Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University's library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve"American culture" in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are...

"Cussy Mary Carter is the last of her kind, her skin the color of a blue damselfly in these dusty hills. But that doesn't mean she's got nothing to offer. As a member of the Pack Horse Library Project, Cussy delivers books to the hill folk of Troublesome, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times. But not everyone is so keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and the hardscrabble Kentuckians are quick to blame a Blue for any trouble...

They are five high school students with nothing in common, faced with spending a Saturday morning detention together in their school library. At 7 a.m. they had nothing to say to each other, but by 4 p.m., they had bared their souls and become good friends.

"Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to the public library: the unmistakable, slightly musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly-discovered books. Today's libraries also function as de facto community centers, and offer free access to the Internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter along with the endless possibilities that spark your imagination the moment you open the cover of a book. There...

"In 2014, author and photographer Kyle Cassidy published a photo essay on Slate.com called "This is What A Librarian Looks Like," a montage of portraits and a tribute to librarians. Since then, Cassidy has made it his mission to remind us of how essential librarians and libraries are to our communities. His subjects are men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and personal style-from pink hair and leather jackets to button-downs and blazers. In short,...

A tale of adventure and fantasy, which sends a young boy into the pages of the world's greatest stories. Seeking refuge from a storm, timid Richard Tyler enters an empty library only to be swept away into the magical animated world of The Pagemaster, where legendary characters from literary classics come alive. Guided by a trio of talking books--Adventure, Fantasy and Horror--Richard must conquer his greatest fears before he can find his way home....

Practical advice on how best to serve veterans and military families in your community, including effective ways to develop new outreach partnerships and collaborations

"A celebration of the extraordinary life of Ezra Jack Keats, creator of The Snowy Day"--

The ways in which people of all ages use and obtain that information has changed drastically in recent years: e-book readership has increased, Wikipedia has largely supplanted encyclopedias and reference books, and many people now consume news and media through their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. With digital culture ascendant, it seems counterintuitive to argue that libraries, of all things, are more important than ever. But that is exactly...