As COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, it’s time to look to the future and understand which adaptations will remain, what trends will accelerate, and where progress may be on hold. Will libraries continue as hubs that bring together information, collections, technology, services, and spaces to support creativity, create knowledge, build community, inspire concentration, and foster collaboration? Or will there be retrenchment into quiet study halls divorced from student success, coursework, and the research enterprise? To answer these questions, we offer four big ideas for the future on library spaces, services, and collections. (C&RL News)
“Inclusive access,” a textbook-sales model touted as a way to ensure that students without deep pockets can afford books, doesn’t always deliver on that promise, according to a leading open-access advocacy organization. ... Inclusive access programs weave the cost of digital course materials into a student’s tuition and fees, and are marketed as a heavily discounted alternative to traditional print textbooks. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
The survey report released in September includes responses from a worldwide sample of 1,843 college and university libraries. The results show that academic libraries are undergoing swift and deep-reaching changes, particularly in areas affected by technology and changing user needs. (Library Journal)
EXPLORE THE DISPERSAL OF ENSLAVED AFRICANS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC WORLD. This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them. European colonizers turned to Africa for enslaved laborers to build the cities and extract the resources of the Americas. They forced millions of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, and from one part of the Americas to another. Analyze these slave trades and view interactive maps, timelines, and animations to see the dispersal in action.
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. We have an impact on the system through journalism, rendering it more fair, effective, transparent and humane.
Highlights new modes of reporting, including live streaming and non-linear, interactive storytelling. This site explores international journalism projects that use "new tools and practices leading to a redefinition of journalism in the digital age."
It’s been a rough few months for Sci-Hub, the beloved outlaw repository of scientific papers. In January its Twitter account, which had more than 180,000 followers, was permanently suspended. In response to a lawsuit brought by publishers, new papers aren’t being added to its library.
Staff layoffs continued to pummel the beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry in 2020. A third of papers with an average Sunday circulation of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs last year, a period complicated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis which examined news articles that cited staff layoffs at these outlets.
Did you know that 33% of all U.S. undergraduates attend community colleges? Data about Community Colleges from CCRC at Columbia University's Teacher College.
The effects of climate change and our impact on Earth can be hard to visualize. Thanks to satellite imagery, we've been able to get a better sense of how our actions can affect our planet on a larger scale. For many of us, Google Earth has provided that vantage point of looking at the world in almost real time from outer space. Today, Google is announcing its biggest update to the service since 2017. (Yahoo News)
Our latest data show that there are 4.33 billion social media users around the world at the start of 2021, equating to more than 55 percent of the total global population. (Datareportal)
At the start of 2020, higher education institutions were bracing for a challenging decade. On the horizon were double-digit demographic swings, a looming economic downturn, steadily increasing demand for online education, shifting student and parent expectations, ever-changing technology and more.
According to research firm Gartner, the “internet of behaviors”, total experiences, anywhere operations, hyperautomation, and AI engineering will comprise the top strategic technologies for chief information officers in 2021.
Roughly a quarter (23%) of adult social media users in the United States – and 17% of adults overall – say they have changed their views about a political or social issue because of something they saw on social media in the past year, according to a July Pew Research Center survey.
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Last March, when the pandemic left everyone in their place and going online to stay connected, older adults, many who live on their own, became even more isolated. Although Zoom, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger video and other apps allowed people to work and stay in touch, many older adults often lacked the technical expertise to use them.
Nearly one-third of students said they have experienced food insecurity since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey report from Chegg.org. (Inside Higher Education)
Nature sets article processing charge at the equivalent of $11,250 for researchers selecting open-access publishing. (Inside Higher Education)
It's known that some policies help the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. A new report shows the same pattern is affecting institutions of higher education. (Inside Higher Education)
This guide has three goals: 1) provide a one-stop guide of health, academic, financial, and basic information; 2) offer emotional support and social connections; and 3) encourage all CUNY students to become advocates for themselves and others.
Reading the IHE piece on 11/11 Speculation Over Biden's Education Secretary, and giving thought to the priorities of ED under Biden, has led me to conclude the following: the next Education Secretary should come from a community college.
Here are 11 reasons why: (Inside Higher Education)
Many faculty members experience the same basic needs insecurity as their students, according to a new research by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University. The study of nearly 550 faculty members at four community colleges and one university found that 38 percent experienced food or housing insecurity, or both. (Inside Higher Education)
When I lived in Croatia, I managed a project called One Country One Library (OCOL) from 2017 to 2020. The project’s goal was to develop a national platform of books and other publications (including short stories, academic articles and journals, textbooks, audiobooks, educational videos, and podcasts) that would be freely accessible via a website or app within the country’s borders. (American Libraries Magazine)
The cartoonist Roz Chast once captured a certain kind of ambient guilt or embarrassment in a single, wordless image on the cover of The New Yorker. It shows a man in an overstuffed chair. Behind him looms an enormous set of built-in bookshelves, crowded floor to ceiling with 200 or 300 volumes. The spine of each book has facial features, and they wear expressions of alarm, confusion, anger, horror, indignation and contempt. (A few look amused.) The man sits -- as you’ve probably guessed by now -- staring at his laptop while wearing a pair of headphones. (Inside Higher Ed)
Gen Z may be more immune to the lure of misinformation because younger people apply more context, nuance and skepticism to their online information consumption, experts and new polling suggests. (Axios)
Updated information, professional development, and resources to support academic and research library personnel during a pandemic. (ACRL)