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.

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

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?

Over the past 22 years, Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers awards—this year sponsored by TLC—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. 

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.

From the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP): The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) submits this report to the Appropriations Committees of the Senate and the House in fulfillment of the requirement in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying Division C of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42). […]

From Business Insider: Over the past couple of years, researchers at Jigsaw, a Google subsidiary that focuses on online politics and polarization, have been studying how Gen Zers digest and metabolize what they see online. The researchers were hoping that their work would provide one of the first in-depth, ethnographic studies of Gen Z’s “information literacy.” But […]

AI Algorithms Should Not Control What People See, UN Chief Says, Launching Global Principles For Information Integrity (via UN) Artificial Intelligence: Generative AI Technologies and Their Commercial Applications (via GAO) Announcing the Scholaris Website and Early Adopter Cohorts 1 & 2 (via CARL and OCUL) Kentucky Louisville Free Public Library to Renovate, Reopen And Build […]

From OCLC: OCLC has released “Linked data: The future of library cataloging,” a position paper that articulates the value that linked data can bring to library catalogs, and the tools already available to help ease libraries into creating a more interconnected experience for information seekers. The brief, 12-page paper follows OCLC’s path from decades of […]

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.

Streamline and enhance your processes with these cutting-edge solutions: Smart Library Lockers@D-Tech, Content and Discovery Services Platform@SirsiDynix, EV Cart@Kingsley, Payment Solutions@Comprise.
 

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anne Applebaum is awarded the German Book Trade Peace Prize. Patrick deWitt wins the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his novel The Librarianist. Alicia Elliott’s And Then She Fell and Brandi Bird’s The All + Flesh: Poems win Indigenous Voices Awards. Hillary Clinton will release a new book, Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, on September 17. Plus, authors recommend books for Pride Month.

Resource sharing between libraries is nothing new, of course — but what is new is the ease with which potential resource-sharing partners can find each other. We spoke with three librarians who play leading roles in the Rapido/RapidILL resource-sharing community. 

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Ashley Poston, Danielle Steel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Beatriz Williams. Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Bear by Julia Phillips. The Glass Bell Award longlist is announced. NYT profiles physician Freida McFadden’s rise as the fastest-selling thriller writer in the U.S. Plus, Washington Post celebrates audio narrators for Audiobook Appreciation Month.