If watching library workers resist leads you to expect us to save you, you're taking away the wrong message.
You should be viewing this as a clear indicator that YOU can and should stand up and push back, too.
We need help, not acclaim.
The lawmakers urged the IG to probe unauthorized transfer of Library of Congress data and improper communications with the executive branch.
This is just so…so bleak.
Correct.
Judge Session: I see no evidence of risk or danger of any kind. The court orders ICE to release Rümeysa Öztürk from custody IMMEDIATELY. She is free to return to her home in Massachusetts. Also free to travel within Mass and VT. I'm not going to restrict her travel, because I see no danger of flight
It is hard to describe the militarized and overwhelming police response we witnessed on Eureka St. as anything other than an egregious over-use of force by both federal and local law enforcement. The overwhelming resources allocated to this operation are shocking, turning our community into something resembling something out of the movies. We saw both Federal and Worcester officers descending on a Worcester family with a level of aggression that is commonly used when apprehending known armed and dangerous people, not a mother and her 80lb sixteen-year-old daughter. Yesterday ICE showed up, masked and in military gear, some with rifles at their sides and ICE took a mother for who knows what because no one explained. What are we doing? Where are we heading? The Worcester Police then showed up in overwhelming numbers. And we are forced to ask, “Why? And who are you there to protect?” Our local police are not tasked with assisting ICE officials. The Department of Justice warned us about the continued unchecked use of excessive force, which we have seen in videos that became public, both in the Police Department’s response to the George Floyd protests and in its response to the Beer Garden incident. Repeatedly we are seeing not simply a failure to de-escalate a crisis situation but instead the instigation and escalation of the situation. We should have been far better prepared and acted accordingly. Sadly, ICE arriving in Worcester and snatching people off the street is no surprise in 2025. In order to move forward, the Worcester Branch of the NAACP is calling for a thorough independent investigation into this incident, calling on City Manager Batista, Mayor Petty and our City Council to do their jobs and start conducting real oversight and imposing accountability and we are again repeating our call for Worcester to create a civilian review board with full investigatory and subpoena power....
Statement from Worcester NAACP President Fred Taylor Sr. on yesterday's ICE raid in the city and the WPD's handling of the situation:
Looking at burnout through these lenses is important because too often, discussions around burnout imply that employees are responsible for preventing and recovering.
librarianbyday.net/2024/05/31/c...
Is it objectively safer to be out in MA than a lot of places?
Yes.
But the bullshit is still here. It ain't perfect, not even close.
> Education Department restarts online library ERIC hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
In #FollowUp. However, with budget cut it means updates and additions will not be substantial, if any.
#BadEconomy #GOP #PartyOfStupid #education #libraries #research #GovDocs #ERIC
Screenshot of email from IES director saying that ERIC, the largest library of education research in the world, will be continuing its work
ERIC lives!
"AI is coming, its inevitable" no its not you sniveling weirdo. how are those 3D TVs going. how are NFT markets looking these days. Seen anything cool in the metaverse lately?
anyone who says we need to resign to using it, that itll be here whether we like it or not, is a feckless dipshit.
You can’t have democracy without libraries.
Democracy is a practice. It starts at the local level by building connection and community. So today on international book day check out what’s going on at your local branch!
Reading, learning, listening, chatting, connecting—this is democracy.
Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration Measures include empowering security officers to arrest people, and reassigning control of Middle East department
Exclusive: NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University Amid negotiations with Trump, the university could risk losing nearly $700 million
How it started / How it's going
States Challenge Trump’s Effort to Dismantle Library Agency 📚 (Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/a...
We’ve entered one of those “let’s just pretend that 401k doesn’t exist since all the money in it basically went away” eras. Guess I’ll die at my desk!
Ok I’ve got an idea: we use Notebook LLM to turn The Wealth of Nations into a fun, chatty podcast and then somehow get that on Barron’s phone.
AAUP has just published a memo laying out the many legal reasons why universities should not hand over the names & nationalities of their students or faculty, as the Trump admin has asked. Please share freely with your friendly university admin! @aaup.bsky.social www.aaup.org/news/institu...
Pete Hegseth keeps texting me that I have unpaid EZ Pass tolls
"We want to preserve public health data that are crucial for people's well-being," - social epidemiologist Nancy Krieger, on the value of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine
www.npr.org/2025/03/23/n...
NEW: LibGen contains millions of pirated books and research papers, built over nearly two decades. From court documents, we know that Meta torrented a version of it to build its AI. Today, @theatlantic.com presents an analysis of the data set by @alexreisner.bsky.social. Search through it yourself:
Schoolhouse Rock but it's me learning about all the activities of government as Trump and Elon destroy them one by one
I am once again saying it is librarianship malpractice to use or promote gen AI in any part of our jobs, whether for our own work or suggest to patrons 📚
You know how much you love the "magic" of ILL?
Defend it by defending IMLS.
Show Up For Our Libraries! By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration's Executive Order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer. ALA American Library Association. #ForOurLibraries
🚨NEW🚨: Donald Trump is attempting to strip away federal support for libraries. We will NOT let that happen.
Last night the President signed an order to gut the Institute of Museum & Library Services. But together, we know we can show up & defeat it.
Full EO: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
I’m concerned that with pressure like this, Overdrive will begin pulling titles for everyone so as to comply. In the not too distant future
An explainer on immigration enforcement in libraries and ways to protect patron privacy: www.oif.ala.org/libraries-an...
Sucks when people take your stuff and use it to make their stuff and don’t pay for it, eh?
