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Many accessibility options are available to academic librarians and library workers, but the costs involved in training staff, reworking spaces, and purchasing tools can be limiting. It therefore falls on each library to best allocate their resources. In order to bring to light possible approaches, Osama Youssef Smadi, associate professor of special education at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, surveyed students with disabilities. In the 2021–22 academic year, 160 students with physical, health, visual, and hearing disabilities registered with the university’s Special Needs Services Center.

Nevada’s libraries have long been an important part of the state’s workforce development programs, and in June, the state’s Board of Examiners approved a new librarian-in-residence program for two municipal systems—the North Las Vegas Library District and the Carson City Library—that will boost those efforts. For two years beginning last month, these librarians-in-residence will facilitate an Individual Career Mapping and Training Delivery Model program developed by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development with libraries throughout the state. The program includes innovative features such as hands-on virtual reality “field trips” and access to NCLab’s Career Readiness Assessment to build STEM skills.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 18 voted to allow libraries and schools to use funding from the federal E-rate program to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots for lending. A component of FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s Learn Without Limits proposal—which was announced at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago—integration of hotspots into the program was aimed at responding to increasing connectivity needs and modernizing the E-rate program.

Frankly, I should have seen it coming, but personal growth and change can be so subtle that you sometimes don’t realize you’re doing it until you’ve done it. When I literally squealed with delight upon discovering “Gardening with Monty Don” on the Hoopla BingePass at PLA 2024, it dawned on me that I was no longer someone who just liked plants...I’d become a gardener.

On Thursday, June 27, at the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, CA, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced the launch of its nationwide Information Literacy Initiative. The multipartner project provides a website, InformationLiteracy.gov, that offers a wide range of ready-to-use tools and resources for library and museum professionals—trusted educators—to engage their communities to find, understand, evaluate, and share accurate information.

A Minnesota bill with a section prohibiting book bans in public libraries, and libraries or media centers in public postsecondary institutions and schools, was signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz on May 17. Senate File 3567, an omnibus education reform bill—which also includes rulings on cell phone use in schools, student performance data, and student journalism, among other items—went into effect immediately.

June 24 marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making abortion a state’s issue. As of this writing, abortion is banned or severely restricted in 21 states. However, abortion is just one part of the larger landscape of Reproductive Justice and reproductive health. Whether you are providing reproductive health information, especially abortion information, in your collections, at the reference desk, or through programming, consult with a legal expert about your options. This may include what type of information you can provide and where in your collection it’s located.

The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is continuing to recover from a ransomware attack on Saturday, May 25. At press time, all branches were open, in-person and virtual programs and events were still being hosted, books and other physical materials were available for checkout, and online services provided by third-party vendors including ProQuest, Hoopla, Kanopy, and others were available to patrons. However, access to SPL’s ebooks and e-audiobooks, public computers, in-building Wi-Fi, printing and copying services, pickup lockers, museum pass services, interlibrary loan services, and some other online resources remained unavailable.

In a divided three-judge panel, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a majority decision largely upholding a preliminary injunction ordering Llano County Library System to reshelve several titles that were previously removed.