Ohio’s libraries could face hard choices next year after 2025 budget cuts; Cleveland.com, December 27, 2025

Mary Frances McGowan, cleveland.com; Ohio’s libraries could face hard choices next year after 2025 budget cuts

"“They’re going to continue to do that to the best of their ability, but it is going to make providing these services more difficult, especially in a time when the demand for services is growing, and the expectation of local citizens is growing and expanding.”

The state budget Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in June removed the longstanding funding formula that gave libraries a percentage of the state’s revenue fund, replacing it with discretionary line-item appropriations.

While funding was never inherently guaranteed -- library advocates had to testify in Columbus every two years to explain how they were using taxpayer funds -- but as a percentage of the state revenue, it was a solid funding source. 

The comparative instability of the new formula is worrying for libraries. Future legislatures or gubernatorial administrations could reduce funding without warning — a big shift for institutions that have long relied on stability."

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing; The Guardian, December 26, 2025

Ben Martynoga, The Guardian; Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing

"Inside a large greenhouse at the University of Kansas, Professor Liz Koziol and Dr Terra Lubin tend rows of sudan grass in individual plastic pots. The roots of each straggly plant harbor a specific strain of invisible soil fungus. The shelves of a nearby cold room are stacked high with thousands of plastic bags and vials containing fungal spores harvested from these plants, then carefully preserved by the researchers.

The samples in this seemingly unremarkable room are part of the International Collection of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM), the world’s largest living library of soil fungi. Four decades in the making, it could cease to exist within a year due to federal budget cuts.

For leading mycologist Toby Kiers, this would be catastrophic. “INVAM represents a library of hundreds of millions of years of evolution,” said Kiers, executive director of the Society for Protection of Underground Networks (Spun). “Ending INVAM for scientists is like closing the Louvre for artists."

Press arrests used to silence protest coverage in 2025; U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, December 15, 2025

Stephanie Sugars from Freedom of the Press Foundation, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker; Press arrests used to silence protest coverage in 2025

"While covering anything from protests to government meetings, journalists in 2025 were pulled from news scenes, placed in cuffs and held in custody from minutes to days — long enough for deadlines to pass and breaking news to go cold.

As of Dec. 15, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented at least 32 instances in which journalists were detained or charged just for doing their jobs. While that count is lower than the 50 documented last year, each one is a warning flare that something fundamental is shifting in how authorities police information and those who gather it. Most were released without charges or had them quickly dropped, but the impact extends far beyond the time spent in custody...

The LA Press Club’s Rose told the Tracker that, once a member of the press is placed in handcuffs, they can’t operate a camera, take notes or observe unfolding events.

“But I know one reporter who mastered a new skill they don’t teach in journalism school,” he added. “While his hands are behind him in zip ties, he can pull out his phone and still type out emergency messages asking for help. I’ve been on the receiving end of quite a few of those.

“This should not be what’s needed to cover protests,” said Rose, “but it’s where we are in 2025.”"

Yanked "60 Minutes" episode aired in Canada; Axios, December 22, 2025

Sara Fischer , Axios; Yanked "60 Minutes" episode aired in Canada

[Kip Currier: CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss "knows her assignment": run editorial interference for oligarch Paramount Skydance tech baron bosses Larry and David Ellison (who own CBS) and the Trump 2.0 administration.

In one of the first major tests of Weiss's censorial assignment, she has both succeeded and failed: (1) blocking the airing of a damning 60 Minutes segment set to hear on December 21, 2025 on the human rights and due process violations of the Trump 2.0 administration in deporting detainees to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison gulag, and (2) unsuccessfully stopping the blocked video from leaking to Canada and the San Francisco-based Internet Archive.]

[Excerpt]

"The "60 Minutes" segment pulled from air by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss did not include new comments from Trump administration officials, according to a copy of the segment viewed by Axios.

Why it matters: The segment, anchored by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, caused uproar internally over whether it was pulled for political reasons. 

