Northern Ireland libraries “amnesty” sees 87,000 overdue fines wiped
Earlier this week, readers in Northern Ireland were offered a remarkable reprieve from overdue library fines, with over 87,000 wiped from the Libraries NI system. As reported in The Belfast Telegraph and… Read more »
A note to librarians, from author Gregory Galloway
Dear Librarians, Many of you might already know how important libraries have been in my life—I grew up in a town that didn’t have a bookstore until I was a… Read more »
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library opens thanks to years of activism
In 2011 Scott Sherman wrote the first of a series of powerful Nation articles which disclosed that the trustees of the New York Public Library had hatched a covert plan to flog off… Read more »
Sales of Rashford book soar following England’s Euro 2020 run
Four inches. 10.16cm. The minimum width of a standard football goalpost. In global terms: an incredibly small distance. At Wembley Stadium on Sunday night, as the Euro 2020 final between… Read more »
Aesop transforms three North American stores into Queer Libraries
Here, then, is how you do the work. Instead of blithely turning their logo rainbow-coloured and making vague noises about inclusivity, skin, hair and body care company Aesop are putting… Read more »
York school crowdfunds for ‘magical’ reading cottage
Hot on the heels of last week’s juicy book-box scandal, Yorkshire pops up on our radars again today—but this time for altogether more wholesome reasons. Carr Junior School in Acomb,… Read more »
NYPL Is re-opening incrementally, NYT reports
Ever alert for signs of an ending to our long national nightmare, we here at [virtual, still … but not for long!] John Street were pleased to see from the… Read more »
‘Pornographic’ literature left in an English village’s free book exchange causes controversy
Cornholme is a small village in West Yorkshire, England, with a population of 1,694, where generally not very much happens. But this week it has hit headlines in the UK for… Read more »
Simon Armitage begins decade-long UK library tour
Back in 2019, a hundred years ago, the UK’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage announced he was to tour the nation’s libraries each Spring over the next decade, to “give readings… Read more »
Librarians Lobby Leaders on Infrastructure Initiative
If there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that librarians are fierce! So it came as no surprise when the American Library Association (ALA) sent… Read more »