Big Ten Academic Alliance Plans BIG Collection Across 15 Libraries
By Lisa Peet
In mid-January, Big Ten Academic Alliance library deans and directors announced the next step in the consortium’s collaboration: the BIG Collection, which will manage the institutions’ separate library collections as a single entity. 

Author Gerry Smyth on Why Sea Shanties Are Sweeping TikTok
By Lisa Henry 
Smyth, a professor of English literature at Liverpool John Moores University, discusses his book Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas and ponders the newfound popularity of the art form on social media. 

“Never Forget That What You’re Doing Matters”: Dr. Jill Biden Closes Midwinter with Encouragement for Library Workers | ALA Midwinter 2021
By Lisa Peet, Neal Wyatt
ALA closed out its first virtual Midwinter Meeting with a highly anticipated conversation between ALA present Julius Jefferson and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden praising library workers and educators. 

Opening Session Speakers: Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain | ALA Midwinter 2021
By Stephanie Sendaula 
Historians Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain discuss their latest work, Four Hundred Souls, and how they sought to bring together a community to reflect on, and make, history. 

SPONSORED BY EX LIBRIS

How Libraries Can Become Essential Partners in Academic Research

A university’s research output is only beneficial when others can easily find it. This is where libraries can add tremendous value to the research process: By leveraging their expertise in collecting, organizing, and making information easily discoverable, academic libraries can help raise the profile of their institution’s research.

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Poet Laureate Joy Harjo Names Libraries as Early Influence | ALA Midwinter 2021
By Neal Wyatt 
The ALA President’s Program at the American Library Association Virtual Midwinter Meeting 2021 featured U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo in conversation with fellow poet and memoirist Jill Bialosky, an executive editor at W. W. Norton. 

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey Wins the 2020 Costa Book of the Year | Book Pulse
By Mary Bakija
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey wins the 2020 Costa Book of the Year award. Plus, the Library of Congress receives a $15 million grant to improve diversity programs. 

SPONSORED CONTENT

Progressive Religious Publishers Foster Change Through Faith

Social justice topics dominate new titles from Chalice Press, Brazos Press, an imprint of Baker Publishing Group, and Church Publishing. These publishers share a progressive vision that incorporates faith as a foundation for powerful social justice movements

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SOCIAL SCIENCES
PREMIUM
Beyond the Sand and Sea: One Family’s Quest for a Country to Call Home
By Ty McCormick  
A simultaneously disheartening and uplifting journey for readers interested in social justice, racial politics, and current events.  

PREMIUM
A Boob’s Life: How America’s Obsession Shaped Me—And You
By Leslie Lehr  
A unique blend of memoir and social history that should have broad appeal to anyone who has breasts or has ever worn a bra. 

Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
By Sarah Jaffe  
As many of us rethink the power dynamics that shape our jobs and workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaffe’s passionate call to reimagine our relationships with work and one another, and imagine new possibilities, is indispensable reading. 

HISTORY
The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century
Ed. by P. Gabrielle Foreman & others 
A must for all students, researchers, and general readers with an interest in Black lives, this essential overview of the CCP’s legacy offers fresh understanding of the history of organized Black activism and commitment to community efforts for equal rights. Highest recommendation. 

PRO MEDIA 
PREMIUM
Library Marketing and Communications: Strategies To Increase Relevance and Results
By Cordelia Anderson
Library directors, senior library management, and marketing staff looking to implement long-range plans for growing their customer bases and increase community engagement will find useful strategies here. 

PREMIUM
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Library Services
By Rebecca Tolley
Library staff will appreciate suggestions on rethinking customer services from this framework and the tools to implement it. 

Politics/Pandemic: Key Nonfiction Previews, Aug. 2021, Pt. 1 | Prepub Alert
By Barbara Hoffert 
Key titles in a brave new world marked by pandemic and political upheaval. 

Gardening Best Sellers, Jan. 2021 | Most in Demand in Libraries & Bookstores
By LJ Reviews 
The books most in demand by garden readers are about houseplants, cottage designs, native plants, and saving seeds. 

Author Natalie Baszile on the Past and Present of Black Farmers | ALA Midwinter 2021
By Neal Wyatt 
Natalie Baszile discusses We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy. 

ACADEMIC BESTSELLERS: Engineering & Technology
By LJ Reviews 

User Friendly, a World With No Off Switch, the Inside Story of Instagram, and more in engineering and technology titles: January 2020 to date as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

1. User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play.
Kuang, Cliff
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2019. ISBN 9780374279752. $28.00

2. Internet in Everything: Freedom and Security in a World With No Off Switch.
Denardis, Laura
Yale University Press
2020. ISBN 9780300233070. $32.00

3. No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram.
Frier, Sarah
Simon & Schuster
2020. ISBN 9781982126803. $28.00 

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Tompkins County Public Library (NY) seeks a Library Director IV