Announcing an Academic Journal Call For Papers Edited by Robin and Me and We Want YOU To Apply

Click on the image to submit 

The word is officially out. Robin Bradford and I have agreed to guest edit an issue focused on RA for the academic, peer reviewed journal Library Trends. One of the reasons they wanted us AND we agreed to do this is because they want boots on the ground public and school librarians to add their voice to this issue alongside the academics who normally participate in their calls.

Robin and I are very excited to invite you to submit your ideas to us here by August 1, 2025. 

This call for proposals is for anyone and everyone who is reading this blog post and wants to share something they are doing to help their readers in their libraries. Any library type, any age group. No matter where you are on your library's organizational chart, whether you have a library degree or not, we do not care. You have a good idea, a service, something that you did that you think others should know about...great. We want you. 

See below for the full text of the Call for Proposals which includes examples of the types of articles we are looking for and the link for the official submission form.

You can use the emails below to contact us with any questions. We will also be at ALA with a set time and place in the exhibit hall where you can connect with us. I will have that here on the blog closer to ALA Annual.

We cannot wait to learn from all of you. 

Library Trends:

Rethinking Readers’ Advisory For Today’s Reading Reality

Call for Proposals

Readers’ Advisory is widely considered a core service at all libraries, but that doesn’t mean this old stand-by couldn’t benefit from a new approach. Since 2020 the way readers interact with their library’s leisure collections– from how they access materials to the dangerous increase in book challenges– has profoundly altered the effectiveness of pre-pandemic readers’ advisory tactics. In a world of challenges to the Freedom to Read and in the face of budget cuts, making sure books by all voices and for all readers are easily discoverable, proudly promoted and recommended by all staff, and available for checkout, is vital for our survival.

Library Trends will explore innovative Readers’ Advisory concepts and approaches that reflect critically on the ways in which we serve leisure readers across a wide landscape.

The journal welcomes articles that address both longer theoretical discussions and present shorter, practical applications of service to leisure readers. Perspectives from publisher, independent bookstore owners and/or authors about how they promote books to readers will also be considered. 

Potential topics include: 

• The ways in which RA Service and its practitioners can advance professional commitments to equity, access, and social justice.
• An appreciation of RA as a core service that entails continuing education and intentional, internal training for all library staff.
• RA Service as a vehicle for transformative change in response to community needs.
• Reexamination of tried and true practices in new and innovative ways, such as displays, genre shelving, stickers, book discussions, etc…
• Rethinking how we serve readers, especially articles that center the patron experience.
• Communicating the importance of RA innovation to stakeholders.
• Programs that include all staff in providing service to readers, across the organizational structure.
• What it means to promote reading in ways that undermine structural inequities in book culture.
• Bridging the physical-virtual divide in service to leisure readers.
• Using the catalog as a RA tool.
• For the school environment specifically: navigating two patron types– teacher and student.
• For the academic environment specifically: making space and advocating for leisure reading as vital to student success
• Providing service to leisure readers outside of library and school specific spaces.
• Promotion of reading in library adjacent spaces such as bookstores, by publishers, and in the ways authors connect with their readers.

Article Length: 2,000-6,00 words with the possibility of longer pieces up to 8,500 words (not including bibliography references).

Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract outlining their proposed article at this link by August 1, 2025. Decisions about the abstracts will be communicated by August 22, 2025, and authors of successful submissions will have a due date of January 15, 2026 for their articles.

Important dates

• August 1, 2025 – Article proposals due
• August 22, 2025 – Author notifications 
• January 15, 2026 – Article manuscripts due 
• February 1, 2026 – Peer Reviews assigned 
• March 1, 2026 – Peer Reviews due back to Guest Editors
• April 1, 2026– Guest Editor feedback due back to authors
• May 1, 2026 – Revised articles due to Guest Editors
• July 1, 2026 – Final articles due to Library Trends
• November 2026- Publication of issue 75(2) of Library Trends

Inquiries about the planned issue and ideas for articles should be directed to Guest Editors Robin Bradford (robin.bradford@gmail.com) and Becky Spratford (bspratford@hotmail.com). Proposals for articles should be submitted via an online proposal form.  Proposals are due August 1, 2025.

Citation Style: For proposals, authors may use any citation style. For manuscripts, authors should use the Chicago Manual of Style’s author-date format.

The issue will use an open peer review process in which article authors review two manuscripts by other contributors. As part of submitting an article proposal, authors will be asked to commit to participation in this process as both an author and a reviewer. 

More information about the journal, including author instructions, is available on the Library Trends website. 

Free Virtual Book Event Coming Next Week: Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival 2025

Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival 2025 is coming to you via Library Journal and School Library Journal for free and on your computer all day Thursday, May 8th.

It is an all ages event with authors for all of your readers. 

From the Home page for the event:

On May 8th, join Penguin Random House, Library Journal, and School Library Journal for our Spring 2025 virtual book and author festival, a free day-long event celebrating reading, authors, and librarians everywhere! Enjoy a day packed with author panels and interviews, book buzzes, virtual shelf browsing, and adding to your TBR pile.  

You’ll hear from many of your favorite authors, whose work runs the gamut from Picture Books to Young Adult titles to the best new Fiction and Nonfiction for adults. There is something of interest for every reader. Attendees will also have the opportunity to check out the virtual exhibit hall, access eGalleys, and enter to win prizes and giveaways.  

Join the conversation on X! #PRHBookFest 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

All live sessions will be on Zoom. Make sure to log in to your work or personal Zoom account before the day starts to avoid having to log in for each session. 

The Virtual Environment is optimized for 1024 X 768 screen resolution. Joining the environment with a cell phone is not recommended. Please make sure your computer and browser are up to date. Chrome tends to work best. The event platform does not support IE11 + Windows 7 or older versions. 

CE certificates are available in the event environment for all keynotes and panels, whether you view them live or on-demand. Certificates are not provided for sponsored content. 

If on the day of the event you find that you are unable to access the environment or join a session, please know that sessions will be available for on-demand viewing within 24 hours, and the entire event will be accessible for three months from the event date. 

By registering for this event or webcast, you are agreeing to Library Journal Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct Policy and agreeing that Library Journal may share your registration information with current and future sponsors of this event. 

Having trouble registering? Contact the Event Manager. 

Click here to see the full program featuring conversations with over 50 authors and more. Again, the authors are for all ages of readers.

One of my favorite planned talks is this one:

2:20 – 3:10 PM ET | The Making of An Audio Original: Press Play on SOUNDTRACK by Jason Reynolds

Go behind the scenes of the making of the highly anticipated new audiobook original from beloved, bestselling author Jason Reynolds! Joined in conversation with his two PRH Audio producers, Dan Zitt and Brian Ramcharan, they’ll discuss how SOUNDTRACK, a full cast production with an original score, came to life in the studio from concept to casting, and beyond! Tune in and hear more about Reynold’s newest literary work about New York City teens whose talent and love of music lift them to unexpected heights.
Moderator: Sarah Hashimoto, Editor, Library Journal

This is going to be a great event. Thursday, May 8, 2025.

Signup to watch live or view on demand after the event.  

How To Recommend Books Like An Expert via Book Riot

A few days ago, Book Riot ran an article entitled "How to Recommend Books Like an Expert." It is written by a librarian but written FOR a general reader audience.

This distinction matters. 

In my programs where I train library workers to provide service to readers, I often cite how important of a resource Book Riot is to us for two reasons. The first, less important today but worth noting, is because their content is judged by the number of clicks its author receives. This means they are always trying to have content that resonates with people in the moment. Their mission to write articles that readers will want to click on helps us. because they are actively trying to address trends and provide timely content at a speed and in a manner we would never have time to do.  

But the second reason I recommend Book Riot as one of the best resources is on showcase in the article I am sharing here today. 

Book Riot writes every piece in a conversational voice that speaks directly to readers. It is welcoming and easy to understand. They make the ins and outs of the book world clear to its most dedicated readers. Their audience is filled with people who love to read, who mark reading as their biggest hobby, and who are voracious about consuming book news and information. 

We all win when Book Riot educates these readers about genres, what the most popular books are, etc.... And in this case specifically-- when they break down how to best match books with readers.

Click through to read it all.

A couple of thing I love about this post from our perspective at the library:

1. It is a great overview of what we already do, but written out for the average reader to understand. Sharing this with your patrons will go a long way towards creating more conversational based RA service. This will break down the mystery of why we ask all those questions that aren't just about books when helping them find their next read.
2. When I worked at the library, most of the staff were not at the Librarian level, and as the resident RA educator, I was often tasked with getting them up to speed on the basics of RA Service. This was for my staff (Adult and Teen), Youth Services, and Circulation. This article is an even better starting point for new hires than my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service. Think of this article as the introduction before the First Rule.
3. And I am sure the person who wrote the article is aware of my site, but not only is Book Riot one of my 5 Resources you cannot live without, they also mention NoveList and Literature Map as well-- 2 more of my top 5.
4. This article reminds you to keep using resources to stay up to date and gather more suggestions from others. Again, something I talk about all of the time.

