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Two community members are suing Louisiana’s Lafayette Consolidated Government, the municipal body that oversees the Lafayette Public Library (LPL), for denying the right to free speech in public board meetings. Lynette Mejía and Melanie Brevis, community members and patrons of LPL, are co-plaintiffs in the suit, which also names Board of Control President Robert Judge. According to local newspaper The Acadiana Advocate, the lawsuit alleges the violation of Mejía’s and Brevis’s First Amendment rights to free speech as well as their 14th Amendment rights, along with violations of the Louisiana Open Meetings Law. 

In a blow to the Internet Archive’s (IA) Open Library project and potentially to the concept of controlled digital lending (CDL), Judge John Koeltl of the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York on March 24 granted a summary judgment in favor of Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House in their lawsuit against IA. The lawsuit was filed on June 1, 2020, in response to the March 24 launch of IA’s “National Emergency Library,” which temporarily offered unlimited simultaneous access to IA’s collection of 1.4 million digitized books during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many K–12, public, and academic libraries had been suddenly closed.

Many academic librarians believe context matters when artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT are used by students and faculty to assist with their work, according to “AI in Higher Education: The Librarians’ Perspectives,” a recent survey of 125 librarians published this month by Helper Systems. While only eight percent of respondents said that they believe it is cheating when students use AI products for research—compared with 49 percent who said it was not—42 percent said that it was “somewhat” cheating.

When Stacy Collins was named a 2021 LJ Mover & Shaker, she was the research and instruction librarian for Boston’s Simmons University Library, where she developed the highly regarded Anti-Oppression Guide. LJ reached out to her to learn more about what she’s been doing since 2021, which includes a new position at a boarding school.

Connecticut's Senate Bill 2, “An Act Concerning The Mental, Physical And Emotional Wellness of Children,” would, among many other things, allow every Connecticut municipality to designate a single sanctuary library—a place where patrons are promised access to books banned or challenged elsewhere.

The Vermont State College System will be combined into one larger umbrella organization as Vermont State University, effective July 1. As part of the reorganization, all books, newspapers or periodicals, and historic pamphlets in libraries throughout the new system will be provided in digital format only—a decision that has met with widespread disapproval among the system’s students, faculty, and staff.

LibLearnX made space for needed conversation.

Callan Bignoli, library director at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA, was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2021 for her work advocating for the health and safety of library workers during the pandemic. Much has changed since the early days of COVID’s arrival and spread, including the development of vaccines and boosters, but the need to speak up for library workers remains. LJ recently spoke with Bignoli to learn what’s changed—and what hasn’t—since then.

In recent months, four public libraries in Colorado's Front Range region have been forced to contend with methamphetamine residue, and the subsequent remediation, in bathrooms and public spaces. 

I’m not the first queer person to say that I was really into Matilda (1996) when I was a child. I loved the scenes of Matilda in awe of her public library, enchanted by the escape it offered from her home life. The library was her safe place. My research is mine.

According to Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s website, the intent of his online form for reporting graphic sexual content in libraries, created in late November 2022, is to protect minors. But the form—which has been called a “tip line” by the news media—has fueled criticism that it promotes censorship, targets the LGBTQIA+ community, and could escalate threats against library workers.

Sometimes taking the long path fits the work.

In May 2022, Elizabeth Szkirpan was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her advocacy work promoting technical services professionals within libraries. LJ recently reached out to Szkirpan, director of bibliographic services and federal depository coordinator for the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa, to learn more about why this work is important and needs more institutional support.

Rebuffing a move to ban so-called “socially divisive” material from its collection, the Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library in eastern Kansas got a new lease for its main branch last month. But its longtime director says it was alarming to see the usually routine lease renewal process used as leverage in a months-long battle over censorship.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) this month received a $750,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund a multi-year effort to connect the digital collections of libraries, museums, universities, and other American cultural heritage institutions with Wikipedia.

As the publishing industry makes greater concerted efforts to represent the rich diversity of the world in which we live, small presses and imprints under larger houses are taking the lead.

Poet, memoirist, attorney, and MacArthur Fellow Reginald Dwayne Betts recently partnered with artist and filmmaker Titus Kaphar on Redaction (Norton), an innovative collection of art and poetry confronting the abuses of the criminal justice system, drawing on his experience of incarceration. Retired researcher/librarian Eldon Ray James spoke with Betts about the collaboration and where politics and poetry meet and about Betts’s Freedom Reads project, through which he plans to install Freedom Library book collections in every residential prison unit in the United States.

