Libfocus Link-out for September 2025

Welcome to the September 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.

Images from this month's link-out articles

Scholarly Publishing Won’t Be Saved by Incremental Change.

In Katina, Melissa H. Cantrell and Lauren Collister discuss the (rocky) evolutionary path of library-publishers agreements and point out the wicked problems of the scholarly publishing system, reasoning that, finally, radical action should be taken. "We see one way to solve the wicked problem and escape the moribund ecosystem: deliberate acts of resistance and refusal by academic researchers and faculty."

How Libraries Stand the Test of Time.
In this JSTOR article Maria Papadouris reminds us that, for millennia, the core mission of libraries to curate, provide and democratise information has endured. "If knowledge is power, then it’s no wonder libraries have become spaces of struggle and social inclusion."

Explore urgent issues through open access reading.
This post by Bristol University Press and Policy Press offers a selection of open access books and articles tackling some of the key global social challenges of our time - from climate grief and AI ethics to food insecurity, migration and political representation.

Who Controls Knowledge in the Age of AI?
This article is by Amy Brand, Dashiel Carrera, Katy Gero, Susan Silbey for the Scholarly Kitchen. They report widespread concern about the unlicensed use of in-copyright scientific and scholarly publications for AI training. A survey found that most authors are not opposed to generative AI, but they strongly favour consent, attribution, and compensation as conditions for use of their work.

Supporting Governance, Operations, and Instruction and Learning Through Artificial Intelligence: A Survey of Institutional Practices and Policies 2025.
A WCET report examining how higher education institutions are adopting and governing AI.

The Vital Role of Sustainability in Academic Libraries.
A blog post from Sarah Tribelhorn for ARL Views discussing various sustainable practices academic libraries can engage in and how to go about it

Google Scholar is Doomed.
On her weblog Hannah Shelley leads us through the Google Graveyard. Digital tombstones mark products that millions of people once relied on including Google Reader (2005-2013), once the premier RSS/Atom feed subscription service and Google Notebook (2006-2011), the early research organisation tool. 297 products currently rest in this graveyard, each representing someone's essential workflow that stopped working one day. She predicts that Google Scholar is heading straight for this graveyard, and that academia is not prepared.

Alberta needs to 'take a step back' on book bans: library association.
In this short CBC news clip, Laura Winton, vice-chair of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations, talks about the Alberta government's book ban. She explains the impact of their removal on the children's ability to think critically about literature in schools.

Richard Ovenden, Oxford's librarian on Donald Trump's war against knowledge (Podcast).
Donald Trump is fighting a war against knowledge. In his second term, he has fired the Librarian of Congress and the Archivist of the United States, and government websites have been altered to remove facts about climate change and Black history. Haven't we seen this kind of war against knowledge before?

Warsaw opens metro station ‘express’ library to get commuters off their phones.
Jacob Krupa for The Guardian looks at the launch of a new library in a Polish Metro Station that aims to get commuters off their phones and to encourage people to read more in country that lost majority of libraries in second world war.

Books by Bots: Librarians Grapple with AI Generated material in collections.
Reema Saleh writes for American Libraries Magazine on the appearance AI generated materials in collections, librarians reactions, and the presence, or lack thereof of policy to address AI generated materials in collections.

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Prison Education Programme

Guest post by Helen Fallon. 

It’s almost three years since I retired from my post as Deputy Librarian at Maynooth University Library, having worked there for 22 years.  Prior to that I worked at Dublin City University (DCU) Library.  While at DCU I took a career break and spent two years with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) teaching librarianship at the University of Sierra Leone.  This was a wonderful experience and gave me a real insight into how difficult it is to provide library services in a country where a book frequently costs a week’s wages or more. I’ve written about that experience (Fallon, 1994, 2003, 2006, 2017) and maintained a real interest in libraries in Africa. I  feel very strongly that libraries underpin education, which is key to development in African countries.   

 At the moment I am involved in a project to help develop a prison library in Malawi, in South East Africa, one of the poorest countries, in the world. I got involved in this through my sister’s  brother-in-law, Fr. Martin Reilly, who has worked there for a number of years. He is based in Mzuzu, the main city of the northern region and is actively working with various projects including the Prison Education Programme in the local Mzuzu Prison Service. Schools were established in Mzuzu Prison in 2003 for both men and women, and aim to give people the opportunity to create a better life when they are released. Some people cannot read or write so both primary and secondary education is provided. The programme also  offers the possibility of public university education, with successful candidates from Mzuzu Prison recently selected to study at Mzuzu University.  

Providing library and related resources presents major challenges, including lack of teaching and learning materials like textbooks, chalk, exercise books, pens and paper.  Nevertheless there have been significant achievement including admission of both female and male prisoners into various public universities and colleges; a number of  prisoners have learned to read and write; people have found jobs after release and importantly education gives prisoners a sense of achievement and self-worth.  

I  am raising funds to buy much needed books and other resources for the libraries in the male and female schools. I am working with Samuel Mwandira (Prison education coordinator), Fumbani Gondwe (prison chaplain) and Fr. Martin Reilly (St. Patrick’s missionary Society, Kiltegan, Co.Wicklow).  To date over €2,000 has been contributed and this has been used to purchase books. Some images are included. 

A book, which can be sourced locally, costs approximately €20. Please contact me on helenfallon@gmail.com, if you are interested in sponsoring a book. 

Margaret Shaba, Shop Assistant with
Fumbani Gondwe, Prison Chaplain in local shop

Samuel Mwandira,  Prison education co-ordinator   
with some of the new books purchased with Irish donations

 Rose Chitowe, Restorative Justice Facilitator, Fumbani Gondwe,
Prison Chaplain, Samuel Mwandira,  Prison education
co-ordinator in the Library

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Libfocus Link-out for August 2025

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.

