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Weekly News Digest
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June 30, 2026 — 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.
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OverDrive Gets a New CEO
OverDrive appointed Marc DeBevoise as its new CEO, replacing Steve Potash, who became chairman of the board. “The leadership transition reflects a planned succession designed to support OverDrive’s continued growth and global expansion,” the company shares. “Potash founded OverDrive 40 years ago and has guided the company from an early digital content venture into a global, purpose-built platform serving libraries and schools in more than 115 countries. DeBevoise, having previously served as CEO of Brightcove, Chief Digital Officer of Paramount, and CEO of CBS Interactive, joined OverDrive as President and has worked alongside founder Steve Potash to position the company for its next phase of growth.”Potash will focus “on expanding global advocacy for literacy, support for public institutions of learning, and promotion of access to knowledge. … Potash will remain actively engaged in OverDrive’s long-term strategy and global growth while dedicating increased attention to advocacy efforts that reflect the company’s founding mission: a world enlightened by reading,” OverDrive notes. “A central focus of this next chapter is the early development of the OverDrive Foundation, designed to formalize and extend OverDrive’s longstanding commitment to literacy in its many forms. The Foundation will support initiatives that strengthen literacy outcomes, advance library services, and promote early and lifelong learning across communities.”
PLA Releases the Results of Its Latest Survey of Library Services
The Public Library Association (PLA) published the “Public Library Services for Strong Communities Report,” featuring the results of its 2025 annual survey, which “examines how libraries respond to diverse needs through programs, services, partnerships, and facilities. The 2025 results highlight how libraries have adapted to changing needs while continuing to build on core community services.” The survey was first conducted in 2022.Key findings include the following: - 56% of libraries offered food security support services in 2025, a 9.6% increase compared with 2022.
- More libraries are offering health and wellness programs for all age groups, including children (42.8%), teens (37%), adults or general interest (66.7%), and older adults (42%).
- 7% of libraries serve as cooling or warming centers during extreme temperatures, an increase of 8.2% compared with 2022.
- Almost all libraries (98.5%) have at least one partnership from early childhood centers (81.5%) to organizations serving older adults (73%).
For more information, read the press release.
ALA Council Passes Resolution on Librarians' and Library Workers' Bill of Rights
ALA announced that the ALA Council has “passed a resolution calling for the adoption and recognition of the Librarians’ and Library Workers’ Bill of Rights, a landmark framework affirming the dignity, safety and professional rights of library workers across all sectors.” This resolution “responds to growing concerns about the treatment and working conditions of library professionals nationwide. It underscores the essential role librarians and library workers play as champions of intellectual freedom, equitable access to information, and lifelong learning.” ALA urges “library systems at all levels to formally adopt the Bill of Rights as a guiding document for policy and practice.” For more information and to read the Bill of Rights, read the press release.
Library of Congress Issues New America250 Podcast Series on Founding Documents
Jeanne Dennis, senior counsel of legal programs and initiatives for the Library of Congress, writes the following in a guest post for the Law Librarians of Congress’ In Custodia Legis blog:Happy Birthday, America, from the Constitution Annotated! To celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence, join Our Constitution in examining the Declaration of Independence’s reasons for revolution and how the problems of government that these grievances illustrate inform the Constitution in a new podcast series, From Grievance to Governance: How the Declaration of Independence Informs the Constitution. While the Declaration of Independence is most famous for its soaring language, ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,’ equally worthy of attention is its list of how King George III had established ‘an absolute Tyranny over these States.’ These grievances not only provide a snapshot of the historical events that propelled the colonies to revolution, but they also raise questions about how to best secure those unalienable Rights so cherished by the Founding Fathers. For more information, read the blog post.
OCLC Unveils America250 Bookshelf of Nonfiction Titles
OCLC announced the following:As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, OCLC … introduces America’s 250-Year Bookshelf, a collection of 250 nonfiction books about America—one for every year since 1776—identified through data from WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive source of information about library collections. The list reveals which books, from among the vast number written about America over two and a half centuries, libraries around the world have continued to preserve and share across generations. For 250 years, authors, scholars, scientists, historians, philosophers, leaders, and other thinkers have published works that sought to explain, understand, and interpret America. Many have faded from view with time. The 250 books on this list have not. They continue to inform, inspire, challenge, and educate new generations because libraries continue to preserve and share them. For more information, read the press release.
JSTOR Reaches New Milestone for Its Digital Stewardship Services
JSTOR now has more than 50 institutions participating in the charter program of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, “marking an important milestone as the community-led initiative moves from its first year into its next phase.”“Since the program was announced in March 2025, the charter cohort has grown to include institutions across 22 states and four countries, reflecting a breadth of institutional types, geographies, and stewardship contexts,” JSTOR reports. “Participants span ten ARL and twelve R1 universities, ten Oberlin Group institutions, two City University of New York campuses, two community colleges, and six nonprofit and cultural heritage organizations.” For more information, read the news item.
U.S. Copyright Office Plans a Copyright Basics Webinar
The U.S. Copyright Office is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, July 15 called Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101. It aims “to teach copyright basics and key concepts to creators within various disciplines,” with information on “the foundations of copyright law, the process of copyright registration, and Copyright Office programs supporting research, enforcement, and understanding copyright concepts like fair use.”The speakers will be Samantha Levin and Taylor Schumacher, who are both attorney-advisors at the U.S. Copyright Office’s Office of Public Information and Education. For more information, read the news item.
UNESCO Introduces an Open Science Platform
UNESCO launched “a new digital platform that promotes open access to UNESCO scientific knowledge and research products and tracks global progress on open science.”UNESCO shares, “Developed in partnership with the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), the platform is released as free and open-source software and is built on open technologies, including a customized implementation of CERN’s InvenioRDM, an open source framework for building large-scale digital academic repositories and platforms, as a core component. With an initial focus on research produced or supported by UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Family, the platform aims to promote UNESCO-related knowledge and support the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.” For more information, read the news item.
NC LIVE Gets New Resources for America250
NC LIVE added four new digital resources comprising a three-part primary source collection from Gale Archives Unbound: Introduction to US History and 330 ebook titles from Arcadia Publishing that focus on North Carolina history. The Gale collection offers more than 1,500 historical titles in modules covering the American Revolution, slavery in America, and the Civil War. The Arcadia titles will join NC LIVE’s HomeGrown Ebooks Collection, which offers an unlimited, simultaneous use model for libraries.“These four permanent collections with unlimited user access were made possible through funding from an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant. They offer critical learning resources on our national and state history in honor of the United States’ semiquincentennial,” the press release states. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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