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Salem Press, 75 years old this year, offers multivolume resources that meet the needs of many readers. LJ talked to Leslie Mackenzie, Salem’s president and publisher, about Salem’s vision for reference and its approach to making its materials accessible to all.

Coherent Digital provides students, educators, policymakers, and librarians with wide-ranging resources for research, learning, and discussion. LJ talked with Eileen Lawrence, Coherent’s cofounder and senior adviser, to discuss Coherent’s materials, selection process, and commitment to finding, preserving, and making endangered content accessible.

Support research and scholarship with these 80+ new and forthcoming databases and online products, spanning specialized topics and general reference. 

Bibliodiversity, state-of-the-art content, and hand-picked works supporting curricula make academic ebook platforms key parts of the collection development ecosystem.

Searching to update collections and fill information gaps? Consider these 580+ new and forthcoming print titles. Also included are updated lists of reference fun reads. 

From the research services of a presidential center to a large public library system and an academic music archive, explore three libraries around the country and the resources they rely upon.

When the journey is the point, the mode of travel is as important as the destination. Moving from here to there—whether via quiet footfalls or the whisper of wings or sailing with a neatly trimmed spinnaker—fascinates readers and makes them wonder if there are ways to do it more efficiently, more economically, or with more zest and flair. The books on this list answer with a resounding “yes.”

Scheduled to be updated in late 2024/through 2025, consider these 140+ databases and online products. Arranged by category, these resources range from titles on the arts to those addressing technology.

Top titles across 12 subjects serving reference work and research.

What we think of as “reference” has steadily evolved with technology. Now “reference” is more likely than not to be synonymous with “database.” Most of the publishers in this month’s Reference section offer digital databases alongside—or in lieu of—traditional printed reference materials like books and periodicals. 

Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy wins the Melbourne Prize for Literature. The winners of Canada Council for the Arts Governor General's Literary Awards are revealed. Edenville by Sam Rebelein and All I Want Is To Take Shrooms and Listen to the Color of Nazi Screams by John Baltisberger win Wonderland Book Awards for Excellence in Bizarro Fiction. The shortlist is announced for the Eccles Institute and Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award. CrimeReads releases its list of the best gothic novels of 2024. Trinidad-born novelist Elizabeth Nunez has died at age 80. Plus, Page to Screen

In a mostly flat market, mystery and thriller sales are up in 2024 and holding their position as one of the top selling genres, according to data from Circana BookScan. That could be because the already-broad genre continues to expand and reinvent itself. 

Modern libraries aren’t just places for reading and research. They’re vibrant and active community centers where the people and programming play just as critical a role as the collections.

Amazon and Kirkus reveal their lists of the best books of 2024. Libro.fm shares its bestselling audiobooks of 2024. The shortlist for ALA’s Carnegie Medal and the longlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize are announced. EveryLibrary has a chart tracking how library-related ballot measures fared in last week’s elections. Plus, interviews with Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey and the National Book Award nominees, and new title bestsellers.

Cookbooks that combine stories and recipes offer double delights. 

Samantha Harvey’s Orbital wins the Booker Prize. Arthur Sze will receive the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, and the Ignyte Awards winners are announced. Time Releases “The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024.” LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for To Die For by David Baldacci. Lena Dunham will adapt Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis. Plus, Vox argues “why libraries need librarians.”

Best Books is coming! To celebrate we are counting down to our big reveal by highlighting some of our 2023 picks, titles we still treasure, reread, and suggest widely. This week we offer a wonderfully atmospheric, wryly funny, and deeply cozy delight.

Part two of Gale's Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement archive excels as a resource supporting research in history, political science, sociology, diaspora studies, and migration and refugee studies. 

BBC Monitoring provides exceptional primary documents about political, social, military, cultural events, and intelligence gathering from the start of World War II to the early 21st century. 

Philip Fracassi offers a technothriller with a different take on time travel, while Andrew Ludington debuts with a time-travel caper wrapped around a slice of historical fiction.

Ron Chernow writes an epic biography about Mark Twain, Tourmaline offers a biography of activist Marsha P. Johnson, and Michelle Young reveals French Resistance hero Rose Valland's life as a spy.

American women pilots who flew during World War II, the Battle of Midway, the Underground Railroad’s maritime origins, and the lead up to Abraham Lincoln’s decision to go to war are explored in this month's titles.

This month's historical novels include a Jane Austen–inspired tale from Natalie Jenner, a World War II story set on Martha's Vineyard by Martha Hall Kelly, and a matriarch's tale of land and legacy in the Lowcountry of South Carolina from Mary Alice Monroe.

To Die For by David Baldacci is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Blue Bloods showrunner Wade showcases his talents on the page with this compelling police procedural.

This sexy, swoon-worthy romance is an unputdownable debut.

Highly recommended for readers of sci-fi thrillers, cli-fi, and bioterrorism thrillers, and Tom Clancy fans who enjoy a bit of SF in their political thrillers.

Academics have a shared goal of making their work highly accessible for a worldwide audience—and they agree that F1000Research, which is part of Taylor & Francis and supports researchers in all subject areas, is an effective platform for achieving this goal.

Navigating a library can be overwhelming, especially in large or multi-level buildings where finding a specific item, space, or amenity can feel like a treasure hunt. StackMap, a leader in library wayfinding and digital navigation solutions, is here to change that.

To Die For by David Baldacci leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Graham Brown, J.R. Ward, and Richard Price. People’s book of the week is The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy.The Booker Prize will be announced later today. Adam Shatz wins the American Library in Paris Book Award. Grammy nominations have been announced, including Best Audiobook. Fight Club, based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, turns 25. And Bastard Out of Carolina author Dorothy Allison and “Magic School Bus” illustrator Bruce Degan have died.

As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in work, creative pursuits, and the generation of online misinformation, public libraries have a major new role to play in digital literacy.

While Texas continues to be a leading state in the number of book bans reported each year, a recent challenge at the Montgomery County Memorial Library has been reversed. The Texas Freedom to Read Project reported that a children’s book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs (Aquinnah Wampanoag)—an account of American colonization and Native traditions described from an Indigenous perspective—was challenged in September and subsequently moved out of the juvenile nonfiction area to the fiction collection.

Election Day 2024 held mixed results for libraries on the ballot across the country. EveryLibrary identified and tracked 79 library measures on local and statewide ballots about funding, buildings, and governance. Of those, 55 were for long-term operating revenue, 10 for building projects, seven for annual budgets, one was a defunding measure, two concerned library governance, and four were statewide issues.