Brand-new from New York Times bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews! The Queen of the Summer Read is back with her first novel in two years!
Maeve and Therese Dunigan are sisters—but the two have been estranged for years. They could not be more opposite: Maeve, a rule-follower and Therese, a rebel. But when their mother’s death brings the family back together, the two find that they have inherited a painting—one that could be worth millions and could save each of them from their respective wolves at the door. The only issue is the painting might be a fake and the only way they can solve the problem is to find the original. This means a road trip—to Ireland, to their family roots, and to a mysterious crime that occurred years ago.
With tensions simmering, the two hit the road and find themselves on twisty lanes, in colorful villages, at local pubs, and with handsome men whose gift of the gab is surpassed only by their charm. Can Maeve and Therese find the real painting, remove a family curse, solve a cold case, and actually survive without killing each other? Join Mary Kay Andrews on a road trip that will entertain you for miles.
#CoverReveal! Behold ROAD TRIP by NYT-bestselling author @marykayandrewsauthor. The mega-bestselling queen of the beach reads is back and she’s crossing the pond next summer with rolling hills, hot men with accents, and a trip to Ireland two sisters might not survive.
Mark your calendars and start planning your Summer 2026 reading early. ROAD TRIP will be in stores everywhere on June 2, 2026 from @stmartinspress. Pre-order NOW!
The New York Public Library today announced the acquisition of the CameraPlanet Archive, a world-renowned collection of more than 1,200 hours of video documenting September 11, 2001, its immediate aftermath, and the subsequent design and construction of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. This historic archive will be preserved, processed, and made publicly accessible through the Library’s research centers.
Donated by Emmy Award–winning filmmakers Steven Rosenbaum and Pamela Yoder, the CameraPlanet Archive is the largest contemporaneous video collection of September 11th and the Museum. Recorded by more than 130 New Yorkers using consumer camcorders, the footage captures both the devastation and the resilience of the city during one of its most challenging moments — long before iPhones, Twitter, or social media reshaped how major news events are recorded and shared.
Significance of the Archive
The Archive contains over 500 hours of first-person video recorded during the week of September 11, as well as more than 700 hours documenting the planning, design, and construction of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Although portions of the material appeared in Rosenbaum’s 2002 documentary 7 Days in September, the majority of the footage has never before been made public.
For over two decades, Rosenbaum and Yoder maintained and safeguarded the tapes independently, before donating them to the Library to ensure their long-term preservation and public accessibility.
Preservation and Public Access at The New York Public Library
The Archive will be stewarded by the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division, with public access expected to begin in 2027. Once available, the collection will join the Library’s extensive 9/11-related holdings, including charitable response records and the reporting files of New York Times journalists James Glanz and Eric Lipton.
“The CameraPlanet Archive adds a remarkable dimension to the Library’s collections,” said Brent Reidy, Director of the Research Libraries at The New York Public Library. “By preserving these firsthand accounts, we are ensuring that future generations can study September 11 as it was experienced by New Yorkers in real time.”
“Stewarding a collection of this scale is both a responsibility and a privilege,” said Julie Golia, Associate Director of the Rayner Special Collections Wing and Charles J. Liebman Senior Curator of Manuscripts. “Our work will focus on preserving the material and making it broadly available for scholars, educators, and the public.”
“As a city, we made a promise in the days and weeks after 9/11 to never forget. This unprecedented archive will help us do just that for generations to come,” said Iris Weinshall, Chief Operating Officer of The New York Public Library who was New York City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner on Sept. 11 2001.
“At a time when misinformation, denialism, and revisionist history circulate widely, timestamped and contemporaneous video records carry renewed civic importance. The CameraPlanet Archive is not simply a record of tragedy; it is a safeguard against forgetting and distortion,” said Steven Rosenbaum.
“By any measure, the terrorist attack on September 11 was a major event in American history, deserving of extensive preservation and careful study,” said Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. “This archive will help preserve the record for future generations of students and scholars.”
Public Program
To mark the donation, The New York Public Library will host a screening of 7 Days in September on Thursday, September 11, 2025, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, in the Celeste Auditorium at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Following the film, Rosenbaum and Yoder will join historian Kenneth T. Jackson for a conversation moderated by author and journalist Kurt Andersen. The program will be open to the public, with details available at nypl.org.
A passionate advocate for public internet access and a successful entrepreneur, Brewster Kahle has spent his life intent on a singular focus: providing universal access to all knowledge. The Internet Archive, which he founded in 1996, now preserves 99+ petabytes of data – the books, Web pages, music, television, government information, and software of our cultural heritage – and works with more than 400 library and university partners to create a digital library that’s accessible to all. The Archive is known for the Wayback Machine, which lets users search the history of almost one trillion web pages. But it also archives images, software, video and audio recordings, documents, and it contains dozens of resources and projects that fill a variety of gaps in cultural, political, and historical knowledge. Kahle joins EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley to discuss how the free flow of knowledge makes all of us more free.
In this episode you’ll learn about:
The role AI plays in digitizing, preserving, and easing access to all kinds of information
How EFF helped the Internet Archive fight off the government’s demand for information about library patrons
The importance of building a decentralized, distributed web to finding and preserving information for all
Why building revolutionary, world-class libraries like the Internet Archive requires not only money and technology, but also people willing to dedicate their lives to the work
How nonprofits are crucial to filling societal gaps left by businesses, governments, and academia
Alabama’s state library agency wants to restrict books about transgender people and LGBTQ topics even further.
The Alabama Public Library Service filed a code change to the Legislative Service Agency on Aug. 29 that would effectively prohibit children and young adults from accessing any material that “positively depicts” transgender people.
That’s a more specific extension of current rules, which say libraries need to remove sexually explicit and inappropriate content from children’s sections.
The updated state code would say that “any material that promotes, encourages, or positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders” is inappropriate for children under 18. The code excludes books on religion, history, biology or human anatomy.
The Pierce County Library System is being sued over a data breach earlier this year that compromised basic personal details of more than 335,000 people, court records show.
Between April 15 and April 21, unauthorized access into the library’s system led to certain files being copied and taken, according to a public notice from the library reportedly issued in July. Following an internal review completed about a month after the breach, the library determined that information including name and date of birth was present within the impacted files, the notice said.
The library added that it was “unaware of any attempted or actual misuse of information,” but two of three plaintiffs in a recently filed lawsuit alleged they have experienced consequences from the cyberattack.
Three patrons sued the library on Sept. 3 in Pierce County Superior Court, accusing the library of failing to implement and maintain reasonable security measures. As a result of the breach, the plaintiffs’ efforts to mitigate increased risks of identity theft and fraud will be costly and time-consuming for years to come, the suit said.
We're back at the Earthsea Cycle with book 5: Tales of Earthsea. This book is a collection of short stories set in Earthsea, crafted as a kind of bridge between books 4 and 6.
Friends may recall that the last book, Tehanu, was not my favorite of the series, although I appreciate what Le Guin was doing. In Tales of Earthsea, we get the best of both worlds in a sense--a return to the fantasy adventure themes of the original trilogy combined with Le Guin's updated views on gender and roles. Like Tehanu, Tales of Earthsea is no longer really children's fiction. Sex, substance abuse, child abuse, and various other mature themes are much more present here than in the original trilogy. These later Earthsea books read like they were written for the then-adult fans of the original trilogy, and I think it works well.
