News & Features

The Helen Gurley Brown Trust has given $15 million to the New York Public Library to establish NYPL BridgeUp, a new educational and anti-poverty program that will provide academic and social support to New York City youth. The effort aims to support at-risk youth and prepare them for success in life.

A look at the impact of war on young people, this article focuses on children whose parents have been deployed to war zones, those who are refugees, and those who are victims of ongoing conflicts, including child soldiers.

If you have been following the Touch Press output along with us, you won't be surprised to learn they have recently released another exploration of a musical masterpiece. While in-depth, their apps aren't only for serious students of music; anyone interested in learning more about the art is sure to gain a meaningful appreciation.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced grants for 42 library projects totaling $14,670,66. Recipients in 27 states and the District of Columbia received funding, including the American Library Association, which will research the efficacy of early literacy programs; Westport (CT) Library, which hopes to create a new model for maker spaces; and the Chicago Board of Education, which plans to improve school librarians' use of mobile technologies.

Thanks to a $1 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Y is expanding its Early Learning Readiness Program to an additional 19 YMCA sites nationwide, bringing the total number of participating cities to more than 40. The program aims to improve school readiness among children up to 5 years old, particularly from under-served and low-income communities, through a preschool-like experience.

The Randolph County (NC) Board of Education has voted to restore Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man to school library shelves by a vote of 6 to 1, reversing its earlier ban of the book. Last week's ban received international attention from literary advocates.

The Education Library Networks Coalition—which includes the American Library Association and the International Society for Technology in Education—is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to double the funding for E-rate, according to EdLiNC’s co-chair Jon Bernstein. The coalition also asks that the E-rate program offer more “scalable” goals for local entities, with limited national mandates.

“Penguin will resume doing business with OverDrive as of this morning,” Penguin spokesperson Erica Glass told LJ on September 25. According to a blog post by Karen Estrovich, collection development manager for OverDrive, 17,000 Penguin ebooks are already “live and available for purchase in OverDrive Marketplace.” Although Estrovich refers to the transaction as a purchase, the books are being offered for a one year term on a one copy/one user lending model.

Fighting censorship and limited access to materials is an integral part of a librarian’s mission and job description. Launched in 1982, Banned Books Week is the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since then. The following is a selection of SLJ’s news coverage of challenged books, interviews with oft-banned authors, and tools for showcasing censored titles during Banned Books Week, and all year.