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To combat the digital divide, reduce barriers to service, and add even more ways to engage with the library outside our walls, Pioneer Library System took action to install solar benches in all the communities we serve.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you’re only concerned with basic collection management, you’re missing an opportunity to make a huge impact on your community. Libraries offer much more than collections, so why do we put considerable emphasis on collections and deprioritize other equally important facets of library operations?

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.

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.

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. 

Higher ed nonprofit ITHAKA announced on August 18 that it has invested $2.5 million in Hypothesis, an open annotation service. Hypothesis, developed with funding from the Sloan, Mellon, and other foundations, enables users to make searchable annotations on text across all platforms and interfaces, at a private or public level—from notes and comments to corrections and addenda. And parent corporation Annotation Unlimited (Anno) envisions a time when this capability will be built into all browsers as a native feature, much like search engines.

The Las Vegas–Clark County Library District, in partnership with the Nevada Homeless Alliance and the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, this spring launched a successful cell phone lending program to provide smartphones to people experiencing homelessness.

In February, after being alerted to the issue by a group of Massachusetts librarians, Library Freedom Project and Library Futures released a joint statement demanding accountability from Midwest Tape President and Hoopla founder Jeff Jankowski about hateful content and disinformation regarding COVID-19, the Holocaust, LGBTQIA+ people, and other topics on his company’s massively popular electronic content platform for public libraries. Six months later, there is still a great deal of disinformation to be found in Hoopla’s collection on topics ranging from LGBTQIA+ experiences to reproductive health to vaccines.

Best sellers in engineering and technology, July 2021 to date, as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

#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.

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.

John Bracken, Micah May, and Shaneé Yvette Willis discussed DPLA's new partnerships, recent projects, and the new Palace Project ebook platform during the “Digital Public Library of America: A Look Ahead” session at the American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference.

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

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.

A lawsuit filed by OCLC in U.S. Federal Court, Southern District of Ohio, claims that representatives from Clarivate have been contacting OCLC customers and encouraging them to contribute bibliographic records from WorldCat to an under-development platform called MetaDoor, in direct breach of those customers’ contractual obligations to OCLC.

In the midst of the myriad problems facing libraries in the United States—from the pandemic to burnout to the drastic increase in materials challenges—I want to celebrate a big win: the shift to libraries as at-scale providers of home connectivity for the digitally disenfranchised in their communities.

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.

“Freedom and the Press before Freedom of the Press,” a digital humanities project based at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, has received a $324,931 National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Advancement grant to develop a set of digital tools to analyze type and paper used in late 17th- and 18th-century English language works.

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.

Many college and university libraries have digitized their valuable collections of unique primary source materials to make them available to researchers. However, these collections can be hard to find. To solve this problem, the not-for-profit organization ITHAKA has opened up JSTOR—its widely used digital research platform for universities to host their unique collections.

In 2021, the Annenberg School’s Library Archives accessioned the collection of Amy Siskind’s Weekly List website; however, the path to get there was complicated, and the final gift looked quite different from how it was conceived in the initial conversation. 

Data now inform nearly every aspect of our lives, and academic libraries are increasingly using data to drive operations. In fact, a new survey from Library Journal and EBSCO reveals that library analytics are critical for understanding how users engage with campus libraries.

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.

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.

The global pandemic has accelerated changes that were already under way in libraries from coast to coast, such as a movement toward patron self-service and making more online resources available for users. 

Georgia’s Clayton County Library System has launched a new job training program that enables patrons to use virtual reality (VR) headsets to simulate hands-on experiences in various trades including plumbing, commercial and residential HVAC, and even solar panel installation.

For anyone studying the history of British colonialism or the Caribbean in general, a new digital research tool from Adam Matthew offers unique insights.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Libraries have experienced dramatic changes in the last several years as a result of COVID and other external forces. As librarians look ahead to the future, here are three key trends that will shape their needs going forward.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (CML), NC, in March 2022 will begin distributing 20,000 free, refurbished laptops to Mecklenburg County adults who do not have their own home computers through its MeckTech Computer Kit Program. Separately, this month CML began rolling out MeckTech Connect, a pilot program that will provide free broadband internet service to about 800 households in Charlotte’s West Boulevard Corridor.

The Association of American Publishers (AAP), today filed suit against the Maryland Attorney General seeking to overturn the recently passed Maryland law that requires publishers to license ebooks and digital audiobooks to libraries "on reasonable terms."

The latest report from Ithaka S+R, “Big Data Infrastructure at the Crossroads,” released December 1, offers critical findings and recommendations on the ways higher ed researchers, scholars, and technicians can partner with university and college librarians to support data research. The report was built from quantitative results and interview transcripts produced by a cohort of librarians at each participating institution.