So be aware of what Book Riot is writing about in general and specifically, use this piece to introduce your readers and new staff to what it is we all do at the library every day.

But also, be proud of yourselves and your work because Book Riot deems suggesting books to readers as one of the top, clickable topics!

This is Not a Drill: WHY I LOVE HORROR Is Available for Download on Edelweiss

 

A little mid-week self promotion today.

The DRC of my upcoming book is available here for you to download. It's not on Net Galley yet, but I am sure it will be soon.

Stop what you are doing and download it AFTER you pre-order for your library.

If you already use Edelweiss to vote for LibraryReads you should be good to go. Speaking of, did you know you can vote now for ANY month of LibraryReads? You can. It is the same process on any book no matter when it is supposed to come out. I have already voted for books coming out in the late summer and Fall (including my book). I mean if writers a varied as Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Daniel Kraus, Mallory O'Mearea, and Eric LaRocca think it is great, I am sure your patrons will too. Click here for those blurbs.

Did I mention the TOC? I have. Well here it is again because these are the authors you patrons already love and many of them are in the LibraryReads Hall of Fame:

• Introduction by Sadie Hartmann
• Why Ask Why by Becky Spratford
• Brian Keene’s Giant-Size Man-Thing by Brian Keene
• The Giant Footprint of Horror by Hailey Piper
• In the Bermuda Triangle with Sasquatch, Flesh Smoldering by John Langan
• What You Can Learn from Horror: Don’t run from darkness; it’s trying to teach you a lesson by Alma Katsu
• Horror is Life: A Blood-soaked Love Letter by Gabino Iglesias
• My Long Road to Horror by Tananarive Due
• Monster Girl: How Horror Gave Me a Place to Belong by Jennifer McMahon
• On the Amtrak, Heading Home by Josh Malerman
• Why Horror? by Paul Tremblay (drawings by Emma Tremblay)
• Why I Love Horror by Grady Hendrix
• My Mother Was Margaret White by Cynthia Pelayo
• Why I Am Horror by Clay McLeod Chapman
• A Day in My Psychedelic World by Nuzo Onoh
• Permission to Scream by Rachel Harrison
• Horror Saved My Life by Victor LaValle
• Tales From My Crypt by Mary SanGiovanni
• Of Men and Monsters by David Demchuk
• Why Horror by Stephen Graham Jones

Please contact me if you have questions or you work at a library or bookstore and do not yet have access to the book via this link.

The Trouble with BISAC Codes

Today I am going to talk about BISAC Codes. What are they? Great question. The easiest answer for you the library worker is that they are like our subject headings but for book publishers and bookstores. Here is the official definition:

The BISAC Subject Codes List* (or BISAC Subject Headings) is the US standard topical categorization used by companies throughout the supply chain. The Subject Heading applied to a book can determine where the work is shelved in a brick and mortar store or the genre(s) under which it can be searched for in an internal database.

Here is the official list of BISAC Codes.

All of us interact with these codes in NetGalley or Edelweiss and in our ordering platforms. Here is an example for the upcoming book Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin via Edelweiss:

Black Flame  

Gretchen Felker-Martin

FRONTLIST | On Sale Date: August 5, 2025

9781250348012, 1250348013

Trade Paperback

$18.99 USD, $25.99 CAD

• Fiction / Horror 
• Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Transgender
• Fiction / Performing Arts / Film, Television & Radio

I bolded the BISAC Codes for you. But now you can see how they are similar to subject headings.

I picked this book for many reasons, but most notably because of the middle BISAC Code. Let me back up a little more though.

BISAC Codes are applied by the publishers for the reasons listed above in the definition but to reiterate, it is for shelving and searching. In this case Black Flame (I have already read it for review in Booklist) is 100% Horror. And it is also a cursed film book and the story of a deeply closeted Lesbian. Now the Transgender tag is mostly added because Felker-Martin herself is transgender. FYI (There is a storyline that includes a transgender character.)

Now, in this case, the code is applied to a pro-transgender book, but what about when it is applied to a title like Irreversible Damage. Well much like I talk about sour library's subject headings having the potential to cause harm (please click here for a much larger post on who we NEED to reckon with that and FIX it), Publishers Weekly ran a story about how BISAC Codes can hurt more than they help booksellers here. From that article:

For instance, when customers search for “feminist, queer, or trans” titles on the Charis website—a part of the American Booksellers Association’s IndieCommerce platform, which is fueled by Ingram—homophobic or transphobic titles often pop up. “People find books Charis would never carry,” Look said, “and we have to manually take them off our website.”

