and more.
-
LibrariesDigital Checkouts Rose 17% at OverDrive
Digital borrowing of e-books, audiobooks, and digital magazines rose to more than 739 million checkouts at the libraries and schools who use OverDrive's Libby and Sora apps.
-
Awards & Prizes
Percival Everett, Kevin Fedarko Win 2025 Carnegie Medals
Percival Everett's 'James' took home this year’s fiction medal, and 'A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon' by Kevin Fedarko received this year’s nonfiction award.
-
Libraries
Louisiana Supreme Court Revives Librarian Amanda Jones’s Defamation Suit
After some two years of legal wrangling, Jones will finally get her day in court after the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated a decision tossing the defamation case and remanded it back to the appeals court with an order to hear the case on the merits.
-
Libraries
Freedom to Read Advocates Celebrate a Major Legal Victory in Arkansas
After issuing a preliminary injunction in July 2023, a federal judge in Arkansas has now permanently struck down two key provisions of Arkansas’s controversial “harmful to minors” law, known as Act 372, finding the law to be unconstitutional.
-
Libraries
The Top 10 Library Stories of 2024
PW looks back at some of the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year and what they portend for 2025.
-
Libraries
Editor's Note: So Long, Not Goodbye
A sincere thank you from outgoing PW executive editor Andrew Albanese, and best wishes for a happy holiday season.
-
Libraries
New Jersey Delivers a Victory for the Freedom to Read—and for Librarians
More than three years after she became a target of abuse from book banners, librarian Martha Hickson found herself standing side by side with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on December 9 as he signed the state’s Freedom to Read Act into law.
-
Libraries
Librarian Amanda Jones Files New Defamation Lawsuit
In a November 26 complaint, Jones accused Dan Kleinman, a longtime ALA critic who authors a blog called Safe Libraries, of Defamation and False Light, seeking damages in excess of $75,000.
-
Publisher News
Internet Archive Copyright Case Ends Without Supreme Court Review
Officials at the nonprofit have decided against exercising their last option, an appeal to the Supreme Court, ending the closely-watched case over the scanning and lending of library books.
-
Libraries
Urban Libraries Council Survey Shows Positive Trends, Challenges for Libraries
The survey captured a range of trends in patron engagement from 115 ULC member libraries, "representing nearly 2,300 locations and serving over 87.5 million people” for 2023.
-
Libraries
ALA Reopens Search for New Executive Director
The news of the reopened search comes on the one-year anniversary of Leslie Burger taking the helm as interim executive director, on November 15, 2023, and more than a year after executive director Tracie D. Hall abruptly resigned from her position on October 6, 2023.
-
Libraries
Three Candidates to Vie for ALA Presidency
Lindsay Cronk, Andrea Jamison, and Maria McCauley have been announced as the candidates for the 2026-27 presidency of the American Library Association. Ballot mailing for the ALA election will begin on March 10, 2025.
-
News
How to Help Rebuild Libraries in Conflict Zones
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
-
Libraries
EveryLibrary Warns That U.S. Election Results Mean More Uncertainty for Libraries
The last few years have been difficult for libraries and librarians. And following the 2024 presidential election, the future for the profession just got a lot murkier, according to the customary election night wrap-up from nonpartisan library political action committee EveryLibrary.
-
Awards & Prizes
Librarians’ Choice: 2025 Carnegie Medal Longlist Announced
A total of 46 books—23 fiction titles and 23 nonfiction titles—have made the longlist for the American Library Association’s 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the association’s adult book award. The six-title shortlist will be announced on November 12.
-
Libraries
The Week in Libraries: October 4, 2024
Among the week's headlines: Penguin Random Houses's new public policy manager talks about book bans and her new role; a fascinating look at the Internet Archive; and a new survey explores people's attitudes toward libraries.
-
Libraries
The Week in Libraries: September 27, 2024
Among the week's headlines: it was a busy Banned Books Week in court with developments in two major book banning cases; an anti–book banning resolution is reintroduced in Congress; Delaware libraries grapple with a ransomware attack; and the Carnegie Corporation gives $4 million to New York City libraries.
-
Libraries
ALA Finds Book Challenges Are Slowing in 2024
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 414 challenges to censor library materials in the first eight months of the year, down from 695 during the same period in 2023, with ALA reps suggesting that advocacy efforts, including lawsuits in several states, are beginning to yield positive results.
-
Libraries
The Week in Libraries: September 20, 2024
Among the week's headlines, ALA releases a new booklist for young readers on the importance of voting; Penguin Random Houses's Banned Wagon embarks on its second-ever tour; and why the Florida attorney general is wading into a closely watched book banning case from Llano County, Texas.
-
Libraries
The Week in Libraries: September 13, 2024
Among the week's headlines: PEN America reports a surge in school book bans; amicus briefs are filed in a key freedom to read case from Llano County, Texas; and Book Riot reports on the escalating attacks on academic libraries.
