No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards; The Guardian, September 18, 2026

Anna North, The Guardian; No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards

Local communities are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education

"By channeling anger against mask mandates in schools, the rightwing group Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida, built an outsized influence on school boards across the country in 2022. Soon, members began pressuring schools to remake their curricula along conservative ideological lines, erasing mentions of LGBTQ+ Americans, slavery, racism and more.

As a Black dad living in a historically Black part of Sarasota, Glover said he was especially disturbed by governor Ron DeSantis’s announcement that Florida schools would begin teaching students that some Black people benefited from slavery. “Now my children and the students in my community weren’t going to be learning about the true history of this country,” Glover said.

So the father of four decided to run for Sarasota’s school board this year. He is part of a larger movement of students, parents, teachers and concerned community members pushing back against the influence of groups like Moms for Liberty in Florida public education. They wanted schools that were safe and welcoming for all students, and that focused on learning rather than scoring points on the national political scene.

And last month, they won."

Documentary Review: “The Librarians” puts the human cost of book banning on screen; The Cascadia Advocate, September 13, 2026

 Alex Fiedler, The Cascadia Advocate; Documentary Review: “The Librarians” puts the human cost of book banning on screen

The ninety-two minute film directed and produced by Kim A. Snyder, which is free to stream, is most compelling when it focuses on the librarians, parents, and students caught in the struggle over censorship.

"The Librarians covers a big flash point of today’s “culture wars”: the school library...

The Librarians makes a compelling case, typically through implication or through the voices of librarians, concerned parents, and students, that their actual motives lie in hiding ideas and perspectives they oppose from their children...

The Librarians makes its impassioned case with the aid of interview footage, video recordings of school board meetings, and clips from conservative media. Occasionally interspersed are excerpts from films and historical footage, making an emotional appeal for the enduring power of literature and the dangers of censorship...

The Librarians is available to stream for free on Kanopy and pbs.org."

Exercising Agency with AI; American Libraries, June 29, 2026

 Terra Dankowski  , American Libraries; Exercising Agency with AI

Tips for navigating products and policies, whether or not you choose to adopt the technology

"Michael Hanegan, founder of the Center for the Future of Learning and Work, described a scenario that might be frustratingly familiar to information professionals: His mom often falls for deep fakes. She came of age in a time when people were told to believe their eyes and video was considered an unimpeachable medium, and she’s unaware of what generative artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of.

Knowing that some librarians are thinking about ignoring AI completely, Hanegan had a thought: “What institution is going to help [my mom] and all of her friends navigate this?”

“Disengagement from AI guarantees your vulnerability,” he said. “The people that you serve will be harmed without your trusted guidance.”

Hanegan was one of four panelists who spoke at “Ethical AI in Libraries: A Critical Look at the Potential and Promise” at the American Library Association’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 28. The panel, moderated by Micah May, director of business development at Lyrasis, offered suggestions for how libraries can navigate the ethical implications of generative AI, even if they choose not to use it in their workflow.

“Regardless of whether you adopt AI or not, [you should] have guidelines,” said Brandy McNeil, deputy director of branch programming and services for New York Public Library (NYPL) and Public Library Association president.

McNeil said libraries should carefully weigh whether AI tools are inclusive, accountable, human-centered, transparent, and protect privacy.

“When [vendors say they use] industry standard practices, which standards? When they say they anonymize data, how? Which fields are removed?” McNeil asked. “Those are some of the things you want to be concerned about.”

The spread of AI is “inevitable,” said Marshall Breeding, editor of Library Technology Guides, as vendors are increasingly integrating AI technology into their products. But, he said, “we have to push back and make sure [AI] continues to be optional.”"

Non-traditional little free libraries popping up across Pittsburgh area; CBS News, July 24, 2026

 Ricky Sayer , CBS News; Non-traditional little free libraries popping up across Pittsburgh area

"A woman in Dormont is making it her mission to map all of the little free libraries in her community. 

Little free libraries are often placed by neighbors along sidewalks, allowing people to leave books they no longer need as well as encouraging them to take ones that interest them.

Two years ago, Amy Constantine says she and her husband built a little free library for their ever-growing collection of vinyl records, CDs and cassettes. Constantine says they inherited records or were gifted them, and it was a good way for them to get rid of any duplicates.

