At PW, we’ve always served the library community, but you’ve probably noticed that in recent months we’ve ramped up our commitment to covering library news and issues, with a lineup of monthly columnists writing on a broad range of issues affecting libraries and publishers. We at PW believe libraries are not only a vital cog in the publishing business, but the foundation our reading culture is built upon. “Conversation” is the theme of the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting, and at PW, we’re committed to hosting a vibrant dialogue about the future of libraries and publishing within our pages and on our Web site.

Andrew Richard Albanese

PW senior writer and features editor Andrew Albanese oversees PW’s library coverage. A former editor of the Library Journal Academic Newswire, he covers a range of subjects and is the author of the recent e-book The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight. He is also a former editor of American history at Oxford University Press. He can be reached at aalbanese@publishersweekly.com.

Brian Kenney: The P&L Sheet

Contributing editor Brian Kenney joined (or, we should say, rejoined) PW in 2012 to write the P&L Sheet, a monthly column focused on library and publishing issues. He is formerly editorial director of Library Journal, SLJ, the Horn Book, and is currently the director of the White Plains (N.Y.) Public Library. He has chaired the ALA’s Notable Books Council and sat on the 2013 committee of ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. As editorial director of Reed Business Information’s publishing group, Kenney also served as editorial director of Publishers Weekly in 2009 and 2010. He holds a Ph.D. in information science from the University of North Texas.

Michael Kelley: Check It Out!

It’s official—contributing editor Michael Kelley has taken over the monthly Check It Out! column from Nancy Pearl, who, after two great years writing for PW, has moved on to other literary pursuits (although she continues on as an adviser and contributing editor for PW). Kelley is an outstanding journalist, librarian. and a former news editor and editorial director at Library Journal. He is also currently an editor at the New York Times. In his column, Kelley will scour the country for librarians, library programs, and library issues worth “checking out.”

Margaux DelGuidice and Rose Luna: Cut to the Core

PW’s newest contributing editors Margaux DelGuidice and Rose Luna will be following the rollout of the Common Core State Standards. In their monthly column, Cut to the Core, they’ll break down what the new standards mean for libraries and publishers as our education system enters a critical new era. In addition, they’ll report from the front lines of conferences, and offer features and interviews, as well as contributing to PW’s Children’s Bookshelf e-newsletter,

DelGuidice and Luna are full-time teacher-librarians with experience in both school and public libraries. DelGuidice is a librarian at Garden City (N.Y.) High School and also works as a youth services librarian at the Freeport Memorial Library. Luna is a librarian at Freeport (N.Y.) High School and also works as a bilingual reference librarian at the Freeport Memorial Library, where she leads a Spanish-language book club.

They also have frontline experience and are plugged in to a wellspring of feedback on Common Core. DelGuidice serves as a member of the ALA/YALSA/ALSC Interdivisional Task Force on the Common Core. Together, they’ve presented numerous times on the Common Core at national conferences, as well as at local and state library organization meetings and to parents, educators, and their professional colleagues.

Peter Brantley

Contributing editor Peter Brantley writes regularly on a range of issues for the PWxyz blog and is a frequent contributor to the magazine on issues vital to the library and publishing communities. He is currently director of scholarly communication at the startup hypothes.is.

Brantley previously served as director of the BookServer Project at the Internet Archive, where he developed new business models for distributing digital books. He is also the founder and moderator of the Read 2.0 listserv, which brings together a range of stakeholders and thinkers in the book business to discuss the headlines and issues of the day, and is the convener of the Books in Browsers conference, a summit for software developers and UX designers creating new forms of storytelling.