Executive Order targets the Institute for Museum and Library Services
In a March 14 executive order, the Trump Administration is seeking to eliminate the Institute for Museum and Library Services "to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law." The EO states that...
View ArticleAAP urges White House to prioritize copyright in AI action plan
On Saturday, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) issued a response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's request for public comment regarding the development of the...
View ArticlePEN America's World Voices Festival, Literary Awards to return
PEN America has announced that two of its tentpole spring events—the World Voices Festival and Literary Awards—will return this year. The festival and awards were canceled in 2024 after a number of...
View ArticleThe unbelievable scale of AI's pirated-books problem
When employees at Meta started developing their flagship AI model, Llama 3, they faced a simple ethical question. The program would need to be trained on a huge amount of high-quality writing to be...
View ArticleU.S. to shut Canadian entrance to beloved Vermont-Quebec border library
For 120 years, the Haskell Free Library & Opera House has straddled the Quebec-Vermont border, offering equal access to Canadians and Americans alike, passport-free. That was the vision of its...
View Article'No consent': Australian authors 'livid' that Meta may have used their books...
Australian authors say they are "livid" and feel violated that their work was included in an allegedly pirated dataset of books Meta used to train its AI. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram...
View ArticleIowa law banning books including 1984 and Ulysses blocked by US federal judge
A lawsuit brought by publishers and authors including John Green and Jodi Picoult has led to a portion of a law banning Iowa school libraries and classrooms from carrying books depicting sex acts...
View ArticleOnce again, federal judge blocks a book banning law in Iowa
On March 25, U.S. District Court judge Stephen Locher of the Southern District of Iowa reinstated an injunction against book restrictions in Iowa Senate File 496, a 2023 state law that has resulted in...
View ArticleRightwing groups across US push new bans to limit 'obscene' books in libraries
Rightwing groups around the US are pushing legislation that would place new limits on what books are allowed in school libraries in a move that critics decry as censorship often focused on LGBTQ+...
View Article'Meta has stolen books': authors to protest in London against AI trained...
Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta's London office today in protest of the organisation's use of copyrighted books to train artificial...
View ArticleUS authors' copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft combined in New...
Twelve US copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated in New York, despite most of the authors and news outlets suing the companies being opposed to centralization.
View ArticleBeing a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration
For many librarians, the stakes of the job are high – they're facing burnout, book bans, legislation pushed by rightwing groups, and providing essential resources in an effort to fill gaps in the US's...
View Article21 States sue Trump administration over scuttling of IMLS, other agencies
Attorneys general from 21 states have sued the Trump administration to block its recent efforts to scuttle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and six other federal agencies.
View ArticleMajority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups not parents
A large majority of attempts to ban books in the US last year came from organised groups rather than parents. 72% of demands to censor books were initiated by pressure groups, government entities and...
View ArticleThe ALA sues over the scuppering of the IMLS
The American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), whose members include museum and library workers nationwide, have sued over what...
View ArticleMississippi orders deletion of race and gender databases in state libraries
The Mississippi library commission, which offers services such as specialized research assistance to libraries in the state, has ordered the deletion of two research collections: the race relations...
View ArticleAAP files amicus brief in Meta AI copyright case
The Association of American Publishers filed an amicus brief on April 11 supporting authors in their class action lawsuit against Meta for copyright infringement related to AI training. The brief...
View ArticleBook bound in the skin of a 19th-century Suffolk murderer goes on display
A second copy of a book bound in the skin of a notorious 19th-century murderer is now on display at a Suffolk museum. However, Horrible Histories creator Terry Deary has told the Guardian that the...
View ArticleACLU of Tennessee lawsuit looks to stop book bans in Rutherford County
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit April 16 against the Rutherford County Board of Education in response to the banning and restriction of more than 140 books from school...
View ArticleThe hottest new social scene might be a book club
They pick a title, read it and then gather to discuss it in detail. But unlike more traditional book clubs, many of these groups add on another activity — or multiple — to turn their gatherings into...
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