I’ve rounded up a handful of important news items that library staff and library supporters should be aware of. I’m not going to lie: this post is pretty low on warm fuzzies, but these are all important topics to be aware of. And after you finish reading, feel free to get yourself a little treat.
Executive Order Calls for the Reduction of the Institute of Museum & Library Services
One of Trump’s most recent executive orders has called for IMLS to be significantly reduced, and there are a lot of concerns that the wording of the executive order could result in the organization being eliminated altogether. ALA and EveryLibrary have issued statements in response to the recent EO, and…yeah. I don’t have anything else I can add to this that hasn’t already been stated (and isn’t just a lot of wordless screaming into the void).
More Cuts For Federal Education and Humanities Staff
The Education Department has fired 1300 staff members, bringing the department to about half the size it was when Trump took office two months ago. Additionally, Shelly C. Lowe, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the first Native American person to hold the position, has been “directed” by Trump to vacate the position. It’s all connected, folks.
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Indiana Congressperson’s Staff Asks Library to Call Police on Constituents
I had to read the headline a couple times to make sure I was reading it correctly, but yes, that is indeed what happened. This article might be paywalled, although I was able to read it in its entirety before I used up my free article quota, so here’s what happened: Mark Messmer’s (R-IN) staff booked a public meeting room space at the Boonville Library to meet with constituents, and a large number of people showed up, many of whom were frustrated with the state of basically everything and wanted to register their complaints. Messmer’s staff, however, refused to meet with more than one member of the public at a time, causing a great deal of frustration, and Messmer’s chief of staff eventually called the library from a Washington D.C. area code to ask the director to call the police on the frustrated patrons. The director refused, and as far as I know, Messmer himself has not given any comment on his staff’s request, but yikes on bikes, people!
AI Writes Its Own Story
OpenAI chief Sam Altman said that they’ve developed an AI model that is “good at creative writing,” and shared an example on Twitter/X after giving the AI the following prompt: “Please write a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief.” Jeanette Winterson thought the writing was “beautiful and moving,” but Nnedi Okorafor posted on Twitter and Bluesky that she found the story “stilted” and “soulless.” I don’t have much knowledge of AI beyond the basics, but the more I hear about AI producing creative writing and other forms of art, the more off-putting it becomes. I don’t understand why we’re so eager to trade away the humanity of art.
See also Altman’s recent statements about how the AI race is over if they’re not allowed to use copyrighted works. If your business model is only sustainable if you’re allowed to steal other people’s work, maybe that’s a problem?
Meta Tries, Fails to Silence Newly-Published Exposé
In other technology-related news, Meta has been trying reeeeally hard to get the book Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by former Meta staffer Sarah Wynn-Williams pulled from publication. Flatiron Books basically laughed in Meta’s face and said “Yeah, we’re not pulling the book from publication,” and the whole situation is going viral on social media. Can we say “Streisand effect,” anyone?
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