Election Day 2024 held mixed results for libraries on the ballot across the country. EveryLibrary identified and tracked 79 library measures on local and statewide ballots about funding, buildings, and governance. Of those, 55 were for long-term operating revenue, 10 for building projects, seven for annual budgets, one was a defunding measure, two concerned library governance, and four were statewide issues. 

On October 24, the Association of College and Research Libraries announced the publication of its 2024 report for the Project Outcome for Academic Libraries (POAL) toolkit. Data in the report offers a snapshot of POAL’s use and impact in FY24, from September 1, 2023, to August 31 of this year. The report is available as a free download from the Project Outcome for Academic Libraries website.

LJ’s 2024 Placements & Salaries Survey sees new grads grapple with questions of relocation, living wages, and job drift, but eager to begin careers in the field.

As Lorcan Dempsey, formerly with OCLC, observed in portal: Libraries and the Academy (2008), “discovery happens elsewhere”—that is, people are using internet search engines, recommendations from social media, or emails from friends and colleagues to discover content. Search can be a powerful tool, provided you know what you are looking for. Yet there are significant problems associated with the search process.

From Oxford University Press:  Oxford University Press (OUP) has named ‘brain rot’ as the Oxford Word of the Year 2024, following a public vote that saw more than 37,000 people worldwide have their say. ‘Brain rot’ was one of the six contenders shortlisted by OUP’s language experts to reflect some of the moods and conversations that have shaped the past year. Selected […]

The preprint linked to below was recently shared on arXiv. Title Suspected Undeclared Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Literature: An Analysis of the Academ-AI Dataset Author Alex Glynn University of Louisville Source via arXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2411.15218 Abstract Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT became widely available, researchers have used […]

The article linked below was recently published by Nature. Title Why ‘Open’ AI Systems are Actually Closed, and Why This Matters Authors David Gray Widder Cornell University Meredith Whittaker Signal Foundation University of Western Australia Sarah Myers West AI Now Institute Source Nature 635 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08141-1 Abstract This paper examines ‘open’ artificial intelligence (AI). Claims about […]

From the Associated Press: The Aurora Health Care Mobile Medical Clinic team waited patiently at a table in the main hallway of the Milwaukee Public Library’s sprawling downtown branch, a blood pressure cuff and mental health questionnaire at the ready as they called out to patrons who paused: “Do you have any questions about your […]

Dave explores NotebookLM’s podcasting feature. NotebookLM is an AI system from Google that lets you create a workspace around documents that summarizes, creates study guides, and much more. One of the features is creating an “Audio Overview” that transforms your notes and documents into a two person podcast. Dave was impressed, see what you think.

The election is over, and the reactions are emotional and raw. America is still as divided politically and socially as the day before. What’s in store for us as individuals, families and communities? What might the next few years look like for libraries and librarians and those who use and rely on library resources and service?

Natural and human-made crises, disasters, emergencies, and catastrophes. Beth leads us through an update on how we've progressed or declined in our collective ability to deal with crises, and how the library & information field can play an even more active and visible role in preparing for, during, and recovering from these disasters.

Family stories, trailblazing actors and activists, a wedding crasher, and more populate these engaging novels.

Explore powerful titles by marquee-name and debut authors, a translator, several poets, and short-story scribes.

Real-life historical figures solve and commit crimes, a puzzle master faces an ancient challenge, and an avenging equine rides to the rescue.

Love wins—eventually—in 10 delightfully trope-filled tales from fake dating to enemies-to-lovers.