In each of the five stories of Tales of Earthsea, Le Guin is introducing us to elements of Earthsea society not seen before in the series: How women ended up being excluded from wizardry, a young man with the ability to become a wizard (the magical aptitude) who decides he wants another sort of life for himself, a wizard of Roke who misuses his power and chooses not to return although he is invited to, a woman who wants to study at Roke but is refused. In this way, Le Guin gives much breadth to the world of Earthsea by introducing these stories outside the "mainstream" Earthsea narratives.
I respect that Le Guin doesn't just try to retcon the sexism written into the earlier Earthsea books--instead, she really tries here to reckon with how the women of Earthsea manage it, how they get around it, and how it hurts them. The resultant picture feels realistic, up to and including how frustrating it is to watch women be excluded from the school of Roke despite having helped found it.
She continues with her theme of unexpected heroes--protagonists who are average people from little nothing towns on little nothing islands who despite expectations prove themselves capable of great things, which is always fun to watch.
We get backstory on several things present in the original trilogy, like the founding of the school and some history of Ged's first teacher, Ogion, which was great fun (and once again I am screaming clapping cheering as the specialist boy in all of Earthsea Ged makes a cameo).
A very enjoyable read overall, and I feel properly enthused and excited for the next book.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett took the stage early Saturday morning at the National Book Festival to talk about her new book, “Listening to the Law: Reflection on the Court and Constitution,” to a crowd that filled a ballroom.
She was the first justice to speak at the book festival since Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the justice she replaced on the nation’s top court.
Interviewed onstage by festival co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein, Barrett said she wrote the book so that Americans could see how the court works and to “feel pride” as the nation approached its 250th birthday.
“The drafting of the Constitution has been called the ‘Miracle at Philadelphia,’” she said, referring to the city in which the document was debated and signed in 1787. “And I think it really was a miracle … it has lasted because each generation has taken it and made it its own.”
Barrett, 53, was a Notre Dame law professor and serving on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Indiana when she was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump in 2020, just weeks before the presidential election. (She had been a finalist in 2018, after the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.)
Trump, when introducing her as his nominee, described her as “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds.”
Born in New Orleans, she was the oldest of seven children and now has seven children with her husband, Jesse Barrett. She obtained her law degree at Notre Dame (meeting her husband in the process) and, she told the crowd, the family was happy there before her nomination.
“My husband and I have plots at Notre Dame in the cemetery there,” she said, “so I really thought that’s where we were going to stay.”
Her conversation Saturday morning touched on how she comes to her decisions, indicating it’s not a cut and dried process.
“I try to keep an open mind,” she said. “One thing I try to communicate in this book is that every step of the decision-making process is really important and it matters. So, I go into (judicial) conference knowing what I think, but I do listen to my colleagues, and I will adjust what I think about how we should approach the opinion based on what my colleagues say.”
Justice Barrett also provided the audience with details about the daily business of the court.
The justices do not discuss cases before oral arguments; sometimes the oral arguments are so good they can cause her to change her mind about at least part of her opinion; one of her four clerks writes the first draft of her opinions, then she rewrites and edits as needed; when her opinion is circulated among justices, sometimes a fellow justice will ask for a small change before signing on; and, finally, the most recent justice has to oversee the court’s cafeteria and open the door when someone knocks during their discussions.
Another book while she’s on the bench isn’t in the offing, she said, calling the publication a “one and done.” She had to find time over the past several summers to write while the court was in recess, she said, and free time is at a premium.
“It was an arduous process writing the book, to be honest,” she said with a smile, drawing a laugh from the crowd. “I’m not sure I would repeat it just because it did take so long. I have seven children and another job.”
I looked at the premise of Down Cemetery Road and thought yes - I like what I see. Two women fill the leaders role. Each has their own set of skills. I think I'm a bit more Zoë Boehm than Sarah Tucker.
The plot takes some inspiration from current events and government actives.
Often I find that some books would be excellent as an audio books. That's the case with Down Cemetery Road. The narrator was narrated by Alix Dunmore. She has a clear speaking voice. She's created voices that are recognizable for the listener. She captures the dangerous, emotion and more of Herron plotting. A great tale and a great presentation.
Science Communication First published online September 6, 2025
DOI: 10.1177/10755470251363
Abstract
This study tested whether the transparent use of preprint sources affects the perceived credibility of science news and scientists. In an experiment, U.S. adults read a news report describing COVID-19 research as a “preprint” (with varying levels of detail) or as simply a “study.” There were no main effects of disclosing preprint status, but indirect effects emerged. For those who noticed the disclosure, both brief and fuller depictions of a study’s preprint status enhanced the credibility of the reporting and the scientists behind the research. However, perceiving the science to be uncertain negatively mediated the effects of preprint disclosure on credibility appraisals among Republicans.
We introduce Paper2Agent, an automated framework that converts research papers into AI agents. Paper2Agent transforms research output from passive artifacts into active systems that can accelerate downstream use, adoption, and discovery. Conventional research papers require readers to invest substantial effort to understand and adapt a paper’s code, data, and methods to their own work, creating barriers to dissemination and reuse. Paper2Agent addresses this challenge by automatically converting a paper into an AI agent that acts as a knowledgeable research assistant. It systematically analyzes the paper and the associated codebase using multiple agents to construct a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, then iteratively generates and runs tests to refine and robustify the resulting MCP. These paper MCPs can then be flexibly connected to a chat agent (e.g. Claude Code) to carry out complex scientific queries through natural language while invoking tools and workflows from the original paper. We demonstrate Paper2Agent’s effectiveness in creating reliable and capable paper agents through in-depth case studies. Paper2Agent created an agent that leverages AlphaGenome to interpret genomic variants and agents based on ScanPy and TISSUE to carry out single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analyses. We validate that these paper agents can reproduce the original paper’s results and can correctly carry out novel user queries. By turning static papers into dynamic, interactive AI agents, Paper2Agent introduces a new paradigm for knowledge dissemination and a foundation for the collaborative ecosystem of AI co-scientists.
