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July 9, 2025 150 × 100 Starting a GenAI community of practice

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Latest Library Links

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Mike Masnick writes: “There’s a fundamental architectural flaw in how the internet works that most people have never heard of, but it explains nearly every frustration you have with modern technology. Former Google and Stripe executive Alex Komoroske traces all of these problems back to the ‘same origin paradigm’—a quick security fix” that originated with the Netscape browser and isolates all websites and apps into their own universe. “This creates massive friction every time data needs to move between services and fundamentally reshapes where data accumulates.”

Techdirt, July 16; Every Thesis, July 14
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Kaye Thornbrugh writes: “The Cooperative Information Network in north Idaho and eastern Washington will dissolve in September, ending more than 40 years of partnership. The July 16 vote was the culmination of months of unsuccessful efforts to reorganize the consortium. Several member libraries pointed to the Community Library Network’s (CLN) in northern Idaho’s updated policies as the impetus for the dissolution. In January, CLN trustees voted to restrict minor patrons from placing holds on materials from other consortium libraries and barred them from accessing material deemed ‘harmful to minors,’ regardless of the wishes of their parents or guardians.”

Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Press, July 17; Hagadone News Network, Mar. 26
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Angie Simoneaux writes: “Lillian Lynette Mejia and Melanie Brevis have agreed to settle their lawsuit against Lafayette (La.) Consolidated Government (LCG) and former Library Board President Robert Judge. Mejia and Brevis filed suit after Brevis was physically removed from a library board meeting while trying to make a comment” that criticized board members for their willingness to segregate LGBTQ+ materials. The settlement includes payments of $12,500 to Mejia and Brevis from LCG and a prohibition of reading or enforcing rules limiting protected speech at board meetings, among other terms.

KATC-TV (Lafayette, La.), July 18; Jan. 10, 2023; Acadiana Advocate (Lafayette, La.), Jul. 18; Jan. 10, 2023
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Rachel Grover writes: “Sometimes being a librarian feels like balancing an endless number of plates on sticks while I’m pedaling a unicycle. Most of the time, I feel like there is never enough time in the day to get everything done and there is so much to remember and keep track of. Once I started using Google Sheets, I felt like a gigantic weight came off my chest. Here are five easy ways I use Google Sheets to keep my sanity throughout the school year.”

Knowledge Quest, July 18
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Amber Willenborg and Robert Detmering write: “This national qualitative study investigates academic librarians’ instructional experiences, views, and challenges regarding the widespread problem of misinformation. Findings from phenomenological interviews reveal a tension between librarians’ professional, moral, and civic obligations to address misinformation and the actual material conditions of information literacy instruction, which influence and often constrain librarians’ pedagogical and institutional roles. The authors call for greater professional reflection on current information literacy models that focus on achieving ambitious educational goals, but which may be unsuitable for addressing the larger social and political crisis of misinformation.”

College & Research Libraries, Vol. 86, No. 4, July
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James Folta writes: “Last week a Silicon Valley startup announced a new kind of e-reader that you can wear on your face. Maybe it’s because I don’t often want to read while lying fully flat on my back with my arms at my side, but I don’t see a ton of utility for these book goggles. How do these new glasses stack up against all the other technology we already have to access text? Here is my definitive [and comedic] ranking of ways to get text into your brain,” from books and smartphones to refrigerator magnets and wax tablets.

Literary Hub, July 15
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Tony Phillips writes: “Copying data from an image into a Google Sheets file manually can be time-consuming and increases the chance of typos. Luckily, you can extract the information into your spreadsheet in just a few simple steps using the Optical Character Recognition tool in Google Drive. Here’s how.”

How-to Geek, July 9

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