Despite this troubled context, and in some ways because of it, the library’s drastic reading room reduction plan has provoked “outrage” from staff, say the Prospect and Public and Commercial Services (PCS) unions that represent them. Reading room staff understandably fear for their jobs, but also for the building’s fundamental purpose, which was set out by law in 1972 – an indication of how hard the complex was to conceive and build – as “the establishment for the United Kingdom of a national library”. Staff are now “the most furious I’ve ever seen them about anything”, says a union source. A strike over the reading room plan, following one last year over low pay, could begin as soon as December.
Suit says transgender book got Georgia library manager fired
A Southeast Georgia county and library system are being sued by a local woman who alleges they fired her as the manager of the county’s public library because she allowed a book about a transgender child to be part of a display.
Good reading: Prison Book Project connects students, incarcerated individuals, professors and librarians | News | SDSU
From 'Crazy Rich Asians' and John Sandford thrillers to Irish history and Indigenous dark fiction, SDSU provides a literary relief to daily life in prison.
ICE Is Running One of the Largest Anti-Left Surveillance Operations in US History | WIRED
Attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges have obtained evidence of a sweeping, possibly unconstitutional spying operation carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against left-wing social movements in Minnesota and beyond.
McKinney ISD limits library book challenges to parents | McKinney | Community Impact
McKinney ISD residents who do not have a child enrolled in the district will no longer be able to challenge library materials. “Reviewing a challenge requires staff time and district resources,” Akins said. “This change is intended to focus that work on concerns raised by those with a direct connection to our schools.”
Makes perfect sense!
Sacred stacks: An interview by Allison Nash-Jordan | The Christian Century
Sam Helmick, who served as 2025–2026 president of the American Library Association, is community and access services coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library. A longtime advocate for intellectual freedom as a basis for healthy relationships between libraries and the communities they serve, Helmick has advocated against censorship and book bans in libraries across the world.
Not you average librarian interview!
Student Loans for Librarians: Now More Difficult! – ACRLog
The new restrictions are disheartening. I don’t have a solution to this systemic problem. But I encourage everyone to talk about it more. If you’ve been in the profession for decades, talk with newer professionals and students about how much the financial picture has changed since you were in school—they should understand this isn’t how things have to be. If you have student loans, talk about them (and not just when you get them forgiven!), so people can get their heads around the idea that it’s not a moral failing to be in debt. Our cultural silence about money issues is damaging: it fuels anxiety, shame, and financial illiteracy. You have the power to change that, one conversation at a time.
Anthropic illegally trained Claude with Stanford professors’ books
“To put me to work that way, without remittance, is a form of slave labor,” said Wolff, professor emeritus of English and winner of the National Medal of Arts. “They’re using my work without paying for it. As time goes on, they’re going to make the lives of writers very difficult if there’s no fruit to their labor.”
New ‘Reading Rainbow’ host talks new kid’s book – Texas Standard Texas Standard
In his new picture book, “I’m So Happy You’re Here,” librarian Mychal Threets lays out all the joys of the library for kids. Threets made a splash on TikTok making videos about his experiences as a librarian, and he’s been tapped to lead a reboot of the beloved program “Reading Rainbow.”
The EPA Is Quietly Killing its Web Archive – Mother Jones
While the usability of the archive has historically been far from perfect—researchers often encountered dead links and frustratingly limited search capabilities—the archive has held a trove of tens of thousands of EPA documents dating back to the 1990s simply not available elsewhere.
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