University of Rochester's incoming head librarian looks to adapt to AI; WXXI, January 2, 2026

 Noelle E. C. Evans, WXXI; University of Rochester's incoming head librarian looks to adapt to AI

"A new head librarian at the University of Rochester is preparing to take on a growing challenge — adapting to generative artificial intelligence.

Tim McGeary takes on the position of university librarian and dean of libraries on March 1. He is currently associate librarian for digital strategies and technology at Duke University, where he’s witnessed AI challenges firsthand...

“(The university’s digital repository) was dealing with an unforeseen consequence of its own success: By making (university) research freely available to anyone, it had actually made it less accessible to everyone,” Jamie Washington wrote for the campus online news source, UDaily.

That balance between open access and protecting students, researchers and publishers from potential harms from AI is a space of major disruption, McGeary said.

"If they're doing this to us, we have open systems, what are they possibly doing to those partners we have in the publishing space?" McGeary asked. "We've already seen some of the larger AI companies have to be in court because they have acquired content in ways that are not legal.”

In the past 25 years, he said he’s seen how university libraries have evolved with changing technology; they've had to reinvent how they serve research and scholarship. So in a way, this is another iteration of those challenges, he said."

Larry Ellison Wants to Do Good, Do Research and Make a Profit; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

   Theodore Schleifer and Nicholas Kulish, The New York Times; Larry Ellison Wants to Do Good, Do Research and Make a Profit

"Mr. Ellison has rarely engaged with the community of Giving Pledge signers, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. He has cherished his autonomy and does not want to be influenced to support Mr. Gates’s causes, one of the people said, while also sensitive to any idea that he is backing off the pledge.

But the stakes of Mr. Ellison’s message on X are enormous. His fortune is about 10 times what it was when he signed the pledge as the software company he founded, Oracle, rides the artificial intelligence boom. Mr. Ellison controls a staggering 40-plus percent of the company’s stock...

“Oxford, Cambridge and the whole university sector are under pressure to capitalize on intellectual property because of long-running government policy belief that the U.K. has fallen behind economically,” said John Picton, an expert in nonprofit law at the University of Manchester."

Move Fast and Break the Government; The Bulwark, January 28, 2025

 SAM STEIN AND 

BENJAMIN PARKER

, The Bulwark; 

Move Fast and Break the Government

"A letter from the Office of Management and Budget, obtained last night by The Bulwark, instructed federal agencies that they were to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” effective “on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM.”

What, exactly, does this mean? The note was vague, stating that the pause was for activities that “may be implicated by [Trump’s] executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” But immediate speculation among those scrutinizing the letter was that things like food assistance, financial aid to students, grants for university-based research, and many other government functions could come to a stop. The scope of what could be impacted was honestly hard for them to comprehend.

“Nobody knows,” said one person on the receiving end of the memo, when asked the extent of the federal aid that would stop.

Perhaps that’s the point.

In recent days, agency officials and those dependent on government contracts have described being left in a state of darkness by the administration they now serve; like families cowering in their basement shelters waiting to go out to see the damage the tornado has caused. Getting guidance on what was now allowed and what was prohibited was hard to do, in part lobbyists and even Congress were no better informed.

Federal health and research agencies appear to be particularly confused. Over the weekend, several people posted online about their clinical cancer trials having come to an abrupt halt as the National Institutes of Health imposed restrictions on hiring, travel, communication, and other functions. The scientific and medical community was, rightfully, alarmed at the possibility that people suffering from deadly diseases would be denied treatment by their own government.

By Monday, the NIH finally issued some guidance. In another letter obtained by The Bulwark, acting NIH Director Matthew Memoli assured colleagues that, “Clinical trials at NIH or NIH-funded institutions are ongoing,” and that “travel restrictions do not apply to research participants traveling to NIH to participate in a clinical trial or protocol.”

A victory? Yes. But a limited one. In that same letter, Memoli said that no money would be available for “new studies, new equipment, or research services unrelated to the studies that were started prior to Jan. 20, 2025.” In other words, don’t make future plans.

And it’s not just at the NIH, either. Two people directly familiar with the matter told The Bulwark on Monday that the National Science Foundation abruptly canceled peer review panels. “All review panels scheduled for the remainder of this week, 1/28-1/31 will be rescheduled to a future date as appropriate,” read the guidance given. The NSF did not return repeated requests for comment. Nor has the White House over the past few days.

The breakneck speed of Trump’s orders could quickly turn into an acute constitutional crisis, with the executive branch essentially usurping the power of the purse from the legislative body. Certainly, it has already had profound political and psychological effects. Federal employees described utterly dispirited workplaces, where paranoia is creeping in. There is a belief that the new administration is set on turning the government into a tool for Trump and searching for the pretext to fire anyone unwilling to go along. It did not go unnoticed that the statement from the DOJ official announcing the firings on Monday noted that “Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda” (emphasis ours).