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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Experiencing the Erasmus Library Staff Mobility Week 2025 in Dublin

This guest post is by Anne Charlotte Danhiez who is the Head of User Training in the Robert de Sorbon Library, France. Anne Charlotte took part in the sixth Irish Erasmus Library Staff Mobility week hosted by CONUL Libraries from the 23rd-27th June 2025. This week is targeted at European professional library staff working in universities or other research orientated libraries with an interest in visiting Ireland. It gives participants the opportunity to engage with Irish librarians and visit many of Ireland's CONUL Libraries. Find out more about the Erasmus programme on the CONUL website. 

An Erasmus Library Staff Week can be boiled down to a few ingredients:

• librarians from the receiving institution organising presentations and facilitating discussions around various topics
• participants from different European countries presenting their libraries, and contributing to talks
• several visits to libraries
• a few local and touristic activities, including an evening all together

Mix all these ingredients, shake them well, and you’ll get an opportunity for everyone to share ideas and get inspiration from all around Europe – an invitation to take what’s best and integrate it in your own library, after enjoying a week abroad.

The 2025 Conul Erasmus Library Staff Mobility Week revolved around “Future-proofing libraries”, and every day or half-day was organised around visiting a library and listening to different presentations, on a specific “topic of the day” from the librarians working there, and from the Staff Week’s participants.

As Monday started with our first visit, to the library of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), I was immediately faced with a massive cultural difference. The library’s furniture was modern, colourful, organised in various, smaller spaces catering to the students’ needs – everything we librarians strive for, everything I wish I could copy and paste in all the academic libraries of my country, except for one small, tiny problem: budget. And here was the first cultural difference: every now and again, on a door, you’d see a small plaque indicating the name of the person who had financed that space, something unthinkable (for now?) where I live and work. In the meantime, I took pictures to get some inspiration. The day went by, including presentations on the library’s staff and organisation, which also interested me deeply as my own library will create new departments in the next coming months, and will need to adapt its organisation. The day ended with a different kind of visit: a walking tour of Dublin, useful for any newcomer in need of some orientation.

Gaia artwork, Old Library, Trinity College. Picture credit Anne Charlotte Danhiez, 2025.

Tuesday started bright and early at Trinity College Dublin, where we attended different presentations, and it included a visit to the Old Library and the Book of Kells which, as we learnt, is the second most visited attraction in Dublin (can you guess the first one? I couldn’t: the Guinness storehouse). If some of us were impressed that a library and a book could be the first attraction of the city, having already seen them a decade ago I was more surprised by what was new. In lieu of the books, the Old Library has a new resident in this period of transition: Gaia was centre stage, reminding us of the week’s theme by inviting us to look to the future. 

The day concluded with an evening in MoLI, the Museum of Literature in Ireland, which offered us a private tour of the museum, looking at the first printed copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses and all its different translations, all while drinking wine, eating canapés, and talking to our Irish hosts in a beautiful rose garden: that’s an evening I’ll remember.

Exhibition in MoLI, The Museum of Literature Ireland. Picture credit: Sanja Posthumus 2025.

Wednesday was a busy day, as we visited two different libraries: DCU’s Cregan Library in the morning and TU Dublin in the afternoon, which gave us the opportunity to enjoy a sunny walk outside during lunch, as well as listening to different presentations, two of which were on AI – a topic I was keen on, as a librarian who spends most of her time teaching students. Thursday also saw us visiting two libraries: UCD’s James Joyce Library and the National Library of Ireland, where we had a presentation on born digital collections and its pilot project which focused on Marian Keyes, something which was entirely new to me and utterly fascinating.

UCD’s James Joyce library was thought-provoking for me, as the building dates back to the late 1960s (like many academic universities in my country) and it is currently being reorganised and refurbished to better cater to the students’ needs, something we’re also actively working on in my library. As the library offers different cosy spaces, with wood and plants, I found myself sending multiple pictures to my colleagues who love them. What struck me the most, however, were the new sensory rooms, with different furniture, lighting that can be adapted to everyone’s needs, and the sensory, soothing wall, which I would love for my library to adopt.

The Erasmus Group in The James Joyce Library, UCD. Picture credit: Catherine Wilsdon 2025. 

I mentioned cultural differences earlier on: as I heard someone mention multi-faith rooms in their library, I gasped, and quickly, comically realised I was the only one who was so surprised. I’m French – religion is banned in all public spaces, but during this Erasmus Library Staff Mobility Week, this was just another avenue of possibility. Another cultural difference I encountered followed me throughout this week in Ireland and was even more striking to me. Not only did most librarians wear a badge with the LGBTQIA+ colours (June is of course Pride month), there were also “all gender” toilets in several libraries and universities, and a desire to create spaces suited to everyone. We were shown or told about fantastic spaces to come which aim to adapt to new uses (podcast cabins, donor rooms, event spaces…), but more inclusive rooms already exist. Everyone, everywhere, and everything in Ireland felt geared towards inclusivity in all its aspects, welcoming everyone – more than anything else, I think that that’s the feeling I’ll take back with me.

So, did the Erasmus Library Staff Week recipe work on that week of June 23rd to 27th? Dear reader, it certainly did. As my plane landed home, in a heatwave reaching 38°C, I immediately found myself thinking of the nice and cool libraries I visited in the Irish weather – certainly colder, more unpredictable than in my home country, but made all the more special by the warm Irish welcome I received everywhere I went that week: that was truly the magic ingredient. 

Thank you very much to everyone who was involved in this Library Staff Week’s organisation!

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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.

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.

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"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. 

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.

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.

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