In tight economic times, the concerns and issues of science, viewed as not having enough practical value, can get pushed aside. But the top science books of 2008 demonstrate how science more often than not pays for itself. What's more practical than food (Tomorrow's Table), health (Our Daily Meds), the environment (The Hot Topics), or even--sex…

A hundred years after Marie Curie received her Nobel Prize in Chemistry, this arm of science is pointing the way to a more sustainable future. Growing movements like green chemistry, which strives to create alternative and new chemical reactions that produce no harmful waste products, and molecular engineering hold great potential for industry,…

Thousands of novels are published each year, some of them debuts that promise to be fresh, fun, and maybe even the work of the next John Grisham or Marcel Proust. This article lists a wide-ranging selection of forthcoming first novels grouped by genre, with a listing of the author's state or country for programming purposes. The best of last…

Prior to retiring from full-time librarianship to concentrate on readers' advisory (RA) consulting, teaching, and book and media discussions, Ted Balcom, longtime administrator of the Villa Park Public Library (VPPL), Illinois, repeatedly demonstrated a particularly effective approach to shoring up essential library support. Balcom, 1996 winner of…

This article profiles Steven L. MacCall, winner of "Library Journal's" 2010 Teaching Award. An associate professor at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, MacCall was nominated by Kathie Popadin, known as "Kpop" to the members of her cohort in the online MLIS program at SLIS. Sixteen of…

America's subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 spiraled into a global financial crisis in 2008. For much of the year, attention was riveted on the presidential primaries. A worsening economy made the election somewhat anticlimactic, but everybody rejoiced with the choice of the first "international" President. With stocks tumbling and major firms…

This article presents a list of new novels. The entire compilation is grouped into pop fiction, literary, thrillers, Christian fiction, mystery, romance, historical fiction, street lit, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and graphic novels.

For two professions so committed to meeting the needs of readers, publishers and librarians have distinct cultures. Put simply, one culture is all about developing and selling books; the other is about sharing them and fostering a culture of reading. But there is another basic difference, too. Publishers work closely with authors and use sales…

There's a lot of focus on the "Next Gen" librarians out there bringing a youth perspective that's supposed to shake things up and introducing new ideas and practices into a profession that sometimes moves forward at a glacial pace. But the ideas of the new generation do not invalidate the work done by those who came before. In fact, change in…

The state of science is a moving target, and its ever-shifting horizons can best be gleaned by the contents of scientific journals. However, the bigger picture of the scientific enterprise, which also encompasses its past, its future, and its overarching philosophies, can often be better represented through the more reflective pace of popular…

This article provides a list of books for librarians. The list is grouped by type: pop fiction, literary, trillers, science fiction/fantasy/horror, romance, western, mystery, and Christian fiction.

The Web 2.0 "buzz" starts with new technologies such as virtual worlds, cell phones and handheld devices that offer 24/7 web access, tagging, social networks, and blogs and brings together various web capabilities in unique combinations. Web 2.0, however, is about much more than the technology--it is about a change in focus to participation, user…

While some professions maintain strong professional boundaries, public librarianship remains a field in which a significant number of those delivering service do not have library degrees. In this article, the author discusses the results of a new hiring practices survey from "Library Journal" ("LJ"). The survey, coupled with…

"It's a recession, baby!" was the common refrain among the Library and Information Science (LIS) graduates of the class of 2008. This was a record year for the number of graduates participating in "Library Journal"'s annual Placements & Salaries survey, and they had stories to tell, providing evidence of both hard times in the job market, and some…

In a year filled with drama and hyperbole, the serials marketplace churned toward a future whose shape is the subject of fierce debate. Forecasts from commercial publishers touting collapse and disaster seemed oddly out of sync with the profits they enjoyed--around 25 percent on average. Nevertheless, in a market where prices continued to rise and…