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January 2026

LOEX Currents

LOEX 2026 will be held in Norfolk, VA on May 7-9. Oceans of Knowledge: Diving into Information Literacy.

- Acceptances for proposals have been sent, and the list of breakout sessions will be posted by February 3, with more details on other parts of the conference soon to follow.

- Registration will be solely done using an online form that will be posted on Friday, February 13, 2026 at 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific.

LILAC 2026 will be held on March 30 - April 1, 2026 at the University of Sheffield. Bookings are now open.

24th Annual Information Literacy Summit will be held on May 1, 2026 at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL. The call for proposals is due by February 2, 2026. Skepticism (Not Cynicism): Navigating Knowledge in a Time of Uncertainty.

CCLI (California Conference Library Instruction) 2026 will be held on May 29, 2026 at Cal State Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA. Library Instruction in Changing Times.

ALA Annual 2026 will be held June 25-29, 2026 in Chicago, IL.

ALA and ACRL News

Recharging in Challenging Times, an ALA Virtual Event, will be held online on February 10, 2026. Registration costs $129 for ALA members; $179 for non-members.

Reflective Practices for Exploring AI, a 60-minute live webinar, will occur on February 19, 2026 at 2:00pm Eastern. Registration costs $89; $80.10 for ALA members; $57.85 for ACRL members.

Embracing Slow Library Management: Reflections On Leading With Care, a free online presentation, will be held February 25, 2026 from 2-3pm ET. Sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee.

Reference Services Crash Course, a bundle of three webinars, each lasting 90 minutes, will occur on March 10-12, 2026 at 2:30pm Eastern. Registration costs $225; $202.50 for ALA members.

Call for papers and book reviews: LOEX Quarterly

Share your instruction ideas and innovations with the thousands of LOEX member librarians. The focus is on substantive, but practical articles, so do not miss an opportunity to share with others your interesting programs, experiences, ideas or insights. Submissions are relatively short: between 1250-2000 words. Email LOEX if you have any questions. Deadline for the next issue: April 15, 2026.

If your institution would like to list an instruction-related job, just send your job posting to contact@loex.org; follow the format of the listings below. Be sure to provide a URL, not an attached file, with the full job information.

CA (Chico) - CSU Chico - Senior Assistant Tenure-Track Librarian for Health Sciences and Community Services - Initial review date is March 2, 2026.

CA (Long Beach) - CSU Long Beach - Senior Assistant Librarian for Engineering and Artificial Intelligence - Review of applications to begin February 17, 2026.

CO (Denver) - University of Colorado Denver, Auraria Library - Teaching & Learning Librarian - Preference will be given to complete applications received by February 25, 2026.

GA (Atlanta) - Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library - Student Success Librarian - Open until filled.

GA (Atlanta) - Oglethorpe University - Director of the Library & University Librarian - Review of applications will begin on February 16, 2026.

Readings

Adrienne Warner and Alyssa Russo (January 2026). Outdated Notion? : Teaching Scholarly Articles as the Gold Standard. College & Research Libraries News, 87(1), 11-16.

Amy McLay Paterson (January 2026). Against First-Year Research Papers: A Librarian Perspective on Nurturing Intellectual Curiosity. College & Research Libraries News, 87(1), 17-18.

Ellen Hampton Filgo and Joshua Been (January 2026). Social Network Analysis of Liaison Librarian Relationships. College & Research Libraries, 87(1), 94-110.

Emily Zoe Mann (January 2026). Making Data Literacy Accessible: A Pilot Study of Academic Library and Community Collaboration for Citizen Data Literacy. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), 1-10.

ACRL IS Research and Scholarship Committee (January 2026). 2026 Research Agenda Conversation - Jane Hammons. Retrieved from https://acrl.ala.org/IS/.

Natalia Kapacinskas & Jules Arensdorf - Instructional Technologies Committee (January 7, 2026). Winter 2026 Tips and Trends: Articulate. Retrieved from https://acrl.ala.org/IS.

Rose Horowitch (January 30, 2026). The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films: The Attention-Span Crisis Goes to the Movies. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/.

Stephanie Saul (January 28, 2026). The Online SAT Was Supposed to Avert Cheating. People Are Trying Anyway. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/.

Leonard Nalencz and Jahony Germosen (January 23, 2026). The Classroom as an Attention Sanctuary: Faculty and students must work together to protect the classroom as a space for authentic learning. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/.

Eleanor Ball (January 22, 2026). Let’s Discuss: How Should We Handle AI in One-Shots?. Retrieved from https://acrlog.org/.

Neal Wyatt (January 7, 2026). LJ Talks with Nancy Pearl About Reading, Libraries, and LJ. Retrieved from https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/.

Hong Zhou and Hiba Bishtawi (January 6, 2026). Keywords Are Not Dead — But Discovery Is No Longer Just Search. Retrieved from https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org.

"Google search traffic to publishers declined globally by a third in the year to November, according to new Chartbeat data. In the US only, referrals from organic Google search were down by 38% year on year and Google Discover was down 29%. The report noted that publishers that specialise in lifestyle or utility content such as weather, TV guides, or horoscopes were more likely to have seen traffic declines, linking it to the arrival of Google’s AI summaries at the top of search results from 2024."

Chartbeat (via Press Gazette) (January 12, 2026)

"People around the world are using AI more than Americans are, at least according to a new poll out from Ipsos and Google. About 40% of adults in the U.S. told pollsters that they used generative AI in the last year. In Brazil, that number was nearly 75% in Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and India, it was 85%. In countries where people report using AI more, they’re also more likely to be excited about the technology. A majority of Americans are more concerned about the risks associated with AI than they are excited about the possibilities."

Ipsos and Google (via Marketplace.org) (January 21, 2026)



...and: the "LIFE Magazine: Interesting Page of the Month"

- from January 6, 1967 (pg. 7) 

Brad's thoughts - On the one hand, it is nice to see an ad for a robust, city-focused daily newspaper in a national magazine. On the other, I'm not sure if saying people should subscribe & read the paper's columnists so readers can get into snide, troll-like arguments with in-laws is the aspect to feature.

This e-publication is compiled and distributed by Brad Sietz, LOEX Director. https://loex.org/

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