libraries

The Library of Congress has opened nominations for awards honoring outstanding federal libraries, librarians and library technicians. The program recognizes excellence across US federal library services, and nominations are being accepted through the Library's announcement. Federal library staff and institutions are eligible, with details available from the Library of Congress.

The author of The Mathematicians' Library is offering a free Japanese language edition of the book to whoever gives the best reason for wanting it, with postage covered within the UK. The Polish edition of the same book previously went to a teacher, and the giveaway is drawing friendly engagement from maths enthusiasts online.

Switch 2 game deals are running from $37, covering titles such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Dragon Ball, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Switch Sports Resort. The discounts give new console owners a cheaper way to build their launch libraries. Shoppers are comparing prices across retailers to catch the lowest rounds on popular first- and third-party releases.

The University of Kansas's Spencer Research Library is preparing to display a collection of historic Kiowa artwork, bringing Indigenous art from the Plains region to public attention. The showcase is expected to highlight the cultural heritage and artistic traditions of the Kiowa people. Further details about the exhibition's dates and contents have not been released.

A reader is joking about making the same mistake twice in one year: putting new novels by Mark Z. Danielewski and China Miéville on hold at the library, only to find each is enormous, with Danielewski's latest reportedly around 1,300 pages long. It is a familiar moment for fans of both authors, whose books are known for their length and density, and other readers are sharing similar experiences of committing to more than they bargained for.

The McCracken County Public Library in Paducah, Kentucky, is expanding its programs and services thanks to revenue from book sales and newly secured grant funding. Local outlets including WPSD Local 6 and The Paducah Sun report the money is bringing new resources and activities to the community library.

Summit County Library in Park City, Utah, is running Sips N' Stories, an event series that pairs cocktail recipes with storytelling. The program gives adults a social way to engage with the library beyond traditional book lending, mixing drinks with shared narratives. The Park Record covered the series, drawing attention to how libraries are expanding their community programming.

EveryLibrary, a US library advocacy organization, is asking Americans to publicly demonstrate their support for libraries through likes, follows, and shares. The appeal, circulated with hashtags promoting reading, books, and public libraries, aims to build visible grassroots backing for library funding and awareness. Supporters are encouraged to spread the message across social media.

The Tillamook County Library has expanded its collection with home improvement materials, giving residents access to resources on repairs, renovations and DIY projects. Local coverage highlights the addition as part of the library's effort to serve practical community needs beyond books.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino has announced that free musical performances at local libraries will return this fall. The programme brings live music to communities across the town at no cost to residents, with events hosted at library branches. It is being presented as an accessible cultural offering for families and music lovers in the area.

Four Swiss libraries, led by the University of Basel, have launched a platform called Books as Data, making roughly 140 million pages of digitised historical texts freely accessible online. The database, available in English at books-as-data.ch, opens centuries of printed knowledge to researchers and the public as machine-readable data.

Simon Fraser University has released an open-access catalog compiling decades of killer whale recordings into a searchable online library. Listeners can identify populations, clans and pods by their calls alone. The collection highlights how the three Pacific ecotypes carry distinct dialects, and how clans within a single population differ vocally, giving researchers and the public a new tool for studying orca communication.

Fans of Icelandic musician Laufey, known as Lauvers, are signing up for library cards to take part in her book club, prompting a wave of new registrations reported by library advocates. The initiative ties the singer's reading community to public libraries, encouraging young fans to use local library services.

The California Writing Project has received a literacy award from the Library of Congress, an honor recognizing organizations that make outstanding contributions to promoting literacy and reading. The announcement, shared through UC Santa Barbara, highlights the project's long-running work supporting writing instruction for students and teachers across California.

The Parsippany Library is set to be converted into an 18-hole mini-golf course as part of a fundraiser event. The unusual transformation aims to draw community members to the library while raising money. The details of the event, including the date, beneficiaries and ticket arrangements, were not specified in available coverage.

The California Writing Project, headquartered at UC Santa Barbara, has won a 2026 Library of Congress Literacy Award. The honor recognizes organizations doing effective work to advance literacy, and places the statewide teacher network among the year's most celebrated literacy programs. Details on the prize amount and what the project plans to do with it have not yet been released.

Locus Communis, a reading tool for capturing book passages word for word, is being promoted as an alternative to dog-earing pages. Users can save the sentences that stay with them and build a personal library of quotes. Readers and book club members are being invited to sign up and start their own collections of memorable lines.

The Mountain View Regional Library is hosting a Halloween-themed event that blends spooky fun with hands-on science activities. The program, covered by the Cobb Courier, offers families seasonal entertainment with an educational twist at the Cobb County library.

DeepSeek has released open-source Ascend-compatible versions of its TileLang, DeepGEMM and DeepEP libraries, extending its AI software stack to Huawei's chip platform. The release came alongside Huawei detailing SuperPoD Flex, its flexible large-scale computing cluster architecture. The moves highlight deepening cooperation between China's leading AI lab and Huawei as both work to build alternatives to Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem.

Netflix Canada is adding a large slate of classic television series, with The Twilight Zone and Dynasty among the headline titles in the incoming lineup. The wave of retro hits signals a push to broaden the catalogue with nostalgic programming, and fans of vintage TV are taking note of what could be one of the bigger classic-library additions to the service in the region.