‘We’re losing accessibility’: America says goodbye to the mass-market paperback; The Guardian, February 24, 2026

David Smith, The Guardian ; ‘We’re losing accessibility’: America says goodbye to the mass-market paperback

[Kip Currier: Since 2020, I've taught a "required core course" for the graduate students in the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. The course is LIS 2040: The Information Professional in Communities. I posted the note (copied below) for my students, with the excerpt from a 2/24/26 Guardian article about the decline of access to mass market paperback books, as accessibility and breaking down barriers are key thematic topics in the course.

My 2025 Bloomsbury book Ethics, Information, and Technology has a chapter on Access. Accessibility -- in its various manifestations -- is a recurring issue throughout the book's other chapters, such as those exploring ethical issues of Intellectual Freedom, Intellectual Property, Open Movements and Traditional Knowledge, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies, and more.]

[Kip Currier: The most important take-away in my LIS 2040 course is how we as information professionals (and in our capacities as individuals in our personal lives, too) can help to break down barriers that individuals and communities face. This Guardian article on the demise of the mass market paperback Links to an external site.implicates the ability of people to access information and has a whole host of ramifications, like affordability of books, literacy rates, and platforms for diverse authors and genres.

In the second half of the term, we'll be thinking extensively about ways that we can all work to mitigate and break down barriers of many kinds.]

[Excerpt]

"The so-called ‘pocket book’ sold in supermarkets is being phased out across the US, the latest sign of an ongoing shift in how people are choosing to read

Shelly Romero has early memories of going to her local supermarket and picking pulp fiction off the shelves. “We were very working class; my mom was working two jobs sometimes,” she recalls. “The appeal of books being cheaper and smaller and able to be carried around was definitely a thing.”

For generations of readers, the gateway to literature was not a hushed library or a polished hardback but a wire spinner rack in a supermarket, pharmacy or railway station. There, amid chewing gum and cigarettes, sat the mass-market paperback: squat, roughly 4in by 7in and cheap enough to be bought on a whim.

But the era of the “pocket book” is drawing to a close. ReaderLink, the biggest book distributor in the US, announced recently that it would stop distributing mass-market paperbacks. The decision follows years of plummeting sales, from 131m units in 2004 to 21m in 2024, and marks the end of a format that once democratised reading for the working class...

"They had that democratic aspect to them where you can just find them anywhere and it always felt like it was the pick ‘n’ mix candy-type store where there is something here for everyone, whether it’s the Harlequin romance novel or something very pulpy like a sci-fi or horror novel that you could quickly get.”...

“We’re definitely losing accessibility and that’s a huge thing right now, especially in this country, whether it’s libraries being defunded, book bannings happening, one person saying let’s get rid of 200 books because I don’t want my child to read diverse authors."

Colleen Walsh, Harvard Law Today; Holding the past accountable by making it visible

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner discusses the decades-long effort to make the full archive of Nuremberg Trials records available online

"“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored.” So said United States Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief of Counsel to the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson, during his opening statement for the prosecution at the first of 13 Nuremberg Trials, which began 80 years ago, on Nov. 20, 1945.

For decades, the Harvard Law School Library has been working to make the nearly complete set of Nuremberg Trials records publicly available online. It launched the first version of Harvard’s Nuremberg Trials Project website in 2003, but until recently only roughly 20 percent of the Law School’s trove of Nuremberg materials had been accessible to online visitors. Today, the full collection of 140,000 documents comprising more than 700,000 pages is live and searchable by anyone around the globe.

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner, who has helped guide the project almost since its inception, spoke with Harvard Law Today about the scope of the archive and what it took to bring the entire collection online."

In Living Color Libraries offer corrective glasses to color-blind patrons; American Libraries, January 2, 2025

Cass Balzer , American Libraries; In Living Color Libraries offer corrective glasses to color-blind patrons

"In recent years, libraries of all sizes have begun adding color-corrective glasses to their Library of Things collections. Made possible primarily through partnerships with manufacturers, patrons can test these glasses out before committing to purchasing their own pair...At North Carolina State University Libraries (NCSUL) in Raleigh, the color-corrective glasses lending program is part of a broader focus on accessibility and wellness. Learning Innovation Librarian Adam Rogers collaborated with EnChroma and the university’s Color Science Lab to launch the initiative in 2021 with an on-campus event. Approximately 40 people attended and tried the product, and a few pairs were given away.