Title: An Analysis of Research Publications on Reading Habits in the Digital Environment (RHDE): A Bibliometric Approach Authors: Kumar Mog, Rajesh; Anjali Gayan, Mithu Abstract: The purpose of the study is to perform a bibliometric analysis of the literature related to reading habits in the context of the digital environment. For the study, researchers extracted the bibliographic details of 474 records indexed in Scopus and WoS databases, which were further used by Biblioshiny and VOS viewer software to carry out thematic analysis and visualisation, respectively. The study found that research publications on reading habits in the digital environment (RHDE) have consistently increased since 2007. “Digital reading” was the most popular topic from 1998 to 2023, with China leading in publications, followed by the USA. Further, Chen C.M. was the most productive author, Zhejiang University (China) was the most significant institution in RHDE research, whereas Lecture Notes on Computer Science was the most productive source and out of eight themes that evolved from the strategic diagram, themes like digital reading, reading, and mobile reading need to be explored more in the future. The findings of the study provide important insights into the most influential authors, institutions, and countries involved in this field. It also suggests potential directions for future research, making it a valuable resource for researchers and organisations interested in this area. Page(s): 227-238
Title: Scientific Connectivity in Space Sustainability Research: A Network-Based Study Authors: S, Dr. Aswathy; PS, Sandhya; PR, Ajayalal Abstract: Space sustainability emphasizes the long-term, secure, and responsible use of outer space to ensure its continued accessibility for future generations. With the rapid expansion of space activities—driven by mega-constellations and increasing private sector participation—concerns over orbital congestion and space debris have intensified. In response, space sustainability has emerged as a global research priority. This study employs bibliometric and scientometric methods to explore the evolution of scientific research on space debris, drawing data from the Web of Science database for the period 2020 to 2024. Through collaboration and co-citation network analyses, the study identifies key research trends, influential contributors, and patterns of international collaboration. The findings provide a comprehensive view of the dynamic and interconnected research landscape supporting the global dialogue on sustainable space operations Page(s): 239-252
Title: The Rise of AI-Driven Scientometrics: A Decade of Transformative Growth (2012-2023) Authors: Ranjay Raj Singh Baghel, Ravi; Rajput, P. S.; Kumar Patel, Mahendra Abstract: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into scientometrics has revolutionized the analysis of scientific literature and the impact of the search. This study presents a comprehensive scientific analysis of the growing impact of AI and ML in the field of scientometrics from 2012 to 2023. Using large-scale bibliometric data from major scientific databases like SCOPUS, Google scholar and also collected data from crossref, we use advanced data mining techniques, natural language processing and network analysis. to map the evolving landscape of AI-driven scientometrics. Our results reveal a significant increase in publications combining AI/ML and scientometrics, with a compound annual growth rate of over the study period. We identify five main research groups: predictive bibliometrics, automated research evaluation, scientific mapping and visualization, citation analysis and recommendation systems, and research impact assessment. The analysis also reveals changing methodological trends, with a notable departure from traditional statistical approaches towards more sophisticated AI techniques, particularly in the areas of deep learning and graph neural networks. This study contributes to understanding how AI and ML are reshaping scientometric research and practice, providing valuable insights for researchers, policy makers and research administrators navigating rapid quantitative landscape science studies in evolution Page(s): 253-266
Title: Is LIS Education Future-Ready? A 56-Year Analysis of Emerging Topics and Research Trajectories Authors: Sahu, Komal; Roy, Abhijit; Sulochana, Anila; Shukla, Akhandanand Abstract: The LIS Education programs have seen significant changes over the last fifty-six years, which have impacted the LIS curriculum in several ways. The study aims to evaluate the evolving research trend and the growth of literature in LIS education and curriculum. Data were collected from the Scopus Database and processed using OpenRefine, VOSviewer, and SCImago Graphica. This study employed the bibliometric and topic modeling approach using the OpenAlex REST API service. The study involved 1296 bibliographic data on LIS education and curriculum, covering the period from 1968-2024. The findings, focusing on research productivity analysis, provide an overview of the most productive publishing channels, publishers, and country collaboration. In addition, it also offers an in-depth keyword analysis to identify emerging topics and includes topic modeling approach. The keywords analysis shows that a new topic, such as Web 2.0, Digital Curation, Research Data Management, etc., was brought to study every year. The emerging primary topics, such as “Information Literacy in Higher Education” and “Social Inclusion in Library Services for Newcomers,” etc. indicate the shifting research priorities and areas of growing interest in LIS. As a result, it is necessary to modify the LIS curriculum to reflect these current trends in LIS Education. Page(s): 267-279
This is a guest post by Judith Lee, the Literary Awards program manager.
In 1973, volunteers set up a modest literacy program in New York City, working to help parents and their children gain reading skills to improve their lives in a foundational way. Over the decades, Literacy Partners grew into a nonprofit with more than 30 full-time staffers in eight states and Puerto Rico.
Today, 52 years later, the program’s two-generation approach won the Library of Congress’ top honor in the 2025 Literacy Awards, the $150,000 David M. Rubenstein Prize, bringing the organization resources and national acclaim.
Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Newlen made the announcement today — World Literacy Day — awarding the annual program’s four top prize winners and 20 honorees. The groups were awarded a total of $525,000, all going to literacy-building nonprofits working around the world, and all funded by philanthropic donations.
“The 2025 winners and honorees have demonstrated a commitment not only to individuals but also the communities in which they live,” Newlen said.
For agencies that often work in low-income and difficult circumstances, the awards and recognition hit home.
“We are deeply honored to have our work recognized by the Library of Congress,” said Kristine Cooper, Literacy Partner’s chief external affairs officer. “This recognition affirms not only the strength of our mission, but also the lasting impact literacy has on generations to come.”
In Memphis, Tennessee, Literacy Mid-South received the $100,000 Kislak Family Foundation prize for its outsized impact on literacy development relative to its small size.
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Reading Program received the $50,000 American Prize for their outstanding work. Photo courtesy of Prime Time.
In New Orleans, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Reading Program received the $50,000 American Prize for equipping families with the tools and habits to make reading a shared and enriching part of daily life.
Finally, Building Tomorrow, a former Literacy Award Successful Practices Honoree, received the $50,000 International Prize for teaching literacy and increasing access to education in Uganda. The program has been such a success that it recently expanded into Rwanda.
“Building Tomorrow was a proud Successful Practices Honoree in 2023, and receiving this even greater recognition in 2025 is a humbling validation of the momentum building around community-powered education,” said George Srour, Building Tomorrow’s co-founder.
The Library’s Literacy Awards, established in 2013 with Rubenstein’s support (and bolstered by the Kislak Family Foundation in 2023) has awarded 247 prizes, totaling more than $4.3 million. More than 200 organizations from 42 countries have been recognized for their work.
Nonprofit organizations, schools, libraries and literacy initiatives from across the country and around the world apply for the awards every January. The 15-member Literacy Awards Advisory Board then reviews the applications before the Librarian of Congress makes the final decisions.
This year’s other international honorees were in Kenya, Scotland, Nigeria and South Africa. There were 15 other U.S. honorees, ranging from locally focused efforts to nationwide campaigns.
SLMs have many competitive advantages over LLMs. Their architectures (Microsoft’s Phi-3, Google’s Gemma, Apple OpenELM, IBM Granite) are more compact, specialized, energy-efficient, and easier to deploy than LLMs, especially on local edge computing devices. SLMs have significantly fewer parameters, typically ranging from a few billions, compared to LLMs, which can contain hundreds of billions or even trillions. This substantial difference in size provides several advantages for SLMs over LLMs, including lower computational requirements, faster training times, easier deployment, and more efficient performance in specific scenarios.
In this article we explore why SLMs are often better suited for many AI use cases, including agentic AI applications, and what business leaders should consider as they shape their AI strategies.
The remainder of the article is organized into the following sections :
Speed and Efficiency Drive Competitive Advantage
Specialization can Outperform Generalization
Agentic AI with More Control and Better Privacy
Safer for Prototyping, Experimentation, and Embedding in Workflows
Twenty-four organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading were awarded the 2025 Library of Congress Literacy Awards this morning on International Literacy Day. The Literacy Awards program, sponsored by David M. Rubenstein since 2013, and by the Kislak Family Foundation since 2023, honors promising initiatives that provide exemplary, innovative and replicable strategies that promote literacy.
The Library of Congress continues to draw attention to the urgent need to achieve universal literacy through the program.
“This year’s winners and honorees, based in various states and countries, have a particular focus on family and community,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen. “Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein and the Kislak Family Foundation, the Library of Congress is excited to recognize the organizations’ demonstrated efforts to improve individual literacy skills while also strengthening the communities they serve.”
The 13th David M. Rubenstein Prize is awarded to Literacy Partners in New York for their outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels in eight large cities across the country and Puerto Rico. Top prizes are also awarded to Literacy Mid-South, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Family Reading Program and Building Tomorrow. Additionally, 15 successful literacy practices are recognized, as well as five new literacy initiatives that demonstrate significant creativity and promise in their approach to literacy.
Prizes and Recipients
2025 David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): Literacy Partners, New York, New York
Founded in 1973, Literacy Partners takes a two-generation approach when it comes to improving literacy rates in the country. Literacy Partners supports adults, parents and caregivers in nurturing the literacy skills they and their children require to thrive in their communities through innovative and evidence-based literacy programs. Their efforts advance social and economic opportunities for adults, children and communities. The organization offers a variety of literacy-promoting programs such as culturally relevant digital and physical resources including Emmy Award-winning TV series; books; community workshops in both English and Spanish; adult classes on parenting, health, social-emotional learning and high school equivalency degrees; and early literacy support for families with young children. In 2024, Literacy Partners provided close to 40,000 hours of education and served 3,792 parents and 7,200 children. Almost half of their students earned their high school certificates and a third of their students enrolled in college last year.
2025 Kislak Family Foundation Prize ($100,000): Literacy Mid-South, Memphis, Tennessee
Literacy Mid-South has been providing literacy services to both children and adults in the Greater Memphis region since 1974. Over the past 50 years, Literacy Mid-South evolved from a volunteer tutoring program to the largest provider of free literacy resources in Memphis, supported by robust partnerships with key community stakeholders. Literacy Mid-South attributes their success to building community-wide investments in literacy development across organizations, government entities, for-profit partners and individuals. The organization currently works with elementary schools as well as summer and after-school programs and increases access to books for the children they serve. For their adult students, Literacy Mid-South empowers individual learners to identify their own life goals and tailors fundamental literacy and English language instructions until the goal is met and a new one is identified.
2025 American Prize ($50,000): Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Family Reading Program, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Prime Time Family Reading Program was developed in 1991 to promote intergenerational literacy by engaging the entire family. Prime Time Family Reading offers six-week programs that focus on creating literacy-rich homes by modeling open-ended reading and discussion methods that caregivers can use to develop critical thinking skills and regular reading habits with their children at home. The program expanded during the pandemic to include at-home versions of the six-week program, a podcast that models the Prime Time-style reading discussions with real families, and workshops for caregivers to learn strategies for engaging their children in critical thinking activites at home. As a result of the Prime Time Family Reading Program, children are developing listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, reading and pre-reading behaviors and the joy of reading, while caregivers and families experience an increase in bonding, positive verbal communication and at-home reading time. A longitudinal study of the program’s effectiveness showed that students who completed the Prime Time Family Reading program outperformed students who have never participated in the Prime Time Family Reading program at every grade level from third through 12th grade.
2025 International Prize ($50,000): Building Tomorrow, Indianapolis, Indiana
Building Tomorrow was founded in 2006 to counter the low learning outcomes and limited access to formal education in rural Uganda. Building Tomorrow is dedicated to community-powered learning and envisions literacy and numeracy for all children. As a result, Building Tomorrow’s Fellowship program invites local university graduates to spend two years supporting education in rural communities. In addition, community members who are passionate about education become community education volunteers and help enroll out-of-school children in school as well as Building Tomorrow’s signature foundational literacy and numeracy program, Roots to Rise. Since 2015, 650 Building Tomorrow fellows and nearly 15,000 community education volunteers have reached more than 560,000 children. In 2025, Building Tomorrow expanded its mission to Rwanda.
2025 Successful Practices Honorees ($10,000)
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program honored 15 organizations for their implementation of successful practices in literacy programming. These honorees, recipients of $10,000 each, are:
Book Harvest’s Books from Birth Program, Durham, North Carolina
CitySchools Collaborative, Washington, District of Columbia
Digital Inquiry Group, Palo Alto, California
Indy Reads, Indianapolis, Indiana
Knowledge Empowering Youth,Nairobi, Kenya
NABU,New York, New York
NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge, Washington, District of Columbia
Philadelphia Writing Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
READ Global, San Francisco, California
Reading Assist Institute, Wilmington, Delaware
Richland County Public Library’s Education Studio, Columbia, South Carolina
Scottish Book Trust’s Bookbug Program, Edinburgh, Scotland
SML Good Neighbors, Inc., Moneta, Virginia
Start a Library Trust’s The National Read Aloud Initiative, Nairobi, Kenya
WETA’s Colorín Colorado, Arlington, Virginia
2025 Emerging Strategies Honorees ($5,000)
In addition, five literacy initiatives in their early stages of development receive recognition and $5,000 each. These honorees are:
Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children, New Rochelle, New York
In a landmark settlement, Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence company, has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to a group of authors and publishers after a judge ruled it had illegally downloaded and stored millions of copyrighted books.
The settlement is largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright cases. Anthropic will pay $3,000 per work to 500,000 authors.
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As part of the settlement, Anthropic said that it did not use any pirated works to build A.I. technologies that were publicly released. The settlement also gives anyone the right to still sue Anthropic if they believe that the company’s technologies are reproducing their works without proper approval. Anthropic also agreed to delete the pirated works it downloaded and stored.
Anthropic and the plaintiffs in a court filing asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup to approve the settlement, after announcing the agreement in August without disclosing the terms or amount.
“If approved, this landmark settlement will be the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history, larger than any other copyright class action settlement or any individual copyright case litigated to final judgment,” the plaintiffs said in the filing.
Anthropic is not admitting any wrongdoing or liability. “Today’s settlement, if approved, will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims. We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems,” Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement.
It’s unclear how the literary world will respond to the terms of the settlement. Since this was an “opt-out” class action, authors who are eligible but dissatisfied with the terms will be able to request exclusion to file their own lawsuits. Notably, the plaintiffs filed a motion today to keep the “opt-out threshold” confidential, which means that the public will not have access to the exact number of class members who would need to opt out for the settlement to be terminated.
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This is not the end of Anthropic’s copyright legal challenges. The company is also facing a lawsuit from a group of major record labels, including Universal Music Group, which alleges that the company used copyrighted lyrics to train its Claude chatbot. The plaintiffs are now attempting to amend their case to include allegations that Anthropic used the peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent to illegally download songs, and their lawyers recently stated in court filings that they may file a new lawsuit about piracy if they are not permitted to amend the current complaint.
As part of the settlement, the company has also agreed to destroy the original book files it downloaded.
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On Friday, Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, called the settlement “an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders generally, sending a strong message to the AI industry that there are serious consequences when they pirate authors’ works to train their AI, robbing those least able to afford it.”
The Danish Rights Alliance, which successfully fought to take down one of those shadow libraries, said Friday that the settlement would be of little help to European writers and publishers whose works aren’t registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
“On the one hand, it’s comforting to see that compiling AI training datasets by downloading millions of books from known illegal file-sharing sites comes at a price,” said Thomas Heldrup, the group’s head of content protection and enforcement.
On the other hand, Heldrup said it fits a tech industry playbook to grow a business first and later pay a relatively small fine, compared to the size of the business, for breaking the rules.
A hearing has been set for Sept. 8 for preliminary approval of the agreement. A website, AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com, has been established to enable class members to participate in the settlement. The website is expected to add a searchable database of affected works, which were contained in the Library Genesis (LibGen) and Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) databases.
Asking a chatbot for help on any number of issues has become part of daily life for many. But today’s query-based AI tools built on large language models (LLMs) are limited to responding to questions users ask.
These tools can pull queried info from a database, but they can’t automatically push insightful and contextualized knowledge to help a user complete a task without being asked.
DARPA’s Knowledge Management at Scale and Speed (KMASS) program, which kicked off in 2022 and recently held its final principal investigator meeting, has developed a variety of new tools that can automatically ingest knowledge sources and disseminate specific “nuggets” of info relevant to a workflow — whether the user requests the knowledge or not — exactly when needed, while avoiding irrelevant or already known information. This personalized knowledge sharing concept is a core tenet of KMASS referred to as “JustINs” — i.e., just in time, just enough, and just for me.
