This year's Budgets and Funding Survey showed mixed results for fiscal trends in 2024, from robust forward motion to defunding—with more uncertainty ahead.

Alan Inouye has led advocacy and public policy for the American Library Association (ALA) since 2007, where he’s touched everything from E-Rate to copyright to ebook access, securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for libraries. His retirement from ALA this month marks a crucial moment for the association, which has weathered significant challenges in recent years and cannot afford to lose ground with relationships in Washington, DC, and across the broader library landscape.

Scott Summers, assistant director of the Media and Education Technology Resource Center (METRC) at North Carolina State University, was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for his work developing a program to help new teachers understand the growing problem of book censorship in school libraries, and how to work with librarians against it. We recently spoke with Summers about why he developed the program and what it teaches.

We cannot be caught flat-footed when library funding is called into question. Doing the work of capturing stories today will help ensure we’re prepared to deal with threats that we may face tomorrow.

From The NY Times: “In many areas of the F.D.A., no employees remain to process payroll, to file retirement or layoff paperwork and to help overseas inspectors who are at risk of maxing out agency credit cards. Even the agency’s library, where researchers and experts relied on medical journal subscriptions that have now been canceled, […]

From The NY Times:  “In many areas of the F.D.A., no employees remain to process payroll, to file retirement or layoff paperwork and to help overseas inspectors who are at risk of maxing out agency credit cards. Even the agency’s library, where researchers and experts relied on medical journal subscriptions that have now been canceled, […]

From ACRL: Every two years, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee releases an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic libraries. The 2025 Environmental Scan  provides a broad review of the current higher education landscape, with special focus on the state of academic and research libraries. The […]

From The Associated Press: The U.S. Naval Academy has removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to review and get rid of ones that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, U.S officials said Tuesday. Academy officials were told to review the library late last week, and an initial […]

It’s March Madness time! So, check your brackets, grab a beverage and snacks, root for your favorite teams, and join Beth & Mike as they share and challenge each other’s perceptions and predictions with their library & information science perspectives on the whole phenomenon.

Find out what's it like to look at the world from an information perspective, to put on your"information colored glasses!

From the Libraries Lead Podcast - February 2025, AI Watch Segment. Dave Lankes explains and demonstrates DeepSeek - the Chinese-based AI system. Go "under the hood" on DeepSeek and see how it performed better than any other current AI on Beth's query about integration in Alabama schools.

Shortlists for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards are announced, as are winners of the Association of American Publishers PROSE Awards and the Christopher Awards. Publishers ask Congress to defend libraries as federal library grant funding ends. Picador will reissue more than 100 novels by Georges Simenon. Books are forthcoming from former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Plus, Page to Screen and Anthony Horowitz’s favorite books.

Generative AI services use a lot of electricity and water, and create a lot of e-waste. The ecological impact of the technology is just beginning to be studied and discussed.

The National Book Foundation announces its 5 Under 35 honorees: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Megan Howell, Maggie Millner, Alexander Sammartino, and Jemimah Wei. Nicola Griffith wins the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The finalists are revealed for the Al & Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize for established Canadian poets. Reese Witherspoon’s April book club pick is All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Mark Hoppus, Maria Shriver, and Reginald Dwayne Betts.

A lively story with engaging characters and fascinating bits about British colonial governance in Fiji. Rao’s second tale about Sgt. Akal is first-rate.