Look recalled an instance when Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters topped the results on searches for books on transgender studies. “Other transphobic books would also pop up,” she said. “They need to add to the category of transgender studies, ‘criticism of transgender,’ so it doesn’t all come up together.”

This statement is very similar to what I say in the Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers program that Robin and I offer. And again, it also mimics what I say about this same title in that presentation.

Another problem I have with BISAC Codes is that it labels the books as for someone and not for others. In that article there is a great example from a bookseller:

“BISAC misses connections between books that we booksellers make,” Smith said. “For us, it’s all about connecting the reader with the right book. We shelve books to guide customers between categories, not separate books.” If there is a question about best store placement, she said, she is more likely to ask the publishers’ rep for recommendations.

Another concern, Smith said, is that drilling down into hyper-specific categories can pigeonhole some books and authors, in, for example, such a category as fiction/Indigenous/Indigenous futurism. “Great Indigenous writers are great writers who happen to be Indigenous,” she said. “You risk ghettoizing certain subcategories if you follow BISAC too closely.” While books by authors like Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich are not categorized as Indigenous literature, books by lesser-known authors—such as the nonfiction and poetry works of Linda LeGarde Grover, for instance—sometimes are.

This is also something I talk at length about in my program with Robin-- how we need to use the book's appeal NOT the author's identity to match books with readers.

In the article a bookseller also acknowledges that BIASC Codes help librarians as we are making purchasing decisions. And here is a mother problem I have. Again, let's use Black Flame as our example but this time for it's for the Horror BISAC Code. 

Horror is listed first-- loudly and proudly. As it should be by the way, both because it is first and foremost a Horror story in the cursed film subgenre, and it is being published by Tor Nightfire, a Horror specific imprint. But until recently, Horror was a "bad word" in publishing and not proudly attached as a BISAC Code to many books. As someone whose job it is to write an annual preview article of the genre in the July issue of Library Journal each year, for many years, it was very difficult for me to find all the Horror titles that were clearly Horror but instead got a BISAC Code for supernatural thriller or Gothic or Ghost.

However, now we see the overuse of Horror for titles that may not be for Horror fans, because it is popular. Same thing for Romance. And we have genres that are on the outs that are getting left off. The Publihsers want to sell the most number of books. This we know

I am not proposing a solution here today, but rather, I have this post to remind you that the issues we have with Subject Headings and what booksellers are seeing with BISAC Codes are not that different. Read the article as it is tangentially to your work. I am glad these larger issues are being discussed outside of our library circles. They are important conversations that may not have an easy (or any) solution, but talking about them publicly helps us all work to do better.

Collection Development Crash Courses via ALA

Look, I know with the confusion around IMLS funding that a lot of Continuing Education is on hold in most library budgets and especially in State Library budgets (which is how most libraries get their CE) . That is why I want to point you to this ALA Courses option this July as you can get four classes for staff across all of your service areas for less than hiring me to make a virtual visit to your library.

And all four of these people are excellent. I not only know and trust them, I helped to bring them to eCourses for these classes. And, they have done this previously. The reactions were so positive, they are back.

Click here for all of details or use the links below. Please note, you can buy only the classes you want, but honestly, it is a much better deal to get them all and just make sure the correct people at your library watch the one for them.

Webinars and eCourses for Library Professionals Collection Development Crash Course A bundle of four 90-minute webinars.

Wednesdays, July 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2025 2:30 pm Eastern | 1:30 pm Central | 12:30 pm Mountain | 11:30 am Pacific

If you’re new to collection development, it can be intimidating. Responsibility for a library collection has many facets, from assessing the needs of your community to staying current. We’ve assembled a team of four collection development experts for this crash course webinar series, and they’ll take you through everything you need to get started.   This four-part event includes the following sessions (all sessions also available for individual purchase): Developing the Youth Collection with Julie Jurgens: Wednesday, July 2, 2025 Developing the Adult Fiction Collection with Lila Denning: Wednesday, July 9, 2025 Developing the Adult Nonfiction Collection with Stephanie Sendaula: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Weeding Your Collection with Karen Toonen: Wednesday, July 23, 2025 Each session also available for separate registration Developing the Youth Collection In this webinar, you’ll learn the basics of collection development for kids and teens. You'll also learn about how to prepare for and handle material challenges and how to make sure your collection development policy provides adequate support for these situations. Developing the Adult Fiction Collection Diversity is the key to a strong adult fiction collection. In this webinar, collection development expert Lila Denning will cover how you can grow and diversify your collection to make better readers advisory choices and offer stronger materials to your patrons. Developing the Adult Nonfiction Collection In this event, collection development expert Stephanie Sendaula will show you best practices for developing, maintaining, and weeding the adult nonfiction collection, with an emphasis on staying up to date with trends in popular areas such as memoirs and cookbooks. Weeding Your Collection A truly patron-driven collection serves its community effectively, and with continually increasing demands taxing libraries’ limited resources, every item in a physical collection must justify its shelf space. In this webinar, weeding expert Karen Toonen will cover the challenges inherent to weeding and share tips, tricks, and tools for collection evaluation.

