General library news

Britain's newest library is jointly run by the university and local authority, says Anne Hannaford – but not without challenges...

The library card, which Presley, then 13 years old, signed to check out a copy of "The Courageous Heart: A Life of Andrew Jackson For Young Readers" from Humes High School in Memphis in 1948, is expected to sell for more than $3,500 when it is sold on August 14.

Schools minister Nick Gibb is being pressed to make it compulsory for all schools in the UK to have a library...

Airline magazine poet raps about the continuing strength of print...

Two libraries every week have been handed over to volunteers, turned into social enterprises, or closed for good since last April...

If borrowing a library book, it may be quicker to put down your sleek iPad or Kindle and head to the stacks.

he idea of consensus might seem ridiculous at the close of 2011. There are thousands of books published for every personality, micromood, and attention span—and in multiple formats. Critics abound in the blogosphere and legacy review media, making for a 24-hour buzz chamber.

 

It's precisely these conditions that make best-of lists valuable. As every librarian worth her readers’ advisory spiel knows, when faced with an overabundance of choice and a deficiency of waking hours, patrons want to know about good stuff, fast.

That’s why we repeated last year’s exercise and voted on a top ten. It means something that eight intelligent though vastly different editors agreed on standards of excellence across widely disparate fiction and nonfiction. Quality, regardless of label, exists, and this is a quick, high-impact way to present it.

FUNDING for a loss-making school library support service has been pulled by Hertfordshire County Council.

The final countdown to the transfer of community-run libraries across Dorset is underway as volunteers gear up to take over seven libraries. Following months

The British Library contains nearly 14m books. The St Pancras building has 112,000 square metres of floor space, which roughly equates to 36 articles, or 260 pages, per square metre.

After publishers' reluctance to provide digital titles for libraries, the government says a review into ebook lending is imminent...

The Society of Authors' suspicion of e-lending is misguided, writes Anna Baddeley...

Libraries supported by tax dollars are in the business of providing free access to published information that is otherwise sold in the marketplace. Government provides this free access because we the people and our leaders — from Benjamin Franklin to Dwight David Eisenhower — have long believed that equal access to information is essential to a strong democracy. A full democratic rule ensures that all adults have an opportunity to be informed in public discussions of issues that affect the conditions of their lives.

 

Cultural anthropologist Mimi Ito calls the Chicago Public Library’s pioneering teen learning space, YOUmedia, "loud, sociable, and hip—but it's still all about the public mission of the library to serve as a point of access to culture, information,...

Urban Librarians Unite started as a way to get librarians to exchange ideas. Over time, we've cultivated an effective mix of Social Media and old fashioned advocacy. The stereotype of the quiet, meek librarian has given us a lot to play with.

The British Library unveils sculptor Antony Gormley's latest work, which was commissioned by a charity that promotes the freedom to write.