But it’s also not hard to see how the tremors being sent throughout the government could hurt Trump in the long run. It starts with small examples of over-compliance with the vague orders that the administration has to walk back, like the Air Force removing videos honoring the Tuskegee Airmen from training materials because they believe those videos violated the administration’s anti-DEI push. They move to larger problems, like prison guards who are responsible for securing ISIS militants no longer turning up for work because their salaries have been cut. And then they become disasters on your watch, like infants dying because water was cut off in the foreign aid freeze.

That’s the thing about moving fast and breaking things. Sometimes you end up breaking things you wish you hadn’t and can’t repair."

The Trauma of Library Work; American Libraries, January 22, 2022

Carrie Smith , American Libraries;  The Trauma of Library Work

Study looks at how to better support mental health on the job

"Fisher is now the principal investigator for “Trauma in the Library: Symptoms of PTSD Among Staff and Methods for Ensuring Trauma-Informed Care,” an Institute of Museum and Library Services–funded study of the effects of workplace trauma exposure on library workers. She and Lauren Alexa Gambrill, research manager of the study, presented their preliminary findings during the Ideas Xchange session...

As the study moves into later phases, Fisher and Gambrill are looking to identify where people are most vulnerable. “We definitely need more representation from survey participants,” said Fisher. The study is particularly looking to identify how those who have corresponding or overlapping identities, such as LGBTQIA+ or minority status, are impacted by their experience of trauma and their rate of trauma, Gambrill added.

More information on the study and a link to the survey can be found on the Trauma in the Library website."

Addressing the Crisis in Academic Publishing; Inside Higher Ed, November 5, 2018

Hans De Wit and Phillip G. Altbach and Betty Leask, Inside Higher Ed; Addressing the Crisis in Academic Publishing

[Kip Currier: Important reading and a much-needed perspective to challenge the status quo!

I just recently was expressing aspects of this article to an academic colleague: For too long the dominant view of what constitutes "an academic" has been too parochial and prescriptive.

The academy should and must expand its notions of teaching, research, and service, in order to be more truly inclusive and acknowledge diverse kinds of knowledge and humans extant in our world.]

"We must find ways to ensure that equal respect, recognition and reward is given to excellence in teaching, research and service by institutional leaders, governments, publishers, university ranking and accreditation schemes."

Letter to the Editor: "Get the Facts on Readers", Emailed to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Kip Currier, September 1, 2018

[Kip Currier: I'm copying below a Letter to the Editor--titled "Get the Facts on Readers"--that I emailed today (September 1, 2018) to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. For additional background, see this story.]

Get the Facts on Readers

Dear Editor,

The Post-Gazette is running a multi-platform ad campaign that weaponizes variations of the line “I will never go digital” to make fun of older readers, depicted as fuddy-duddy Luddites. In one particularly offensive TV spot, a digitally-savvy granddaughter openly mocks her grandmother who prefers print.

Research refutes the ageist “messages” in the P-G’s divisive marketing campaign. Many adult U.S. readers—of all ages—are hybrid readers who want the choice of information in both print and digital formats.

As evidence, take a look at some of the key findings from a Jan. 3-10, 2018 national survey of 2,002 U.S. adults, reported by the well-respected, non-partisan Pew Research Center:

Despite some growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 39% of Americans say they read only print books, while 29% read in these digital formats and also read print books.

And the coup de grace to the P-G’s graceless stereotyping:

Some demographic groups are more likely than others to be digital-only book readers, but in general this behavior is relatively rare across a wide range of demographics. For example, 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds only read books in digital formats, compared with 5% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 and older.

The P-G’s preening effort to digitally divide users borders on farce, given that P-G writers and staff repeatedly concede the deplorable state of the newspaper’s digital search and archival features. 

The P-G’s tagline is “One of America’s Great Newspapers”. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, that tagline is not supported by facts. So, here’s a “message” for P-G ownership:

Hire some of the Pittsburgh region’s highly educated information professionals to help the P-G become a bona fide leader in print and digital content, search, and delivery. Give the Pittsburgh region a truly great newspaper that inclusively serves and respects all of its readers and residents.

James “Kip” Currier

Mt. Lebanon

Stanford to step-up teaching of ethics in technology; Financial Times, June 3, 2018

Financial Times; Stanford to step-up teaching of ethics in technology

"The university at the heart of Silicon Valley is to inject ethics into its technology teaching and research amid growing criticism of the excesses of the industry it helped spawn.

The board of Stanford University, one of the world’s richest higher education institutions with an endowment of $27bn, will meet this month to agree funding and a plan to implement the findings of an internal review that recommends a new initiative focused on “ethics, society and technology” and improved access to those on lower incomes."

