News from the Field
UNC-Chapel Hill University Libraries Launches AI Studio, PromptLab
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s University Libraries recently hosted a grand opening for the new Library AI Studio, a space designed to support exploration, learning and creative use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the Carolina community. The studio provides students, faculty, and staff with hands-on opportunities to experiment with emerging technologies while fostering thoughtful dialogue about the role of AI in research, teaching, and public service. The library also introduced PromptLab, a free platform designed for the Carolina community to access and explore top Generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and more.
ACRL 2027 Call for Proposals
ACRL invites you to join us at the ACRL 2027 Conference to be held April 7–10, 2027, in Portland, Oregon, and online. The conference will focus on themes such as building coalitions and mutual-support networks, creating effective professional development opportunities for library workers in all stages of their careers, and living out our shared values in difficult times. ACRL welcomes you to share your academic research and innovative projects at ACRL 2027. The conference offers eight unique session formats designed to accommodate a variety of presentation and learning styles. Whether you’re a first-time presenter or an experienced expert, there’s a format that’s perfect for showcasing your ideas. Contributed paper, panel session, and workshop proposals are due June 6, 2026. The complete Call for Proposals is available on the conference website at https://cvent.me/MOoqWL.
ResearchGate and Taylor & Francis Expand Journal Home Partnership
ResearchGate and Taylor & Francis have announced a further two-year expansion of their strategic Journal Home partnership. The renewed agreement now covers 800 journals across the Taylor & Francis portfolio. It also includes the Community Engagement Upgrade (CEU), which connects researchers to key content in the journals that serve their community, and the Open Access Agreement Upgrade (OAAU), which makes it easier for authors to discover open access (OA) funding opportunities available to them through Taylor & Francis OA agreements.
Since 2023, Taylor & Francis’s partnership with ResearchGate has delivered sustained growth in international readership and attracted highly relevant authors from ResearchGate’s global community of more than 25 million researcher members. With the addition of the CEU and expanded activation of the OAAU, Journal Home now supports a broader range of journal development priorities, including commissioning, editor-led community building, and clearer communication of funding available to authors. Learn more at https://www.researchgate.net/journal-home.
IGI Debuts Read & Publish Licensing Model
IGI Global Scientific Publishing has launched a new Read & Publish licensing model. The model allows libraries to license the IGI Global Scientific Publishing e-Book Collection, featuring more than 10,000 scholarly ebooks and more than 200,000 peer-reviewed chapters while providing their faculty and researchers with unlimited open access publishing opportunities in nearly 200 journals. The Read & Publish model provides unlimited simultaneous user access, no DRM, an advanced search platform, and upcoming AI-powered research tools, supporting cross-disciplinary scholarship across business and management; science, technology, and medicine (STM); and education and social sciences fields. Through this model, participating institutions cover all publishing costs under a single flat rate, enabling their affiliated faculty and researchers to publish unlimited open access articles at no personal cost in nearly 200 highly indexed journals within the IGI Global Open Access Journal Program. Complete details are available at https://www.igi-global.com/newsroom/archive/read-publish-option-igi-global/6701/.
New Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Nursing
The ACRL Board of Directors approved a new companion document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Nursing at its January 29, 2026, virtual meeting. The ACRL Health Sciences Interest Group (HSIG) worked for several years on revising the 2013 Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing to reflect the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Throughout the process of developing the companion document, the working group integrated the principles of evidence-based practice in nursing and national standards for nursing education and practice published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN). Additionally, the group emphasized principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice to reflect their importance in nursing practice and librarianship.
The Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Nursing is freely available in the Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks section of the ACRL website at https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards.
Libby, Kanopy Release 2025 Higher Education Survey Results
Libby and Kanopy recently released the results of their 2025 Higher Education Survey. The findings reveal a significant shift in student expectations, with nearly three-quarters of undergraduates identifying as visual or kinesthetic learners and 90% demanding course materials that reflect a diverse range of voices and experiences. The quantitative study, which surveyed 500 US undergraduates in September 2025, highlights a concerning “digital tool gap” in academia. Although 87% of students agree that films and documentaries are critical for mastering course content, only 44% report that their institutions provide adequate digital tools for accessing movies, documentaries, or foreign films.