"Our music that we originally shared is long gone. This is all community music," says Constantine. "The neighborhood's been really generous about turning it over for us, right? We have new inventory all the time."

Constantine says her little free library inspired her to create a map of as many as she could find in her neighborhood. She says she was stunned to learn there were multiple within blocks of her home."

We asked Stephen King about Utah banning his books. Here’s what the bestselling author said.; The Salt Lake Tribune, July 23, 2026

 Palak Jayswal, The Salt Lake Tribune ; We asked Stephen King about Utah banning his books. Here’s what the bestselling author said.

"Earlier this month, bestselling horror author Stephen King had his second title, “Different Seasons,” added to an ever-growing list of books banned in all Utah public schools. 

And while King said he doesn’t usually “respond to queries about book banning,” he believes “this case is a little different.”

In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, King wrote:..."

What comes after book bans? One school district questions traditional libraries; WUSF, July 16, 2026

  Douglas Soule, WUSF; What comes after book bans? One school district questions traditional libraries

"After removing hundreds of books, Clay County is debating the purpose of high school libraries. School officials called it modernization. Critics see it as the next phase of the book debate targeting fiction books."

Come for the Books, Stay for the Power Tools; The New York Times, June 27, 2026

 

Sarah Diamond

Illustrations by Gabrielle Lamontagne, 

 The New York Times; Come for the Books, Stay for the Power Tools

"As of 2024, there were more than 2,000 examples of places around the world where patrons have access to objects that might otherwise sit unused in a closet, garage or on a store shelf.

The idea has roots stretching back to World War II-era tool-lending libraries. But researchers say the movement gained momentum after the Great Recession in 2008, when many Americans began questioning whether they needed to own items they used only occasionally. “It’s a reclamation of the commons,” said Shannon Mattern, an author and former professor who studies libraries and public infrastructure."

Archiving with AI; Library Journal, June 8, 2026

 Matt Enis, Library Journal; Archiving with AI

"AI companies are offering some libraries funding for digitization projects, but archives and special collections are working through how to manage projects responsibly

“Imagine a world where you know things but cannot say where you learned them,” begins “Memory Without Origin,” a paper published in April by University of Virginia (UVA) Dean of Libraries and University Librarian Leo S. Lo. This isn’t a hypothetical question, Lo notes, it’s a predictable consequence if libraries allow generative artificial intelligence (AI) to ingest archival materials as training data without requiring provenance conditions. And libraries, which could always use funding for projects involving digitization, special collections, and archives, are being approached by AI companies with deep pockets.

“They’ve been approaching a lot of larger research libraries, including Oxford and many more,” Lo tells LJ. (Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries began a digitization pilot project funded by ChatGPT maker OpenAI last year.) “Usually the offer is: they will pay you to digitize materials—which we want, because we want to make them more accessible—and in return, depending on the deal…they would like to have the data to train their AI models.”

These partnerships can benefit both parties, but for libraries, the consequences of getting these arrangements wrong “are more permanent than anything the profession has previously encountered,” Lo writes. “Once archival materials are absorbed into foundation model weights, no subsequent institutional action can remove them from the model.” If proper care isn’t taken, that information becomes unmoored from its former context within an archive."

Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive; The Guardian, June 22, 2026

Dalya Alberge, The Guardian; Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive

[Kip Currier: This is another testament to the vital roles and responsibilities of information professionals around the globe who preserve precious archival artifacts, like the late Kiyoshi Tanimoto's Hiroshima 8:15 memoir. The memoir was identified in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Tanimoto's poignant work gives a first-hand account in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. Penguin Random House will publish this "lost memoir" on August 4, 2026. 

Other recent archival finds include: 

• a draft of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech discovered in papers housed at the Virginia Theological Seminary's Bishop Payne Library, and

• a 44-page notebook in the National Library of France containing "seven previously unknown compositions" for flute and harp by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.]

"The memoir of a man who survived the horrors of Hiroshima is to be published for the first time this summer after its discovery in a US archive.

