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I was extremely happy to be invited to deliver the opening keynote at AspenCon 2025…speaking to a room full of people excited to be a part of open source development in libraries is always a great time. I was feeling reflective when I was asked to come up with a topic, and decided to look […]
In this new online column, American Library Association (ALA) Senior Endowment Trustee Brett Bonfield will update members about the ALA Endowment Fund, its role in ALA finances, and additional topics related to investment decisions and how they are made. ALA’s endowment is a major component of the Association’s finances, contributing millions of dollars each year […]
Cybercriminals are abusing a widespread lack of authentication in the customer service platform Zendesk to flood targeted email inboxes with menacing messages that come from hundreds of Zendesk corporate customers simultaneously. Zendesk is an automated help desk service designed to make it simple for people to contact companies for customer support issues. Earlier this week, […]
The pop-up Star Wars Library at Singapore’s Changi Airport. Chile Librarians at the National Library of Chile in Santiago discovered a cache of hidden texts from the government of 1970–1973 President Salvador Allende, the Latin American Post reported. After the September 11, 1973, military coup, dictator Augusto Pinochet sought to destroy “dangerous” texts, including leftist […]
Microsoft today released software updates to plug a whopping 172 security holes in its Windows operating systems, including at least two vulnerabilities that are already being actively exploited. October’s Patch Tuesday also marks the final month that Microsoft will ship security updates for Windows 10 systems. If you’re running a Windows 10 PC and you’re […]
The world’s largest and most disruptive botnet is now drawing a majority of its firepower from compromised Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices hosted on U.S. Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, new evidence suggests. Experts say the heavy concentration of infected devices at U.S. providers is complicating efforts to limit collateral damage from the botnet’s attacks, […]
While the drumbeat of news stories of libraries and schools relocating or removing books continues, it’s important to remember that librarians have allies in the fight against book-banning. Here’s how a few notable figures American Libraries spoke to or covered over the past year reflected on advocacy, diverse stories, and censorship-free libraries. “There’s a reason […]
Conversations about censorship and book bans tend to exclude the voices of the very population they claim to protect: young people. Now a rising generation is bristling at these restrictions, seeking a more active role in advocating for their own freedom to read. “A core front in the culture wars is: What does it mean […]
Despite measures to continue operations and preserve pending contracts with libraries, the book distributor Baker & Taylor (B&T), a longtime fixture in the library technology industry, will shutter. B&T is in the process of closing following financial difficulties experienced over the last two years, according to Publishers Weekly; Shaw Local, a media group in northern […]
A cybercriminal group that used voice phishing attacks to siphon more than a billion records from Salesforce customers earlier this year has launched a website that threatens to publish data stolen from dozens of Fortune 500 firms if they refuse to pay a ransom. The group also claimed responsibility for a recent breach involving Discord […]
In 2023—as book challenges, relocations, and removals in the state’s public and school libraries were reaching unprecedented levels—16-year-old Iris Mogul started the all-ages Banned Books Club in Coral Gables, Florida. The club’s largely but not exclusively adult membership includes English teachers and retired professors. They read and discuss titles like James Baldwin’s Go Tell It […]
Banned Books Week takes place October 5–11. This year’s theme is “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” 1982Year that ALA held its first Banned Books Week. 2,452Total number of unique titles challenged in libraries in in 2024 that were documented by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. While that number is a sharp decline […]
Students explore the tables at the Freedom Walk program at Clark High School. Three years ago, after a difficult state legislative session in Texas that aimed to restrict access to books and disparage the work of librarians, I recognized the urgency of helping my community understand how our libraries operate. I am a school librarian. […]
In this interview, Stanford Research Fellow Dr. Duncan Eddy reflects on his professional background, shifting his focus on artificial intelligence safety standards, and what he is currently working on. He offers insightful observations from his work in AI safety and advice for future professionals. Dr. Eddy shared his experiences with the Library’s Artificial Intelligence Community […]
Dan Montgomery will start his role as the American Library Association’s (ALA) new executive director on November 10. He will become the first nonlibrarian to serve in that position in the Association’s nearly 150-year history, overseeing a membership of 45,000 people and 180 staffers. Montgomery comes to ALA from the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), […]
Today’s guest post is from Genevieve Havemeyer-King of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division at the Library of Congress. Even for those who aren’t movie buffs, the vibrant covers of Cine-Mundial never fail to snag one’s attention, and who could deny the pleasure of watching the evolution of the celebrity magazine unfold over 25 years […]
As reported by Ars Technica, with many more details in the White Paper (PDF) written by the Science Press Package team, SciPak. I have no reason to doubt the findings, but do note the caveats that appear in the paper itself, that, This does not mean that the LLM has no potential value as a […]
U.S. prosecutors last week levied criminal hacking charges against 19-year-old U.K. national Thalha Jubair for allegedly being a core member of Scattered Spider, a prolific cybercrime group blamed for extorting at least $115 million in ransom payments from victims. The charges came as Jubair and an alleged co-conspirator appeared in a London court to face […]
A recent report from CILIP, the Library and Information Association in the UK, provides results from a small survey of 162 “information professionals” in the UK from late 2024. AI and the UK Library Profession: Survey Report 2025 runs 33 pages long, but much of that consists of selected open-text responses to the survey. I […]
At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected with a self-replicating worm that steals credentials from developers and publishes those secrets on GitHub, experts warn. The malware, which briefly infected multiple code packages from the security vendor CrowdStrike, steals and publishes even more credentials every time an infected package […]