UPDATE: On December 9, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), filed suit against the Maryland Attorney General seeking to overturn House Bill 518/(SB432). The law requires publishers to offer "electronic literary product" licenses to Maryland libraries “on reasonable terms,” and prohibits publishers from instituting embargo periods during which ebook and electronic audiobook licenses are available for sale to the public but not to libraries.

Dark matter, seashells, and CRISPR feature in the best science and technology books of 2021.

From the Acquisition Announcement: Spotify Technology on November 11 announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Findaway, a global leader in digital audiobook distribution.

A partnership between Las Vegas–Clark County Library District and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is bringing the library’s digital resources to every bus in town. Las Vegas transit riders, including out-of-towners, can now immediately access Las Vegas Clark County Library District’s treasure trove of free movies, ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines with one simple download, without physically being in the library or having a library card.

Best sellers in engineering and technology, October 2020 to date, as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

The Association of College & Research Libraries and Public Library Association have launched Benchmark: Library Metrics and Trends, a new digital resource for data analysis and visualization designed to “help libraries plan, make informed decisions, and tell the story of their impact.”

A team at North Carolina State University Libraries has created the Global Change Games series to help engage students with global change topics.

Michigan’s Kent District Library (KDL) is preparing to launch KDL Vibes, a free streaming platform created to showcase local music.

More than ever, it’s important for staff and patrons to know that they are in a safe and secure place. Quipu Group’s PITS®(Patron Incident Tracking System) allows library staff to record and track security incidents in real-time, as well as access information on previous activities and actions.

A launch date has not yet been announced, but OverDrive has been recruiting librarian advisors from public, academic, and K–12 libraries to offer input and refine Readtelligence—an upcoming suite of tools for ebook selection and curation developed by the company using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning tools to analyze every ebook in the OverDrive Marketplace.

The 2020 Public Library Technology Survey presents a snapshot of the vital technology services that libraries provide their communities, areas of disparity between urban and rural libraries, and the challenges that institutions of all sizes face in expanding or enhancing technology services.

Gale, part of Cengage Group, on September 8 announced the launch Gale Presents: Excel Adult High School in partnership with Excel Education Systems. With accreditation through Cognia, the nonprofit NGO that serves more than 36,000 schools globally, the program, a successor to Gale’s previous Career Online High School, is designed to enable adults to earn a certified high school diploma entirely online.

From the Federal Communications Commission: The Federal Communications Commission today announced that it has received requests for $5.137 billion to fund 9.1 million connected devices  and 5.4 million broadband connections as part of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Program. In view of outstanding demand and the recent spike  in coronavirus cases, the FCC will open a second application filing window for schools and  libraries to request funding for connected devices and broadband connections for off-campus  use by students, school staff, and library patrons for the current 2021-22 school year.

ALA, Public Knowledge, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition praised the U.S. Senate's vote to pass the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes $65 billion for broadband.

When we talk about web usability, we are talking directly about our patron’s experiences in a library’s digital space, so rethinking how we do this work through the lens of antiracism is important.

OverDrive is preparing to launch Readtelligence, a suite of new features for ebook selection and curation developed using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning tools to analyze every title in the company’s inventory.

The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief legislation passed by Congress in March contains a significant amount of money for libraries to help their communities. In response, many companies are highlighting products that can be purchased with recovery funding.

“New digital technologies are bringing changes that are much more rapid and comprehensive than in the past to the way we live, work, and interact with one another. The idea that the recent advancement in digital technologies has reached qualitatively distinct stage of digital revolution is becoming more widely accepted,” explained Bohyun Kim, chief technology officer and professor for the University of Rhode Island Libraries, Kingston, during the "New Technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: AI, IoT, Robotics, and Beyond” on demand presentation at the American Library Association's 2021 Annual Conference.

During the American Library Association (ALA) Virtual Annual Meeting, Lauren Geiger, metadata librarian, and Emily D. Harrison, digital projects specialist, both from Mississippi State University Libraries, discussed how to ensure that accessibility in digital collections is not limited to discoverability.

“The importance of providing equal access to information and learning experiences is nothing new, yet we consistently find that digital resources and technologies fall short” of accessibility for patrons and students with print and other disabilities, Trisha Prevett, eLearning librarian for Southern New Hampshire University said to open the "Born Accessible: Creating Equal Digital Learning Experiences for All" panel at the American Library Association (ALA) 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held virtually from June 23–29. “We must ensure that libraries are providing resources that are truly accessible for all.”

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, is collaborating with IBM to help teens learn new technical and professional skills using IBM’s Open P-TECH platform at participating libraries. The free digital learning platform features interactive, multi-part courses on topics including artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, data science, blockchain, and design thinking, as well as resources for teachers and librarians for each topic.

