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Weekly News Digest
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September 24, 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.
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Banned Books Week 2024
It’s Banned Books Week, the annual event that “highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community—librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas,” according to Banned Books Week’s About page. Stay informed with the following resources and use #BannedBooksWeek and #FreedBetweenTheLines on social media.Publishers Weekly has multiple articles on its homepage, including “Penguin Random House Creates New Role to Help Battle Book Bans,” “PEN America Finds New State Laws Are Supercharging School Book Bans,” “ALA Finds Book Challenges Are Slowing in 2024,” and “How Booksellers Are Taking On Book Banners.” Speaking of PEN America and ALA, each site has important resources about book banning research and getting involved in fighting censorship. Visit PEN America’s Banned Books Week 2024, and visit ALA’s Banned Books Week. Don’t forget to check out EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week Fest 2024. Book Riot, which publishes a weekly roundup of censorship news by Kelly Jensen, is promoting the Banned Wagon tour, which “will make stops at libraries and bookstores in nine American communities across the Midwest and the South. These communities are among the many being impacted by a wave of book banning efforts that first surged in late 2020.” The site’s series on last week’s Prison Banned Books Week is also essential reading. Look to your local indie bookstore and local library to see how they are promoting Banned Books Week. In addition, the major publishers are spreading awareness on their websites and listing the books from their catalogs that have been banned or challenged. Hachette is running a sale on select titles using the promo code BANNED2024. HarperCollins has a Right to Read page featuring ideas for taking action. Macmillan has the comprehensive info page Stand Up for the Freedom to Read. Penguin Random House lists The Most Challenged and Banned Books. Simon & Schuster explicitly marks Banned Books Week 2024 with Freed Between the Lines.
VoteLibraries From the EveryLibrary Institute Shares Three New Initiatives
The EveryLibrary Institute’s VoteLibraries initiative has developed three new projects in partnership with voting advocacy organizations “to provide public librarians and library-focused organizations with tools and resources to participate in election administration efforts” and “focus on increasing participation in the democratic process, ensuring that every voter has the opportunity to access the polls.”VoteLibraries and the League of Women Voters are teaming up to “host a dedicated Vote411 site … to support librarians in their efforts to register citizens to vote, check their registration status, and provide information on local ballots.” For National Disability Voting Rights Week, which was Sept. 9–13, 2024, VoteLibraries and the American Association of People with Disabilities’ REV UP campaign published a Disability Voting Rights Week Guide for Libraries (registration required) “to inform libraries about Disability Voting Rights Week and the importance of creating accessible spaces when conducting election administration work, including inclusive programming and education efforts.” Nonprofit VOTE and VoteLibraries created the Empowering Library-Related 501(c)3 Nonprofits to Strengthen Democracy toolkit (registration required) “for Library Friends, Foundations, Alliances, and Associations to help them conduct effective and compliant voter registration and civic education activities about their issues.” For more information, read the news item.
EBSCO Published Its 2025 Serials Price Projection Report
EBSCO Information Services rolled out its 2025 Serials Price Projection Report, which provides “valuable insights into the financial landscape for libraries and publishers as they prepare for the upcoming renewal season. This year’s report projects overall effective publisher price increases for libraries are four to five percent for individual e-journal titles, three and a half to four and a half percent for e-journal packages and five to six percent for print titles (before currency impact).” The report also covers “market dynamics, highlighting issues that are driving the scholarly information marketplace including economic factors such as high inflation rates, currency impact, the trend toward Open Access (OA), and investments in artificial intelligence.”For more information, read the press release.
Urban Libraries Council Unveils Leadership Brief on Countering Misinformation, Disinformation, and Social Isolation
The Urban Libraries Council published a new leadership brief, The Role of Libraries as Public Spaces in Countering Misinformation, Disinformation, and Social Isolation in the Age of Generative AI, noting, “With social isolation on the rise, this brief examines how public libraries are uniquely positioned to combat [AI and the spread of misinformation and disinformation] through the promotion of digital literacy and the cultivation of community connections.” The brief offers recommendations for libraries and shares how libraries in the U.S. and Canada are already implementing them.For more information, read the press release.
Clarivate Shares Its List of 2024 Citation Laureates
Clarivate announced its 2024 Citation Laureates. “These 22 exceptional scientists and economists spanning six countries have demonstrated such groundbreaking impact in their fields that their work is considered of Nobel stature,” Clarivate explains. “Experts at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) at Clarivate have identified 75 Citation Laureates prior to their Nobel success—often several years before they received Nobel honors.” This year’s laureates have contributed to areas such as clean energy, nanotechnology, 3D protein structures, the economic impact of corruption, heart disease, molecular dynamics, quantum computing, genetic imprinting and condensed matter physics.For more information and the list of laureates, read the press release.
PolicyMap Integrates With OpenAthens for Streamlined Access
OpenAthens announced that it is now integrated with PolicyMap, giving “customers simple and secure access to [PolicyMap’s] mapping and analytics platform with OpenAthens single sign-on.” This is a “strategic move to future-proof access to [its] platform” as PolicyMap invests in upgrades to new mapping technologies.PolicyMap serves a variety of industries, including “academic, banking and lending, government, health, tech, non-profit, public library, real estate, and retail.” Users can see data visualizations and map data to, for example, “assess how cities can mitigate the impact of climate change. It can also identify which areas lack affordable housing and highlight disparities in healthcare for specific demographics.” For more information, read the news item.
Clarivate Rolls Out a Framework for Evaluating the Societal Impact of Research
Clarivate “announced the development of a comprehensive framework for evaluating the societal impact of research. The approach has been outlined in a new report published … by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) to address the growing demand for demonstrating the benefits of research and development (R&D) investments across various sectors of society.”The report, “A Responsible Framework for Evaluating the Societal Impact of Research,” shares the outline of “a responsible and robust foundation for evaluation that goes beyond traditional scholarly output and includes a wide range of data sources. The new framework will be incorporated into the forthcoming Web of Science Research Intelligence platform.” The framework addresses challenges such as recognizing the diversity of societal needs, balancing qualitative and quantitative approaches, and navigating the long length of time between research discoveries and their societal applications. For more information, read the press release.
ALSC and ALA Release an Inspiring Future Voters Booklist
ALA’s 2024 Reader. Voter. Ready. campaign partnered with the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) to present the Inspiring Future Voters booklist, “a collection of titles that will help young people understand the importance of voting, civic engagement, and making their voices heard. The list includes fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages, from birth to young adult.”
ALA Gets Involved With the United Nations
ALA announced the following:The American Library Association (ALA) International Relations Committee (IRC) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) Subcommittee hosted the first ALA UN in-person event during the United Nations General Assembly 79 (UNGA), and members of the subcommittee advocated for libraries during the assembly. Inspired by library advocacy carried out by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and its members at the United Nations, ALA is joining library advocacy at the UN, which also aligns with its core values of access and equity as well as its mission to ensure access to information for all. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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