Lisa Peet

The fifth annual U.S. Book Show, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, was held on June 3 at the New York Academy of Medicine. The daylong publishing industry conference drew nearly 800 in-person registrants and sponsors and covered a range of bases.

In a judgment that is likely to impact freedom to read challenges across the country, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that library collection decisions are “government speech” and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. The 10–7 decision reversed the preliminary injunction issued in Little v. Llano County, a lawsuit filed in April 2022 by patrons of Llano County Library System, TX, over the removal of 17 books from one of the system’s three branches.

The sweeping preliminary injunction issued by Judge John G. McConnell in Rhode Island v. Trump marked a victory for the fight against President Trump’s executive order that sought to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The federal lawsuit, filed by 21 state attorneys general, challenged the March 14 executive order that put most of IMLS’s staff members on administrative leave and canceled or failed to fund grants and contracts. Under the preliminary injunction, issued by McConnell on May 13, the administration is ordered to return all IMLS staff to work and to reinstate some of the terminated grants, and “shall not take any further actions to eliminate IMLS” or the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the Minority Business Development Agency, the two other agencies named in the suit.

UPDATE: On May 13, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. issued a sweeping preliminary injunction blocking Trump administration officials from acting on the March 14 executive order to dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Furthermore, the court ordered the administration to immediately takes steps to restore the agency’s employees and grant funding activities.

President Donald Trump has fired Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden. In a two-sentence email obtained by the Associated Press, sent on the evening of Thursday, May 8, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse wrote, “Carla, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”

As with any large-scale feature, Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers—sponsored by Hoopla—is a long, multipart endeavor. From the submissions that pour in after Labor Day to many rounds of judging, writing, photography, editing, layout, and refinement, the Movers process spreads out over a good three-quarters of a year. A lot can happen in that time.

A lot has.

The second Independent Publisher and Librarian Forum—IndieLib for short—was held on April 16 in downtown Manhattan, at New York University’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. The event brought together public and academic librarians, representatives from indie publishers and their distributors, and others across the field to learn more about one another’s work and concerns and imagine new ways to move forward.

Los Angeles is a sprawling city with a range of geographic, economic, and social variables, and the wildfires that affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area in January were a demonstration of that diversity, with the area’s three main library systems—Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), LA County Library, and Altadena Library District—impacted by the fires to very different degrees.

Three weeks after the fire was contained, Jessica Gleason, bookmobile librarian at the Wailuku Public Library, bookmobile driver Michael Tinker, and Lāhainā branch manager Chadde Holbron, hit the road to support Maui’s West Side community.