Capturing and preserving information has long been part of the library mission. As the world grapples with the wide range of threats climate change presents to the environment, ecosystems, and society, we can make a difference by keeping people informed.

From Federal News Network: The largest source of federal funding for libraries and museums is putting all its employees on paid administrative leave, as the agency prepares for major cuts to its operations. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) put all of its approximately 75-employee workforce on paid administrative leave Monday, according to several IMLS employees.

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.

From Mississippi Today: A state commission scrubbed academic research from a database used by Mississippi libraries and public schools — a move made to comply with recent state laws changing what content can be offered in libraries. The Mississippi Library Commission ordered the deletion of two research collections that might violate state law, a March […]

From the Library of Congress: Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime, and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game phenomenon have been selected as some of the defining […]

From the arXiv Blog: Audio summaries are coming to arXiv! arXiv has partnered with ScienceCast on a pilot project to bring 60-second AI-generated audio summaries to arxiv.org. This follows our efforts to make arXiv’s scientific content even more broadly available by supporting additional formats beyond PDF, starting with HTML versions of recent papers, which we began rolling […]

Ed. Note: infoDOCKET Coverage of the Lawsuit Filed by 21 Attorneys General Over Cuts to IMLS, Federal Agencies (April 4, 2025) From a Joint Statement by ALA, AFSCME, and Democracy Forward: The American Library Association (ALA), the largest library association in the world, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the […]

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.

This is an utterly charming and absolutely delightful slow-burn romantasy, featuring a bumbling beta hero, a strong heroine, and an enemies-to-lovers romance that is sweet with heat. Romantasy readers will love this one.

De Cadenet’s well-written novel is riveting. Fans of romance with depth will clamor for this title.

Shortlists for the International Booker Prize, Dinesh Allirajah Prize, and Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards for British food writing are announced. Samantha Mills wins the Compton Crook Award for her debut novel, The Wings Upon Her Back. The Sheikh Zayed Book Awards are announced. ALA files suit over the gutting of IMLS. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner. Plus, the Library of Congress announced its 2025 selections for the National Recording Registry.

Caitlin Starling is the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence, Last To Leave the Room, and the Bram Stoker–nominated The Luminous Dead. Her upcoming novels The Starving Saints and The Graceview Patient epitomize her love of genre-hopping horror, like her other works spanning besieged castles, alien caves, and haunted hospitals. Here, Starling discusses her latest book, medieval horror, and complicated women protagonists.