(whispers) the university, higher ed, and the humanities are not in crisis

Read the latest publication from @librariesftp.bsky.social. Fresh off the press, this project was led by my brilliant comrade Azani, designed by @kruttika.bsky.social, and helped by a handful of research volunteers. www.librariesforthepeople.org/snapshots

City Snapshots — For The People

Did you know that Las Cruces, New Mexico spends 870 times more on policing than libraries? Our new publication, Budgets Are Values, gives an overview of how 15 public library systems are funded, gover...

librariesforthepeople.org

🧵 ~90+% of declining enrollment in courses X/subjects Y since at least the GFC is due to declining <supply> ($, faculty, TAs, seats in courses, admin dismantling of gen ed/distributional requirements) of things, not declining student <demand> for things.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 5d ago

Every fall I think about the narratives that history departments are struggling we we don't offer proper histories of war, politics, and place, but focus too much on things like race and gender. It's just totally false. The challenges we're facing aren't because of curriculum choices.

It's completely jarring to see the composition of the National Endowment for the Humanities' National Council on the Humanities after almost all members were fired last year. #NEH (also this wikipedia page needs some serious updating) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa...

Something even historians often don’t acknowledge: the cost to archives of processing collections is significant; many archives have tons of unprocessed collections that aren’t even in the finding aids ... bc someone has to make the finding aids. Humanities research is expensive & needs a lot of $!

<insert really long rang here about how there's always money for the next big hype but never enough for core functions that actually keep the library running> 📚 www.chronicle.com/article/does...

Does Your College Need an ‘AI Librarian’?

At a time when many institutions are grappling with the technology and its implications, some are turning to librarians for leadership.

chronicle.com

This is a very serious problem for libraries, archives, and knowledge-keepers of all kinds. If you don’t control access to your collections, *you do not have collections.* If we do not have permanent access to records, stories, & sources of knowledge then our histories and memories are not our own.

Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · last mo.

"In 2022, Wiley removed over 1,300 ebooks from academic library collections; [they said] perpetual access is not an option for subscribed content. In 2025, Clarivate,... announced they would stop offering libraries perpetual access licenses for ebooks and primary-source digital collections."

I did this years ago on Twitter, but, here's a list of tools/utilities that every medievalist show know about and have bookmarked: #medievalsky

If you’re concerned about the loss of digital historical materials over time, you can write a letter to your dean or president about the necessity of funding and sustaining archival labor. There are people who work towards mitigating digital ephemerality and they’re being laid off left and right.

I'm sorry but if I criticize the promotion of genAl as a surrogate "research assistant" for sidelining non-digitized sources, and for making the process of creating knowledge from them more opaque, and you tell me that's just credentialism, I'm obliged to ask if you read and understood the criticism

1. There has been a major new federal rule proposed governing ALL federal grants. A federal grant recipient will be deemed ineligible if the recipient advances "gender ideology," or denies that "sex is binary." This includes hospitals, schools, nonprofits. Subscribe to support our journalism.

"Fascism"—New Federal Rule Would Require Federal Funding Recipients To Deny Trans People Exist

The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.

erininthemorning.com

We Continue to Add Statements, News, and Analysis to Our Federal Research Funding Proposed Rule From Roundup Recent Additions Include Statements/Reports From @authorsalliance.bsky.social; @stmassoc.bsky.social; @standupforscience.net @ucs.org www.infodocket.com/2026/06/01/r... #funding #OMB

Faculty: libraries and librarians need your advocacy BEFORE our collections are shuttered and our workers are fired. Whether you think your library is in trouble, and it almost definitely is, write to your provost and tell them how essential the library and library staff are to your work. Right now.

You aren't future proofing a library while eliminating library jobs.

Every day I watch the tech industry build The Boot On the Neck Of Humanity Machine and watch universities say “we are going to sustainably and ethically prepare our students to become innovators in The Boot On The Neck Of Humanity Machine space”

It's not just Iran whose surrender is being demanded. It's yours. Your hope. Your belief in yourself and our collective potential. Your empathy. They want to crush those things. They want you to believe their will is inevitable. They want you to surrender.

You have more in common with the people of Iran than you do with anyone in this administration, any member of the technocracy, anyone who is profiting from this war, or any billionaire. When you see Iranians forming human chains outside key infrastructure sites, you should feel a sense of kinship.

I reread Adrienne Rich’s 1997 statement “Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts.” If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it. She emphasizes organized abandonment and what’s happening to public goods and the arts in terms of wealth and privatization. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts

Editor's Note: Adrienne Rich's recent refusal of the National Medal for the Arts puzzled many people.

latimes.com

(•_•) <) )╯Publique fundinge / \ \(•_•) ( (> of the artes and humanityes / \ (•_•) <) )> doth benefit everyone! / \

🎯

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 6mo ago

And what I’m calling “opportunity theft” is the theft of someone’s future and their potential by means of robbing them of appreticeship, menteeship, and experience now. Using AI to perform the tasks that students and trainees do in the early phases of training and education is opportunity theft.

With all the news about the DOGE bros destroying the #NEH (thanks @404media.co and others!), just dropping this here, since METS is still facing an existential crisis. www.library.rochester.edu/about/news/m...

🫠 #neh

Megan L. Cook@meganlcook.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Obviously, NEH grants never should have been clawed back in the first place, DOGE is a lot of crap, and all grants should be reinstated, but if you want to feel PARTICULAR rage about how half-assed and cruel the whole process is, read the AI rationale for terminating the TEAMS METS grant