• The package was distributed via an app owned by Global Television which airs "60 Minutes" in Canada.

Zoom in: The segment included interviews with two people who were imprisoned at CECOT, an executive from the nonprofit Human Rights Watch and the director of UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center Investigations Lab.

• One college student, who was detained by U.S. customs before getting deported to CECOT, describes being tortured upon arrival. 
• 
  
• Another man told Alfonsi that he and others were taken to "a little room where there's no light, no ventilation, nothing."
• 
  
• "It's a cell for punishment where you can't see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour, and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us while we were in there."
• 
  
• "60 Minutes" also said it reviewed available ICE data to confirm Human Rights Watch's findings that suggested only eight deported men had been sentenced for violent or potentially violent crimes.
• 
  

The other side: The segment ends with Alfonsi saying the Department of Homeland Security "declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador. The government there did not respond to our request."

• The segment included previous comments made by President Trump, who said El Salvador's prison system has "very strong facilities, and they don't play games.""

CBS Frantically Tries to Stop People From Seeing Censored ‘60 Minutes’; The Daily Beast, December 23, 2025

William Vaillancourt  , The Daily Beast; CBS Frantically Tries to Stop People From Seeing Censored ‘60 Minutes’

"The 60 Minutes story that CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss abruptly pulled from the air on Sunday has been leaked—and the network is responding with copyright takedowns.

Canadian broadcaster Global TV aired the segment, which deals with Venezuelan migrants to the U.S. whom the Trump administration deported to CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador. Videos of the segment—in some instances, people recording their television screens—began circulating on Monday. But many didn’t last.

Paramount Skydance, CBS News’ parent company, began issuing a flurry of copyright notices on X, YouTube, and other platforms.

But the video was ultimately saved in the Internet Archive, among other places. 

In it, a Venezuelan college student who sought asylum in the U.S.—and says he has no criminal record—describes what happened to him at CECOT.

“There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves,” Luis Munoz Pinto said. “Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled until the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall. That was when they broke one of my teeth.”"

Give newborns automatic library cards, authors urge; BBC, December 15, 2025

Kerena Cobbina, BBC; Give newborns automatic library cards, authors urge

"A group of leading authors are calling for every newborn baby to be signed up for a library card automatically at birth. 

Writers including Sir Philip Pullman, Richard Osman and Kate Mosse have backed the proposal by think tank the Cultural Policy Unit (CPU), which says a universal, lifelong membership issued at birth would boost literacy.

"A lot of people still feel that [libraries are] not for them," Mosse told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, but said automatically giving out cards could show that "every single young child that's born is welcome".

The CPU proposal would see membership linked directly to birth registration, so library cards would be waiting for newborns at their local library."

Puerto Rico governor signs bill that critics say will restrict access to public information; AP, December 14, 2025

ÁNICA COTO, AP; Puerto Rico governor signs bill that critics say will restrict access to public information

"Obtaining public information in Puerto Rico has long been difficult, often forcing local media organizations that could afford it to go to court despite the government approving a law in 2019 to allow access to public information held by state agencies."

US librarians tackle ‘manufactured crisis’ of book bans to protect LGBTQ+ rights; The Guardian, December 15, 2025

Claire Wang, The Guardian ; US librarians tackle ‘manufactured crisis’ of book bans to protect LGBTQ+ rights

"As the culture wars descended on America’s public libraries, librarians like Young have moved to the frontlines of a battle to protect free speech and LGTBQ+ rights. In at least half a dozen states, they have joined forces with civil rights groups to oppose book bans, often facing personal and professional repercussions. Some of their legal challenges and victories, organizers and experts say, can provide a roadmap for grassroots resistance against coordinated censorship campaigns."

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Texas Library Case: List of Banned Books; Newsweek, December 8, 2025

Dan Gooding and Gabe Whisnant , Newsweek; Supreme Court Won’t Hear Texas Library Case: List of Banned Books

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a Texas county’s removal of 17 books from its public libraries, leaving in place a lower court ruling that allowed the purge. 

The books targeted by officials span topics including sexuality, gender identity, racism and even juvenile humor.

Residents who sued argued the removals violated their First Amendment right to receive information, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim. 

The Supreme Court’s decision means the ruling now applies across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi."

Trump administration says sign language services ‘intrude’ on Trump’s ability to control his image; AP, December 12, 2025

MEG KINNARD , AP; Trump administration says sign language services ‘intrude’ on Trump’s ability to control his image

"The Trump administration is arguing that requiring real-time American Sign Language interpretation of events like White House press briefings “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public,” part of a lawsuit seeking to require the White House to provide the services.

Department of Justice attorneys haven’t elaborated on how doing so might hamper the portrayal President Donald Trump seeks to present to the public. But overturning policies encompassing diversity, equity and inclusion have become a hallmark of his second administration, starting with his very first week back in the White House.

The National Association for the Deaf sued the Trump administration in May, arguing that the cessation of American Sign Language interpretation — which the Biden administration had used regularly — represented “denying hundreds of thousands of deaf Americans meaningful access to the White House’s real-time communications on various issues of national and international import.” The group also sued during Trump’s first administration, seeking ASL interpretation for briefings related to the COVID-19 pandemic."

'It's insulting they think we can't handle it': The Australian teens banned from social media; BBC, December 10, 2025

Katy Watson , BBC; 'It's insulting they think we can't handle it': The Australian teens banned from social media

"With nearly all her friends living at least 100km away, social media is a lifeline. But not anymore, now that Australia's social media ban for children has taken effect.

"Taking away our socials is just taking away how we talk to each other," Breanna says. 

While she can still text her friends, it's not the same as a quick "snap" or a "like" on a photo that allows her to play a part in their lives even when she is far away."

'This is the end': Australian teens mourn loss of social media as ban begins; Reuters, December 10, 2025

Christine Chen, Reuters ; 'This is the end': Australian teens mourn loss of social media as ban begins

"Australian teenagers have taken to social media for the last time to farewell their followers and mourn the loss of the platforms that shaped much of their lives before a world-first ban took effect on Wednesday.

In the hours leading up to the ban's midnight start (1300 GMT on Tuesday), a flurry of goodbye messages came from teenagers - as well as adults - on platforms including TikTok, Instagram and Reddit.

Australia has ordered 10 major platforms including TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube and Meta's nstagram and Facebook to block around one million users under the age of 16 or face massive fines.

Some 200,000 accounts have already been deactivated on TikTok alone, the government said, with "hundreds of thousands" to be blocked in the coming days.

Young Australians, who have grown up using social media, faced the prospect of losing access to their favourite apps with a mix of sadness, humour and disbelief."

Library Agency Reinstates Grants Canceled by Trump Administration; The New York Times, December 5, 2025

Jennifer Schuessler , The New York Times; Library Agency Reinstates Grants Canceled by Trump Administration

[Kip Currier: Restoration of Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grants for libraries, archives, and museums -- cut earlier this year by Trump 2.0 -- is good news for people throughout the country whose lives are enriched by these vital institutions and community anchors.

What does it say about an administration that eliminates support for libraries, archives, and museums that provide free access to thousands of books and summer reading programs, historical records and exhibits, and life-enhancing programs like job seeking and AI literacy, but which will pump millions and millions of dollars into the building of a White House ballroom that no one voted for and only the very wealthiest will ever have access to?]

[Excerpt]

"The federal agency that supports the nation’s libraries has restored thousands of grants canceled by the Trump administration, following a federal judge’s ruling that the executive order mandating the cuts was unlawful.

The executive order, issued in March, said the Institute for Museum and Library Services, along with six other small agencies, must “be reduced to the maximum extent consistent with the applicable law.” Soon after, the agency put most of its staff of 70 on administrative leave, fired its board members and began informing grant recipients that their federal funding had been eliminated.

