6 Jul 2025

Libfocus Link-out for July 2025

Welcome to the July edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

Five image clockwise from top left: Graphic of a man reading from a page, Two people seated at a table looking at an open book, graphic of giant hands over a man who is standing between the walls of a control panel with attached wires, a woman pointing to a map on a large screen, graphic of an older woman smiling while reading a book
Images taken from this month's link-out articles

How Language Bias Persists in Scientific Publishing Despite AI Tools.

In this article for Stanford HAI Scott Hadly explains that there’s no such thing as a quick fix for mitigating against language bias in scholarly publishing: “so if you have a subconscious bias against people from China, for example, that bias will emerge in other ways, even as language is adjusted [with LLMs].”

AI literacy essentials for academic libraries.
A free-of-charge eight-week AI microcourse from Clarivate and Choice's LibTech insights starting in mid-July. Sign up on the Choice website

The course includes:

  • Core AI literacy concepts written by academic library workers for academic library workers.  
  • Self-paced material includes readings and multimedia content, case studies and interviews with thought leaders. 
  • Optional discussion questions and quizzes to build community and test your knowledge.  
  • At the end of the micro-course, participants will be awarded a certificate of completion.

The more books per capita, the fewer residents require nursing care: Japan study.
In this Mainichi article, Ayako Oguni looks at the Japanese study that finds the more public library books a municipality has, the fewer residents require long-term nursing care. The study also found that living in a municipality with many library books may extend healthy life expectancy, even for those who don't read.

Roles in higher education libraries: An explainer.
Chris Chan explores how libraries are changing with the times in the digital era in this Times Higher Education article. He examines five roles that have emerged in response to the skills and expertise required of librarians as they evolve to meet the changing needs of their institutions.

How One College Library Plans to Cut Through the AI Hype.
Kathryn Palmer for Inside Higher Ed speaks to Nicholas Johnson, the inaugural director of AI at Stony Brook University Library, New York about his new position and how the library is going to engage with AI.

Pioneering project releases more lost Irish records spanning 700 years.
Rory Carroll for The Guardian on the 2025 release of 175,000 more records and increased searchability on The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.

The modern library: technology-enhanced library spaces.
This SCONUL report provides a collection of case studies showcasing technology-enabled library spaces across the UK and Ireland. It helps to answer the question of what a modern academic library looks like.

Public Libraries Deserve a LibKey Nomad Too, Dammit.
Imagine hitting a paywall on The Irish Times or The Telegraph, and a little popup says "Available through [Your Public Library] - Click to access" and takes you there. Academic libraries have this with browser extensions like LibKey and Lean Library. Blogger Hannah Shelley wonders if it's a thing for public libraries.

26 Jun 2025

"Is This How Men Always Feel?": The Power of Being Surrounded by Female Leaders at CONUL

This review of the CONUL Conference is by Holly Meade-Kennedy, who is a library assistant in Maynooth University Library. 

Close up picture of two smiling women
Holly Meade Kennedy with her colleague Sarah Lindsay. Picture credit: Holly Meade-Kennedy 2025. 

"Is This How Men Always Feel?": The Power of Being Surrounded by Female Leaders at CONUL

I left CONUL 2025 with a (free) notebook full of ideas, a mind full of questions and one quiet, persistent thought I can’t shake: is this how men always feel?

It was the first time I felt so at ease at a professional event - and it happened to be led almost entirely by women. There was no special focus on gender, no headline panel about women in leadership. Women were just there - leading, organising and shaping every part of the CONUL conference.

When I was awarded the bursary to attend CONUL, I envisioned writing a blog post after the conference about speakers I enjoyed hearing or tips for next year’s attendees. But instead, I had a genuinely impactful experience I had not anticipated.

From the first panel where Dr Sandra Collins, Monica Crump, Allison Kavanagh and Ciara McCaffrey reflected as leaders on challenges and opportunities facing our research libraries, I felt inspired because I could see elements of myself in these women. Their career paths seemed wildly impressive but possible with hard work and commitment.

Despite progress, many industries still exhibit a significant gender imbalance at the leadership level, which means that in the past when I have attended conferences or seminars, I am usually listening to middle-aged (white) men and although I still respect and learn from them – I don’t see myself in them so I can’t relate or be inspired in the same way.

I know that men of quality including my own dad, husband, brother and even colleagues in MU Library have always understood that is not an attack on them – it’s simply an honest reflection on my own experience. I am thrilled that smart, kind, experienced men have the chance to lead and present – I just want women to be on the bill too.

Even though our libraries are mostly made up of female employees, men are disproportionately represented in top leadership positions comparative to the numbers they make up overall.

a female speaker at a podium presenting at a conference with a slideshow in the background.
Anne Jarvis, University Librarian at Princeton presenting at CONUL. Picture credit: Holly Meade-Kennedy 2025. 
I had the unique opportunity to ask Anne Jarvis about this. Anne was the first female University Librarian in Cambridge’s 800 year history and she now holds the same title at Princeton. Anne shared incredible insights in her answer – noting that she believes one of the key elements to helping women secure top leadership roles within libraries is mentoring. 

She acknowledged that women do have a tougher time advancing professionally and encouraged women to work on not doubting themselves and to insert themselves into conversations and seize opportunities that come their way. To see an Irish woman excelling at the highest level was so heartening. When Anne took to the podium, she didn’t spend her keynote talking about gender. She spoke about leadership, vision, strategy and community. She didn’t justify her presence, she embodied it.

In doing so, Anne offered something rare and radical: the image of a woman in power without apology, without preamble, without footnotes. She acknowledged her experience, but she didn’t let it define her talk. As I listened, I realised this is what real representation does. It shifts the air in the room, even when no one says a word about it.

Throughout the conference, I noticed how safe and inclusive the space was. I felt welcome to ask questions and strike up conversations. Unfortunately – as with many others across the world – I have been in professional situations where inappropriate comments or unprofessional behaviour from men much more senior than me has made me feel uncomfortable at best, intimidated at worst. I realise many people who work in libraries have done so throughout their whole career – but as someone who has worked across many industries – I was genuinely struck by the ease I felt and I believe that was largely down to being surrounded by so many women.

As the winner of the bursary supported by UCD, I was also offered the opportunity to be mentored by Gillian Kerins from TUD who was so friendly, kind and helpful. Again, this was a powerful way to help me network and give me a direct link to another impressive lady working within the library space.

I also had the chance to attend the presentations given by my own MU colleagues – amazingly competent women all passionate about the individual roles they play in making our library so great. It was especially meaningful to have the chance to listen to Laura Connaughton, Head of Academic Services in MU Library, share about our gender equality initiatives as part of our Athena Swan Bronze Award submission – a project I have loved being a part of. Having Laura, Michaela Hollywood and Fiona Morley from MU all present and visible at CONUL is so motivating and I appreciate their leadership being grounded in approachability and kindness.

What struck me most was that all of this leadership and visibility was not a theme. These women weren’t on the programme because they were women. They were there because they were talented and hardworking people who just happened to be women.

And in that quiet normalisation, I was left wondering - is this how men always feel?

What must it be like, to walk into rooms and always see yourself represented at leadership level? What must it feel like, to feel included by default? What must it feel like to always feel safe in unfamiliar spaces and situations?

This experience has made me want to work to build more spaces like that for everyone.

Because although I am speaking from my own experience, I want to also acknowledge there is so much more work to be done in our sector to diversify further to include more people from different races, religions and cultural backgrounds. Representation shouldn’t be radical - it should be routine.

Leaving CONUL 2025, I want to help build spaces where more people can feel that same sense of belonging, safety and possibility I did - not as a surprise, but as a standard. Because if this is how men always feel - seen, included, inspired - then I want that for everyone. Not just women, but people of every background. CONUL gave me a glimpse of what’s possible, and now I want to help make it permanent.


Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2025 | Categories:

25 Jun 2025

Blog on the Conul conference 2025: Shaping tomorrow, Reflections and new directions.



This review of the CONUL Conference 2025 is by John O'Donnell, who is a Library Assistant at the Glucksman Library, UL.


Thanks to the kind sponsorship of Bibliotheca, I had the opportunity to attend the CONUL Conference as a library assistant who qualified from an LAI accredited coarse in the last 5 years. The Conference took place in the Tullamore Court Hotel on the 28th and 29th of May. This was the first CONUL conference which I would have had the opportunity to attend so I was curious but also excited to find what the conference had in store for me.

The conference opened with the head librarians of the University of Limerick, Technological University Dublin, University of Galway and University College Dublin.  They discussed the opportunities and the threats faced by academic libraries within the current climate of which we work in.

The first of the keynote speakers was Richard Ovenden, who currently holds the title of Bodley’s Librarian & the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, Richard comes from a special collections background. The keynote title was Collecting and preserving new imperatives and challenges. Collecting and preserving knowledge is important due to these uncertain times libraries are currently operating in. Throughout the keynote speech from Richard, he continued to stress the importance of collecting and preserving information.

After the first keynote speech, the breakout session which I attended was the lighting talk. In the lighting talk each talk revolved around Auditing digital collections for long term preservation, AI curious to AI conversant, Aligning Open repository Network, AI Literacy at UCD Library and Finally Trends in Open Access Publishing. I found these lightning talks helpful and informative as I currently work in the customer engagement side of the Glucksman Library I want to branch out and begin looking at different aspects of the work performed in academic libraries, such as AI, OA publishing, preserving collections and final the use of Open Repository networks to strengthen practices. These talks were very interesting and helped me further understand other aspects of the academic library which will overall help me in my understanding of what goes on in the day-to-day work within an academic library. After the lightning talk, that concluded the talks for the day. I then took the opportunity to go over and view some of the posters which had been done by members of other libraries around the country.

After all the events, I was given the opportunity to meet my Bursary Mentor, Elaine Harrington from UCC. We discussed the first day of the conference and what I had thought of the whole experience, from the keynote speaker to the lightning talks which I had also attended That concluded my first day at the CONUL conference.

On day two we had our talk from the second Keynote speaker Anne Jarvis, who is the current University Librarian in Princton University in the United States. Anne spoke about her professional experiences and focused on three primary three themes that she believes to be crucial to library leadership.  The three themes which she believes to be the most important are Partnership, Innovation, and Sustainability of Services.

After Anne’s talk, we then had the first break out session. I went to the feedback session of the Record Data Management (RDM) costing model. This session was presented by Armin Straube and Marcus Leaning from UL. The attendees were to view the process of good record data management standards and see if they could find any potential unforeseen costs within the data management plan. This was an informative session which helped me better understand the process required when creating a record data management plan. After that workshop I then attended a Parallel paper talk session from Jenny O Neill, Michaela Hollywood and Oksana Dereza. The three individual papers touched on the topic of Open Research, Reimagining the Library and Transforming text into discovery.

Being able to attend the Conul conference was an excellent experience for me as I only began my full time carrier in libraries in early 2024 so the conference was an amazing experience for me to attend so that I could, number 1, meet people within the field which I work in, and also to gain a better understanding of the work done, not only in the Glucksman library where I work but also other university Libraires around the country. To top it all off, I was fortunate enough to win the annual conference quiz- a highlight of the event.

24 Jun 2025

CONUL Conference 2025

This review of the CONUL Conference 2025 is by Michelle McMeekin who is a senior library assistant in Queen's University Belfast. 

CONUL Conference 2025

The CONUL Conference is a key gathering for academic librarians across Ireland, and I was thrilled to have been awarded the LIS Student Bursary to attend this year’s event. Having recently completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Management at Ulster University, the conference provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with professionals across the library community and support my ongoing professional development.

The theme this year, "Shaping Tomorrow – Reflections and New Directions" felt especially timely given the evolving roles of libraries and the wider impact of political uncertainty within the sector. Held at the centrally located Tullamore Court Hotel, the conference offered a rich and varied programme featuring keynote speakers, poster presentations, lightning talks, and parallel paper sessions.

The conference kicked off with a plenary session where a panel of four library professionals discussed the challenges facing libraries and reflected on issues such as cybersecurity in the protection of digital collections, redesigning library spaces, generative AI and changing user behaviour. It was reassuring to learn that other libraries are encountering similar challenges, and valuable to gain insight from their experiences and advice.

The keynote speaker on day one was Richard Ovenden from Bodleian Library who delivered a talk titled ‘Collecting and Preserving: New Imperatives and New Challenges.’ He emphasized the vital role of libraries and archives as an 'essential infrastructure for democracy’, highlighting their significance in supporting education, shaping identity, and safeguarding rights. Ovenden underscored the risks and ethical concerns associated with OpenAI scraping websites and open-access academic publications to extract free knowledge. He suggested that one way to address the influence of these technological challenges is by curating trusted collections, supported by accurate metadata and shelf marks. His thought-provoking talk shed light on the growing impact of big tech on the library sector.

'Collecting and preserving: new imperatives and new challenges.' Speaker: Richard Ovenden, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Picture credit Michelle McMeekin.

During the break, I had the opportunity to connect with my conference mentor, Katherine McSharry from the University of Galway, who kindly introduced me to several of her colleagues. Afterwards, I attended the final session of the day, which featured a series of lightning talks. Niamh Murphy’s presentation on using Brunnhilde software to preserve digital collections was insightful, especially in relation to challenges like legacy storage and formatting errors. The discussion on trends in open access publishing was equally engaging, highlighting a shift toward Gold Open Access and a decline in Green OA. I also found it useful to learn about the National Action Plan for Open Research (NORF), which promotes open repositories as an alternative to traditional publishing models.
Ivona Coghlan from Royal College of Surgeons of England with her poster 'Pivoting from Academic Libraries to Healthcare Libraries - Tips for Transitioning Between Sectors.' Picture Credit Michelle McMeekin.
The day concluded with a drinks reception followed by a gala dinner. It was a delight to see everyone dressed up and enjoying the chance to unwind and socialise after a full day of sessions. As a first-time attendee, I was especially impressed—and it seemed widely agreed—that the food was among the best served at a conference!
Day two was equally jam-packed with a variety of interesting talks and breakout sessions to attend. Anne Jarvis started things off with her keynote speech on ‘Thriving in Uncertain Times: Building on the Past, Positioning for the Future’. As the Dean of Libraries at Princeton University, Jarvis reflected on the university library’s North Star Statement which guides their strategic planning and emphasises user empowerment, diverse collections, and the creation of an integrated student experience. She also spoke about the importance of fostering relationships and collaboration with other institutions through the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP) which supports resource sharing to more effectively meet patrons' needs now and in the future.
'Thriving in Uncertain Times: Building on the Past, Positioning for the Future.' Speaker: Anne Jarvis, Princeton University Library.
Picture credit Michelle McMeekin. 

In the first breakout session, I attended a series of lightning talks that explored topics such as a special collections toolkit, a digital and information literacy framework, and even a library managing a bat population alongside their collections! Working in e-resources, I found Áine Rice’s presentation, ‘Beyond the 2020 Paradigm: Reimagining Partnerships Through Data-Driven eTextbook Provision’, particularly engaging. She discussed how the pandemic accelerated the digital shift, initially leading to crisis-driven provision. Now, however, ebook access can be strategically developed using data and analytics to enhance access to core texts.

For the final session I participated in a workshop held by Elaine Chapman and Jennifer Flynn from Technological University Dublin on ‘Editing the Digital Landscape’. Chapman and Flynn led an engaging workshop full of practical tips for promoting library services on social media, emphasizing the use of accessible, jargon-free language. They also shared useful guidance on writing effective alt text for images. I found the session especially beneficial for improving how we promote e-resources to students. Plus, they provided a fun worksheet to reinforce the learning—a definite bonus in my book!

Worksheet from the 'Editing the Digital Landscape' workshop by Elaine Chapman and Jennifer Flynn,
Technological University Dublin. Picture credit Michelle McMeekin. 

Attending CONUL was an invaluable experience that will greatly benefit me as I advance in my library career. It provided the chance to network with colleagues from different specialisations and engage directly with key suppliers we work with. I’m grateful to have attended through the bursary, and I highly encourage anyone interested in next year’s conference to apply—it’s a truly worthwhile opportunity.


Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 | Categories:

18 Jun 2025

Changing careers from tech into librarianship

This guest post is by Isabell Seeger, a soon-to-be MLIS graduate with a career background in linguistics and AI. In this blog post, she outlines her motivation for a career change from tech into librarianship - and the surprising parallels and transferable skills from one to the other.

A picture of a woman, white computer text on a purple screen that beings with 'how do large language models work? and a picture of books on shelves
Isabelle Seeger by the author, an artist's illustration of artificial intelligence by Google DeepMind from Pexels and close-up shot of books on a bookshelf by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels

Introduction

A year ago, I was a linguist who worked in AI, building language datasets and evaluating AI model output. Fast forward to now, and I am about to graduate with a MLIS degree from University College Dublin, getting ready for a career that may look very different on paper - but feels surprisingly aligned in practice. In this post, I wanted to share a bit about how I made the switch from tech to librarianship, and why I think this career pivot actually makes a lot of sense.


So, What Does a Linguist Do?


In Tech, my job was “teaching computers how to read and write” - my go-to tagline for parties where “computational linguist” would get polite but slightly confused nods. In practice, this meant creating model training data and running large-scale human evaluations to make sure that language-based AI systems met quality benchmarks and provided value to users. On a platform as large as LinkedIn, my previous employer, this often meant projects and products that were seen and used by millions of people. When I started my job, we were focused on Machine Learning models - now often called “traditional AI”. When ChatGPT came around, my role profile changed to include LLMs (Large Language Models), and we all became prompt engineering experts on the side.


Overall, it’s hard for me to sum up the role of a tech linguist, as we often wore many hats - project manager, technical writer for data annotation guidelines, data wrangler and analyst for data and model insights, and metadata expert for ontology and schema design, to name just a few. Which brings me to the next bit:


Switching to Librarianship


Working in tech gives you a front row seat for the work and money that goes into building AI systems, and just how ubiquitous they are in all our daily lives, whether we are aware of them or not. I always viewed my role as the “human in the loop” - crucial to ensure trust and quality. In the private sector, especially with mounting economic pressures, I slowly felt a noticeable shift from quality to quantity, from care to speed, from human review to “Can we do this with AI instead?” - a fair question to ask (I am not a Luddite - I am just a critical thinker), but more often than not, my inner voice had a resounding “no” as an answer, not always welcome.


A huge part of linguistic work in tech is making information digestible for AI systems, starting from representative data sampling to explicitly adding labels to data that goes into model training. The leap into information architecture is short, and many of my colleagues in similar roles (such as taxonomy) have a librarianship background. I found myself wanting to go the other way, to learn more about the values I associated with librarianship such as equal access to knowledge, and being intentional about the ethics of being an information professional - not just building systems, but thinking holistically about their impact. Surrounded by the questions of what we could do with information, I wanted to ask what we should do with it - and sometimes, if we should at all.


Back to School


As my decision to change careers solidified, I had to make a few decisions. Personally, I wanted to stay in Dublin (why Germans love Ireland is a topic for another post), and was delighted when I found the MLIS degree offered at UCD. In fact, my excited grin when reading the syllabus was probably all the decision-making fuel I needed.


Going back to school after working full-time for 6 years was humbling, but also refreshing. This is my second Master’s degree, and I can say that I approached it with more sincerity and diligence - I knew what I wanted to get out of it, and wanted to learn as much as I could. I organised my reading lists early, took copious notes, attended events, and audited several modules on top of my core curriculum to make the most of the limited time (one year is surprisingly short). I loved being able to organise my time more freely, meeting wonderful new people, and having insightful conversations about topics that mattered to me. It is a very gratifying experience to connect with people who care about similar things, and I deeply value my new friendships and budding professional network.


Computer screen that reads the Serials librarian, a chair a table and a bottle with stickers on it
First-person perspective studying in UCD's James Joyce Library, showing an iPad,
comfy seating, and a water bottle. Picture credit Isabell Seeger 2024. 
Connecting LIS to Tech

Progressing through the curriculum, I realised more and more how transferable many of my tech skills were to the LIS space. Whether it is thinking about metadata for digital libraries, planning quantitative or qualitative research methodologies, or designing literacy instruction programmes - many of my “tech linguist” hats are applicable.


I was pleasantly surprised by the presence of technology-focused modules on the course, and attempts to bring AI to the classroom even in more traditional LIS areas such as cataloging. I strongly believe librarians need to be tech-literate. Using tools does not mean using them uncritically; in fact, I think informed and critical use of tech (be it ChatGPT or social media) is paramount for being a part of today’s society. Especially as librarians, we need to stay ahead of the curve, so we can provide AI and digital literacy instruction to people who need it.


The diverse background of people in my MLIS cohort was something I cherished deeply. I believe this is one of the strengths of the LIS sector - many of us come in through non-traditional pathways, and we can learn so much from each other by sharing our experiences and knowledge. I hope I will be able to bring fresh perspectives into my future roles in librarianship, and continue to be able to draw on previous experience to inform future thinking.


Looking Ahead


So, what kind of librarian do I want to be? As I reflect on my year of learning, I see a few pathways for myself. I want to keep my focus on technical and digital spaces - building a small digital library project was one of my favourite class assignments this year. As is probably no surprise, I am also passionate about AI literacy (here is another class project), and would love to help more people develop AI skills and critical thinking as they engage with tech and AI in their everyday lives.


Learning about the area of Research Data Management within academic librarianship got me really excited - having previously designed, collected, analysed, and stored various datasets in my linguist role, I feel a lot of my experience is applicable to RDM. I also love the idea of supporting research, and being able to contribute to open data and open scholarship.


Additionally, I was lucky to recently complete a 4-week internship in the Research Services team of the TU Dublin library, and I had a wonderful time learning about institutional repositories, research information management, and open research. I think my tech skills lend themselves well to a role in academic librarianship, but I am keeping my eyes and mind open, and am hopeful for my professional future, wherever it will lead me.


Some Takeaways


(Tech) linguists and librarians have a lot in common:

  • We are the human in the loop, making connections from raw data to structured knowledge

  • Many of the technical skills from the tech space are applicable (and desired!) in librarianship - we love a good spreadsheet

  • When you tell people your job title, they have no idea what you do, but they think it sounds really cool. 


If you are a fellow career changer, or have any questions or thoughts, feel free to email me via isabell.seeger@email.de, or connect with me on LinkedIn - old habits die hard!


Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 | Categories:

10 Jun 2025

Libfocus Link-out for June 2025

Welcome to the June edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

5 images clockwise from top left: Hands holding a flame to red plastic material, two men with dyed hair standing shoulder to shoulder, a building viewed through slatted blinds, a woman with an SFSU tshirt lying on pages, a red circle with an x on it in the middle of a picture of a map system
Images from this month's link-out articles

Setting out a methodological framework for undertaking effective reviews of national prison library services: Design of an inclusive methodology for the Irish Prison Library Review.
This study by Jessica Bates, Jayne Finlay and Susannah Hanlon conducts a a national review of prison library services on the island of Ireland. It identifies that library services in Irish prisons are inconsistently staffed and organised, and the challenge within prison librarianship involves closing the gap between international standards and policies, and the state of provision on the ground. This research will be of interest to those working and wanting to work in prison libraries (see also this piece for additional contextual input).

Google AI Overviews Are Here to Stay.
In College and Research Libraries News, Tessa Withorn writes about the nature of AI-generated overviews Google Search provides and notes that, from her experience, the highest quality of evidence (i.e. peer-reviewed studies) is rarely cited. This is a snappy and informative insight on Google's AI Overviews.

The Symbolic Weight of Yale-NUS’s Discarded Books.
The disposal of thousands of Yale-NUS library books has ignited a profound conversation about institutional memory and the handling of academic legacies. This article by Kimberly Lim & Alden Ho delves into the symbolic implications of such actions and the broader questions they raise.

Behind the Curtain: AI. Automation, and the Looming Threat to Human Knowledge Work.
A thought-provoking exploration of AI's potential to disrupt white-collar professions, this piece delves into the looming challenges and the imperative for proactive strategies to navigate the evolving landscape of knowledge work.

The resilience of open science in times of crisis.
Jeroen Bosman and Jeroen Sondervan provide an overview of five types of threats to open science in Upstream, and also propose a simple resilience framework of how to deal with these threats.

‘AI is already eating its own’: Prompt engineering is quickly going extinct.
Three years into the boom, it looks like AI is reshaping existing jobs more than creating new ones. There might not be many “AI Librarian jobs” emerging (as some of us have thought recently).

The Red List of Endangered Crafts - UK.
Heritage Crafts have released the 2025 Red List of Endangered Crafts in the UK. Many of the crafts involved in traditional book making, design, and decoration feature from endangered to critically so. This report by Mary Lewis and Daniel Carpenter also highlights the support being made available to prolong the life of traditional craft and skills.

Award-Winning San Francisco State University Sustainable Materials Library by SFSU Design to Launch This Summer.
San Francisco State University to launch its Sustainable Materials Library this summer. This Ein Presswire article reports that the Sustainable Materials Library collection contains 5 x 5 samples of sustainable materials, aiming to serve as an inspiration for designers, architects, engineers, artists, creators, and anyone looking to explore materials that prioritize sustainability without compromising functionality.

Bookcited!: A Libraries NI podcast for all things library: SongBooks.
Discover the connections between songs and the books that inspired them with the Songbooks series, which is part of Bookcited!: A Libraries NI podcast for all things library. Explore Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana inspired by Patrick Suskind's Perfume and many more.

The Ultimate LGBTQ+ Pride Book List.
Celebrate Pride month with these recommended Penguin Random House books by LGBTQ+ authors. This list includes everything from inspirational memoirs to novels examining friendship, love and community.

State of Library Engagement in Climate Communication and Education.
A recent IFLA report looking at how libraries around the world are helping their communities get involved in climate action, and can be used as both an advocacy tool and a roadmap for further developing library work on climate communication and education.

A Guide to Publishing Open Access.
A comprehensive guide produced by Lancaster University Library to publishing Open Access monographs, books and more.