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In this interview, Natalie Burclaff describes the Industry Associations Web Archive and the variety of content it preserves. She also offers insights into the challenges of curating the collection and explains why it serves as a crucial resource for understanding how industry has evolved and responded to global events. This is part of a series […]
Lucie Faulknor (left) and Dawn Logsdon, codirectors of the PBS Independent Lens documentary Free for All: The Public Library For filmmaker Dawn Logsdon, summers in the 1960s and 1970s were filled with road trips in her family’s Volkswagen. A common stop on those travels included public libraries, which meant that by age 12, she had […]
OK, that’s a clickbait title, but only a little. They’re actually amongst the heaviest users of Claude, according to Anthropic (PDF), via the 2025 AI Index Report from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. The report itself is a 456-page PDF, so do start with the key takeaways, but then either search for specific words of […]
On March 20, 2025, the DC Chapter of AI4LAM held its first meeting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, and Library of Congress staff were excited to take part in the event. AI4LAM is an international, collaborative community focused on advancing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in, for, and […]
Inside the Haskell Library, a black line on the floor marks the border between the United States and Canada, which patrons from both countries can freely move across. courtesy of Sylvie Boudreau For more than a century, Canadians have used nothing but a narrow sidewalk to cross their national border into Vermont and enter the […]
Today’s blog post is an interview with Hanna Fogle, a 2024-25 Librarian-in-Residence here at the Library of Congress. Carlyn: Hi Hanna, could you tell us a bit about what you do as a Librarian-in-Residence (LIR)? How would you explain your job to someone outside the Library of Congress? What do you like most about your […]
This is a very current report, with questions being collected between Feb 19-March 1, 2025. From the Social Media Lab at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), The State of Generative AI Use in Canada 2025: Exploring Public Attitudes and Adoption Trends. 1,500 Canadians were asked questions about their use and knowledge of generative […]
During a February 2025 meeting of the Huntington Beach, California, City Council, former NFL player Chris Kluwe spoke out against installation of a plaque referencing MAGA to commemorate the town library’s 50th anniversary. Former NFL player Chris Kluwe put down the pigskin in 2013, when he retired from professional football after eight seasons with the […]
The following is a guest post by 2025 Innovator in Residence Vivian Li, an illustrator, comics artist and web developer from Macomb, Illinois, who currently lives in Seattle. This is the second blog post in a series following Vivian’s project, Anywhere Adventures. Check out the LC Labs Anywhere Adventures experiment page to learn more about the […]
Bob the Drag Queen Photo: Rowan Daly Bob the Drag Queen—who won RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2016 and has since starred in other reality shows such as HBO’s We’re Here and Peacock’s Traitors, as well as several comedy specials—released his debut novel this month. Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert (Gallery Books) imagines the iconic abolitionist […]
The Library will retire the Newspaper Navigator application on April 21st, 2025. Created by Benjamin Charles Germain Lee while he was in service as a Library of Congress Innovator in Residence, the application has received over 174,000 visitors representing tens of thousands of research experiences. Ben’s project was the first in-house machine learning application developed […]
Since President Trump retook office on January 20, libraries and librarianship have been assaulted via executive orders and other actions. While the legality of many of these actions is still being decided by the courts, librarians, archivists, and other information professionals have been working through the confusion to preserve access to information. Below are several examples […]
The title for this post came from Stephen Downes as a comment to my Mastodon post last year on the first article in this series: ChatGPT’s search results for news are ‘unpredictable’ and frequently inaccurate. “Building on our previous research, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism conducted tests on eight generative search tools with live […]
Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’s digital collections? The Signal shares updates on new additions to our digital collections and we love showing off all the hard work of our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. Click here for […]
Today’s blog post is an interview with the Signal’s own Pedro Gonzalez-Fernandez, here at the Library of Congress. You can read other interviews with digital collections staff here. Carlyn: Hi Pedro, could you tell us a bit about what you do in the Digital Services Directorate? How would you explain your job to someone outside the Library […]
Illustration: David Alvarado When it comes to sustainability, “little things add up.” That’s what science librarian René Tanner—one of the dozens of librarians and experts whose actions American Libraries highlights in our Sustainability Issue—tells us. At a time when climate change seems impervious to the realities of workplace budgets and staff bandwidth, Tanner’s words ring […]
In 1979, Berkeley (Calif.) Public Library became one of the first libraries to start a tool lending program. Today, library patrons can choose from dozens of household options, from lawn mowers to miter saws, cold-press juicers to knife sharpeners. Public libraries continue to adopt this model, with Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library launching its first tool […]
1989ALA creates the Task Force on the Environment, timed with Earth Day’s 20th anniversary in 1990. The task force is now part of the Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT). 1990ALA introduces Environmental Issues to its Policy Manual, urging librarians and library governing boards to “collect and provide information [to patrons] on the condition of our Earth, its […]
At nearly every talk I’ve given on climate change and libraries over roughly a decade, someone in the audience asks how I remain hopeful in the face of climate scientists’ predictions. I am not, I clarify, hopeful that we will turn the tide on the impacts of climate change—at least not in my lifetime. But […]
Greening your library with limited resources and lukewarm buy-in might seem overwhelming. But sustainability is also about committing to small changes. Here’s a list of low-lift ideas that libraries of any type or size can start incorporating. Organize a swap. Sul Ross State University Library in Alpine, Texas, hosted a clothing exchange for students, while […]