NCSUL has since added four pairs of glasses to its permanent Technology Lending Program and featured them in an exhibit for students and staffers to try on. Since the program began, the glasses have been checked out 81 times. But Rogers emphasizes that the value isn’t measured in the number of checkouts. “This is very different than lending out some other technology, like a camera,” he says. “There is an accessibility role here.”

EBPL’s circulation has been slow-moving so far—something Vocht hopes to increase with additional marketing and outreach—but she says the glasses have substantial emotional impact. “My colleague’s husband is pretty severely color-blind,” she says. “He borrowed [the glasses] and just spent time on the computer, just looking at pictures of autumn foliage and of the ocean.”

Rogers echoes that sentiment. North Carolina State’s university colors are red and white, and for many with color blindness, reds appear as brown or yellow. Rogers recalls seeing a student put on the glasses for the first time and, speechless, realize he was sitting at a bright red table.

“Having that impact, even with one person, is just so meaningful,” he says. “Both personally and for the library’s role in the community.”"

The Public Interest; American Libraries Magazine, January 23, 2022

 Sallyann Price , American Libraries Magazine ; The Public Interest

What does “public” mean in 2022?

"Merriam-Webster defines “public” as an adjective describing something “of, relating to, or affecting all or most of the people of a country, state, etcetera.” But as both academic and municipal libraries work to make their buildings, programming, and collections accessible to all patrons, they’re considering exactly what it means to be a public-serving institution.

What are the obligations of a public or private university to its local and global community? How have public libraries extended a sense of welcome to their patrons while safeguarding their rarest and most special collections? A panel of two public librarians and one academic librarian (moderated by architect Sindu Meier) discussed these questions during the “Curating for Inclusion” session at ALA’s LibLearnX virtual conference on January 23."

Hunters Point Library Confronts Accessibility Issues; Library Journal, November 4, 2019

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Hunters Point Library Confronts Accessibility Issues

"QPL is assessing the situation with the Department of Design and Construction and Steven Holl Architects, de Bourbon said. (As of press time, Steven Holl Architects had not responded to LJ’s request for comment.) “As we move forward with new projects,” she said, “we will be even more proactive in addressing the needs and circumstances of every single customer.”

“I hope that libraries who are working on inclusiveness can see this as a cautionary tale,” said Machones. “There clearly needs to be more oversight in all stages of planning to ensure nothing like this happens again. There needs to be opportunities for staff and the community to analyze and respond to plans at every stage. If there are members of your community that are not able to participate in input sessions, then go to them and ask them for their input. Your library will better serve the community if your plans reflect everyone in it.”

Such inclusive input might be positioned as a mandate in all aspects of service for the library, Machones suggested. “I would have regular community conversations to learn about what ways the library could improve. I also would recommend the library undergo an inclusive services assessment,” such as the Inclusive Services Assessment and Guide developed for Wisconsin Public Libraries."

'Access+Ability' exhibit showcases designs for, and by, those with disabilities; CNN, February 21, 2018

Erin Gabriel, CNN; 'Access+Ability' exhibit showcases designs for, and by, those with disabilities

"Eye-catching objects designed for, and by, people with physical and other disabilities are the focus of the current "Access+Ability" exhibition in New York.

More than 70 exhibits, including colorful prosthetic leg covers and jeweled earrings that are also hearing aids, are featured as examples of "inclusive design" at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

"There has been a surge of design with and by people with a wide range of physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities," according to the museum's website.

The new exhibit -- like the museum itself -- aims to reflect that trend. "This year Cooper Hewitt embarked on a very ambitious initiative about accessibility, about making our campus, our program, who we are, much more accessible and it seemed like the perfect moment to do the exhibition 'Access + Ability,' " said Cara McCarty, the museum's curatorial director."