After participating in this event, you will:

• Have a stronger understanding of how to get started with nonfiction collection development
• Be equipped to stay up to date with nonfiction trends that can help you to keep a collection current
• Gain the confidence to purchase books in subjects outside of your usual reading interests
• Understand the foundational reasons for diversifying your collection and be able to reliably discover diverse materials
• Understand strategies for recommending works either actively or passively that go beyond your lived experience or the perceived lived experience of your community
• Recognize the importance of the book atmosphere and how libraries, publishers, reviewers, vendors, authors, bookstores and the public all work together
• Understand the fundamentals of curating and maintaining collections for youth and teens
• Have a list of resources to consult, including where to find reviews and other collection support tools.
• Feel empowered to advocate for materials for youth and teens
• Be able to articulate to internal and external stakeholders why weeding is as important as selection as part of a robust collection development plan
• Be able to revitalize collections, increase circulation, enhance visibility of diverse materials, and highlight materials relevant to your communities with confidence
• Be able to implement logical, rigorous weeding doctrines which will free areas for new collections, promote patron driven collection policies, and create additional space.

Click here to learn more and register.

Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore Day

Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore Day. Please share this information with your patrons. Supporting you local book store yourself and encourage your patrons to make a visit too.

But today I also want to make a plea for your library to be a customer as well. I know that we mostly buy our books from Baker & Taylor or Ingram, but it is important to support our local bookstores as well. A vibrant literary community has libraries and bookstores. 

When I was in collections and ran a book club, we worked with a local book store to buy 10 paperback copies of all 12 of our book discussion titles each year. We got a good deal (almost as good as Ingram) and we had the store put a sticker in the book so they could advertise themself and note their cooperation with the library. Those titles were used for our book clubs and then entered into our book discussion collection. They were a community collection in the truest sense-- bought form na local store and then shared throughout the community for local book clubs.

We also used the local independent book store to purchase prizes for summer reading. Totebags, book marks, pins, notebooks, socks, t-shirts, etc.... all that great stuff that these stores sell alongside the books. This also supported the store and gave us the prizes we needed.

Below, I am sharing the text from an email I received from my publisher, Saga Press, as to how we authors could help support our independent bookstores. I edited it a bit to be more directed at you-- the library worker-- but there are some great tips here.

And for my Chicago area friends, my favorite independent book stores are Exile in Bookville, City Lit, and Bucket 'O Blood Books and Records.

See the shared link below to use the map or visit the Independent Bookstore Day landing page for the most unto date information. 

One Day. Fifty States. 1,600+ Bookstores.

Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, Independent Bookstore Day is a national celebration that takes place on the last Saturday of April each year. The day highlights the value of independent bookstores and the unique ways they contribute to their communities. It’s a celebration of books, readers, and indie bookselling.  

On IBD, indie bookstores often plan activities, host events, serve refreshments, and have special programming like scavenger hunts and bookstore crawls, raffles,  games, and more. And they ride a wave of positive publicity and social media buzz around indie bookstores.  

 

The ABA creates IBD-specific merchandise and swag for stores. None of these items are available anywhere except at ABA member indie bookstores. 

 

Here is a list of ways you can support Independent Bookstores on April 26 and beyond. Independent Bookstores champion authors and books, provide essential community spaces for readers, and collectively host thousands of authors each year for book launches, talks, and panels. 

 

1. Shop! Consider visiting your local indie and making some purchases. It's a great day to do some gift-buying. Mother's Day, graduation season, and Father's Day are all right around the corner, after all. 

 

2. Social shout-out: While you’re in the store, take a selfie (or shelfie) and/or a photo of your purchases to share on social media, tagging the bookstore and encouraging folks to buy at the indies. 

 

3. Participate in a Bookstore Crawl: Why visit one bookstore when you could visit several? Many stores in urban areas organize crawls, with punch cards for participants and prizes if you visit every store on a list.(Link to the Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl for NYC authors) Check with your local indie to see if they're organizing a crawl or look at the ABA bookstore finder map or the indie-to-indie directory and choose your own adventure! 

Share the Independent Bookstore Day homepage with your patrons and encourage them to visit your local independent bookstore.