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NewsLink Spotlight |
| The 2026 Oscar Season at the Library |
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by Brandi Scardilli
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| The 98th Academy Awards (aka the Oscars, held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) will honor some of 2025's greatest movies on March 15, 2026, and public libraries are celebrating by hosting various programs. Read on to see what libraries are doing to bring awareness of the nominees to their patrons and what they think of this year's crop of Oscar hopefuls, including the 10 Best Picture contenders. |
| A Librarian Looks at Oscars 2026: An Emotional Smorgasbord |
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by Jessica Hilburn
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| There are 50 different titles nominated in at least one category at this year's Oscars. Of that 50, I've watched 21 so far, and 13 are currently unavailable, which means I've watched more than half of the films available for my eyeballs. Since nominations came out a week-and-a-half ago and I have a non-entertainment job, I'd say that's not too shabby. Of those 21, there are a good number I really loved. |
Weekly News Digests |
| The Verge Explores Section 230 on Its 30th Anniversary |
| Lauren Feiner writes in "Section 230 Turns 30 as It Faces Its Biggest Tests Yet": "Section 230 is facing what could be among its biggest threats to date, as prominent lawmakers plot to bring it down and a mountain of legal challenges give courts the chance to narrow its scope." |
| University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Offers Students New Way to Explore Generative AI |
| The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Library held a grand opening for its new Library AI Studio and launched the free PromptLab platform. |
| The CIA Sunsets The World Factbook |
| The CIA announced the end of The World Factbook, sharing that it "served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe." |
| OCLC Unveils Catalog of Content From Italian Library Collections |
| OCLC rolled out the Italian Discovery Catalog, "a comprehensive bibliographic catalog of Italian library collections rich with history and culture. This new catalog offers access to Italian-language resources and materials across participating libraries. ..." |
| Open the Books and Citizen Portal AI Announce Partnership to Promote Transparency and Citizen Engagement |
| "Open the Books and Citizen Portal AI today announced that they have entered a partnership agreement to help citizens access and use Open the Books' vast database of government spending, which includes federal, state and local spending." |
NewsBreaks |
| PLA Task Force Wrestles With the Upsides and Downsides of AI |
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by Brandi Scardilli
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| On Jan. 27, 2026, the Public Library Association (PLA) hosted a town hall, Exploring an AI-Assisted Future in Public Libraries. PLA president Brandy McNeil started it by introducing the members of the Transformative Technology Task Force who would be speaking, noting that the town hall would inform the task force's work. |
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This newsletter is published by Information Today, Inc. Editor: Brandi Scardilli Website: https://www.infotoday.com/NewsLink Email: bscardilli@infotoday.com |