National Library Week is celebrated during April, and these multitalented authors have also worked in libraries. Recognize them with a display!

Library entertainment platforms offering movies and TV shows gain on commercial streaming services as consumers balk at subscription costs. With “subscription fatigue” on the rise, libraries are seeing a growing popularity in streaming services—and deciding how best to provide them.

It’s April, which means that in addition to celebrating spring’s arrival, I’ll be joining libraries across the nation in celebrating National Library Week.

This superbly executed open-access database offers an unprecedented gateway to different versions of Shakespeare’s First Folios. AM’s powerful search tools and thoughtfully selected tips and pointers allow for exciting research opportunities.

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 linked below was published today by Education and Information Technologies. Title ChatGPT in Higher Education – A Synthesis Of The Literature and a Future Research Agenda Authors Pritpal Singh Bhullar Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, India Mahesh Joshi RMIT University, Australia Ritesh Chugh Central Queensland University, Australia Source Education and Information Technologies […]

AI Artificial Intelligence’s Role in Digitally Preserving Historic Archives (via Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture) Libraries The May 2024 Issue of College & Research Libraries is Now Available Online (via ACRL) Louisiana Louisiana House Committee Shelves Bills Targeting Libraries (via LI) Open Science Building a Global Research Initiative on Open Science (GRIOS) (via HAL) Research […]

From the Executive Summary: Five years after the Workplace Equity Survey (WE Survey) first benchmarked the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the global scholarly publishing industry, the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) conducted the survey for a second time in 2023. This week, C4DISC released Workplace Equity in […]

The latest edition of Marshall Breeding’s annual “Library Systems Report” is now available online from American Libraries. The 2024 report runs about 6700 words.  From the Introduction to the Report: The library technology industry had a quiet year in 2023. But in the absence of major business moves and acquisitions, companies set their sights on […]

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.

Winners of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards are announced, including best novel Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke. The winners of the League of Canadian Poets prizes are Hannah Green’s Xanax Cowboy, Sandra Ridley’s Vixen, and Bradley Peters’s Sonnets from a Cell. The finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, the shortlist for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing, and the shortlist for the Reading the West Book Awards are revealed. A record number of writers were jailed globally in 2023, according to a report by PEN America.

LaShawn Myles had not worked specifically with the disability community when she joined the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled in 2018. Her work as an educator led her to libraries, where she quickly became a champion for visually impaired patrons, advocating for resources and finding ways to make materials more accessible.

Mychal Threets, whose earnest TikTok videos have logged millions of views, started out sharing stories that epitomized what he calls “library joy” to inspire people to visit their library. He ended up capturing hearts across social media.

When Missouri’s Senate Bill 775 (SB 775) became law in 2022, calling for criminal penalties on educators who provide students with materials containing “explicit sexual material,” Melissa Corey recognized the severe implications for collection development and spearheaded a swift response to preserve compliant books in school libraries.