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Just as e-books have begun working their way into libraries, librarians are grappling with how to embrace digital music. At the Iowa City Public Library, an unusual licensing arrangement with local artists is having some success.

Libraries have been digitizing their collections for years, but the materials can be hard to find. Enter the Digital Public Library of America. Worried that Google has an outsized hand in digitizing books, the DPLA is combining, on one site, the digital collections of libraries nationwide — free.

Most Americans say public libraries are important to the community — but eight states don't actually support them. Texas has cut budgets drastically; in Vermont, local librarians must go hand in hand to town meetings every year. Neda Ulaby reports on the landscape of library funding across the U.S.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, libraries in New York helped storm victims find documents, fill out forms, connect to the Internet and plan how to rebuild. There's a growing awareness of the important role libraries can play in disaster relief.

In the latest installment of our library series, NPR's Bob Mondello visits some notable libraries in popular culture: Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel; Lucien's Library in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman; and the stacks in Buffy, Hogwarts, Doctor Who and Fahrenheit 451.

At the start of the 20th century, the ruthless, self-made steel industrialist paid $60 million for 1,689 public libraries to be built in communities around the U.S. "The man who dies rich dies in disgrace," Carnegie wrote.

The Basalt Public Library is trying something new this spring: a seed collection. With a library card in hand, you can check the seeds out, grow the…