Libraries have been reinventing themselves for well over a decade, as the emergence of smartphones and ubiquitous connectivity has put access to information into nearly everyone’s hands. No longer just repositories of information, libraries have morphed into full-service community centers that aim to meet a wide variety of civic and social needs.

The popularity of public library streaming media entertainment spiked during the pandemic. What’s next?

On the Books: Using Algorithms of Resistance to Expose North Carolina’s Jim Crow Laws is a machine learning and collections as data project of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Libraries. Where does the “resistance” come in? Since 2019, the project team has been building an algorithm and searchable database for Jim Crow legislation signed into law in North Carolina between 1866 and 1967 (Reconstruction to Civil Rights era). 

From a Joint Announcement: OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide, announced today that it is acquiring Kanopy, a leading video streaming service for public and academic libraries.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives around the world, public libraries were undergoing dramatic changes. No longer just repositories of information, libraries have morphed into full-service community centers that aim to meet a wide variety of civic and social needs. Six forward-looking companies are helping libraries meet evolving needs in their communities with innovative products, services, and design.

On May 17, Clarivate announced a definitive agreement to acquire ProQuest from Cambridge Information Group for $5.3 billion. Pending regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2021.

On May 18, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) signed an agreement with Amazon Publishing that will make all of the latter’s 10,000 ebooks and audiobooks available to libraries via the DPLA Exchange content marketplace. This is the first time that ebooks and audiobooks from Amazon Publishing have been made available to libraries.

From DPLA: Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce that we have signed an agreement with Amazon Publishing to make all of the approximately 10,000 Amazon Publishing ebooks and audiobooks available to libraries and their patrons through the DPLA Exchange.

From a Joint Release: Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire ProQuest.

From the FCC: The Federal Communications Commission today unanimously adopted final rules to implement the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program. This $7.17 billion program, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, will enable schools and libraries to purchase laptop and tablet computers, Wi-Fi hotspots, and broadband connectivity for students, school staff, and library patrons in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the time, library promotion involves a lot of announcements like, “We offer homework help” or “We’ve got a new website” or “Come to our program.” These promotions are informative, but they lack the one magical thing that people respond to: emotion.

With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout gaining momentum in the United States, libraries continue the process of reopening. They’ll need to get the word out to patrons about changing hours, resumed services, and in-person events. This product spotlight focuses on marketing platforms for libraries designed to help streamline outreach efforts via social media, email, newsletters, mobile messaging, and more.

From the Federal Communications Commission: Today, FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the start date of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. As of May 12, 2021, eligible households will be able to enroll in the Program to receive a monthly discount off the cost of broadband service from an approved provider. Eligible households can enroll through an approved provider or by visiting https://getemergencybroadband.org.

The challenge for libraries is, first, to obtain and spend federal funding, and second, to parlay that temporary help into a permanent paradigm shift. The new equipment will outlast the emergency. It is up to library leaders to document its ongoing impacts, so that when breakage and age take their inevitable toll, funders will find it unthinkable not to replace and upgrade the gear.

When Bernard “Bud” Barton was hired as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Library of Congress in September 2015 he was faced with the Government Accountability Office’s list of 31 recommendations to overhaul and modernize the library’s IT infrastructure. Five years later, those recommendations have been implemented. LJ caught up with Barton to discuss his team's work, and what’s ahead as the Library of Congress continues to modernize its IT.

With library branches closed or offering limited in-person services during much of 2020, that has often meant shifting to virtual offerings. But many people faced challenges accessing those online resources, according to “Public Libraries and the Pandemic: Digital Shifts and Disparities to Overcome,” a report published this month by New America, a Washington D.C.–based public policy think tank.

From The Washington Post: Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal on Thursday to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide, aiming to remedy some of the digital inequalities that have kept millions of Americans offline during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a significant show of support, Congress earmarked billions of dollars in recovery funding for academic, public, and school libraries on Wednesday, March 10, as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received $200 million, the largest single boost in the agency’s 25-year history. The relief package also includes money for library-eligible programs such as the Emergency Education Connectivity Fund through the FCC’s E-rate program.

From an American Libraries Association Statement: Libraries are eligible for billions of dollars in recovery funding as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 passed by Congress on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

Even before the pandemic emerged, libraries were investing in new technologies designed to save time and improve efficiency by supporting customer self-service, freeing up library staff to focus on more strategic work. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend and in the process, is transforming how libraries function in the 21^st century.

From The Washington Post: The Federal Communications Commission late Thursday finalized a $3.2 billion program that will provide a monthly discount to millions of cash-starved Americans struggling to pay their Internet bills — the country’s most ambitious effort yet to close the digital divide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

University of Washington iSchool researchers present an overview of the Open Data Literacy project's work to date, and share highlights from a survey of the current landscape of open data in Washington State's public libraries.