News from the Field

David Free

Nominations Sought for ACRL Board of Directors

Don’t be shy! Your participation matters, and we invite you to be a part of shaping the future of ACRL. The ACRL Leadership Recruitment and Nomination Committee (LRNC) strongly encourages members to nominate themselves or others to run for the position of ACRL vice president/president-elect and director-at-large in the 2027 elections. We seek board members who can offer visionary leadership and a broad perspective on librarianship. It is not a requirement that members of the Board be library directors or deans. The deadline for nominations is February 15, 2026. To nominate an individual or to self-nominate, please submit the nomination form available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/acrlboardnominations.

The LRNC will request a curriculum vitae and/or a statement of interest from selected individuals before developing a slate of candidates. If you have any questions about the nominating or election process, please feel free to contact LRNC Chair Kim Copenhaver at kimberly.copenhaver@yale.edu.

PALNI, PALCI, IOI Partner to Strengthen Hyku

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) and the Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation (PALCI) have announced a new partnership with Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Hyku, the open-source digital repository platform. Through this project, the Hyku for Consortia team—along with key stakeholders in the Samvera Hyku Community and IOI—will support the development of a coinvestment and community decision-making model designed to ensure the Hyku platform remains robust, community-driven, and financially sustainable.

Hyku enables libraries, archives, and cultural institutions to manage, preserve, and provide access to digital collections—from research outputs to archival materials—without relying on commercial systems. Initially developed and advanced through grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Hyku for Consortia has provided libraries with an affordable, flexible repository option while cultivating a strong collaborative community. This partnership with IOI marks the next step in Hyku’s evolution, transitioning from grant funding and siloed development streams to a sustainable, community-focused coinvestment and decision-making model. For progress updates, visit the Hyku for Consortia website at https://hykuforconsortia.palni.org.

AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers

The ACRL Board of Directors approved a new AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers at its October 3, 2025, virtual meeting. The document expands on the broad definition of artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, tailoring it into a comprehensive, library-specific set of competencies applicable to academic library workers. It is meant to serve as a guiding framework for the creation of training programs and as a foundation for communities of librarians to develop their own frameworks. Given the diversity of roles and job duties among academic library workers, it is not possible to create a set of competencies that apply uniformly. Therefore, individuals, institutions, and others who use the competencies are encouraged to adapt them to specific job functions, responsibilities, or organizational contexts. The new AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers is freely available in the Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks section of the ACRL website at https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ai.

New from ACRL – Library Publishing: How to Launch, Enhance, and Sustain Your Program

ACRL announces the publication of Library Publishing: How to Launch, Enhance, and Sustain Your Program, edited by Jonathan Grunert, offering perspectives from diverse publishing programs, processes, and challenges that can help you scale content to meet your campus’s needs.

Shifting landscapes of academic publishing, open-access initiatives, transformative agreements, and questionable scholarly publishing practices have all contributed to an evolution in the role libraries play within academic institutions and the development of many library publishing programs.

In three parts—Launching, Enhancing, and Sustaining a Library Publishing Program—Library Publishing provides library workers and administrators with several considerations for creating a program, as well as a glossary of terms and ways to choose the right technologies, incorporate artificial intelligence, leverage consortia, craft contracts, and more. Chapters offer strategies for approaching the labor involved in library publishing, much of it unseen and requiring new expertise.

Chapter authors—from instruction librarians to dedicated scholarly communication and publishing librarians to teaching and research faculty—offer ways and ideas for campus collaborations and using publishing to enhance student success. In this diversity of thought, library publishing is not a monolith; it is a process by which change can be affected. Library Publishing can help you begin and sustain change.

Library Publishing: How to Launch, Enhance, and Sustain Your Program is available for purchase in print through the ALA Online Store and Amazon.com; via EBSCO, ProQuest, and other ebook vendors; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers. This book is also available as an open access edition.

University of North Texas Named Best Federal Depository Website

The US Government Publishing Office (GPO) honors University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries for having the best website in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) for 2025. This is the third library to ever receive the award, which was created to recognize creativity and the ways libraries are providing easy access to federal government information on their websites. The library has digitized many federal government documents and archived web pages that might otherwise have been lost and made them accessible to the public on its sleek and easy-to-navigate website. UNT Libraries serves as a digital preservation steward with GPO. Through this commitment, the library retains and make accessible at no fee the digital resources they hold that are in scope of the National Collection. The UNT Digital Library currently preserves and provides access to The Government Accountability Office Reports Collection, Government Comics, Government Documents A to Z Digitization Project, World War II Newsmaps, and more. The UNT Libraries also hosts the CyberCemetery, an archive of Government websites that have ceased operation. The website is available at https://library.unt.edu/sycamore/collections/government-documents/.

ACRL Board of Directors Authorizes Sale of Choice Property

During an executive session at its October 3, 2025, fall virtual meeting, the ACRL Board of Directors unanimously approved a recommendation that the ALA Executive Board authorize Dina Tsourdinis, chief financial officer, and Denise Moritz, director of financial reporting and compliance, to negotiate the sale of the Choice condominium located in Middletown, Connecticut. The unit in the Liberty Square commercial property in downtown Middletown was purchased by ALA, ACRL, and Choice in 2008.

The Board also approved a recommendation that ACRL Executive Director Teresa Anderson be included in all actions, processes, and next steps regarding the sale of the property. The ALA Executive Board approved the sale of the Choice property, pending the approval of the ACRL Board of Directors, at its meeting in early October 2025. These actions were taken to align resources with current business needs.