Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).
Libraries and Librarians
- New Federal FY 2019 budget calls for elimination of most federal library funding – learn what you can do here
- ALA President issues statement on White House budget
- How Denver Public Library is meeting the needs of a changing community
- Why you should be a library volunteer
- No one signed up to read to this therapy dog at the library, until his owner posted to Facebook. Now he’s booked through April! (Seriously though, how do you say no to that face??)
- Coloring book for library lovers that also supports ALA
ALA Midwinter 2018 News
- Are libraries neutral?
- Junot Diaz offers tough love for librarians: “…[staffs that are] 88% white means 5000% agony for people of color, no matter how liberal and enlightened you think you are.”
- Imagining a fines free future
ALA Midwinter 2018 Book Awards
#MeToo: Sexual Harassment Updates from the Publishing World
*Trigger warning for sexual harassment/assault*
- Article by Anne Ursu that details sexual harassment in the children’s book industry.
- School Library Journal: “Children’s Publishing Reckons With Sexual Harassment in its Ranks”
- Publisher’s Weekly: “Sexual Harassment in Children’s Publishing Reaches a Crisis Point”
- What to do with books written by authors accused of sexual harassment, or other inappropriate/illegal behaviors.
- Jay Asher removed from Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators after allegations of harassment, now says he was the one harassed and left the organization by choice
- James Dashner dropped by Penguin Random House amid sexual harassment allegations
Book Adaptations in the News
- Fifty Shades Freed dominates international box office
- Trailer for Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Jeff Daniels starring as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.
- Entire cast of Big Little Lies returns for Season 2 – prepare for a new wave of holds!
Books in the News
- Tayari Jones’ An American Marriage was selected as latest Oprah Book Club pick.
- Stephen King announces second book of 2018
- Anthony Horowitz authorized to write official James Bond prequel
- Ibi Zoboi has a Pride and Prejudice remix set in gentrified Brooklyn coming out Sept. 18, 2018
- Cover reveal for Angie Thomas’ latest YA novel, On the Come Up, and it’s AWESOME.
By the Numbers
- Barnes & Noble cuts staff after poor-performing holiday season
- Bookstore sales fall 3.6% in 2017
- Comic book retailers hope to rebound in 2018 following a decline in sales for 2017
- Cobb County, GA residents invest in a brand new stadium for the Atlanta Braves, then told that they have to agree to a tax increase to keep 8 county libraries open
Award News
Pop Cultured
All Things Comics
- Dewey Decibel Podcast: Diversifying Comics, with G. Willow Wilson
- What Black Panther Means to Me
- V.E. Schwab is publishing a new Shades of Magic prequel as a graphic novel
- Rep. John Lewis will continue graphic novel autobiography with new trilogy, Run
- Visionary graphic narratives for Black History Month, and beyond
Audiophilia
- 12 Amazing Audiobook Memoirs
- Representation in audiobook narrators
- The 5 best audiobook narrators, according to one reader
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists!
- April 2018 books to get on your radar ASAP
- Celebrate a belated Galentine’s Day with these books about female friendships
- Read Harder: Books you can read in one sitting
- Figure skating romances to fill the Olympics void
- Ultimate guide to Obama memoirs & books
- 100 Must Read Books with “Love” in the Title (Bookmark this list for a Valentine’s Day 2019 display!)
- YA true crime fiction for fans of “My Favorite Murder”
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- Harry Potter-themed Little Free Libraries
- 200 years of Valentine’s Day cards at the University of Toronto library
- Women better represented in Victorian novels than in modern novels; male authors “remain remarkably resistant to giving women more than a third of the character space in their stories.”
- Penguin Random House launching pop-up bookstore in east London next month that will only sell books published by female authors, to coincide with International Women’s Day
Level Up (Library Reads)
Do you take part in LibraryReads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? Whether or not you read and nominate titles, we’ll end every newsletter with a few upcoming titles worth reading and sharing (and nominating for LibraryReads, if you so choose!). Links here will direct to Edelweiss digital review copies.
- Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope (May 1, 2018)
The first book in a new historical fantasy series about an outcast drawn into a war between two ruthless rulers. It’s described as Romeo and Juliet meets Return of the King. - Welcome to Lagos by Chibundo Onuzo (May 1, 2018)
After being ordered to kill innocent civilians, an army officer deserts his post and heads into the heart of a political scandal involving the education minister of Nigeria. - That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam (May 8, 2018)
The story of Rebecca, an overwhelmed new mother, and Priscilla, the new nanny who causes Rebecca to analyze the blind spots of her white privilege. - Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura, transl. by Kalau Almony (May 22, 2018)
A literary crime novel that explores the psychology of extremism, fringe religion, and obsession.
Check back in two weeks for another issue of Check Your Shelf. Thanks for hanging out!
–Katie McLain, currently reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng