Welcome to the August 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.
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| Images from this month's link-out articles |
Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?
Aaron Benanav suggests that AI isn't a force for good and that its promises of exponentially increasing productivity are, at best, hollow.
From the article:
"Daron Acemoglu, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, has voiced open scepticism, warning that generative AI technologies may do little to resolve the deeper economic malaise afflicting advanced capitalist societies. For all the extraordinary technical feats that have been achieved, it is increasingly clear that the current wave of AI innovation may not, by itself, produce the broad-based economic dynamism that its proponents so confidently predict."
Measuring the Economic Value of a Liberal Education.
ITHAKA's research report from 16th July 2025 investigates the value and benefits of a liberal arts education as perceived by individual students.
From the paper:
" Using longitudinal data from the College and Beyond II (CBII) dataset, we measure students’ exposure to key liberal arts features—such as curricular breadth, small classes, and engagement with diverse perspectives—and examine how these experiences relate to academic, labor market, and civic outcomes. The use of student-level data allows us to capture meaningful variation within institutions, revealing that students at the same college or university can have significantly different educational experiences."
The AI boom is now bigger than the ’90s dotcom bubble—and it’s built on the backs of bots, maybe more than real users.
In this article for Fortune, Ashley Lutz and Nick Lichtenberg discuss
the malicious activity of 'bad bots' on the internet, where almost 50%
of traffic now comes from non-human sources. They are a key aspect of
the AI revolution that is threatening to undo the internet as it’s been
known since the mid-1990s.
Annie L. McPheeters oral history interview, 1992 June 8.
Fascinating interview with the civil rights activist Annie Lou McPheeters, who served as a librarian to a young, elementary-school aged Martin Luther King Jr. In an oral history interview from the Georgia State University Library digital collections, McPheeters recalls King taking an interest in books about Mahatma Gandhi.
Can academics use AI to write journal papers? What the guidelines say.
Professor Sumaya Laher of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa summarises what counts as acceptable use of AI in academic writing according to publisher guidelines.
From the article:
"The guidelines are unanimous that AI tools cannot be listed as co-authors or take responsibility for the content. Authors remain fully responsible for verifying the accuracy, ethical use and integrity of all AI-influenced content. Routine assistance does not need citation, but any substantive AI-generated content must be clearly referenced."
Society Publishers at a Crossroads: New Evidence of an Accelerating Crisis.
Society publishers are a cornerstone of the academic scholarly landscape. Rob Johnson investigates in the Scholarly Kitchen why society publisher are in crisis in terms of revenue, longevity of publishing operations, and the impact of AI.
AI Policies for Libraries – Some Observations. — David Lee King surveys real AI use policies from public libraries and highlights key themes—from attribution rules and handling bias to transparency around AI generated content.
Bob Geldof’s personal archive of Live Aid photographs made public at National Library.
Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof has handed over his Live Aid archive in 2017 to the National Library of Ireland. Among the collection are thousands of photographs donated by photographers and news organisations from the day. Some of them have never been seen in public before. There were more than 1,500 plastic slides, 629 colour transparencies and 139 photographic prints.
Bookshelves to Bylines: When Libraries and Journalists Join Forces | Library Journal.
Sarah Asch for Library Journal looks at the overlapping missions of librarians and journalists, and the ways in which we can join forces.
How Cuts to Library Budgets Will Impact Publishers.
Karen Fischer for Publishers Weekly on the different ways library book budget cuts will affect the ecosystem of book publishing.
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