School Libraries Archives
Legislation Roundup: Iowa Bill Advanced Monday Would Remove Library Exemptions From Obscenity Restrictions; Controversial Library Book Policy Bill Clears First Reading in Wyoming House
Iowa Iowa Bill Advanced Monday Would Remove Library Exemptions From Obscenity Restrictions (via The Gazette) Exemptions from restrictions on obscene materials would be lifted from Iowa public libraries under legislation advanced by state lawmakers Monday. The bill, Senate File 2119, would repeal a section of Iowa code that provides exemptions from restrictions on obscene materials that […]
Tennessee: Library Books on Slavery, Holocaust Pulled in Rutherford County
From The Tennessean: Books on slavery, racism and the Holocaust are among the nearly 3,000 pulled from public library shelves across Rutherford County following a letter from State Secretary Tre Hargett prompting a review of juvenile collections across nearly all state public libraries. Four Anne Frank biographies, more than 30 books focused on the Bible, […]
New Data From OverDrive: Libraries Break Digital Lending Records in 2025 with Over 820 Million Checkouts and Over 1 Billion Minutes Streamed
From OverDrive: In 2025, libraries around the world continued to prove their essential role in connecting communities with stories, information, and entertainment, breaking new digital lending records in the process. As the need for flexible, on-demand access to books and media continued to grow, libraries expanded their digital collections to meet readers where they are, […]
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Colorado: “Former Middle School Dean Who Objected to Book Removals Sues Elizabeth School District”
From Chalkbeat Colorado: A former middle school administrator in the Elizabeth School District filed a lawsuit Sunday against the rural Colorado district, alleging that she was fired after she objected to the removal of 19 titles from school libraries last year. LeEllen Condry, who served as dean of students at Elizabeth Middle School, said she […]
Harvard Law School Library Releases First Complete Set of Digitized Nuremberg Trials Records
From Harvard Law School Beginning today, the Harvard Law School Library is making available online the first complete, fully searchable, digitized collection of official evidentiary documents and trial transcripts in English from all 13 Nuremberg Trials, at https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/. On the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the first trial on November 20, 1945, researchers, scholars, […]
Report: Texas Schools are Using AI to Screen Library Books Under New State Law
From the Austin American-Statesman: Nestled in a red-leaning suburb south of Houston, Pearland is one of several school districts turning to artificial intelligence to keep up with the law, Senate Bill 13, which requires boards to sign off on all library purchases. The legislation comes after a 2023 law first required schools to purge “sexually explicit” […]
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Free Speech Needs Free Libraries: A Joint Statement of PALCI, CARLI and Orbis Cascade Alliance
New Today. Here’s the Full Text of a Release and Joint Statement (via PALCI): The following statement was developed through a collaboration of library consortium executive directors across the United States in response to growing threats to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry experienced by library users in many states. Our goal is to affirm […]
Now Available: 2025 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Proceedings
The 2025 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Proceedings were recently posted online. Direct links to all items included in the proceedings are linked below. The 2025 ALISE Annual Conference took place in Kansas City, MO, October 6-8, 2025. Direct to Complete Table of Contents Introduction 2025 ALISE Introduction Juried Papers Structuration Theory […]
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Latest PEN America Report Finds “Disturbing Normalization” of Book Bans in Public Schools; Nearly 23,000 Cases of Book Bans Across 45 States and 451 School Districts Since 2021
From PEN America: In a new report documenting public school book bans over the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America cites alarming censorship pressures on school districts including: new federal efforts to restrict education that amplify rhetoric from state and local efforts to ban books; persistent attacks conflating LGBTQ+ identities as “sexually explicit;” and state-mandated bans […]
Harvard Law School: Library Innovation Lab Public Data Project Adds 710 TB of Smithsonian Collections Data
From the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab: We are excited to announce today that the Library Innovation Lab has expanded our Public Data Project beyond datasets available through Data.gov to include 710 TB of data from the Smithsonian Institution — the complete open access portion of the Smithsonian’s collections. This marks an important step in our long-running […]
