|
|
Weekly News Digest
 |
September 1, 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.
|
AI News and Updates Tests AI in Higher Education
The AI News and Updates editorial team announced that it has published a small, open dataset based on a test that “repeated the same higher-education literature question three times in each of five AI research assistants: ResearchRabbit, Elicit, Scite, Consensus, and Undermind. The 15 run-level records preserve access blocks, off-topic retrieval, free-tier limits, and between-run changes rather than reporting only successful outputs. The result is not a ‘best tool’ ranking. The useful story for information professionals is that a single polished answer can conceal unstable retrieval and materially different evidence conditions.” Learn more at ainewsandupdates.com/how-to-test-ai-research-tools.
PEN America Releases Report on the Threats Facing Public Libraries
PEN America shares the following:Public libraries nationwide are reaching a breaking point as a result of mounting pressures to censor collections, increased intimidation against library staff, and disruptions to library operations, according to a new report. … Out of Circulation: Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries examines the fallout from book bans, cancelled story hours, harassment of librarians, funding cuts, and the undoing of libraries’ independent governance. … Based on a review of trends since 2021, the report highlights actions that pressure public libraries to censor and ‘exert ideological control over the circulation of ideas’ in public spaces. These actions include banning books and ‘aging up’ titles, putting prejudicial stickers on books, withholding funds over curation decisions, and the harassment and dismissal of library workers. The report states that the totality of these actions … ‘are undermining the ability of public libraries to be beacons of intellectual freedom for our diverse, democratic society.’ For more information, read the press release.
The Hickman Holler Reading Club Gets a Libby Campaign
Country singer-songwriter Tyler Childers launched the Hickman Holler Reading Club to bring together music, storytelling, and his personal love of reading. “The club features handpicked titles inspired by his Appalachian roots, his experiences growing up in Kentucky, and the stories that have stayed with him throughout his life,” OverDrive notes. The club has a new collection campaign in Libby for public libraries in the U.S. and Canada that own at least 10 of the titles. It runs Sept. 1–Dec. 31, 2026.For more information, read the blog post.
Bill Gates Shares Thoughts on the Importance of AI Ethics and Regulations
Bill Gates writes the following in “The Turbulent AI Era Is Here. The Choices We Make Now Are Critical.” on his site Gates Notes: In terms of equity, AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice. The challenge is monumental. Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history. How will we use this technology to make the world a fairer place and keep it from widening the divide between rich and poor? How will we protect the people who are most vulnerable to the harms caused by artificial intelligence, including those who lose their livelihoods and the sense that they are in control of their future? I believe that answering these questions and acting on the answers should be the world’s top priority. If the world takes the right steps AI will be a force for good and leave everyone better off. For more information, read the article.
Publishing Gateway Partners With Signals for Automated Research Integrity Evaluations
Research Information reports that “Publishing Gateway has announced a strategic partnership with Signals to integrate automated research integrity evaluations into its publishing workflow platform. Consequently, manuscripts submitted through the platform can now be screened for integrity signals before reaching peer reviewers. In addition, published articles will undergo continuous post-publication monitoring.”“At Publishing Gateway, we set out to make scholarly publishing faster, fairer and more transparent for everyone involved. Partnering with Signals takes that mission a decisive step further,” says Philip Hess, CEO of Publishing Gateway. “It has to be designed into the workflow from the very first submission. By bringing Signals into our platform, we are giving institutions and publishers the confidence that what they publish has been evaluated with the rigour the scholarly community deserves.” For more information, read the news story.
Publishing Gateway Joins Forces With Global Campus for Streamlined Peer Review
Publishing Gateway partnered with Global Campus “to make the scholarly publishing process smarter, faster, and better connected than ever before, combining Publishing Gateway’s streamlined institutional workflow with Global Campus’ ability to surface the right experts, reviewers, and journals from across the global research landscape.”The news item continues, “One of the most persistent challenges in academic publishing is finding suitable peer reviewers, quickly, accurately, and at scale. Global Campus tackles this head-on with AI-driven, understanding-based matching that goes far beyond keyword searches. Rather than relying on spurious metrics or surface signals, Global Campus analyses the actual content of research to identify the most relevant experts from its vast, global index of academic knowledge. For institutions, publishers, and researchers working with Publishing Gateway, this capability is transformative. Peer reviewer identification, historically one of the slowest steps in the editorial process, can now be handled with speed and precision, directly complementing Publishing Gateway’s commitment to delivering peer review with greater speed, accuracy, and editorial quality.” For more information, read the news item.
IMLS Announces Results of Its Inaugural National Museum Survey
IMLS published the results of its first National Museum Survey (NMS). “As the first comprehensive federal dataset regarding US museums, the NMS provides new insights into a field that generates billions of dollars in economic activity, provides nearly half a million jobs, and hosts over one billion visits per year,” IMLS shares.The NMS is modeled after IMLS’s Public Libraries Survey. Its data is publicly available via the interactive NMS Data Portal. For more information, read the bulletin.
ALSC and YALSA Reunite as One ALA Division
ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) officially reunited on Sept. 1, 2026. This move brings together members, resources, and expertise surrounding library services for children and teens into a single division. The reunification process has been in the works for more than a year. “[W]ork will continue throughout the coming year to shape the identity, governance, programs, and priorities of the reunified division,” ALA notes. “This reunification gives us an opportunity to build something together that reflects the full spectrum of work our members do to serve children and teens,” says ALSC president Ariana Hussain. “September 1 is an important milestone, but it is also the beginning of our next phase. We will continue engaging members as we build a division that draws on the strengths, expertise, and histories of both ALSC and YALSA.” For more information, read the press release.
Multnomah County Library Celebrates 25 Years of Its Everybody Reads Program
Multnomah County Library in Oregon selected The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich for its Everybody Reads 2027 program. “This year’s signature community reading project marks 25 years of the Everybody Reads program,” the press release states. Patrons are encouraged to “join fun programs leading up to Louise Erdrich’s Portland author talk, hosted by Literary Arts on March 18, 2027, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This special event concludes months of engaging library programs surrounding the book and its themes.” For more information, read the press release.
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
|
