Academic discovery solutions from EBSCO, Clarivate, and OCLC are integrating artificial intelligence–powered tools, including research assistants and natural language search features, to simplify the early stages of new projects and identify relevant resources more efficiently. In public libraries, the discovery layers of integrated product suites from BiblioCommons and Communico are helping users find out more about what their library offers every time they search for content. Advancements in discovery continue to be crucial, as academic libraries compete for screen time with large language model chatbots and public libraries deal with patron expectations raised by streaming services and online retailers.
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.
Ryan L. Cole holds degrees in history and journalism from Indiana University. He has written extensively about American history.His latest book, The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic, ISBN 9781400251315, comes out in September 2025 from HarperCollins imprint Harper Horizon.
Library Journal will honor one library staffer or a library team with its tenth annual Marketer of the Year award in its October 2025 issue. The award, sponsored by Library Ideas, comes with a $2,000 cash prize. The award recognizes the importance of innovative approaches to marketing of library services, the role of marketing in building library engagement, and the value of quality marketing collateral to help build a vibrant sense of the library and define its relevance in the community.
Older adults are looking for ways to reduce isolation, forge connections with others, and learn new skills—and libraries have a key growth opportunity to help them achieve these goals. Gale Presents: GetSetUp helps libraries fill these critical needs with a turnkey online solution that doesn’t place any additional burden on staff.
Book banning is an attack on the soul of our community, especially when the books targeted are predominantly by or about people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community. And kids are the ones who lose out the most. No child should be deprived of access to a book that could broaden their world or help them feel better about themselves. But as we try to center our kids, could some of the habits of this industry also be inadvertently biased and blocking kids from having a true freedom to read?
V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil leads holds this week and is also People’s book of the week. Also in demand are titles by Riley Sager, S.A. Cosby, Wally Lamb, and Jess Walter. Winners of the Nebula Awards and the Biographers International Organization’s Plutarch Award are announced. The July Indie Next preview is out, featuring #1 pick The Irresistible Urge To Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley. Earlyword shares the June GalleyChat spreadsheet. Plus, former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden speaks out on her firing on CBS Sunday Morning.
By Emily Bowles, Laura Downes, and Judy G. Sebastian
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine; LJ starred review) is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.
“You won’t be bored in this business. It keeps on evolving. It’s a privilege that you get to be on this front edge of culture.”
Karen Leeder’s translation of Durs Grünbein’s Psyche Running wins the Griffin Poetry Prize. Valérie Bah’s Subterrane wins the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. The shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is announced. New Circana BookScan research shows the growth over the last year of “dark romance.” The New Press has layoffs due to decreased sales and funding, partly attributed to book bans targeting progressive titles. After selecting James Frey’s novel Next to Heaven, Book of the Month responds to criticism about Frey’s use of generative AI.
The Aisle-by-Aisle Exhibitor Guide & Coupon Booklet is now available for download. Get an early look at the exhibitors and what’s happening on the show floor: book signings, show specials, prize drawings, and booth giveaways.
N.S. Nuseibeh’s essay collection Namesake wins the UK’s Jhalak Prose Prize for writers of color, while Mimi Khalvati’s Collected Poems wins the Jhalak Poetry Prize. Amazon editors pick the 10 best books of 2025 so far. The Guardian writes about how the U.S. far right is trying to spread its ideology through the publishing world and reports on Russia’s “Z literature,” a nationalistic subgenre of fantasy fiction that may be encouraging teens to enlist in the war on Ukraine.
Bernardine Evaristo is honored with the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her body of work. Dora Prieto, Jess Goldman, and Phillip Dwight Morgan win RBC Bronwen Wallace Awards. Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company is the new Reese Witherspoon book club pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Baker & Taylor adds three distribution clients. Director James Cameron will cowrite a screen adaptation of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils. Plus, best books of the year (so far) and titles for Pride Month.
Audiofile announces the winners of the Golden Voices Audiobook Narrator awards. Dmitri Strotsev and Nadia Kandrusevich are named the 2025 Prix Voltaire laureates. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere: A Love Story is the GMA June book club pick. Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is the B&N pick. The annual Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey showed double-digit gains over 2023. Scholastic will integrate its trade publishing, book fairs, and book clubs. Interviews arrive with Melissa Febos, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Molly Jong-Fast, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Todd S. Purdum, and Jacinda Ardern.
Jaclyn Rodriguez's debut SFF novel A Vow in Vengeance is a starred SFF title. "Rodriguez makes an excellent debut with this captivating enemies-to-lovers romantasy full of tarot-based magic." We Met Like This, by Kasie West, is a starred romance. "YA author West’s (Better Than Revenge) adult debut gives second-chance romance and opposites-attract tropes a new twist. This engaging, witty, unputdownable romance is a must for all collections." And as part of LJ's effort to reacknowledge great literary works, Toni Morrison's Beloved is a starred fiction selection. "Morrison meticulously and elegantly captures the essence of generational trauma and other psychological effects of enslavement. A must-have for all library collections."
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