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Weekly News Digest

April 9, 2024 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

ALA Starts National Library Week With a Focus on the Most Challenged Books

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
3. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
5. Flamer by Mike Curato
6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
7. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (tied with the next title)
8. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (tied with the previous title)
9. Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
10. Sold by Patricia McCormick

ALA also rolled out its latest State of America’s Libraries Report, “which highlights the ways libraries and library workers have taken action to address community needs with innovative and critical services, as well as the challenges brought on by censorship attempts.”

In addition, ALA revealed the theme for Banned Books Week 2024, which will be held Sept. 22–28. It is Freed Between the Lines, “which honors the ways in which books bring us freedom and that access to information is worth preserving.”

For more information, read the press release.

ALA Election Outcomes

Brad Warren, dean of libraries at Augusta University in Georgia, was elected ACRL president for 2025–2026. Two members were elected to join the board of directors: Rachel M. Minkin, interim associate dean for teaching and learning at Michigan State University, and Carrie Forbes, director of the School of Undergraduate Studies and university librarian at Southern Oregon University.

Dr. Brandy McNeil, deputy director of branch programs and services at The New York Public Library, was elected 2025–2026 PLA president. Two members were elected to join the board of directors: Laura McGrath, deputy director of the Skokie Public Library in Illinois, and Padma Polepeddi, assistant director of public services and community outreach at Jefferson County Public Library in Colorado.

Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures—a division of ALA—announced that Kevin A.R. King, director of East Lansing Public Library in Michigan, was elected 2025–2026 Core president. Two members were elected to join the board of directors: Cara Calabrese, acquisitions and access librarian at Miami University, and Amy Swartz, head of library technology at Columbia Law School. Emily Fidelman, head of metadata services at West Virginia University, was elected chair of the Metadata and Collections Section.

Hootsuite Will Buy Talkwalker, Bringing AI to Social Media Management

For more information, read the press release.

DPLA Is Seeking a New Steward of America's Digital Heritage

Following up on what we shared last week—that DPLA is launching a search for the next home of our cultural heritage aggregation program—I am excited to announce that we are now accepting expressions of interest, which you can submit via this form. In the time I have spent immersing myself in the DPLA network, I have learned that aggregation remains an important piece of the work libraries do to enable discovery of the record of our past. That work is more important than ever with the shifting technological landscape and other challenges faced by memory institutions. This open call is the first step in a process to identify a healthy long-term home for this work. In parallel, we are in the process of raising a fund that will support this work in its new home, and we will share more in future updates.

For more information, read the news item.

ByWater Solutions Celebrates Its 15th Birthday

CEO Brendan Gallagher says, “15 years!! This has been one of the greatest adventures of creating change in the library world and helping support libraries’ needs in supporting their users.”

CRO Nathan Curulla says, “Our dedicated staff of librarians and technologists are the reason for our ongoing successes and their hard work has made ByWater what it is today. Under Brendan’s leadership we have created disruption in a marketplace that needed some shaking up and we are constantly learning about how to improve our services, learn from our mistakes, and make more of an impact for the benefit of libraries each day. We cannot wait to see what the next 15 years brings!”

For more information, read the news item.

Iveda and ClearView Asset Protection Leverage AI to Make Public Spaces Safer

For more information, read the press release.

Wiley Adds More of Its Journals to ResearchGate

For more information, read the press release.

Sora Unveils Its First Annual Report Sharing Worldwide Student Reading Data

Key findings include the following:

• Digital reading in K-12 schools has increased significantly over the past few years. Since 2019, total usage (based on digital book checkouts) has grown 286 percent as the number of schools using the Sora platform more than doubled. In 2022-23, usage continued the trend with 12% growth.
• Reading sessions on the Sora reading app were up more than 8 percent compared to the previous school year (2021-2022), with total books read per student increasing by 3 percent.
• The ebook format accounted for 84 percent of titles opened during the ’22-’23 school year, while audiobooks remain popular with 14 percent. Comics and graphic novels have contributed to the strong ebook usage, more than quadrupling in checkouts and jumping from 31 to 42% of total ebook checkouts since 2019.

For more information, read the press release.

Digital Science Creates Campaign to Study Research Transformation in Response to AI

A new campaign entitled ‘Research Transformation’ is being launched by Digital Science to celebrate the art of change within the research sector. 

Arising from the TL;DR initiative at Digital Science, Research Transformation will look at the challenging AI future that lies ahead with an openness to transformation, and—importantly—a willingness to approach these transformations collectively, both within organizations, and across broader research communities.

For more information, read the news item.

The AM Archival School for Ukraine Is a Summer Program for Young Professionals

For more information, read the news item.