Schools See Steep Drop in Librarians, New Analysis Finds; Education Week, May 16, 2018

Sarah D. Sparks and Alex Harwin, Education Week; Schools See Steep Drop in Librarians, New Analysis Finds

"“When we’ve talked to districts that have chosen to put resources elsewhere, we really do see more than one who have then come back and wanted to reinstate [the librarian],” said Steven Yates, the president of the American Association of School Librarians. “Not only do you lose the person curating the resources for informational and pleasure reading, but you lose the person who can work with the students on the ethical side—how do you cite? How do you determine a credible source of information?”"

Data scandal is huge blow for Facebook – and efforts to study its impact on society; Guardian, March 18, 2018

Olivia Solon, Guardian; Data scandal is huge blow for Facebook – and efforts to study its impact on society

"The revelation that 50 million people had their Facebook profiles harvested so Cambridge Analytica could target them with political ads is a huge blow to the social network that raises questions about its approach to data protection and disclosure.

As Facebook executives wrangle on Twitter over the semantics of whether this constitutes a “breach”, the result for users is the same: personal data extracted from the platform and used for a purpose to which they did not consent.

Facebook has a complicated track record on privacy. Its business model is built on gathering data. It knows your real name, who your friends are, your likes and interests, where you have been, what websites you have visited, what you look like and how you speak."

Artificial Intelligence Keeps IBM Atop 2016 Patent List; CNet, 1/9/17

Stephen Shankland, CNET; Artificial Intelligence Keeps IBM Atop 2016 Patent List:

"Patents are an imperfect measure of prowess in research, development, innovation and ultimately business success. For one thing, it takes a mammoth staff and a lot of intellectual-property lawyers to rank high on the list, so startups won't make it up the list no matter how successful. For another, many patent ideas never see the light of day, or worse, emerge in a patent troll's sketchy legal action trying to extract licensing fees from big companies.

Nevertheless, patents remain an important reflection of how much a company is investing today into the technology of tomorrow. It's notable that IBM topped the list for the 24th year in a row."

The One Question You Should Ask About Every New Job; New York Times, 12/19/15

Adam Grant, New York Times; The One Question You Should Ask About Every New Job:

"When it comes to landing a good job, many people focus on the role. Although finding the right title, position and salary is important, there’s another consideration that matters just as much: culture. The culture of a workplace — an organization’s values, norms and practices — has a huge impact on our happiness and success.

But how do you figure out the culture of a company you’ve never worked for? As Nicole tried to evaluate company cultures, she kept asking the Passover question: “How is this organization different from all other organizations?” And, as with Passover, I told Nicole, the answer should come in the form of a story. Ask people to tell you a story about something that happened at their organization but wouldn’t elsewhere."

What to Do When You Can’t Control Your Stress; Harvard Business Review, 2/20/14

Srini Pillay, Harvard Business Review; What to Do When You Can’t Control Your Stress:

"A recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Raio and colleagues (September, 2013) explains why, when your stresses build up, it becomes more difficult to get your anxiety under control. In a well-designed experiment, investigators found that people who had acquired a conditioned fear response (think Pavlov, or if that’s too obscure, think of “boss-panic” or “board meeting-freeze”) were able to suppress these associations and calm themselves down only if they did not enter the situation under stress. If they were already under stress however, this threw the “fight or flight” system off, and controlling their thoughts was much more difficult...

The moral of the story then is this: If you are having a stressful day at work or come to work in an irritable frame of mind and have to enter a potentially anxiety provoking meeting, “reset the needle” on your brain’s anxiety center by closing your eyes for 5 minutes and trying out the breathing technique I described above. It will likely be much more successful than trying to talk yourself out of your anticipatory anxiety or impending freak-out."

Leaders, Drop Your Masks; Harvard Business Review, 10/7/13

Peter Fuda, Harvard Business Review; Leaders, Drop Your Masks: "In my work with executives, I’ve found the mask metaphor to be particularly relevant with women. Take Christine, the highly articulate and ambitious CEO of a credit reporting and debt collection company that had been acquired by a private-equity firm... “I wish I had listened to my instincts sooner instead of going through the motions of being tough. I’ve learned that authenticity comes from confidence, and confidence comes from taking risks but you can’t take risks unless you’re prepared to be vulnerable.”

How to Give a Meaningful "Thank You"; Harvard Business Review, 2/20/13

Mark Goulston, Harvard Business Review; How to Give a Meaningful "Thank You" : "Whether it's your executive assistant, the workhorse on your team, or — they exist! — a boss who always goes the extra mile for you, the hardest working people in your life almost certainly don't hear "thank you" enough. Or when they do, it's a too-brief "Tks!" via email. So take action now. Give that person what I call a Power Thank You. This has three parts... If the person you're thanking looks shocked or even a little misty-eyed, don't be surprised. It just means that your gratitude has been a tad overdue."