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On May 3, Library Journal and EBSCO hosted the webinar, “Essential Techniques for Life Science Research.” Nigel Robinson, Director of Content Management at Clarivate Analytics, demonstrates the power of a subject index created by life scientists for thorough life sciences research.

As the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Initiative came to a close at the end of 2018, I joined many in reflecting on the massive contribution of that decades-long investment in libraries and what it now makes possible through its legacy partners.

During the final week of January, temperatures across the Midwest plunged to dangerous, record-breaking lows. Many libraries remained open and helped keep their constituents warm, out of the elements, informed, entertained, and, most of all, safe.

Author and activist Robin DiAngelo explained that grappling with racism can be uncomfortable for white people—but it's crucial to dismantling systemic oppression.

ProQuest yesterday announced the launch of ProQuest One Academic, a new resource that utilizes a single user interface to offer access to ProQuest Central, the Academic Complete collection, Alexander Street’s Academic Video Online collection, and the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database.

On December 1, 2018, Berkeley Public Library (BPL), CA, rolled out its new Easy Access Cards, designed for library customers without a fixed address. These include patrons who are experiencing homelessness, lack current documentation, are in transition between addresses, or are in the foster care system.

Learn the math behind determining the number of congressional seats for each state in the United States from the American Mathematical Society, publisher of Mathematical Moments, a program that promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

Students of sustainable agriculture learn the concepts and techniques they need to practice and promote farming that is environmentally sound as well as profitable, according to the College Board, an organization that connects students to college success and opportunity

Since the October 27, 2018, shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, when a lone gunman killed 11 worshippers and injured seven during Shabbat morning services, PJ Library has extended its mission to provide books and resources to parents who may be searching for ways to explain anti-Semitism to their young children.

Citing irreconcilable disagreements with publisher Elsevier’s business model, the editorial board of the Journal of Informetrics on January 10 unanimously announced its resignation and subsequently launched a new journal, Quantitative Science Studies.

Whether you’re a librarian, scientist, student or general consumer, when seeking research for your work, relevant information and sources seem plentiful, especially since the internet has made it easier than ever to discover and share content. However, the more there is, the harder it becomes to find what you need.

From Princeton University: On the morning of Sept. 2, 2018, the world community woke to the news that Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro had caught fire, destroying one of Latin America’s oldest and most important scientific and cultural institutions.

On December 19, the House of Representatives passed the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) by a margin of 331–28, and it was signed into law on December 31. The bill, also known as S. 3530, reauthorizes the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through 2025.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded CRL $200,000 in funding to lead a one-year effort to plan the next phase of the World Digital Library.

From the ITU (International Telecommunications Union): ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), estimates that at the end of 2018, 51.2 per cent of the global population, or 3.9 billion people, will be using the Internet.

The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 33rd annual survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $48.90, or less than $5.00 per person.

The “Google Generation”, “Digi Natives”, “Generation Z” – the newest generation of today’s college students have arrived in your library bringing with them a paradoxical challenge

At New York Public Library's Schomburg Center, artists and writers convened to discuss an iconic image in rap history and celebrate a recent book collecting images of hip-hop artists.

The University of St. Thomas is revolutionizing textbook affordability for students with the implementation of the Leganto reading solution. 

Calling all book nerds, librarians, and comics lovers. Have you signed up for LibraryCon Live yet?

Author and advice columnist Heather Havrilesky learned a great deal about libraries when she inadvertently sparked the ire of Library Twitter.

From Andrew Albanese at PW: For a second time, publishers have won an appeal in the long-running Georgia State University (GSU) e-reserves lawsuit.

Effective October 1, Penguin Random House (PRH) changed its licensing terms for public library ebooks, discontinuing its longstanding one-copy, one-user perpetual license model, and establishing a two-year access model.

LJ talks to Edward Fiske, author and former education editor for the New York Times, who has been producing the Fiske Guide to Colleges for more than 30 years.