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“Using LLMs is like casting a magical spell; you need to find the right words to get the model to do what you want. Popular LLMs give you a haystack of info to search through when you ask a question, whereas KMASS will push the needle in the haystack to you as you’re working on a task, even if you don’t know the right question to ask,” said Matthew Marge, a leading AI expert at DARPA and KMASS program manager. “KMASS overcomes the input/output knowledge bottleneck, which occurs when knowledge producers don’t have easy ways to document knowledge and knowledge consumers don’t have easy ways to get at that knowledge.”
Source: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Mohamed Helmy University of Saskatchewan Idaho State University
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Source
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence Volume 8 (2025)
DOI: 10.3389/frai.2025.1644098
Abstract
The use of Generative AI (GenAI) in scientific writing has grown rapidly, offering tools for manuscript drafting, literature summarization, and data analysis. However, these benefits are accompanied by risks, including undisclosed AI authorship, manipulated content, and the emergence of papermills. This perspective examines two key strategies for maintaining research integrity in the GenAI era: (1) detecting unethical or inappropriate use of GenAI in scientific manuscripts and (2) using AI tools to identify mistakes in scientific literature, such as statistical errors, image manipulation, and incorrect citations. We reviewed the capabilities and limitations of existing AI detectors designed to differentiate human-written (HWT) from machine-generated text (MGT), highlighting performance gaps, genre sensitivity, and vulnerability to adversarial attacks. We also investigate emerging AI-powered systems aimed at identifying errors in published research, including tools for statistical verification, citation validation, and image manipulation detection. Additionally, we discuss recent publishing industry initiatives to AI-driven papermills. Our investigation shows that these developments are not yet sufficiently accurate or reliable yet for use in academic assessment, they mark an early but promising steps toward scalable, AI-assisted quality control in scholarly publishing.
I adore domestic suspense novels. There are so many ways that a story can unfurl. A stranger trying to get into a family, or someone try to get out. Or both?...
Another must 'haves' are twists and turns! I really enjoy being surprised! Is it a clue, truth or lies?
There's one of every kind of personality populating the pages of The Wrong Sister. Tasha is the one I was drawn to. Douglas does a great job with creating other players. And a hard to crack whodunnit!
Another great read from Claire Douglas! I'm looking for her next book.
Cassandra Gardner is an administrative specialist in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate. She is retiring this month after a 40-year career at the Library. Sahar Kazmi conducted this interview.
Tell us about your background.
I was born and raised in Maryland and attended Prince George’s County schools. My parents bought their first house two years before I was born, and I still live in that house. I’m the only person I know who has never moved in their lifetime.
What brought you to the Library?
I was a work-study student at Northwestern High School in 1985. I would go to school for four hours, leave and then go to the Library and work for four hours. I was offered a permanent job after graduation. Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my work career here. I started as a clerk in the Copyright Office. I stayed there for four years until I accepted a position in what was then called Library Services. Library Services is now Library Collections and Services Group, and I work in the Acquisitions, Fiscal and Support Section as an administrative specialist. In my current position, I’m responsible for all administrative duties in AFOS, which include time and attendance, travel, entering performance documents, etc. I also assist the director of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate and the chief of the Network Development and MARC Standards Office with hiring actions such as submitting vacancy requests, scheduling interviews and initiating onboarding activities.
What achievements are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of being here for 40 years and forming lifelong friendships. I’m also proud of all the outstanding appraisals I’ve received and the awards for my performance throughout the years.
What are some standout moments from your time at the Library?
My standout moments are milestones that I made for myself. Before retiring, I wanted to be a seat filler at the Gershwin Prize, attend a Nationals game on Library Night and volunteer at the National Book Festival. I’m proud to say I’ve done all three! I’ve also enjoyed working with the Library’s overseas offices and being able to go to the different embassies here in D.C. to apply for visas for the field directors and for Library employees that had to travel to the field offices on business.
What’s next for you?
As a lifelong Redskins/Commanders fan, I will be going to Atlanta for the Commanders/Falcons game in September. In the immediate future after retirement, I have trips planned to Nashville, Connecticut, Las Vegas to see the New Kids on the Block’s residency and a cruise to Aruba and Curacao. I’m also looking forward to not having to wake up at 4:30 a.m. for work. Next year, I will look for a parttime job to give me something to do while also earning travel and casino money. Life is too short not to enjoy yourself.
Launched in 2023, the HBCU Digital Library Trust is on a mission to reach the next generation of students, researchers, and information seekers through one digital platform with materials showcasing the history of Black academia in the United States post-emancipation.
Funded by the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, the work of the Trust is built on the strong foundation of the digital preservation movement, which began in the 1970s. This movement gained momentum in the United States in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Janice Franklin and Loretta Parham led the way in introducing collective digital preservation to HBCUs, co-founding the HBCU Library Alliance, a group committed to supporting the sustainability of historically Black colleges and universities libraries at large. In 2006, the Mellon Foundation provided a $375,000 grant to Cornell University and the HBCU Library Alliance. This grant supported the launch of the HBCU Digital Collection.
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In 2008, the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library became the host of the digital collection, an early digitization program that aimed to expand access to the archival collections at historically Black colleges and universities.
As part of a four-year commitment, Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (H&LS) Initiative contributed six million dollars in 2023 to launch the HBCU Digital Library Trust with Harvard Library, working in partnership with the HBCU Library Alliance and the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library. The Trust is a priority for Harvard Library in its efforts to improve the discovery and accessibility of special archival and digital collections for all. To expand the HBCU Digital Collection, the Trust both broadens access and builds capacity so that institutions can benefit from advanced technology and digitization expertise and support.
By 2027, the Trust hopes that all 102-plus HBCUs are contributors. To date, the Trust has digitized over 16,000 materials.
A Baby for the Home Front Girls is the fifth and final book in Susanna Bavin's wonderful series. You could read this as a stand alone as well.
Manchester. 1942.
Sitting down with one of Bavis’s books feels like getting caught up with your friends. A core group have been in every book and some come and some go. But each one has their own story to tell. In this book, a blanket is found on the steps of a building. With a small infant inside….
The war is still raging and again Bavis details the bombings the crashes and so much more. The war is a character on its own.
I’m fascinated by how women made something last a little longer, come up with recipes to fit what they do have to eat and amongst all this, they have fun. Keep Calm and Carry On.
I’m sad that the series is ending, but I’m looking forward to Bavis’s next series. A Bookworm's World was one of today's tour stops. See below for what other bloggers thought.
Much of the discussion surrounding property tax reform has focused on schools, law enforcement and local government having to cut services due to reduced funding. But libraries are also in line to see impacts from Senate Enrolled Act 1 – legislation passed in April cutting property taxes.
Several Indiana librarians expressed uncertainty about the exact effects of SEA 1, a complicated law that impacts both property and income taxes.
“I wish I knew exactly what all this was going to mean,” said Kim Porter, director of the Batesville Memorial Public Library. “I don’t understand it.”
Two major concerns raised by SEA 1, according to Indiana Library Federation President Julie Wendorf are property tax revenue and the local income tax (LIT) distribution formula. Hoosier homeowners are expected to save an average of $300 in property taxes – the primary funding source for most libraries, according to Wendorf. Paired with changes to LIT formulas, many library’s budgets will feel the strain.
“Library funding across Indiana is not standardized,” Wendorf explained, “each public library receives tax support in a unique manner, influenced by its local property tax rate and access to local income tax revenue.”
