Some AI tools are making newsrooms more efficient; others are generating incorrect headlines and news summaries, presenting new information literacy challenges.

On March 5, Clarivate issued an update  to its February 18 announcement of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections, acknowledging the need for community consultation and a new transition timeline. Because customers expressed that “the original communicated dates for the last orders would pose a considerable challenge,” the open letter stated, Clarivate will extend the ability to make perpetual purchases of print and ebooks on all platforms—including Ebook Central, OASIS, Rialto, and GOBI—through June 30, 2026.

The Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab (LIL) has created a data vault to download, authenticate, and provide access to copies of public government data that may be in danger of disappearing. The project will collect major portions of the datasets tracked by data.gov, federal GitHub depositories, and PubMed—information of value for researchers, scholars, and policymakers. When the public-facing site launched on February 6, the data vault had collected metadata and primary contents for more than 300,000 datasets available on data.gov.

Sara Ring, continuing education librarian at Minitex (a joint program of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota), was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work helping develop 23 Linked Data Things and the Minitex Wikimedia Project. LJ recently spoke with Ring about what it took to build those projects and her plans for the future.

Artificial intelligence is not a solution—it’s a tech tool that is only useful when it actually solves problems for learners and librarians. AI is everywhere you look today, from the big three search engines to the local library. 

Clarivate, the parent company of ProQuest and its Ebook Central platform, on February 18 announced the launch of a new subscription-based content access strategy for ebooks and digital collections. As part of the strategy, Clarivate will be phasing out the option for libraries to purchase one-time perpetual licenses for its ebooks and digital collections in 2025, including single-title purchases, upgrades, and evidence-based and demand-driven acquisitions.

The American Library Association (ALA) has filed an amicus brief on the U.S. Supreme Court case, Federal Communications Commission, et al., Petitioners v. Consumers’ Research, et al., which stands to decide the fate of federal programs supporting broadband access for half of the nation’s public libraries. The brief affirms both the constitutionality and the value of the Universal Service Fund and the programs it administers—particularly the E-Rate program, which helps power broadband-enabled services and access in U.S. public libraries and schools.

Welcome to our first AI Watch column! The three of us talk monthly in the Libraries Lead Podcast (available at librarieslead.libraryjournal.com), and now we share content from that segment of the podcast in digital and print form through Library Journal.

Libraries are evolving rapidly and leadership in this space requires more than passion—it demands strategic vision, adaptability, and a keen understanding of data. This article will discuss how library leaders can harness data to make informed decisions, align resources, and foster engagement within their communities.