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On January 27, ALA announced the top books, digital media, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Printz awards—at the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix. The First State of Being (Greenwillow) by Erin Entrada Kelly received the Newbery Medal for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature, and Chooch Helped (Arthur A. Levine), illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz and written by Andrea L. Rogers, won the Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. A complete list of the 2025 award winners follows....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 27
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Kiara Alfonseca writes: “The US Department of Education’s (DOE) Office for Civil Rights has announced that it is rescinding all past guidance issued against the removal of books and will no longer employ a coordinator to investigate instances of unlawful book removals. The department also announced that it has dismissed 11 book ban complaints and six pending complaints. According to the DOE, the complaints alleged that the removal of these books ‘created a hostile environment for students.’”
DOE’s press release announcing these changes claimed it was “[Ending] Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.” ALA has issued a
statement in protest....
ABC News, Jan. 25; US Department of Education, Jan. 24; ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Jan. 26
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ALA has selected James (Doubleday) by Percival Everett as the winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon (Scribner) by Kevin Fedarko as the winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The selections were announced during the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards at ALA’s LibLearnX conference in Phoenix on January 26....
AL: The Scoop, Jan. 26
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ALA launched
Show Up for Our Libraries, a campaign to harness the collective power of library advocates to influence elected leaders and policymakers, January 22. ALA President Cindy Hohl said, “Many library advocates are rightfully concerned about what the next four years hold for our nation’s libraries. Libraries—and many people we serve—are facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainty.” ALA kicked off the campaign with a proactive call for supporters to get their elected leaders on the record about how they plan to protect the freedom to read and federal funding for libraries....
ALA Public Policy & Advocacy Office, Jan. 22
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American Libraries is accepting submissions for the 2025 Library Design Showcase, our annual feature celebrating new and newly renovated libraries of all types and sizes. The showcase will appear in the September/October issue. We are looking for examples of innovative library architecture that address patrons’ needs in unique and effective ways. We are especially interested in submissions from libraries that are approaching design with sustainability, accessibility, and smaller budgets in mind. Partial renovations, projects under $1 million, and school libraries are encouraged to apply. To be eligible, projects must have been completed between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025....
American Libraries Trend, Jan./Feb.
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Deborah Caldwell-Stone writes: “US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the law enforcement division of the Department for Homeland Security. ICE must operate in accordance with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the laws of the US. When ICE agents make inquiries about library patrons, state laws and library policies concerning the privacy and confidentiality of library patron records still apply, including provisions that require law enforcement agents to present a court-issued subpoena, court order, or warrant to obtain patron information.”...
Intellectual Freedom Blog, Jan. 24
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Anna Tingley writes: “Two documentaries premiering at Sundance this weekend are set thousands of miles apart—in Nairobi, Kenya and Texas, respectively—but at the heart of their stories is the same thesis: the importance of libraries to any healthy democracy. Kim Snyder's
The Librarians follows a group of librarians who have resisted book bans in Texas, Florida, Iowa and beyond. The urgency of the Sarah Jessica Parker-produced documentary is underscored by another film on the lineup: Maia Lekow and Christopher King's
How to Build a Library, which follows two Kenyan women's mission to restore a public library in the country's capital, Nairobi, and transform the formerly whites-only library into a cultural hub that reflects the contemporary, youthful, creative metropolis that exists today.”...
Variety, Jan. 26
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Alexandra Boris writes: “A leisure reading collection within academic libraries may be tended with care or fall by the wayside when resources are needed elsewhere. It can be overwhelming to find oneself responsible for a collection that has not been the priority. This case study will discuss how a relatively stagnant leisure reading collection was revived to engage users with library spaces and collections. While such a task can seem challenging at the beginning, intentional selection, care, and marketing can increase the accessibility, visibility, and usability of the collection.”...
The Journal of Creative Library Practice, Jan. 25
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Meg Tapia writes: “[Australian] laws governing organized crime are effective because they focus on patterns and networks, not necessarily the commodities criminal syndicates trade in. Laws treating disinformation similarly would focus on scale, coordinated inauthentic behavior, financial patterns, and systematic manipulation for profit or influence, not content or controlling platform access. This would target orchestrated disinformation infrastructure while preserving freedom of expression. The approach would allow governments, social media companies and their cyber allies to better tackle disinformation networks and actors.”...
The Strategist, Jan. 20
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Leigh Reagan Smith writes: “On January 9, the Teton County (Wyo.) Library Board voted unanimously to adopt a book sanctuary resolution and to sign
a Declaration of Democracy, two measures being taken by libraries across the country to preserve and foster intellectual freedom and its role in democracy, according to the Board. The resolution references Article 1, Section 20 of the Wyoming Constitution, which states in part that ‘every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects.’”...
Buckrail (Jackson Hole, Wyo.), Jan. 21
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Ann Baillie writes: “As youth librarians, we want our services to be accessible to all our patrons. We use visual schedules in our programs and provide patrons with access to accessible technology. Our websites should be accessible, too. Depending on how your library controls its website, you may even have a built-in accessibility checker to make sure each webpage meets accessibility standards. If you upload PDFs to your library’s website, such as a programming brochure or book lists, here are some tips to make your PDF accessible.”...
ALSC Blog, Jan. 24
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Kali Jaye writes: “In 2019, the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an
occupational phenomenon, describing it as ‘a condition resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed.’ Burnout is what’s happening when you’re exhausted even though you sat at a desk all day, you’re starting to hate your job, and you’re wondering what’s wrong with you and why you can’t just get it together. So how can we, as individuals and organizations, best prevent and respond to burnout? The opposite of burnout, according to [psychology researcher Christina] Maslach and colleagues, is engagement.”...
Scholarly Kitchen, Jan. 27; World Health Organization, May 28, 2019
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