We celebrate the wondrous activity of reading with this list of 144 titles, books that delighted LJ reviewers, columnists, and editors.

This database includes intuitive tools that help students learn how to approach literary works, make assessments, and formulate arguments. 

Philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York on December 9 announced a new $5 million pool of grant funding available for public libraries nationwide. The new initiative—Libraries as Pillars of Education and Democracy—“will help public libraries deliver critical services that promote socioeconomic mobility, civic participation, and social belonging,” according to an announcement. The $5 million will be awarded to 10 to 15 library systems in regions serving 500,000 people or more, with each system receiving up to $500,000 in funding over 24 months.

From Association of Research Libraries (ARL): ARL is pleased to publish e-Resource Licensing Explained: An A–Z Licensing Guidebook for Libraries, a practical tool to empower librarians who license electronic resources (e-resources). The guidebook includes easily digestible legal explanations and pragmatic strategies for preserving rights that users already have under US copyright law, particularly in the face […]

From Billboard: The Pacific Palisades fire destroyed the building housing Belmont Music Publishers, the exclusive publisher of physical works by early 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg. The fire consumed Belmont’s entire inventory of sales and rental materials, including manuscripts, scores and other printed works, the publisher said. “For a company that focused exclusively on the […]

From NEH: The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $22.6 million in grants for 219 humanities projects across the country. Among these are grants that will establish protocols for the stewardship and voluntary return of unethically acquired archaeological and ethnographic artifacts to their communities of origin; enrich K–12 educators’ understanding and teaching of […]

From the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries: HADES consists of advertisements from health sciences journals covering the disciplines of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, hospital management, laboratory management, and the allied health sciences from 1923 to 2007. From small quarter page ads to full page drug ads, which often include the pharmaceutical indications, these advertisements offer a window into […]

ENSHITTIFICATION. It’s a real thing—the purposeful degradation of the quality in systems in order to maximize profits. And we saw ICT as a boon to society, liberating not oppressing. Sigh. Listen in as we explore enshittification and the implications of all this profit-seeking across all types of information systems.

Dave explores NotebookLM’s podcasting feature. NotebookLM is an AI system from Google that lets you create a workspace around documents that summarizes, creates study guides, and much more. One of the features is creating an “Audio Overview” that transforms your notes and documents into a two person podcast. Dave was impressed, see what you think.

The election is over, and the reactions are emotional and raw. America is still as divided politically and socially as the day before. What’s in store for us as individuals, families and communities? What might the next few years look like for libraries and librarians and those who use and rely on library resources and service?

The winners of the Nero Book Awards are announced. Peter Gizzi wins the T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection Fierce Elegy. Kaya Press receives the Constellation Award. Earlyword’s January GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. The Giller Prize will feature writers longlisted for the 2024 award in a new online book club. Multiple women accuse author Neil Gaiman of sexual abuse in a new Vulture story. CrimeReads shares an excerpt from Ruth Ware’s forthcoming novel, The Woman in Suite 11, due out July 8. Plus, a new £2 coin in Britain will feature George Orwell to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the author’s death.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Robert Crais, Grady Hendrix, Layne Fargo, and Scott Turow. People’s book of the week is I’ll Come To You by Rebecca Kauffman. The Philip K. Dick Award nominees and the Story Prize finalists are announced. Brooke Shields discusses aging and her new memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old. SLJ shares how to help those impacted by the California wildfires. Jim Murphy’s Inner Excellence hits #1 on Amazon after a viral video captured Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown reading it during Sunday’s NFC wild-card game. Plus, NYPL acquires the archive of Jhumpa Lahiri.

Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon wins the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South. Winners of the Silvers-Dudley Prizes, for literary criticism, arts writing, and journalism, are announced. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, has launched Storehouse Voices, a new imprint devoted to elevating Black voices, and Simon & Schuster has announced a new audio-first imprint, Simon Maverick, focused on self-published authors. Publishers Weekly has Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2024. Plus, interviews with Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Stuart Turton, and Tracy Clark.

In a significant decision for the freedom to read, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas recently declared two key sections of Arkansas Act 372—which expose librarians and booksellers to criminal penalties—unconstitutional. Section 1’s criminal penalties for “furnishing harmful items to minors” were deemed overly broad; Section 5’s process for giving decisions on book challenges and appeals to local government officials lacked constitutional safeguards and threatened a chilling effect on library staff and users alike.