment and the gender gap; 2019 graduates faced a mixed job market even before the pandemic.

The article (preprint) linked below was recently shared on arXiv.  Title Are We Building the Data Discovery Infrastructure Researchers Want? Comparing Perspectives of Support Specialists and Researchers Authors Guangyuan Sun National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Tanja FriedrichGerman Aerospace Center, Scientific Information, Cologne, Germany Kathleen Gregory University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; School of […]

From The State: A Travelers Rest man filed a report with the Travelers Rest Police Department, saying the local Greenville County library branch was committing a crime for distributing sexually explicit content. Albert Hill, in his late 30s, wrote an email to police earlier this week saying books listed on the LGBTQ and Banned Books […]

Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown spoke to the City Club of Chicago on September 29, 2022.  Video and audio recordings are linked below. From the City Club of Chicago and WGN Radio: Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown is passionate about redefining what public libraries can bring to the communities they serve. This mission is […]

From The Washington Post: Libraries are in the crossfire yet again, as conservative groups mount a historic number of challenges to books to remove from public book shelves literature dealing with race, racism and LGBTQ identity. The book-ban campaigns have turned so nasty that some librarians have lost or left their jobs. But it’s not the first time library workers […]

When the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines began to roll out in mid-December 2020, their distribution was immediately complicated by a shortage of doses and widespread uncertainty about who would be given priority. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued suggested guidelines for phased allocation. When it was not yet clear who would be next, many library workers, leaders, and associations began advocating for public facing library workers to be vaccinated as soon as feasible.

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

Whether librarians are providing services in-person or virtually, reference has changed with the pandemic.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of books on the subject has been increasing exponentially. This introductory list, which will be updated regularly, is meant to help collection development librarians get started on determining which books work best for their collections.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng leads holds and coverage this week. It is also People's book of the week and Reese Witherspoon's October book club pick. Audiofile announces the October Earphones Award Winners. Six LibraryReads and eight Indie Next picks publish this week. October’s Costco Connection is out featuring It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover and Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken gets reviewed. Plus, LitHub teases a forthcoming 17th century wilderness novel from Lauren Groff. 

The six-person marketing department at Nashville Public Library is made up of enthusiastic collaborators—willing to listen, iterate, contribute to each other’s strengths, and involve the rest of the library in coming up with great ideas—with a strong leader who inspires creativity and teamwide respect. Los Angeles and Virginia Beach received honorable mentions.

Abstract: 475 libraries across Switzerland joined together to provide more efficient, consistent and coherent services in a single powerful platform.

Shortlists are announced for the 2022 Diverse Book Awards and Kindle Storyteller Award. Author interviews are plentiful this week, including conversations with Jarvis Jay Masters, Melissa Villaseñor, Kamila Shamsie, Ling Ma, Sonya Huber, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemim, Chelsea Martin, Linda Ronstadt, Constance Wu, Calvin Kasulke, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman; also, rare and early interviews with Cormac McCarthy. There will be a new partnership in book adaptations between Titan Books and Alcon Publishing.