Despite its science based and mission-driven underpinnings, U.S. healthcare is subject to great racial disparities. With a $10,000 grant from the Northern New York Library Network, faculty at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, are undertaking a new program called “Reckoning with Race and Racism in Healthcare and Medicine” to help local healthcare practitioners and students better understand the ways that racial biases determine health outcomes.

Missouri Secretary of State John R. (Jay) Ashcroft is receiving pushback from library leaders and staff, including the director of Ashcroft’s hometown library, in response to a rule proposed in October 2022 aiming to protect minors from inappropriate material.

Brooklyn Public Library's Nick Higgins, Amy Mikel, Karen Keys, Jackson Gomes, and Leigh Hurwitz have been named LJ's 2023 Librarians of the Year for their work on Books Unbanned, providing free ebook access to teens and young adults nationwide to help defy rising book challenges across the country.

This will be my last editorial for LJ. For me, this news is bittersweet; I’m excited to begin a new role elsewhere in libraryland, as managing editor of CQ Researcher at SAGE Publishing. But I will miss my colleagues, the opportunities I have had here to learn from and collaborate with librarians across the country, and my chance to bend your ear every month.

Virginia Cononie, assistant librarian/coordinator of reference and research at the University of South Carolina Upstate Spartanburg Library, was named one of Library Journal’s 2022 Movers & Shakers for her library advocacy work. LJ recently reached out to Cononie to learn more about her Share Your Story campaign, a collection of success stories from libraries in South Carolina that were compiled into a book and sent to South Carolina lawmakers.

The $1.7 trillion 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill passed on December 23 includes substantial increases in federal funding for libraries and schools.

Since April, users of the Llano County Library System, TX, have been waging a federal lawsuit against county commissioners, members of the recently reconstituted library board, and the library director. In May, they sought a preliminary injunction that would restore books removed last year from the library collection under pressure from a group of residents who objected to what they viewed as inappropriate content for children.

Library advocates have become increasingly sophisticated about collecting the emotional outcome stories that bring to life how libraries change lives. We may, sadly, need to start applying that savvy to collecting the outcomes of what happens when libraries are lost or gutted, whether due to pervasive underfunding, as in the UK, or ideologically driven campaigns against books, displays, and programs that represent LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC experiences, as is being attempted in the U.S.

Barbara Alvarez is a PhD student in Information Science at the University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison and adjunct faculty at multiple universities. Her work using information science to study the pandemic’s effect on abortion services in Wisconsin won her a 2022 Movers & Shakers Award. Library Journal recently reached out to learn more about her other work in this area.

U.S. District Court Judge Florence Y. Pan’s decision blocking the $2.2 billion merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has apparently quashed the deal. Initially, PRH and its owner, Bertelsmann, said it planned to appeal. However, on November 21, Reuters reported that Paramount would let the deal expire without participating in an appeal, collecting a $200 million breakup fee from Bertelsmann. In a statement released late that day, PRH acknowledged that Paramount had backed away and said it was dropping the appeal.

Hiveclass, a startup company building a “digital encyclopedia of youth sports training,” has been partnering with libraries throughout the United States to offer teens and youth access to its mobile-friendly database of professionally shot, athlete-led instructional videos on soccer, basketball, tennis, dance, self-defense, volleyball, and more.

At LJ’s recent Design Institute in Missoula, MT, the term places of refuge came up several times. It was new to me, but the meaning was clear from the context: individual-scale spots within the larger, communal library. But the refuge the library can offer is inherently temporary. For libraries to help make their whole communities places of refuge, libraries need to facilitate long-term planning for resilience to disasters that are more frequent and severe—plus, support government policy changes to slow and perhaps reverse that progression.

According to guidance from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released on August 28, all federally funded research should be made available to the public for free access and use upon publication. Some large scholarly journal publishers are on board with the suggestions, which have been in the works for more than a decade. But other sources said that the new policy shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all.

Elisandro Cabada has worn many hats during his career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Assistant professor for the university library, interim head of the Mathematics Library, and 3-D printing project coordinator, among others. His commitment to developing and using technology for library service and outreach won him a 2022 Movers & Shakers award. Library Journal recently reached out to learn more about his innovative work.

