Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email.unc.edu

Library jobs

The number of library jobs advertised nationally is on the rise. “Five positions popping up in greater frequency across academic, public, school, and special libraries are”: Sustainability librarian; User experience librarian; Director of equity, diversity, and inclusion; Open educational resources librarian, and Data visualization librarian.

Terra Dankowski, “5 Library Jobs on the Rise,” American Libraries Magazine, June 1, 2022, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/?p=130100 (retrieved June 7, 2022).

Journalists killed

Since 1993, 1,529 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. As of June 7, 2022, 39 journalists were killed so far this year.

“UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists,” UNESCO, https://en.unesco.org/themes/safety-journalists/observatory (retrieved June 7, 2022).

College enrollment declines

“Total postsecondary enrollment fell to 16.2 million this spring, marking a one-year decline of 4.1 percent or 685,000 students. Enrollment declined this spring at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Following a 3.5 percent drop last spring, postsecondary institutions have lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020.”

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, “Current Term Enrollment Estimates,” May 26, 2022, https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates (retrieved June 7, 2022).

Exascale supercomputer

The Frontier system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the first supercomputer to cross the exascale mark, meaning it can do more than 1 quintillion floating point operations per second (1.102 exaflops). It will be operated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Prometeus GmbH, “ORNL’s Frontier First to Break the Exaflop Ceiling | TOP500,” May 30, 2022, https://top500.org/news/ornls-frontier-first-to-break-the-exaflop-ceiling (retrieved June 7, 2022).

Some college, but no degree

“In July 2020, the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population … reached 39 million, up 3.1 million from the 36 million SCNC population previously reported. A combination of net growth (1.9 million) and methodological enhancements contributed to the 3.1 million increase. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one million SCNC students re-enrolled during the academic year 2020/21, and over 60,000 students earned their first-ever postsecondary credential (including bachelor’s degree earners that comprised nearly one-third). Also, tracking re-enrollees for a two-year period after re-enrolling, 61.1 percent of those who re-enrolled in 2019/20 either persevered into the second year or attained a credential within a year of re-enrolling.”

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, “Some College, No Credential,” May 10, 2022, https://nscresearchcenter.org/some-college-no-credential (retrieved June 7, 2022).