(23 Nov 2024) Some public libraries in Japan will trial sales of new books from fiscal 2025 to fill the void caused by a nationwide decline in the number of physical bookstores, industry officials said. The program is aimed at increasing opportunities for people to buy books, particularly the elderly who may be unfamiliar with…
(27 Nov 2024) SMU Libraries is pleased to announce that the registration for the third run of the Emerging Library Leaders’ Summer School for Asia-Pacific (ELLSSA) is now open. ABOUT ELLSSA Are you an emerging leader wanting to lead digital libraries? Or curious about latest trends in digital libraries? Do you enjoy learning in…
By Ruth A Pagell* (26 Nov 2024) When the new Singapore Management University hired me as its first University Librarian, I tried to draft a strategic plan before officially starting work. I always had data for US libraries, such as detailed library acquisition data found in the Library and Book Trade Almanac (Bayer;…
(14 Nov 2024) Book bans are increasingly becoming common in US schools. In the 2022-23 school year, PEN America reported 3,362 book bans, affecting 1,557 unique titles. And its latest data, released Nov. 1, 2024, shows that the number of book bans soared in the 2023-24 school year to more than 10,000, with Florida and Iowa accounting…
(20 Nov 2024) The RAND report examines the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on copyright law, focusing on the challenges of attributing ownership and protecting rights in creative works generated by AI. It highlights the complexities in balancing innovation with fair use and legal frameworks, emphasizing the need for updates to existing laws to address…
(17 Nov 2024) Ex Libris™, part of Clarivate™, is excited to announce that all Alma™ customers can now access and test the AI Metadata Assistant to aid library catalogers in their work and save them time. Available through the Alma November feature release, a preview of the AI tool is integrated into the Alma Metadata Editor…
(22 Nov 2024) China will further expand its Double First-Class initiative to develop world-class universities and excellence in specific academic disciplines on par with the best in the world, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng told a recent meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature. The new phase of the initiative will include…
(20 Nov 2024) The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Annual Salary Survey 2023, which analyzes salary data for professional staff working in 126 of the 127 ARL member libraries during 2023. Data are reported for 11,118 professional staff from 120 university ARL libraries in Canada and the United States and for 2,044…
(11 Nov 2024) OpenAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic all rely deeply on content from premium publishers to train the large language models, or LLMs, at the heart of their AI efforts, even as these companies have regularly underplayed their use of such copyrighted content, according to new research released this week from online publishing giant Ziff Davis. Ziff Davis owns…
(18 Nov 2024) Google Scholar, a tool used by researchers around the world, was founded by two researchers. We started Scholar in 2004, physically delivering hard drives to the office, and two decades later adding new AI features. To celebrate 20 years of Google Scholar, here are 20 fun facts about its origins, how you…