Category «Libraries»

Ukraine’s libraries are offering bomb shelters, camouflage classes and, yes, books

NPR – “…Oksana Brui, who is the president of the Ukrainian Library Association…is among the Ukrainians who were taken by surprise when sirens rang out on Feb. 24 announcing Russia’s invasion. While some of Ukraine’s libraries have been destroyed by the fighting, she says that all over the country, libraries are “buzzing like hives,” full …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Libraries

DeepMind AI tool helps historians restore ancient texts

The Register: “AI software can help historians interpret and date ancient texts by reconstructing works destroyed over time, according to a new paper published in Nature. A team of computer scientists and experts in classical studies led by DeepMind and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice trained a transformer-based neural network to restore inscriptions written in …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries

In final hours, Indiana lawmakers revive and then kill book-banning bill

IndyStar – “In the final hours of the legislative session, lawmakers revived and then promptly killed a bill that would have criminalized teachers and librarians who exposed kids to books and other materials that some may find obscene. Critics of the bill say it’s unnecessary — schools already have processes in place to deal with book …

Subjects: Censorship, Education, Free Speech, Legislation, Libraries

A Trauma-Informed Framework for Supporting Patrons: The PLA Workbook of Best Practices

The Public Library Association Social Worker Task Force – “Whether it’s navigating a crisis or witnessing a community member struggling with tough times, coming face to face with trauma and adversity can be uncomfortable. But in striving to learn more about challenging behaviors, and how we can better interact with library patrons and our coworkers, …

Subjects: Education, Health Care, Libraries

Ten new books to read this Women’s History Month

Oxford University Press: “Since 1987, Women’s History Month has been observed in the US annually each March as an opportunity to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. This month, we’re sharing some of the latest history titles covering a range of eras and regions but all charting the lives …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Government Documents, Libraries

Unfortunate But Not Surprising Court Blocks Maryland’s Library eBook Law

TechDirt: “Back in December, we wrote about how the major book publishers had teamed up to sue the state of Maryland over a fairly tame law concerning ebooks and libraries. As we’ve been detailing, over the last few years, the big book publishers have been working overtime to abuse copyright law to destroy libraries. Whereas, …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Review: Public Legal Education – The Role of Law Schools In Building a More Legally Literate Society

Wallace, Amy, Review: Public Legal Education – The Role of Law Schools In Building a More Legally Literate Society (Routledge 2021) (October 8, 2021). International Journal of Public Legal Education, Forthcoming, NYLS Legal Studies Research Paper No. 3943343, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3943343 “Much has been written about public legal education (“PLE”) since the emergence of …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries, Recommended Books

Artificial Intelligence in academic libraries: How new AI services can support your library users

Choice Media Central underwritten by Springer Nature [YouTube]: “In this webinar, we will introduce two AI initiatives from the Springer Nature Lab that provide benefits to library users, including readers, authors, and lecturers: AI-Generated Literature Overview as a Service: an auto-summarization tool with the aim of providing authors with a literature review. Scriptinator Content Discovery …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries