Education - Information Matters

April 9, 2026 Nicole A. Cooke

When Power Confronts Excellence: What Auriemma, Staley, and the 2026 Final Four Reveal About Representation and Leadership in LIS

Auriemma and Staley belong in a conversation about representation and leadership in LIS because the same racialized and interpretive pattern of disruption appears here too. LIS describes itself as progressive, inclusive, and equity minded, but Cooke and Kitzie (2021) argue that marginalized scholars and practitioners still function as outsiders within, included inside institutions that were not built with them in mind. Cooke and Green (2023) make a related point in their call for inclusive leadership, arguing that LIS leadership models have too often reflected structures that privilege white men and exclude others from full authority.

Education

April 8, 2026 Jason R. Baron

Same Class, New Approach: Reimagining Information Students’ Use of Gen AI in Formative Writing Assessments

We began teaching an online class about records scandals in 2023, at the very beginning of what would become the gen AI takeover. In 2024, we found that 67 of our 100 students used gen AI on the first essay assignment despite our express prohibition of its use—in any capacity. So, we had to pivot our teaching approach. By 2025, we actually asked students to use gen AI in their work in order to learn from it. Here, we lay out the changes we made and how we’re using gen AI in our writing instruction to build critical thinking skills and AI literacy.

Education Translation

April 7, 2026 Angelica Lo Duca

From Content Generation to Content Validation: Why Human Judgment Still Matters in the AI Era

In the past year, the focus of AI in education has shifted from generating content to evaluating its quality. While large language models can now produce vast amounts of material in seconds, ensuring that this content is accurate, reliable, and pedagogically sound remains a challenge. Emerging research shows that using AI as an evaluator is still unreliable, making human judgment more essential than ever. In this new paradigm, the real bottleneck is no longer creation but validation.

Education

March 26, 2026 Azeez Adeoye

Beyond the Library Desk, From Citation to Reputation: Librarians and the Future of African University Rankings

Librarians are critical stakeholders in enhancing the global visibility and competitiveness of Nigerian universities. Across the world, universities are evaluated and ranked based on well-established performance benchmarks. Achieving these benchmarks requires deliberate institutional strategies, sustained research productivity, and strong academic support systems.

Education Opinion

March 21, 2026 Azeez Adeoye

Digital Cocaine: The Business Model of AI Addiction, When the Savior Becomes the Dictator

When artificial intelligence systems were first introduced to the public around 2022, they were celebrated as revolutionary assistants, tools designed to augment human productivity, creativity, and efficiency. The early versions were freely accessible or offered generous trial capabilities. Students used them to summarize readings; professionals used them to draft emails; programmers relied on them to debug code. The public welcomed these tools with enthusiasm, regarding them as the next great step in technological progress. Yet by 2026, the situation has evolved in ways that invite deeper reflection.

Education

March 16, 2026 Sakeena Alikhan

Who Is Research For? Rethinking Information Privilege

Have you ever shared your personal story with someone—only to never hear what happened to it afterward? This happens more often than we realize in academic research. Communities open their homes, share their experiences, and give researchers hours of interviews and photographs. Later, the research appears in journals, conferences, and university libraries. But the people whose lives shaped that research may never see the final results. Why? Because academic knowledge often circulates within privileged spaces—behind paywalls, in English, and through technical language.

Education

March 13, 2026 Lynne Bowker

Localizing OER to Counter Information Privilege

The rising cost of textbooks can lead university students to make tough decisions, such as buying a cheaper, outdated version, sharing a single copy among a group, making an illegal copy, or going without a textbook altogether. Each of these coping strategies can negatively impact a student’s learning. Thankfully, open educational resources (OER) are emerging as a means of combatting information privilege that is linked to finances. This is a positive step forward, but is it enough? How else can we leverage the potential of OER to reduce other types of information privilege?

Education Original

March 3, 2026 Azeez Adeoye

The Forgotten Jewel of a Good Book: A Compass to Modern Discoveries such as the Internet, Search Engines, and Generative AI

Many have argued about the place of technology, computer systems and their paraphernalia such as e-books, audiobooks, and websites, whether they are a blessing or a curse. Nevertheless, the products of past civilisations, such as the discovery of paper and the invention of the movable printing press, books, and writing itself, remain the true success stories behind all modern emerging technologies.

Education

February 20, 2026 Michele Costello

The Data Divide: How Premium Financial Databases Stratify Business Education

Two students complete the same business degree, take similar courses, and earn comparable grades. One graduates with a Bloomberg certification and fluency in an industry-standard financial database. The other has never logged into a professional data platform. One has the opportunity to compete in a case competition using financial market information to build professional information literacy, while the other is excluded based on lack of database access. The difference comes down to the funding capacity and priorities of the institution they attended.