Libraries may be missing potential circulation from a 12-year-old title. The movie of The Golden Compass is due to hit US theaters on Dec. 7 (it premiered in London last week). In the US, it’s already received marketing help from the American Catholic League. The group has urged fellow Catholics to boycott the movie and not read the book, adding the allure of forbidden fruit.

Due to the book’s age and this sudden attention, libraries may find they don’t have enough copies of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy which is now #9 on Amazon’s bestseller list. The trilogy and the individual titles are also on the USA Today bestseller list. A quick look at several library catalogs reveals that most copies are in circulation, with holds against them. In one instance, a large library system no longer has any copies of the 12-year-old first title in the series and holds are building on the audio version.

And don’t look only on The Golden Compass. Once the movie hits, fans will likely be interested in the other two volumes in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spy Glass to find out “what happens next.”

With the controversy in the news, this would also be a good time to pull out and display the many books of critical essays on the trilogy.

In talking to customers about the controversy, you may want to point them to an article in this week’s Newsweek which puts it this way — “The loud, bristling organization known as the Catholic League is urging families to boycott a film in which the word ‘Catholic’ is never uttered.”

For those unfamiliar with the American Catholic League, Wikipedia offers an overview. It points out that the League has many critics among Catholics and that the organization’s own estimate of the number of members is a modest 330,000. An article in the New York Times from 1999 questions how much the organization represents Catholics, but also says, under Donohue, it has become “one of the most visible defenders of the Roman Catholic Church.”

The Catholic League does not speak for the Catholic Church. An article from the Associated Press notes that the “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting gave the film, which is rated PG-13, a warm review. The film is not blatantly anti-Catholic but a ‘generalized rejection of authoritarianism,’ it said.”

The only report so far of the book being challenged comes from the Toronto Star. An Ontario Catholic school board had the trilogy removed from the libraries in its 37 schools for evaluation. While the the books are being evaluated, the they are not on display, but students can request them. The article notes that “Catholic schools in Toronto and York Region have the books on their shelves and report no complaints.”

That would be Bridie Clark, probably the luckiest chick-lit author in history. Her mildly amusing debut, “Because She Can,” featuring a foul-mouthed publishing mogul remarkably similar to her former boss, Judith Regan, was published just before Regan was again in the headlines. Clark has just been signed by another former boss, at Weinstein Books for her second book. It’s billed as a modern retelling of Pygmalion. No word on whether any publishing figures will be involved.

Twelve, the year-old imprint of Grand Central Publishing (a division of Hachette Book Group and formerly called Warner Books) announced today that they have acquired the rights to Senator Kennedy’s autobiography, with a release date of Fall, 2010. The Times estimates the advance at more than $8 million.

It’s that schizophrenic time of the year. As librarians begin to order Spring/Summer titles, the consumer media is making its picks of the best titles of 2007 (and, to add to the list mania, we’re beginning to see the picks for holiday giving. There’s even a book list for fashionistas). The National Book Critics Circle has added to the surfeit of lists, with a poll of the favorites of its 800 members (an impressive 500 members responded to the call). This list kicks off a new initiative – a monthly list. The more timely monthly lists may be more helpful to selectors than the annual. We’ll let you know about them as they are published. The NBCC blog gives the top five selections in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry. None of the selections are a surprise, but there are some interesting choices in the longer lists for fiction, nonfiction and poetry. I was happy to see Kate Braestrup’s moving debut memoir “Here if You Need Me,” on the nonfiction list. For some reason, it hasn’t yet received strong library pick up. Tell fans of the book to look for Kate’s second title, “Marriage, and Other Acts of Charity” in 2009.