In April, the attorneys general of 21 states filed a lawsuit arguing that the cuts, which included roughly $160 million in funding for state library agencies, violated federal law.

John J. McConnell Jr., the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, ruled in their favor on Nov. 21, calling the administration’s moves “arbitrary and capricious.” Canceling funding appropriated by Congress, he said, violated the doctrine of separation of powers.

This week, the agency announced the restoration of “all federal grants” in a terse post on its website. The post made no reference to the court ruling."

A full-body MRI can reveal hidden killers. Do we want to know?; The Washington Post, December 5, 2025

Dana Milbank, The Washington Post ; A full-body MRI can reveal hidden killers. Do we want to know?

"The new technology that powers these full-body MRIs — something called diffusion-weighted imaging (don’t ask me to explain) combined with the pattern recognition of artificial intelligence — has the potential to save our lives by revealing budding cancers, silent aneurysms and other hidden would-be killers before they become deadly.

But the scans cost $2,500 a pop and insurance won’t pay. Worse, for every cancer these MRIs find, they produce a slightly greater number of false positives that require a biopsy, with the potential for infection and bleeding and emotional distress. Even when the scans don’t produce a false positive, they almost always come up with some vague and disconcerting abnormality.

Like many emerging technologies, this one can improve our lives, make us miserable, or both. Nobody yet knows which it will be, because we’re the first humans to have the option of examining our innards with such clarity. Will we feel better after viewing our insides? Or will we become anxious about things we hadn’t even thought to worry about?"

New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights; The New York Times, December 4, 2025

Erik Wemple, The New York Times ; New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights

"The New York Times accused the Pentagon in a lawsuit on Thursday of infringing on the constitutional rights of journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.

In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, The Times argued that the Defense Department’s new policy violated the First Amendment and “seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.”

The rules, which went into effect in October, are a stark departure from the previous ones, in both length and scope. They require reporters to sign a 21-page form that sets restrictions on journalistic activities, including requests for story tips and inquiries to Pentagon sources. Reporters who don’t comply could lose their press passes, and the Pentagon has accorded itself “unbridled discretion” to enforce the policy as it sees fit, according to the lawsuit."

Es Devlin’s Towering Beachfront Library Illuminates Miami Art Week; artnet, December 2, 2025

Sarah Cascone, artnet ; Es Devlin’s Towering Beachfront Library Illuminates Miami Art Week

"Es Devlin’s The Library of Us has emerged as one of Miami Art Week’s most dramatic spectacles. The 20-foot-tall rotating bookshelf housing 2,500 books invites visitors to read and reflect in a quiet counterpoint to the frenzy of Art Basel. By day, it towers over the sands of Miami Beach, a triangular wedge of a bookshelf set within a circular pool of water, slowly rotating in the Florida sun. By night, it glows like a beacon, offering a mesmerizing tribute to the power of the written word.

Designed to serve as sculpture, library, and public gathering space, the work invites visitors to step onto a circular platform that rotates them into shifting proximity with strangers. As the interior circle spins, viewers will face different people on the outside, creating a social experience. Set just feet from the Atlantic, the piece doubles as a meditation on fragility—of culture, of knowledge, and the environment.

“What would the resonance of 4,000 books with differing points of view revolving together without disagreement be in this place in Miami. What would happen if encircling that library were water, rising waters?,” Devlin told guests at the opening for the ambitious work.

The artist’s nearly 20-foot-tall bookshelf represents a remarkable vision. Sure, everyone loves to bring a beach read down to the shore, but there’s something poignantly fragile about seeing an entire library within a stone’s throw of the ocean waves, pages and spines open to the salty breeze. But this apparent vulnerability seems fitting for this city on a tiny strip of land, the colorful hotels and vibrant restaurants increasingly at risk of flooding due to climate change and intensifying storms...

The 2,500 titles included are those she considers formative to her philosophy, life, and practice.