The full effects of SEA 1 likely won’t be seen until 2028, by which point many will face “significant reductions to their overall funding,” said Wendorf, “due to both diminished property tax growth and decreased LIT allocations.”
This study examines OpenAlex’s indexing of Journals Using Open Journal Systems (JUOJS), reflecting two open-source software initiatives supporting inclusive scholarly participation. By analyzing a data set of 47,625 active JUOJS, we reveal that 71% of these journals have at least one article indexed in OpenAlex. Our findings underscore the central role of Crossref DOIs in achieving indexing, with 96% of the journals using Crossref DOIs included in OpenAlex. However, this technical dependency reflects broader structural inequities, as resource-limited journals, particularly those from low-income countries (47% of JUOJS) and non-English language journals (55–64% of JUOJS), remain underrepresented. Our work highlights the theoretical implications of scholarly infrastructure dependencies and their role in perpetuating systemic disparities in global knowledge visibility. We argue that even inclusive bibliographic databases like OpenAlex must actively address financial, infrastructural, and linguistic barriers to foster equitable indexing on a global scale. By conceptualizing the relationship between indexing mechanisms, persistent identifiers, and structural inequities, this study provides a critical lens for rethinking the dynamics of universal indexing and its realization in a global, multilingual scholarly ecosystem.
Are men more likely than women to use generative artificial intelligence?
The answer, according to a recent working paper, is yes. The authors looked at generative AI adoption globally and found a pronounced gap in men’s and women’s usage of AI, both professionally and in everyday life.
For example, in one part of the study the authors found that women made up 42% of the roughly 200 million average monthly users at ChatGPT, 42.4% at Perplexity and 31.2% at Anthropic’s Claude. This data was collected between November 2022 and May 2024 and reflects monthly averages.
The gender gap was even more pronounced when the authors looked at AI usage on smartphones. Between May 2023 and November 2024, only 27.2% of total ChatGPT application downloads are estimated to have come from women. Similarly low shares of mobile downloads by women were seen on Anthropic’s Claude and Perplexity.
Companies that advocate for local LLMs also cite technological democracy as a driver. “AI is one of the greatest sources of leverage humanity has ever had,” says Emre Can Kartal, growth engineer and lead at Jan, a project from Menlo Research to build locally run models and the tools that manage them. “Our mission is to make sure it remains open and in people’s hands, not concentrated [among] a few tech giants.”
Cost is also a factor. AI companies selling compute power at a loss tend to rate-limit users. Anyone who pays more than $100 a month to one of the foundational model vendors only to get cut off during a marathon AI-powered coding session will understand the issue.
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Foundational AI model-as-a-service companies charge for insights by the token, and they’re doing it at a loss. The profits will have to come eventually, whether that’s direct from your pocket, or from your data, you might be interested in other ways to get the benefits of AI without being beholden to a corporation.
Increasingly, people are experimenting with running those models themselves. Thanks to developments in hardware and software, it’s more realistic than you might think.
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“I was experimenting extensively with GPT-3 (before ChatGPT), and was building programs you might call ‘agents’ today,” says Yagil Burowski, founder of LM Studio, a tool that allows users to download and run LLMs. “It was a real bummer to remember that, every time my code runs it cost money, because there was just so much to explore.”
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Ollama, one of the most popular CLI platforms for running your own LLMs, is a developer layer built atop llama.cpp. It offers single-line installation of over 200 pre-configured LLMs, making it easy for LLM developers to get up and running with their own local generative AI.
In my family, it was always the “kosher Loblaws.” Featuring Ottawa’s only large kosher food section, the Loblaws location at College Square in the west end of the city is our destination several times per week for everything from groceries, to prescription refills, to challah bread for Shabbat. My Globe and Mail opinion piece published this weekend notes that as the only such store in Ottawa, it serves as both a place to see familiar faces and a reminder of the small size of the Jewish community here.
Last week, a 71-year-old man from Cornwall, Ont., is alleged to have entered the store and stabbed a Jewish grandmother multiple times in the back. The grandmother, well known in the Jewish community here, is thankfully now at home recovering. But the initial fears that this might be an antisemitic attack appear to have been borne out, as a review of the alleged attacker’s social media feed reveals a steady stream of antisemitic hate stretching back years. On Friday, Ottawa police announced they will be investigating the incident as a hate-motivated crime.
For the Jewish community, this means yet more security measures as grocery stores get added to a list that now includes synagogues, community events, schools, senior homes and campus lectures – a growing number of places requiring added security and secrecy to keep the community protected. For individuals, it means rethinking placing mezuzahs on the outside of doors, wearing a kippah or Star of David, or participating in Jewish events, given fears of heightened safety risks. The cumulative effect is the gradual erasure of a visible Jewish presence in Canada.
This event hits very close to home, raising the question of how it can happen in a country like Canada in 2025. There is no single answer – antisemitism has been a scourge for thousands of years – but the failure of Canadian leaders in confronting it must surely be at the very top of the list.
No politician can single-handedly prevent antisemitic attacks, just as no community or campus leader can guarantee the safety of all community members. But for nearly two years, the rise of antisemitism has too often been met with inaction and generic statements against all forms of hate, or assurances that this behaviour wasn’t reflective of Canadian values. Unfortunately, this has proven nowhere near enough.
The words themselves have been wholly inadequate. Fearing political blowback, too many leaders have been unwilling to lean into support for the Jewish community with unequivocal condemnation of antisemitism without caveats or references to other forms of hate. Too many have avoided community events, leaving the unmistakable impression that the Jewish community is on its own.
The result is a torrent of hate online and in our streets that targets Jews directly, or is thinly disguised with claims that the opposition is only to Zionists, who represent the vast majority of the Jewish community supporting self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.
Despite promises of more effective legislation and mandates for police to enforce the laws, far more can be done. Bubble-zone legislation to protect vulnerable community institutions is still needed, alongside the enforcement of existing laws so that the rights of all members of the community are respected.
And these issues are not merely a local matter. Last week, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after evidence emerged that two violent antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne were state-sponsored by Iran. In other words, this is now a national security matter and should be treated as such.
Into the void of inaction comes an escalation of risk. Legitimate political protests outside of government consulates have morphed into actions at campus buildings, hospitals, synagogues, community parades and senior homes, blurring the line between political opposition and the direct targeting of the Jewish community. And as politicians remain silent and law enforcement stays on the sidelines, the language becomes more violent in nature amidst allegations of criminality directed at an entire community. Viewed in that light, an elderly man shifting hateful words to violent action becomes not only understandable, but seemingly inevitable.
As I reviewed the accused attacker’s social media feed, I was struck by more than just the open antisemitism. Several of the posts sparked banal responses from others. Some cheered him on while others merely asked how he was doing and paid no mind to the hate they had just read. Whether you are a politician, a community leader, or just an average citizen, we all must play a part to bring this normalcy of antisemitism to an end.
This review will be briefer than I wish, because I’ve got two fingers taped up (injury) and it makes typing a pain. This morning I finished book #12 from the “Women in Translation” rec list, which was Siblingsby Brigitte Reimann, translated from German by Lucy Renner Jones.
This book was published in 1963, just two years after the Berlin Wall went up, but takes place in 1960, before the Wall. It’s a book about three siblings, but really it’s a book about Germany’s future. The core of the novel is the relationship between the protagonist, Elisabeth (“Lise”) and her brother, Uli; and their views on the German state.