In the violent rainstorms that hit central Appalachia this summer, one of the hardest hit institutions was Kentucky's Letcher County Public Library. Three of its four locations and a bookmobile were severely damaged. Cleanup has been steady but slow, but a GoFundMe fundraiser set up by Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, has raised more than $30,000 to help the library rebuild and restock.

Since April, Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) Books Unbanned program has offered free library cards to teens and young adults across the United States who live in communities impacted by book bans, enabling them to access the library’s collection of more than 500,000 ebooks, e-audiobooks, digital magazines, and more. BPL Chief Librarian Nick Higgins recently talked to LJ about how the idea for the program originated and how it has grown during the past six months.

A growing number of libraries are beginning to see the appeal of open-source integrated library systems (ILS) and library services platforms (LSP) such as Koha, Evergreen, and FOLIO.

Dr. N.S. ‘Ilaheva Tua’one, assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous studies in the Women’s and Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS), has been named the inaugural Storytelling Professor at the Kraemer Family Library. The three-year rotating endowed professorship will give Tua’one the opportunity to celebrate and diffuse storytelling into the culture of Colorado Springs through an interdisciplinary lens. LJ spoke with Tua’one and Seth Porter, dean of the Kraemer Family Library and lead of online education for academic affairs, to hear more about what the new professorship will involve, why storytelling is important in an academic setting, and how to catch an octopus with a rat.

Salaries are way up, and culture is even more important in this year’s Placements and Salaries survey.

Kathy Zappitello, executive director of the Conneaut Public Library, OH, and past president of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries, announced her candidacy for state representative of Ohio’s 99th district in August. Her decision, she said, came about after Former Democratic nominee Abby Kovacs, who won the August 2 primary to run against incumbent Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula), was forced to withdraw from the race after being narrowly disqualified by redistricting.

Lorisia MacLeod, currently learning services librarian at the Alberta Library, Canada, previously worked as an instruction librarian at NorQuest College, Edmonton. A member of the James Smith Cree Nation, MacLeod realized early in her career that there was a major problem with properly citing Native and Indigenous sources in academic papers. The work she set in motion to correct this issue led to her being named a Library Journal 2022 Mover & Shaker. LJ recently caught up with her to learn more about her efforts.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) in September announced that Pottsboro Library in Texas was one of 18 organizations that will be part of the National Digital Navigator Corps. Supported by a $10 million investment from Google.org, the new program will enable institutions serving rural and Tribal communities to hire, train, and support a digital navigator to help residents of those communities gain access to the internet, devices, and digital skills training.

Teachers, librarians, and nurses have some important things in common. They do essential, mission-driven work. They’re mostly women (from 74 percent of teachers to 90 percent of nurses). They’re often underpaid. They’ve faced increased job stressors in the last few years. Many are thinking of leaving their jobs, if not fields—up to 77 percent of Texas teachers in a recent poll. The resulting shortages put more pressure on those who stay.

On August 25, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released new guidance calling for all federally funded research to be made available to the public for free access and use upon publication. The memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research advises all federal agencies to eliminate the current 12-month embargo period on the outputs of taxpayer-supported research and the data that supports it, to establish transparent procedures in doing so, and to coordinate with OSTP to ensure its equitable delivery. 

The New Canaan Library, CT, is leading the way to address human rights in the building product supply chain.

The EveryLibrary Institute, the companion organization of library advocacy group EveryLibrary, commissioned Embold Research, a nonpartisan research firm, to poll 1,223 U.S. voters on book banning. The survey found that nearly all (92 percent) have heard at least something about such censorship, and at least 75 percent will consider the issue of book banning when voting this November.

The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 attempts to ban or restrict library resources in K–12, higher ed, and public libraries in all of 2021, targeting 1,597 unique titles—itself the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began keeping track of challenged books more than 20 years ago.

Dr. Gena Cox, organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author of Leading Inclusion: Drive Change Your Employees Can See and Feel (Page Two, Oct.), will deliver the opening keynote at LJ’s Directors Summit in Baltimore this December. LJ caught up with her to learn more about what motivated her to write this book and what lessons she feels can help library leaders make sure their equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts improve the workplace experience for library workers.

