Lisa Vos

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. Among other local partners, the press has produced several books in collaboration with Los Angeles Public Library, mining the library’s extensive photo archive and the deep knowledge of its librarians, including City Librarian John Szabo. Calistro approached Szabo with a proposition: She and McAuley would give the press to the library as a gift. Several years, a few lawyers, and much due diligence later, the donation has been approved by Los Angeles City Council, and ACP will now be known as Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library.

On April 25, the Peabody Awards revealed the list of 68 nominations for 2023, chosen from a field of 1,100 entries. This year’s contenders include popular TV series such as The Bear, Bluey, and Reservation Dogs, documentaries about Judy Blume and Little Richard, children’s programming, newscasts—and two offerings from public libraries: Milwaukee Public Library’s social media streams in the interactive and immersive media category, and Borrowed and Banned, a 10-episode podcast from Brooklyn Public Library in the podcast/radio category.

Over the past 22 years, Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers awards have offered a compelling snapshot of what’s up and coming in the library world, as well as how it has changed. Our 2024 Movers cohort represents a range of innovative, proactive, and supportive work; they are imaginative and kind and brave in a world that needs those qualities—and the results they produce—very much. 

With only days to go before the May 1 deadline for signatures on House appropriation letters, the American Library Association (ALA) is urging all library supporters to act immediately, using the #FundLibraries campaign tool, to ask their members of Congress to cosign Dear Appropriator letters supporting the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program for FY25. ALA’s #FundLibraries page lets users fill out a request to their elected officials, as well as check to see whether their members of Congress have signed on.

By all accounts the 2024 Public Library Association (PLA) conference, held April 3–5 in Columbus, OH, was a resounding success. The 7,573 participants—including 5,702 attendees, 1,518 exhibitors, and 353 virtual registrants—packed the show floor, programs, and speaker sessions with palpable enthusiasm.

At the 2024 Public Library Association (PLA) conference, held April 3–5 in Columbus, OH, presentations were notably targeted and useful. And, as a number bore out, those concerns overlap in many areas.