Celebrating original voices, highlighting what might otherwise be lost--the "Library Journal" book editors try for a list of best books that they think will make a difference in everyone's reading lives. In other words, they had rather offer readers a sharp, interesting list that challenges than a list no one could complain about--or discuss. A…

As a group, readers' advisory (RA) librarians are a chatty bunch when it comes to what they are reading. They share book ideas with their friends and families. The adoption of online RA conversation forms is helping to extend these opportunities even further and offers a fascinating testing ground for RA work. Librarians have found that offering…

In an August 14, 2008 story, the New York Times reported that ethnic and racial minorities will likely be a majority of the U.S. population by 2042. Many of the blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and others constituting this emerging majority will be immigrants or the children of immigrants; the number of foreigners hitting these shores is projected to…

This essay on library book selection critiques Nora Rawlinson's article on practices at the Baltimore County Public Library which appeared in Library Journal, November 15, 1981, p. 2188, and discusses library circulation statistics in relation to book selection. (EJS)

New books in all fields are listed and briefly reviewed. This section also contains an author/title index to The Book Review'' from January to June, brief remarks by new writers and a listing of books to be published this summer. (2000 references) (DH)