Where libraries are traditionally places of reverent silence, Devlin has created an audio track to accompany her monumental sculpture. She reads various quotes from the many titles included in the display—some of which have been banned by Florida schools, according to the artist. She’ll donate all the books to Miami public schools and libraries after the installation ends."

‘Your Country Will Ultimately Get This Right’: Rachel Maddow on How the U.S. Will Move On From the Trump Era; Time, December 1, 2025

Philip Elliott, Time ; ‘Your Country Will Ultimately Get This Right’: Rachel Maddow on How the U.S. Will Move On From the Trump Era

"TIME spoke by phone last week with Maddow from her home in Western Massachusetts about her latest project, the MSNBC reboot, and how history can inform—but not save—the Resistance...

Doing the right thing doesn't always pay off in the short run, but your country will ultimately get this right. The good guys will be rewarded and the bad guys will be punished or forgotten. Having faith in those kinds of moral outcomes is really a nice guiding light to have in dark times like these...

How has your thinking about your specific role in the media environment changed since Trump 1.0? Has it changed? 

I was waving a lot of warning flags in Trump 1.0 about what could be going on and how we should see the risk of the kind of government Trump was trying to impose. 

Now, we're there. There's no use in warning anymore. We've got masked, totally unaccountable secret police grabbing women out of daycares and building prison camps everywhere. In less than a year, the President has stuffed multiple billions of dollars into his own pockets, into those of his family. He has literally torn down the White House. We're no longer at the point where we need to be warned about what's coming. We're now at a point where what we need is understanding what's going on, knowing what our options are in terms of how to preserve our democracy, to make sure that we're not going to be the generation that lost the republic."

Jason Schwartzman Finds Peace at the Library; The New York Times, November 29, 2025

Elisabeth Vincentelli , The New York Times; Jason Schwartzman Finds Peace at the Library

"Library Card

My mom [Talia Shire] studied with Stella Adler, who told her that as an actor you need a library card and a bus pass. I feel calm in libraries. I think it’s because everyone else is so calm, and everyone’s working or researching or something. It’s almost like a movie set, and I have to pretend I’m working, too. Everyone should have a library card. It’s like a bicycle but for your brain."

‘The Library of Congress’ Review: Corridors of Knowledge; The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2025

 Michael Auslin , The Wall Street Journal; ‘The Library of Congress’ Review: Corridors of Knowledge

"When the president unexpectedly fired the librarian of Congress, a prominent legislator denounced the “open despotism which now rules at Washington.” The year was 1829, and as Andrew Jackson installed a political ally as librarian, it was Henry Clay who accused the president of being a threat to democracy. 

This is but one vignette from Jane Aikin’s comprehensive history “The Library of Congress” (Georgetown, 356 pages, $32.95), which shows how bare-knuckled domestic politics have often shadowed the crown jewel of America’s intellectual institutions. In April, the library turned 225 years old, secure in its position as one of the world’s largest libraries. It now houses approximately 178 million items, from ancient clay tablets to Stradivarius violins, from the Gutenberg Bible to ever-expanding digital records."

Colleen Walsh, Harvard Law Today; Holding the past accountable by making it visible

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner discusses the decades-long effort to make the full archive of Nuremberg Trials records available online

"“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored.” So said United States Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief of Counsel to the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson, during his opening statement for the prosecution at the first of 13 Nuremberg Trials, which began 80 years ago, on Nov. 20, 1945.

For decades, the Harvard Law School Library has been working to make the nearly complete set of Nuremberg Trials records publicly available online. It launched the first version of Harvard’s Nuremberg Trials Project website in 2003, but until recently only roughly 20 percent of the Law School’s trove of Nuremberg materials had been accessible to online visitors. Today, the full collection of 140,000 documents comprising more than 700,000 pages is live and searchable by anyone around the globe.

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner, who has helped guide the project almost since its inception, spoke with Harvard Law Today about the scope of the archive and what it took to bring the entire collection online."