Lise is an adamant supporter of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; aka communist East Germany) and communism as a whole. She views it as her generation’s chance to right the injustices of a capitalistic world. Uli, on the other hand, while supportive of communism, resents the GDR for what he views as a lack of opportunity and its petty politics. At the start of the novel, Uli has decided to defect to the west, and Lise and her partner Joachim are trying to convince him to stay.
Throughout these efforts, the shadow of their eldest brother Konrad hangs over them—Konrad has already defected, years earlier, and is firmly settled in West Germany, though not without struggle.
This book is very politically philosophical. As mentioned, it’s about Uli and Lise (and Konrad), but it’s really about the future of Germany. Not yet 20 years out from the end of WWII, this is not an easy question (and there is a lot of finger-pointing to go around about who did what for the Nazis while they were in power). The book definitely leans in favor of supporting the GDR. While Uli and Konrad have their gripes about it, these are generally cast, through Lise’s viewpoint, as self-centered, or fig leaves for their real issue, which is that they cannot let go of a capitalist ownership mindset. Even where she acknowledges their complaints as valid—such as Uli’s frustration at the stunted opportunities for anyone who is not a Party member—her attitude is essentially that they need to tough it out for the sake of making the communist experiment work, or that it’s a reasonable trade off to avoid what she sees as the cruelties of capitalist West Germany.
It's the closest I’ve ever come to reading a pro-communism book (even Soviet authors I’ve read have been pretty staunchly against the Party, a la Lydia Chukovskaya’s Sofia Petrovna), which made it interesting in that respect, as well as in how it addresses the ways the split of Germany affected individual Germans and German families.
However, the prose is very “tell not show” and this, combined with the highly philosophical nature of it, kept me at arm’s length from the characters and their lives.
Nevertheless, it’s fascinating from a historical perspective.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has added nearly 500 images to its online collection of high-resolution Lincoln pictures, including photos of Lincoln’s assassin, the nation grieving Lincoln’s death and the places he lived throughout his life.
The ALPLM’s “Picturing Lincoln” collection now offers 1,485 photos, illustrations and cartoons related to America’s 16th president. The collection is hosted by the Secretary of State’s Illinois Digital Archives.
Source: ALPLM
Highlights of the newly posted images include:
Photos of assassin John Wilkes Booth and illustrations portraying him with the devil or showing him as a ghostly fugitive.
Images of the many places Lincoln lived, from log cabins to the White House.
Scenes related to Lincoln’s death, including photos of mourning crowds and illustrations of him in heaven with George Washington.
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“Picturing Lincoln” was made possible by a $100,000 grant funded through the Illinois State Library. Several thousand other Lincoln images have already been scanned and will be added to the website over the coming months.
If there’s a thread running through the newly available images, it is the nation’s reaction to the assassination of the president. Viewers will find illustrations of Lincoln on his deathbed, ascending to heaven to take his place alongside Washington and being crowned with laurels by Liberty. Other images heap scorn on Booth. One shows him as a literal empty space defined by snakes, alligators and a grasping claw. In another, the fleeing assassin is haunted by a ghostly image of Lincoln.
Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review (2025)
DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-182
Summary
In February 2025, Google’s AI Overview fooled itself and its users when it cited an April Fool’s satire about “microscopic bees powering computers” as factual in search results (Kidman, 2025). Google did not intend to mislead, yet the system produced a confident falsehood. Such cases mark a shift from misinformation caused by human mistakes to errors generated by probabilistic AI systems with no understanding of accuracy or intent to deceive. With the working definition of misinformation as any content that contradicts the best available evidence, I argue that such “AI hallucinations” represent a distinct form of misinformation requiring new frameworks of interpretations and interventions.
Jiayu Zheng (Johns Hopkins University), Lingxin Hao, Kelun Lu, Ashi Garg, Mike Reese, Melo-Jean Yap, I-Jeng Wang, Xingyun Wu, Wenrui Huang, Jenna Hoffman, Ariane Kelly, My Le, Ryan Zhang, Yanyu Lin, Muhammad Faayez, Anqi Liu
This study explores how college students interact with generative AI (ChatGPT-4) during educational quizzes, focusing on reliance and predictors of AI adoption. Conducted at the early stages of ChatGPT implementation, when students had limited familiarity with the tool, this field study analyzed 315 student-AI conversations during a brief, quiz-based scenario across various STEM courses. A novel four-stage reliance taxonomy was introduced to capture students’ reliance patterns, distinguishing AI competence, relevance, adoption, and students’ final answer correctness. Three findings emerged. First, students exhibited overall low reliance on AI and many of them could not effectively use AI for learning. Second, negative reliance patterns often persisted across interactions, highlighting students’ difficulty in effectively shifting strategies after unsuccessful initial experiences. Third, certain behavioral metrics strongly predicted AI reliance, highlighting potential behavioral mechanisms to explain AI adoption. The study’s findings underline critical implications for ethical AI integration in education and the broader field. It emphasizes the need for enhanced onboarding processes to improve student’s familiarity and effective use of AI tools. Furthermore, AI interfaces should be designed with reliance-calibration mechanisms to enhance appropriate reliance. Ultimately, this research advances understanding of AI reliance dynamics, providing foundational insights for ethically sound and cognitively enriching AI practices.
Visualizing Reliance Taxonomy. Based on our identification of the 4 labels as the reliance code, we classify student-AI conversation into 12 scenarios. If the answer given by AI is factually wrong at the first place, the answer is irrelevant to student’s question by definition. Source: 10.48550/arXiv.2508.20244
Emma Gallon University of London Press, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Jamie Bowman University of London Press, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Source
Learned Publishing Volume 38, Issue 4 e2025
DOI: 10.1002/leap.2025
Summary
Limited options currently exist for humanities researchers looking to engage with open research practices and experimental forms in book publishing.
The adapted publishing workflows and formats used for the experimental open access book project, Living with Machines, offer a model for reuse by publishers and authors.
Iterative publication, open peer review and multimedia integration increased community engagement with the book and maximised the research data and other outputs generated by the research project.
Closer coordination between editorial and production functions, new forms of collaboration between publishers, authors and reviewers, and clear process documentation were key learnings in the effective running of this experiment.
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) organised workshops on 15 and 20 May 2025, to demonstrate the RDA’s policy impact and encourage implementation of RDA recommendations and outputs in different policy contexts. The workshops focused on critical policy areas that form essential research infrastructure including National Persistent Identifier (PID) Strategies for reliable tracking and citation of research outputs. The workshops featured lightning talks presenting policy statements and ‘Adoption Stories’ that showcased practical applications of RDA recommendations, followed by Q&A sessions to facilitate participant engagement with the speakers. During the workshops, co-chairs of the RDA National PID Strategies Interest Group, Hana Heringová and Natasha Simons, provided an overview of the value of the RDA for national persistent identifier (PID) strategies. They each provided a policy statement, explaining the importance of national PID strategies, and how the related RDA National PID Strategies Working Group recommendation, the National PID Strategy Guide and Checklist, has been successfully adapted and adopted by various countries and regions around the world.
The nation’s capital is a visitor’s delight: Few places in the United States, if any, pack so many binge-worthy historical and cultural sights into such a compact area.
And few places in Washington, if any, can match the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building for sheer beauty and inspiration. The Jefferson opened in 1897 as the Library’s first stand-alone building, the largest library building in the world. Its dazzling decoration and soaring architecture made it a source of national pride, and its program of sculpture and painting made it a monument to civilization, imagination and knowledge. It’s easy to find out how to visit us, and we hope you do.
Meanwhile, here are some of the VEO staff favorites.