The 230-page memoir was written almost 80 years ago by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, who witnessed the city’s destruction after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He will now be portrayed in a feature film by Takehiro Hira, whose acclaimed roles include the detective in the Netflix Japanese-British drama Giri/Haji. Pre-production begins in November, ahead of the shoot in February 2027...

The memoir was found in the Beinecke rare book and manuscript library at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, among the papers of John Hersey, the American Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who died in 1993."

A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone; The Guardian, June 18, 2026

Donna Ferguson, The Guardian; A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone

"Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library.

This week, a report from Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew revealed the crucial role digitisation is playing in “transforming our ability to understand and respond to the climate and biodiversity crises”, but it was the creation of the BHL 20 years ago that first demonstrated how bringing centuries of scientific knowledge online can unlock transformative discoveries and insights about the natural world.

David Iggulden, who chairs the BHL executive committee alongside his job as head of data and digital, library and archives at RBG Kew, describes the library as an invaluable and “absolutely essential” resource for scientists in the field. But it is also used by scientific researchers, environmental historians, educators, art historians, artists, citizen scientists and members of the public who – like Iggulden – simply enjoy browsing its contents on a rainy weekend.

“I just get caught up in it sometimes, looking at the various collections,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we can explore such a vast array of different collections from very different institutions.”

As well as published biodiversity literature and journals, there are letters, illustrations, climate records, field diaries, ecosystem profiles, distribution records and manuscripts containing the original collecting stories of a particular species or detailing voyages of discovery."

Federal court hears oral arguments in appeal of Arkansas’ library obscenity law; Arkansas Advocate, June 11, 2026

 TESS VRBIN, Arkansas Advocate; Federal court hears oral arguments in appeal of Arkansas’ library obscenity law

"A federal appeals court heard arguments Thursday to uphold the injunction of a 2023 Arkansas law governing challenges to library content, while Arkansas’ solicitor general said the plaintiffs’ allegations were “too speculative.”

The three-judge panel from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis will rule on whether two sections of Act 372 of 2023 can go into effect. A district judge blocked the provisions in 2024, and the state appealed the ruling in 2025.

The two challenged sections would create criminal liability for librarians who distribute content that some consider “obscene” or “harmful to minors,” and give city and county governing bodies the final say over library content.

The 18 plaintiffs in the case include libraries, bookstores, advocacy groups and individual library patrons. The defendants are Arkansas’ 28 prosecuting attorneys, Crawford County and its county judge, Chris Keith.

Crawford County lost another federal lawsuit in 2024 after three parents claimed the county library violated the First Amendment by moving LGBTQ+ children’s books into separate “social sections” that only adults could access."

Book Surfaces 120 Years After a San Francisco Library Lost Almost Everything; The New York Times, June 1, 2026

 Adeel Hassan, The New York Times; Book Surfaces 120 Years After a San Francisco Library Lost Almost Everything;

"Randall Tarpey-Schwed, a book collector and library member, found the book on a website that deals in, among other things, rare books and collectibles. How it reached that previous owner is unknown.

Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said he was curious whether any books had survived the 1906 earthquake and fires, by virtue of having been checked out.

“There was no place to return the book, at least for a while, or to reapply Gertrude Stein’s famous quote, there was no ‘there there’ to return the book to,” he said.

“The book is not worth much monetarily,” Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said. “It is, after all, a soot-stained book with a lot of old library stamps. But as a survivor, it is priceless, and I knew immediately I wanted to return it to the library.”

The book’s author, Bret Harte, might have been a library member, Mr. Cooper said. Many writers and artists have been members, he said, but full membership records from before the earthquake are gone."

Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.; The New York Times, May 31, 2026

Brian Bannon, The New York Times; Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.

"More New Yorkers are borrowing books from the New York Public Library today than 15 years ago; borrowing is up 27 percent since 2010. And yet America is facing a book-reading crisis...

Libraries themselves were throwing up barriers to reading...

The reading crisis is real. But we don’t need new inventions to build a reading city. Exempt books from sales taxes the way we exempt prescription medicine. Invest in library collections and reduce wait lists for books. Open nonprofit and hybrid bookstoreswhen the market alone cannot sustain them. Build on the models that already work: reading in laundromats, libraries in transit systems, books in barbershops, classrooms, homes and pediatric offices."