Sociologist Eric Klinenberg  is the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture Speaker at the upcoming ALA Midwinter Meeting. In this Q&A about his book Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, he suggests that the key to a more equitable society may lie in our shared spaces—particularly libraries.

On September 25, the University of Rhode Island opened an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab on the first floor of the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons. While many universities have launched AI labs in recent years, URI officials believe this is the first such facility located in a university library.

Following two years in development, Gale launched its Digital Scholar Lab (DSL), a cloud-based text mining and natural language processing solution that facilitates analysis of raw text data (optical character recognition/OCR text) from 160 million pages of Gale Primary Sources content.

The American Library Association has announced a plan to explore Chicago’s commercial real estate market with the listing of its headquarter buildings at 40 and 50 East Huron.

Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., Section Head, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and Lance Werner, Executive Director, Kent District Library, Comstock Park, Mich., are the candidates for the 2020-21 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).

The amicus brief (49 pages; PDF) was filed on August 28 by the organizations listed here re: Mozilla Corporation, et al v. Federal Communications Commission  and United States of America (No. 18-151).

New Orleans Public Library’s (NOPL) Nora Navra Library celebrated its grand reopening in the city’s 7th Ward neighborhood on Friday, August 24 and Saturday, August 25. The completion of the new 7,800 square foot building marks the reopening of all six NOPL branches that were destroyed in the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

As part of a broad range of initiatives and actions to address diversity, RWA released the results of its first diversity survey, conducted in April 2017, this June. About a quarter of RWA’s members responded, showing the membership to be largely white (86%), not Hispanic or Latinx (95%), heterosexual (88%), female (97%, of whom less than .1% were transgender), and nondisabled (79%).

SAGE has acquired Talis, a technology company, and its enterprise teaching and learning platform, Talis Aspire, which is used by over 1 million students at more than 100 universities across 8 countries.

An online ALA Council poll, held August 9–16, voted 140–4 to rescind a controversial meeting room interpretation. The Library Bill of Rights will revert to the 1991 version that had previously been in effect.

According to a new analysis by researchers at New York University, violence has fallen in nearly all major U.S. cities since 1991. AmericanViolence.org, supported with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is based at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management and currently provides city-level figures on murder rates in more than 80 of the 100 largest U.S. cities.

A team made up of digital humanities librarians and other academic partners has developed an interactive website that visualizes the impact of Trump administration’s family separation policy’s enforcement and the emerging humanitarian crisis it has engendered.

As always, library vendors had a number of announcements to share at the American Library Association’s 2018 annual conference in New Orleans. Here are a few that LJ had an opportunity to learn about in person.

Library workers in Utah were asked to stop wearing buttons which offered to recommend LBGTQ materials this June, according to a local news outlet.

Janelle Richards stepped into her role as the first Environmentalist in Residence at Toronto Public Library (TPL), ON, Canada, on June 4. An environmental educator and certified teacher with over seven years’ professional experience, Richards will offer her expertise on conservation and sustainability, as well as programs, workshops, and community consultations, at TPL’s Albion Branch and Scarborough Civic Centre Branch.

An article that appeared in Forbes magazine online on July 21, calling for all public libraries to be replaced by Amazon bookstores, has the library community—and the communities they serve—up in arms. The op-ed piece, “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money,” by Panos Mourdoukoutas, chair of the economics department at Long Island University’s Post campus, drew righteously indignant and thoughtful responses.

Kimber L. Fender retired as director of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County,  Sue Landers has been named the next Executive Director of Lambda Literary, and more people news from the July 2018 issue of Library Journal.

Booknet Canada surveyed 500 Canadians over the age of 18 who read digital books about their format preferences, book buying, price points, channels, and more. See INFOdocket for an infographic and link to a video presentation on the findings.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Foundation has abandoned a proposal that would have split the museum and library between Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Dickinson State University.

The planned Barack Obama Presidential Center will not contain a traditional presidential library of physical archives from Obama’s two terms as president, but it will hold a branch of the Chicago Public Library to serve the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side.