Booklist Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Covers for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown); Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner); The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead); The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai (Viking); There There, by Tommy Orange (Knopf); and Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan (Knopf).

ALA Unveils 2019 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

October 24, 2018

2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include: Nonfiction Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company). Macy’s years of reporting on the still-unfolding US opioid crisis earned her remarkable access to people whose lives have been upended. Dopesick is a timely … Continue reading ALA Unveils 2019 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Looking Back at Books

By Phil Morehart | December 29, 2017

First, American Libraries Associate Editor Terra Dankowski talks with author Stephanie Powell Watts in a conversation taped right after her book No One Is Coming to Save Us was announced by Sarah Jessica Parker as the first selection in ALA’s Book Club Central. Next, American Libraries Associate Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart speaks … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Looking Back at Books →

The Sympathizer and Hold Still, Carnegie Medal winners

2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals

January 11, 2016

The selections were announced January 10 during the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony and Reception that are part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits in Boston. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s bravura debut novel, The Sympathizer, illuminates the double-mindedness of a half-French, half-Vietnamese spy as he confronts impossible and dire situations in divided, war-torn Vietnam … Continue reading 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals →

Left to right: Donna Seaman, Terry Tempest Williams, Mark Kurlansky, Ken Burns

The Writer as Witness

By Phil Morehart | January 9, 2016

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and writer Ken Burns’s response when asked how he chooses the subjects of his work encapsulates “The Writer as Witness,” the theme of the ERT / Booklist Author Forum at the 2016 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. A writer must look both outward and inward to completely, accurately, and honestly tell a … Continue reading The Writer as Witness →

Finalists for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

2016 Carnegie Medals Shortlist Announced

October 19, 2015

2016 shortlisted titles include: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Shortlist H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald, published by Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. Transfixed by books and birds of prey as a girl, Macdonald became a historian, writer, and professional falconer involved in avian research and conversation. After the sudden … Continue reading 2016 Carnegie Medals Shortlist Announced →

Anthony Doerr (left) with his book. Bryan Stevenson

Doerr, Stevenson win 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals

By Laurie D. Borman | June 28, 2015

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time lead scorer, Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, and a New York Times–bestselling author, offered the keynote address. His first novel, Mycroft Holmes, about Sherlock Holmes’s older brother, will be published this fall by Titan Books. Abdul-Jabbar said his father was an avid reader who gave him books to find answers … Continue reading Doerr, Stevenson win 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals →

A Celebration of Reading

By Karen Muller | May 18, 2015

The Mother of All Booklists: The 500 Most Recommended Nonfiction Reads for Ages 3 to 103, by William Patrick Martin, is basically a crowdsourced book list. The author gathered 155 authoritative and influential lists of award-winning books and recommended reading lists from a spectrum of organizations, including parenting groups, state commissions on libraries, libraries, library … Continue reading A Celebration of Reading →

Black History Month Graphic Novels for Your Collection

By Sarah Hunter | February 5, 2015

Need to refresh your Black History Month offerings? Here are some graphic novels, both fiction and nonfiction, that address Black History in dynamic, engaging ways. For Adults: Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White By Lila Quintero Weaver. Illus. by the author. 2012. Univ. of Alabama, paper, $24.95 (9780817357146). Perry County, Alabama, was a hotbed … Continue reading Black History Month Graphic Novels for Your Collection →

Marisha Pessl’s Night Film Leaves a Lasting Impression

By Bill Ott | September 3, 2013

It’s the time of year when all of us connected to the publishing world begin speculating about the season’s big books. The major book shows—BookExpo America in May and ALA Annual Conference in June—have come and gone, leaving dozens of potential big books in their wakes. Now comes the predicting, the opinion swapping, and, one … Continue reading Marisha Pessl’s Night Film Leaves a Lasting Impression →

Latest Library Links

6m

Graduate students at University of Texas at Austin have been sharing their work with the public at the successful and popular program Science Under the Stars for 10 years. Now, with a new offshoot offering called Neighborhood Science, the students, primarily from the top-ranked ecology, evolution, and behavior program, are working to connect even more of the Austin community to science by bringing their informative and entertaining talks—on topics ranging from superheroes to singing mice—right into Austin Public Libraries, currently the Twin Oaks and Howson branches, on Thursday evenings. The talks are delivered with families in mind.

University of Texas at Austin, College of Natural Sciences, Mar. 25
1h

Charles McClure has been selected to receive the 2019 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by OCLC and LITA. McClure is the Francis Eppes Professor of Information Studies in the School of Information at Florida State University and the Director of its Information Use Management and Policy Institute. The award honors research relevant to the development of information technologies and recognizes a body of work spanning years, if not the majority of a career.

LITA, Mar. 25
17h

Next week’s vote on the European Union’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is an opportunity to advance library services. But unless an article that would effectively force the filtering of speech on the internet is removed, it could also do a lot of harm. The directive includes valuable progress on key dossiers for libraries, making it easier to carry out text and data mining, preserve documents, and give access to works that are not available on the market. But blocking free speech would be inevitable under Article 13 (renumbered to 17 in the voting document), a point already underlined by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Mar. 24
17h

Neely Tucker writes: “Our colleague Cait Miller published a pair of delightful posts about songs in the women’s suffrage movement on the In the Muse blog recently, the most recent of which is here. But it being Women’s History Month, we just had to know more about one of the sheet music covers she featured—the one with the remarkable title, ‘She’s Good Enough to be Your Baby’s Mother and She’s Good Enough to Vote with You.’ Published in the winter of 1916,when the suffrage movement was a hot-button political issue, the song (and its sheet music) are a nifty bit of insight into an earlier version of American pop culture.”

Library of Congress Blog, Mar. 25
18h

Susan Kriete writes: “When family historians come to the New York Public Library’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy, they want to immediately ‘type their name’ into a database, not be referred to a book about how to trace their family tree. Genealogists are willing to hunt through thousands of digitized records to (not) find their ancestors instead of referring to a genealogy guidebook. Consulting a genealogy research guide will save you time, effort, and frustration, and also lead you to information and sources you might never discover otherwise. Here are a few examples of how that happens.”

New York Public Library blogs, Mar. 25
18h

Reforma, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, has received the 2019 Angel Award, sponsored by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, that recognizes outstanding contributions to children’s literacy and efforts to bring picture books to children everywhere. The award will be presented at Guastavino’s in New York City on September 26. Reforma is an ALA affiliate organization.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Mar. 20
19h

April 9 is National Library Workers Day, a time to recognize library professionals for their expertise and leadership skills in transforming lives and communities through education and lifelong learning. The day also reminds the public that library workers serve as community compasses that lead users to endless opportunities for engagement, enrichment, and development. Library users are invited to “submit a star” by providing a testimonial about a favorite library employee. Examples of nominations can include how library staff helped with learning 3D printing or writing a résumé.

Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Mar. 25

View more Latest Library Links