Disability in Publishing, a United States–based organization of disabled individuals who work in traditional publishing, launched in late July via a virtual town hall. The group’s mission to “create community, provide resources, and increase accessibility across the industry in order to increase disability visibility and retain the talent of disabled publishing professionals” was well represented in the highly accessible event, which was simulcast on YouTube and Twitter and attended by people who are personally disabled and others looking to make their organizations more inclusive. 

The Hartford Public Library, CT, recently received a $14,000 grant from the Aurora Foundation for Women and Girls toward a new program, Barriers Can’t Stop Us: Building Immigrant Women’s Success. The program will help 30 young women who immigrated to the United States while they were in high school access the resources they need to stay in school and complete their college degrees. The program is open to cisgender and transgender women alike.

The proposed merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has attracted the attention of the Justice Department, which is concerned that the $2.2 billion deal will shrink opportunities for writers, and hurt consumers, by turning the Big Five publishers (once the Big Six, until Penguin and Random House completed their merger in 2013) into the Big Four. Its antitrust trial against the merger began in early August and ended Friday. A decision is expected in the fall.

It’s healing to have a role focused on increasing access to resources that I never had, especially ones that facilitate self-exploration and empathy building through play.

The Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, MI, lost a critical millage renewal in early August as the result of a “Vote No” campaign orchestrated by a local conservative coalition. Members of the group, the Jamestown Conservatives, object to LGBTQIA+-themed material on the library’s shelves, and have been vocal about their displeasure. As a result, two directors have resigned in the past few months.

#NoTechforICE was started by the national Latinx and Chicanx social justice advocacy group Mijente in 2018, when it became clear that government agencies such as ICE and CBP were purchasing public, private, and commercial data to gather information to aid in the sweeps and deportations of undocumented immigrants. Two companies that have entered into contracts with ICE, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters—which owns LexisNexis competitor Westlaw—are staples of college and university database subscriptions, and the campaign has caught the attention of academic librarians nationwide.

Library workers who provide services for people negatively impacted by the prison industrial complex (PIC) are proud of their work—even though it can be difficult—from starting and keeping programs going, to carrying the load over time. 

On June 7 the Maryland State Library Agency (MSLA) and Prince George’s County Memorial Library System (PGCMLS) announced the beta launch of the Guide to Indigenous Maryland, a mobile app (for iOS and Android) and website that enable Marylanders—and users worldwide—to learn about the history of local Native and Indigenous people (PGCMLS's preferred wording uses both terms) and how their heritage continues to influence contemporary life in the state. The free educational resource combines 21 curated sites featuring information on Native American and Indigenous geography and heritage, local history, and present-day life in Maryland.

It is crucial that libraries help their communities grapple with pressing current issues. But it’s also important to rest, both individually and collectively.

Brooks Rainwater recently stepped into his new role as president and CEO of Urban Libraries Council (ULC). LJ caught up with him as he settled in at ULC to find out more about his move to libraries from a career in public policy.

Lauren Comito, cofounder and former board chair of grassroots advocacy organization Urban Librarians Unite (ULU), stepped into the role of Executive Director on May 20. LJ caught up with her to hear more about what the move entails, plans for ULU, and how to get involved.

Vendors offer a variety of training options and practical tips to ensure librarians and patrons get the most out of their databases.

Libraries cannot second-guess patron motives or impose barriers based on subject matter. I suggest that the best response is to turn the letter of the law back on attempted saboteurs.

Following a successful pilot test at Delaware’s Seaford, Laurel, and Milford libraries, the Delaware Division of Libraries (DDL) is preparing to roll out a new, comprehensive telehealth program to nine additional locations throughout the state by the end of 2022. The program was discussed in depth during “The First Statewide Library-Led Telehealth Initiative in the First State” presentation on June 26 at the American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, DC.

Texas A&M University restructured its University Libraries’ administrative system, including rescinding tenure—and eliminating the tenure process—for librarians. As of the fall semester, library faculty will be required to either give up their tenured status to remain full-time library staff members, or transfer to another academic department to keep or continue to pursue tenure, and teach credit-bearing courses with between 10 and 70 percent service in the libraries.

Two branch libraries at Prince George’s County Memorial Library System were targeted with anti-LGBTQIA+ graffiti during the Washington, DC area’s Capital Pride Week. At press time, Prince George’s County Police detectives had arrested and charged a man, who confessed to the vandalism and is currently facing two counts of malicious destruction of property and multiple hate crimes.

