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ELCOME to another gripping instalment of Mediawatching, where we trawl the news for the latest in
quirky library-related stories from around the world. Leading with a feel good story about the power of libraries to change lives. The BBC reports from Hull’s Anlaby Park Community Library, which was taken over by volunteers in 2013 when the council threatened it with closure. In a turn of events that few will have seen coming, the library has become “an unlikely temple of love after four couples found romance in the stacks”.
According to the report (
https://tinyurl.com/ IP326MW1) the library is helping romance to blossom. Chris Mead and Sandra Signoretti are one of four couples to have met and fallen in love in the library, after bonding over a jigsaw puzzle. Chris puts the chemistry down to the atmosphere in the library, saying: “It’s a very welcoming space. It’s not like meeting somebody at the city hall, for example. It’s like walking into somebody’s living room here.” While Sandra added: “I would encourage people to come and use this library. If they meet somebody, it’s a bonus.” Next, to the US and the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, which has plenty of “ammunition” for Mediawatching thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s involvement in proceedings. Whether it is his conversation with an AI powered President from the past or his proclamation that “not many people” knew that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a General. But what really piqued Mediawatching’s interest was a story from The New Republic (
https://tinyurl.com/ IP326MW2), with the headline “Trump brags about how he stole protected land for Roosevelt Library”. The report goes on to report that Trump said: “During my first term it was a privilege to sign the bill that helped get this incredible project underway, and transferring 90 acres [for the library site]. We took it right out of the federal government. We ripped it away from the federal government, they don’t
June-July 2026
President Donald J. Trump at the lectern. Photo © Gage Skidmorevia Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
know it’s missing. They still haven’t figured out what the hell happened.”
Sticking with Commander-in-Chief and his latest efforts to oust Shira Perlmutter, director of the US Copyright Office, based in the Library of Congress has failed… for now. CNN states: “Perlmutter has claimed she got on the president’s bad side with a report that suggested some copyrighted works used to train artificial intelligence models would likely require licensing — that is, tech companies would have to pay to use that material. Perlmutter’s lawsuit said that Trump ‘allegedly disagreed’ with that report. Days later, a White House official sent an email to Perlmutter asserting that she had also been terminated.” Read the full report here
https://tinyurl.com/IP326MW3. Pop powerhouse Dua Lipa has backed a new library dedicated to books “that challenge power, censorship, exclusion, and dominant narratives”. The star opened the Manifesto Library, located inside Livraria Lello in Porto, saying: “This library is a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what book they are allowed to read. “You are invited to visit and decide for yourself what belongs on these shelves.
Because sometimes the most subversive thing you can do is read a book and then talk about it.” Euronews (
https://tinyurl.com/IP326MW4) reports that the collection features around 100 titles and is linked to the singers Service 95 book club which she launched in 2023. The Times of India (
https://tinyurl.com/ IP326MW5) features a tale of community rejuvenation, thanks to a new library that is helping to transform local life. The story begins with a family leaving their home in the district of Rudraprayag, in search of a better education. Sneha Rana’s family is like hundreds of others from the area who have abandoned a family village because of a lack of educational facilities. However, the addition of a library meant that Sneha and her family could return home and she could continue her education from there. The library now has around 21,000 books and other resources. The idea took shape three years ago when Beena Mishra, her husband Suman Mishra and friends Aalok Soni and Rahul Rawat discussed the lack of access to educational resources in some villages. Mishra said: “If the village became known as a library village, residents would see it as part of their identity. To protect their community’s image, they would also protect the libraries.” IP
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