News and announcements
🤖✊🏼 Sarah Watstein, Dean of the Lemieux Library at Seattle University, has another post in her ongoing series exploring artificial intelligence and Pope Leo XIV’s 2026 encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas.” In it, she questions and reflects upon the meaning of the phrase “AI for the common good,” something which the American Library Association refers to in its recently published guidelines on the use of AI in libraries. It’s encouraging to see library leaders practicing discernment on this issue, and I would expect no less from a leader at a Jesuit institution.
✒️📑 Boston University Libraries is celebrating the grand opening of the Nikki Giovanni Papers. In addition to the exhibition, “Poetry is the Culture of a People,” BU Libraries will host a reception, a film screening of “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” a discussion with the filmmakers, and a poetry reading. While the exhibition focused on the first 10 years of Giovanni’s career, the collection includes photographs, journals, manuscripts, artworks, personal and professional correspondence, professional records, memorabilia, drafts of poetry, and other writings. The collection is the result of an ongoing relationship between the poet and BU that began in 1970.
🦠🎞️ In this donor-funded contest, Indiana University students are invited to use images from IU Libraries’ Moving Image Archive to create a “short, compelling video about the importance of good health practices that help prevent illness and promote collective care within the community.” This is the program’s fourth year and the top prize received $2,000. It is not lost on me that this project began just a year after campuses began returning to in-person classes post-COVID. What an amazing way to promote community health and explore digital collections!
5️⃣🧑🏽🏫 The ZSR Library at Wake Forest hosts an early career workshop series for faculty. “First Five” is open to faculty within their first five years at WFU and covers topics including finding resources for courses, designing research assignments around AI, evidence synthesis, and open access publishing. What an amazing resource for new colleagues that would be a relatively low lift for any university library team to create!
🐝🍫 Three library school interns are conducting a deep dive into UC Davis Library’s agriculture and food and drink collections using data-driven assessment methods to determine its scope and strength. The first post, by Mei Chin, explores bees and honey (and also mead. Yum!). The second post explores chocolate and cacao. The next post(s) will explore tea and beer. As part of the analysis, the interns are identifying peer institutions with similar collecting strengths. What a great project for a new MLIS student!
📖🆓 Finally, a little bit of self promotion here. A group of librarians at Loyola Marymount University and Saint Mary’s College of California published a free and open toolkit for “Growing Your OER Program.” The book, published on Pressbooks, contains practical guidance for growing OER awareness, OER marketing and promotional materials, and frameworks and templates for self-advocacy within the reappointment, promotion, and tenure process. The templates can be used to promote OERs to faculty, students, and administrators.
Notable mentions
- UNC Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library shows off it’s 500-year old copy of the Odyssey.
- In the real world, the 1817 voyage of the USS Ontario to the mouth of the Columbia River is recounted in a logbook owned by SMU Libraries.
- Indiana University hosted BINGO with the dean for grad students
- Tired of having to “deal” with AI in your everyday creative work? Rowan University Libraries hosts an “Avoiding Unwanted AI” workshop.
- Cornell University Library is expanding its Critical AI Literacy Program.
- After long last, the new Carrier Library is open at James Madison University. (video above)
- The names and stories of more than 4,500 Georgians who were enslaved can now be discovered thanks of the University of Georgia Libraries.
- The University of Cincinnati Libraries’ Student Innovation Grant provides funding for students to explore ways to expand the library’s impact.
On social
The “Kinda chic” trend was undoubtedly the most popular meme to emulate this past month, with dozens of libraries jumping on it, including University of Buffalo, Marriott Library, UNF Libraries, Western Carolina, DePaul University, University of Hawaii Mānoa, and University of Michigan Law (above). This style of “pretty library photo + text” meme regularly tends to gather speed among AcadLibs and reminds me of past trends like “This and…”
As much as I love the quiet focus that summer time brings to the academic library, it’s just not the same when the students and faculty are all away. A library is nothing without its people. So it’s no surprised the “we missed you so we drew you in” meme took off across both university main channels and libraries themselves. Here’s one from University of North Florida, Salisbury University, BYU Idaho, Central Oklahoma, and my own library at Loyola Marymount University.
Finally, a few notable posts worth mentioning:
- I love how Grand Valley State University promoted their bookmark contest (below)
- UCF Libraries is encouraging students to decorate their step stool.
- Boston University Libraries pulled off the 35mm vs. Imax meme.
banner image: Lemieux Library, Seattle University (source)