On Saturday, June 11, a group of five men disrupted a children’s Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo branch of the Alameda County Library, CA, shouting homophobic and transphobic insults. No one was injured, and library staff were able to move the children and their caregivers, as well as performer Panda Dulce, to a safe area of the library before members of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office arrived and led the intruders—believed by library administration and law enforcement to be members of the East Bay Proud Boys, a local far-right group—from the building.

In a new insights report from Gale, academic thought leaders discuss their role in championing EDI on campus—and provide advice to help other colleges and universities develop effective, sustainable programs.

Library leaders share the strides they’re making to shift strategic plans and policies to center equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Treshani Perera, Music and Fine Arts Cataloging Librarian at the University of Kentucky, has written and spoken on critical cataloging—looking at knowledge organization though an equity lens, examining not only at how content is described, but why those systems exist and how they can be changed.

Hiring an EDI officer requires system-wide support, a clear definition of the role’s parameters, and providing authority to effect changes, not just make suggestions.

How diversity, equity, and inclusion auditing tools help build stronger collections.

The Seattle Public Library; District of Columbia Public Library; and Fayette Public Library, Museum & Archives, La Grange, TX, in partnership with the University of Washington, have launched VRtality.org, a website that provides libraries and other institutions with a roadmap for co-designing virtual reality (VR) apps to support the mental health of teens. The roadmap and website were informed by three separate VR pilot programs developed by the three libraries. Librarians worked directly with teen patrons to create the VR programs, treating them as equal partners in the projects.

As book banning and censorship continues to ramp up across the country, particularly of work aimed at teens and young adults, New York City public libraries are stepping up to help young readers connect with challenged books. 

The leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision on abortion rights has sent people scrambling to understand the current state of abortion care in the United States. As tensions are at an all-time high, librarians have an opportunity to dispel some myths about abortion care and abortion access. Here is some background to help you answer patron questions that may arise.

Who is in charge of your library? In Kentucky, in 2023, the answer will change. Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a state Senate bill was unexpectedly overridden in mid-April, enabling local politicians to take control of public library board appointments, and thus spending, and even the continued existence of facilities.

Ninety-one percent of academic librarians believe that analytics improve their understanding of how students, faculty, and researchers engage with their library, and 85 percent believe analytics can help show the library’s value to administrators and help libraries justify budget decisions, according to a recent national survey of 196 academic librarians conducted by LJ in conjunction with EBSCO.

Lessa Kanani‘opua Pelayo-Lozada has become an effective champion of Asian American and Pacific Islander library workers and a strong voice in the American Library Association (ALA) and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, where she was the first Pacific Islander to serve as executive director. She is now ALA president-elect.

When former Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) CEO Jackie Nytes stepped down in August 2021 amid allegations of systemic racism throughout the system, Nichelle M. Hayes was one of many employees advocating for change. On March 28, the IndyPL Board unanimously voted to appoint Hayes as the library’s next interim CEO, succeeding John Helling, who had served in the role following Nytes’s departure.

Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and several libraries have been hit by opportunistic criminals.

In April 2015 I wrote the LJ article “We Are the Monuments Men” in response to the burning of the Mosul Public Library by ISIS. I asked, What can be done to protect libraries, cultural properties, and artifacts? Sadly, seven years later, the world is witnessing a new conflict, and I am again asking what can we do as librarians to protect, preserve, save information, special collections, cultural artifacts, and rare items in times of conflict?

The press freedom nongovernmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF, after its French title, Reporters Sans Frontières) has created a way for readers everywhere to access and read documents that have been banned or censored in the countries where they were published—through The Uncensored Library, a collection of articles and books housed in the virtual world of Minecraft.

Book challenges are here; here’s how to respond.

E-access was a hot topic at the Public Library Association (PLA) 2022 conference, held in Portland, OR, from March 23–25. Programs examining points along the pipeline from licensing to broadband to innovative infrastructure were well attended.

Now that voting for the American Library Association (ALA) 2023–24 presidential campaign has begun, LJ invited candidates Emily Drabinski, interim chief librarian at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY); and Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Las Vegas–Clark County Library District, to weigh in on some key issues.

Book challenges are not new. But what has changed, according to several people interviewed for this article, is the scope and tactics of the challenges.

