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Anne Ford writes: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1722. As Philadelphia’s most famous son, Franklin—and his belief in personal expression as the cornerstone of democracy—made the city and its convention center apt hosts for the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held June 26–30. A total of 14,292 people registered for the event, whose programs included many dedicated to anticensorship efforts, programming challenges, funding cuts, and other existential threats.”...
American Libraries feature, July/Aug.
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On July 18, ALA unveiled a new
multiyear strategic plan aimed at strengthening libraries, growing the library workforce, driving innovation, and expanding community impact.
The new plan is the result of a data-driven process conducted over several months in partnership with a strategic planning consultant.
It was shaped by the insights of a Strategic Planning Task Force—a diverse group of member volunteers representing different sectors, roles, and perspectives from across the association.
Key priorities include developing the library workforce pipeline, driving innovation and technology adoption, expanding advocacy efforts, and growing community programs....
ALA Communications, Marketing, and Member Relations Office, July 18
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Amber Willenborg and Robert Detmering write: “This national qualitative study investigates academic librarians’ instructional experiences, views, and challenges regarding the widespread problem of misinformation.
Findings from phenomenological interviews reveal a tension between librarians’ professional, moral, and civic obligations to address misinformation and the actual material conditions of information literacy instruction, which influence and often constrain librarians’ pedagogical and institutional roles.
The authors call for greater professional reflection on current information literacy models that focus on achieving ambitious educational goals, but which may be unsuitable for addressing the larger social and political crisis of misinformation.”...
College & Research Libraries, July
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Rachel Grover writes: “Sometimes being a librarian feels like balancing an endless number of plates on sticks while I’m pedaling a unicycle.
Most of the time, I feel like there is never enough time in the day to get everything done and there is so much to remember and keep track of.
Once I started using Google Sheets, I felt like a gigantic weight came off my chest.
Here are five easy ways I use Google Sheets to keep my sanity throughout the school year.”...
Knowledge Quest, July 18
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Kaye Thornbrugh writes: “The Cooperative Information Network in north Idaho and eastern Washington will dissolve in September, ending more than 40 years of partnership.
The July 16 vote was the culmination of months of unsuccessful efforts to reorganize the consortium.
Several member libraries pointed to the Community Library Network’s (CLN) in northern Idaho’s
updated policies as the impetus for the dissolution.
In January, CLN trustees voted to restrict minor patrons from placing holds on materials from other consortium libraries and barred them from accessing material deemed ‘harmful to minors,’ regardless of the wishes of their parents or guardians.”...
Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Press, July 17; Hagadone News Network, Mar.
26
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Angie Simoneaux writes: “Lillian Lynette Mejia and Melanie Brevis have agreed to settle their
lawsuit against Lafayette (La.) Consolidated Government (LCG) and former Library Board President Robert Judge.
Mejia and Brevis filed suit after Brevis was
physically removed from a library board meeting while trying to make a comment” that criticized board members for their
willingness to segregate LGBTQ+ materials.
The settlement includes payments of $12,500 to Mejia and Brevis from LCG and a prohibition of reading or enforcing rules limiting protected speech at board meetings, among other terms....
KATC-TV (Lafayette, La.), July 18; Jan. 10, 2023; Acadiana Advocate (Lafayette, La.), Jul. 18; Jan. 10, 2023
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Andrea Baer writes: “In this article, I explore the dissonance between instruction librarians’ pedagogical goals and professional values and the capacities, limitations, and costs of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. I pay particular attention to messages we hear about the appropriate ways to think and feel about generative AI.
These ‘feeling rules’ often stand in the way of honest and constructive dialogue and collective decision making.
Work from within and outside librarianship offers another view: that we can slow down, look honestly at generative AI capacities and harms, and collectively explore the kinds of futures we want.”...
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, July 16
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Rebecca Kheel writes: “Children's biographies of trailblazing transgender public figures.
An award-winning novel reflecting on what it is like to be Black in America.
A series of graphic novels about the love story between a teenage gay couple.
Those are some of the
596 books that have been pulled from shelves in the Defense Department schools that serve military children as part of the Trump administration's broader effort to censor LGBTQ+ and racial issues from official government materials.”...
Military.com, July 14
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Jenny Arch writes: “‘Upselling’ is a sales term that refers to convincing customers to purchase additional items or a more expensive version of the same item.
However, we can ‘upsell’ in libraries too—and it doesn’t cost people anything! It’s just a way of promoting library materials or services that patrons may not be aware of yet.” Readers’ advisory, programming, databases, and library consortia services are all opportunities where upselling might help patrons make fuller use of their libraries....
Jenny Arch, July 18
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Ethan DeWitt writes: “Republican New Hampshire Gov.
Kelly Ayotte vetoed seven bills July 15, many of which were intended to strengthen parental rights, bucking the conservative wing of her party over hotly contested legislation.
One of the
most closely watched bills vetoed by Ayotte would have required public schools to adopt complaint procedures to allow parents to object to, and potentially remove, material deemed harmful from schools.
In her veto message, Ayotte noted that state law already allows parents to opt their child out of instructional material they object to, as long as they provide an alternative material.”...
New Hampshire Bulletin, July 15
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Mike Masnick writes: “There’s a fundamental architectural flaw in how the internet works that most people have never heard of, but it explains nearly every frustration you have with modern technology.
Former Google and Stripe executive
Alex Komoroske traces all of these problems back to the ‘same origin paradigm’—a quick security fix” that originated with the Netscape browser and isolates all websites and apps into their own universe.
“This creates massive friction every time data needs to move between services and fundamentally reshapes where data accumulates.”...
Techdirt, July 16; Every Thesis, July 14
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Daisy Atterbury writes: “Literature, like space travel, offers an escape, but also a way to reimagine what it means to be tethered to this planet, to each other, to the futures we may or may not reach.
A multigenre class of experimental writers challenged me to think against the steady gravitational pull of capitalist orientations to space.
Space belongs not to the empire, but to the storytellers, the poets, the dreamers who refuse the logic of extraction and conquest.
Each of these books remind us that another world is always possible, whether here, ‘out there,’ or somewhere between.”...
Electric Literature, July 18
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