Main Reading Room Statues
A visitor stands on the balcony of the Main Reading Room, flanked by two statues. Photo: Shawn Miller.
One of the most impressive features of the Main Reading Room are the statues that adorn the room’s balconies and columns. Atop each of the eight marble columns surrounding the room stands a 10-foot allegorical figure representing an area of thought: religion, commerce, history, art, philosophy, poetry, law and science.
These allegorical figures are draped in symbolic clothing and props to communicate their discipline: The history figure holds a book and a mirror facing backward to reflect the past; science holds a globe and a mirror facing forward to reflect progress.
Each figure is flanked by bronze statues (16 in total) representing major contributors to that field. Beethoven, for example, stands on one side of art and Michelangelo on the other.
Together, these symbolic and representative statues convey an 1897 perspective on global contributions to eight core disciplines of knowledge.
—Colette Combs, Visitor Engagement Technician
“Evolution of the Book”
John White Alexander’s “Printing Press” mural in the Jefferson Building. Photo: Shawn Miller.
On the east side of the Great Hall, you will see six lunette paintings that make up “The Evolution of the Book,” by com American painter John White Alexander in 1895.
The series begins on the south end with “The Cairn,” depicting an ancient civilization building a ceremonial mound to commemorate its dead or mark an important location. “Oral Tradition” and “Egyptian Hieroglyphics” follow, portraying early storytelling in two forms. In “Oral Tradition,” a storyteller speaks to a crowd; in “Egyptian Hieroglyphics,” two figures chisel written words into a building exterior.
The north side of the Great Hall houses “Picture Writing,” which shows Native Americans drawing on animal hides that could be easily transported and traded. Finally, “Manuscript Book” and “Printing Press” work in tandem to portray how Johannes Gutenberg revolutionized book production with the creation of metal movable type.
—Shannon McMaster, Visitor Engagement Technician
Minerva Mosaic
The Mosaic of Minerva, by Elihu Vedder, is on the seccond floor and east corridor of the Jefferon Building. It is within an central arched panel leading to the visitor’s gallery. Photo: Shawn Miller.
In vibrant mosaic tiles, Minerva, the Roman goddess of learning, knowledge and defensive warfare, stands atop the staircase outside the Main Reading Room.
She is at peace: Her spear points to the ground, and her helmet and shield lie at her feet. If there’s peace, learning can advance. In her left hand, Minerva holds a scroll that lists fields of study important to civilization. The scroll is not fully unfurled, suggesting that we always are adding new fields of study to what we consider important.
Just behind sits Minerva’s owl. We all know the owl to be a symbol of wisdom. I like to think this is because an owl can turn its head 270 degrees. It is constantly learning new pieces of information, adding them to its fund of knowledge and changing its mind when called for — this is what makes it wise.
—Rod Woodford, volunteer specialist
Stained-glass Ceiling
The ceiling in the Great Hall. Photo: Shawn Miller.
When you are in the Great Hall, look up at the stained-glass windows of the ceiling. These six beautiful, Tiffany-era glass suns reflect the mosaic on the floor below.
Surrounding the glass, you see metallic leaf. Often mistaken for silver, this is actually aluminum. During the construction of the Jefferson Building, aluminum was rare because of the electricity required to produce it, making it one of the most valuable metals in the world.
Adding to the opulence of the Jefferson Building, aluminum leaf was used alongside gold leaf to accent the Great Hall artwork.
—Danielle Brown, Visitor Engagement Technician
Thomas Jefferson’s Library
Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, carefully preserved but on public view, is one of the Library’s most popular exhibits. Photo: Shawn Miller.
Thomas Jefferson’s personal library is an essential part of the Library’s early history — and, today, it’s one of our most sought-out exhibitions.
British troops burned the Capitol Building in 1814, destroying the Library and all of its holdings. The following year, Congress purchased 6,487 books from Jefferson for $23,950 to help rebuild the Library’s collections.
Then, in 1851, devastating fire then destroyed two-thirds of those books. But the remaining volumes are on permanent display today in the building named after Jefferson, allowing visitors to see what is considered the core foundation of the Library’s modern-day collections.
As you go around the circular room, be sure to note some of Jefferson’s interests in literature, including books on beekeeping and winemaking!
—Jessica Castelo, Visitor Engagement Technician
“Touch History” Tours
A docent assists visitors on a “touch history” tour of the Library. Photo: Shawn Miller.
You can also experience the Library through a sense of touch – visually impaired visitors get a sense of the Jefferson Building’s grandeur through our “Touch History” tours.
In the Great Hall, tactile learning opportunities abound: incised brass sun and zodiac symbols embedded in the floor, smooth busts of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, wall-mounted brass faces reminiscent of Medusa. The sleek Carrara marble walls and columns, interrupted by raised, decorative moldings, offer a contrast of surfaces. Docents provide detailed descriptions of each, putting the items in context.
Most captivating are the marble putti — sculpted chubby little boy figures cascading down both balustrades of the grand staircases. These 16 figures represent common professions and pursuits when the building opened in 1897.
Two putti are within arm’s reach: The gardener, equipped with a hoe and rake, and the mechanic, holding a long-necked oil can and cogwheel. Most visitors can easily reach the statues’ toes – and the adjacent sculpted storks – while docents describe their size, posture, attire and expressions, enriching the tactile experience.
— Kathy Tuchman, Robert Horowitz and Karyn Baiorunos are volunteer docents.
The ability to research and synthesize knowledge is central to human expertise and progress. An emerging class of systems promises these exciting capabilities through generative research synthesis, performing retrieval over the live web and synthesizing discovered sources into long-form, cited summaries. However, evaluating such systems remains an open challenge: existing question-answering benchmarks focus on short-form factual responses, while expert-curated datasets risk staleness and data contamination. Both fail to capture the complexity and evolving nature of real research synthesis tasks. In this work, we introduce DeepScholar-bench, a live benchmark and holistic, automated evaluation framework designed to evaluate generative research synthesis. DeepScholar-bench draws queries from recent, high-quality ArXiv papers and focuses on a real research synthesis task: generating the related work sections of a paper by retrieving, synthesizing, and citing prior research. Our evaluation framework holistically assesses performance across three key dimensions, knowledge synthesis, retrieval quality, and verifiability. We also develop DeepScholar-base, a reference pipeline implemented efficiently using the LOTUS API. Using the DeepScholar-bench framework, we perform a systematic evaluation of prior open-source systems, search AI’s, OpenAI’s DeepResearch, and DeepScholar-base. We find that DeepScholar-base establishes a strong baseline, attaining competitive or higher performance than each other method. We also find that DeepScholar-bench remains far from saturated, with no system exceeding a score of across all metrics. These results underscore the difficulty of DeepScholar-bench, as well as its importance for progress towards AI systems capable of generative research synthesis. We make our code available at https://github.com/guestrin-lab/deepscholar-bench.
A collection of his short stories. Several with the sort of plot familiar from the novels -- one in fact later was expanded into a novel -- and a few ones where the smaller compass let him do some quirky plots.
This is the second of two Library Trends issues that examine generative artificial intelligence (AI) in libraries. As with the first issue, the articles in 73 (4) provide original research, case studies, and thought pieces and were selected to inform, caution, and inspire readers.
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The New York Public Library today announced the acquisition of the CameraPlanet Archive, a world-renowned collection of more than 1,200 hours of video documenting September 11, 2001, its immediate aftermath, and the subsequent design and construction of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. This historic archive will be preserved, processed, and made publicly accessible through the Library’s research centers.![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
