A cover design for Annie on My Mind

Queer YA: The Early Decades

While queer YA has exploded over the past decade, it began in the middle of the 20th century, with the first kiss in 1969.
A Thomas Kinkade puzzle

What’s Behind the Pandemic Puzzle Craze?

Puzzles, or “dissected maps,” were invented in Georgian-era England, probably by a mapmaker named John Spilsbury in the early 1760s.
Deathly Hallows Cover

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Build Mental Resiliency in Young Readers

Science fiction offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas.
Dorothy B Porter

What Dorothy Porter’s Life Meant for Black Studies

Dorothy Porter, a Black woman pioneer in library and information science, created an archive that structured a new field.
librarian obituaries

Overlooked: How the New York Times Covers Librarians’ Obituaries

In 2004, two researchers analyzed the New York Times obit section between 1977 and 2002 in an attempt to understand how the obituary section portrayed American librarians.
Kids gaming in the library

The Grand Old Tradition of Gaming at the Library

Visit your local public library today and you may find rows of kids playing computer games, or even a couple of Xboxes. Gaming at the library is a tradition that goes back to the 1850s.
Girl Scout camp

What the Girl Scouts’ Founder Wanted Girls to Know

Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the world celebrate World Thinking Day, a holiday aimed at helping global scouts connect and reflect on their past.
Saturday Evening Girls Club

The Saturday Evening Girls’ Guide to Helping Immigrants Succeed

The “Saturday Evening Girls" was a Progressive-Era club that afforded urban, Jewish and Italian girls and women a chance at coveted social mobility.
young woman distressed at a laptop

Navigating Traumatic Events Online

We need to approach our online conversations with an awareness of the different levels of risk and vulnerability each of us bring.
In this April 16, 2015, photo, Carla Hayden, CEO of the Pratt Library, gives a tour of the library's central branch in Baltimore. President Barack Obama on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, has nominated Hayden, the longtime head of Baltimore’s library system, as the next Librarian of Congress. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun via AP) WASHINGTON EXAMINER OUT

Carla Hayden: Librarian of Congress

Carla Hayden has a history of social justice work in public libraries.