How do you plan for the future when your focus is on “getting back to normal”? A series of workshops on strategic foresight with Oxford University’s Matt Finch, hosted by Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Library Development, introduced our team to the practice of scenario planning.

As public and academic libraries continue to navigate equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work, it has become increasingly common for organizations to release statements in solidarity with communities in crisis. Illinois’s Downers Grove Public Library (DGPL) has issued five anti-hate statements that have resonated with our community. In this article, we hope to give you the strategies needed to write and distribute an impactful statement.

Library workers are facing burnout in greater numbers and severity—and grappling with it as a systemic problem.

In February, collection development librarians from U.S. public libraries pointed out on listservs and social media that several fascist ebooks—including ebooks that deny the Holocaust, a sympathetic biography of Hitler, and a new English translation of a title written by Nazi officer—were available for patrons to download on hoopla and were surfacing in searches alongside other nonfiction content. One of the titles was also available for libraries to license via OverDrive Marketplace.

There are many ways to showcase special collections: social media, newsletters, and blog posts; online and in-person exhibits; and both physical and digital catalogues and books. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries’ Distinctive Collections has upped the creativity factor with an immersive video game, “A Lab of One’s Own,” that allows players to discover archival materials telling the stories of women from MIT’s history.

30 years of underfunding will take decades to fix.

Academic appointments at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, New Mexico State, UMass Amherst, and others; New York Library Association has a new Executive Director; Indianapolis Public Library gets a DEI Officer; and more people news for February 21, 2022.

The University of Minnesota (UM) has received a $615,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to expand its Mapping Prejudice program. Mapping Prejudice, a collaboration among geographers, historians, digital humanists, and community activists, works to document and explore racially restrictive covenants—the clauses inserted into property deeds to keep anyone not white from buying or occupying certain pieces of land.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), recently sponsored the development and publication of a series of seven Privacy Field Guides designed to offer practical information and hands-on exercises for public, academic, and K–12 librarians.

Libraries have been distributing masks throughout the pandemic. In 2021, they began partnering with local health departments to distribute test kits as well—at curbside, in parking lots, or in the building—with varying results. Particularly in late 2021 and January of this year, kits ran out almost immediately even as takers lined up for blocks. Communication from city and county health agencies was not always timely or accurate. And library workers once again found themselves on the front lines managing patron reactions and their own safety concerns.

On January 23, during its virtual National General Membership meeting, REFORMA (the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking) was disrupted by a person or people using racial slurs and misogynistic hate speech. The infiltration highlighted the discrepancies between the association’s desire for an open, inclusive gathering and an increasing need for added security in an online environment.

Telehealth can bridge healthcare accessibility issues, but that leaves out the many who still don’t have reliable broadband access at home. Some libraries are stepping up to fill that gap.

With the help of a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant awarded in September 2021, a team of researchers has launched “Adapting and Scaling Existing Educational Programs to Combat Inauthenticity and Instill Trust in Information,” a study created to understand the information literacy needs of populations usually overlooked in such work, and to test methods of improving information literacy among them. 

Help stressed ex-readers get their groove back.

Machine learning (ML) tools can potentially help patrons discover relevant content and services as they search a library’s catalog. However, ML tools need to be trained with a lot of good data to generate good recommendations, and initially, contextual recommendations generated with high-quality library metadata may be more effective at achieving the same goal.

Outreach librarianship meets community members where they are, building  relationships that improve libraries and lives.

No matter how audience behaviors ultimately swing in the future, hybrid events will be a pillar of our new normal. We must continue to refine our capability of being anywhere and everywhere for anybody.

Bloomsbury Publishing purchased ABC-CLIO in December 2021 for $22.9 million, bringing ABC-CLIO’s four imprints and 32 databases into U.K.-based Bloomsbury’s academic and professional division.

The LC Labs department of the Library of Congress recently published a comprehensive report on its Humans-in-the-Loop initiative, which crowdsourced volunteers to train a machine learning (ML) tool to extract structured data from one of the library’s digital collections. It also explored the intersection of crowdsourcing and ML algorithms more broadly. The project resulted in a framework that will inform future crowdsourcing and data enrichment projects at LC, and the report offers other libraries and cultural heritage institutions insights and advice for developing engaging, ethical, and useful crowdsourcing projects of their own.