The survey also indicates that today’s students are moving away from passive learning. Key findings include 84% of students prefer a dynamic learning environment that prioritizes discussion and video over traditional lectures, 89% of undergraduates want to demonstrate knowledge through projects and portfolios rather than traditional essays, and 90% of students state that diverse representation in course materials is a core requirement, not a “bonus.” More details are available at https://bit.ly/4kAFS5v.
ACRL Announces New Immersion Program Facilitators
ACRL is pleased to announce the selection of Anna Boutin-Cooper, Derek Malone, Sarah Morris, Brandy Whitlock, and Jamia Williams as the newest facilitators for the ACRL Immersion Program. They join the current program facilitator team in shaping the curriculum and guiding the program’s continued evolution. Launched in 1999, the ACRL Immersion Program offers participants an intensive, community-centered learning experience focused on exploring core issues in library teaching and learning and building relationships with colleagues from a wide range of institutions. The Immersion ’26 program will be held July 15–17, 2026, at Loyola University Chicago. Complete details on the program and new facilitators are available at https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/immersion.
Library of Congress, GPO Make Available 10,000 Digitized Volumes of the United States Congressional Serial Set
The Law Library of Congress and the US Government Publishing Office (GPO) have achieved a major milestone by uploading and making available the 10,000th volume of the United States Congressional Serial Set on the GovInfo website. Those volumes contain more than 185,000 individual government documents and reports. This is part of a multiyear effort with the Law Library and GPO to digitize and make accessible the United States Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. The US Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress.
GPO is uploading volumes of the official Serial Set in phases for free public access on GovInfo. GPO has nearly 6,000 remaining volumes to upload and is aiming to release an additional 2,000 volumes in FY2026. The Law Library of Congress has digitized more than 15,500 volumes in the collection, and GPO is currently cataloging and authenticating the PDFs. The collection will be available on both the GovInfo and loc.gov websites as authenticated documents are available.
ASERL Celebrates Seventy Years of Advancing Research Libraries in the Southeast
The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) proudly celebrates its seventieth anniversary in 2026, marking seven decades of leadership, collaboration, and innovation in support of research libraries and higher education across the southeastern United States. Founded in 1956, ASERL has played a pivotal role in shaping regional and national conversations around access to information, preservation of the scholarly record, and the future of research libraries. ASERL has grown into a vital consortium of leading research libraries committed to advancing professional development for people working in libraries, supporting innovations in scholarly communication, strengthening and sharing collections, and fostering cooperative solutions to the evolving challenges facing research institutions. Learn more about ASERL and the anniversary at https://www.aserl.org/.
Represent ALA on IFLA Standing Committees
Would you like to represent ALA on an International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) section standing committee? The biennial appointment process to represent ALA on relevant IFLA standing committees is currently underway for terms running from 2027 through 2031.The ACRL Board of Directors endorses candidates for election to a number of IFLA standing committees, with the ACRL Leadership Recruitment and Nomination Committee (LRNC) acting in an advisory capacity to the Board in recommending approval for appointment.
Complete details on the application process are available on the ACRL website at https://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/electionresults/election/ifla. The deadline for nominations is May 1, 2026. Contact LRNC Chair Kim Copenhaver at kimberly.copenhaver@yale.edu with questions. 
Tech Bits . . .
Finding a meeting time can be a headache. Although free polling tools exist, they often limit the number of date and time options unless you pay (and they may be cluttered with ads). If your organization uses Microsoft products, or if you have a personal Microsoft account with a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can create scheduling polls directly within an email. Simply draft your message, add recipients, and insert a scheduling poll. There’s no limit on the number of dates or times you can propose, and even non-Microsoft users can respond. You can then create a calendar invite directly from your Microsoft poll once all attendees have responded.
The scheduling poll feature does require an institutional or personal subscription to Microsoft 365. Find instructions for accessing the scheduling poll feature on Microsoft’s support site.
Microsoft 365