Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Brian Quigley
Oh glorious summer! I hope you are all finding moments to step away, relax, and soak up the season. While it has been incredibly busy for me, I managed to sneak away for some wonderful trips to Lake Tahoe and New York City – and if you get the chance, I highly recommend The Lost Boys: A New Musical!
I also made it to Albuquerque for the first-ever Information Science Summit & Special Libraries Conference (ISS/SLC). The conference was a great success and a whole lot of fun! PAM was out in full force, our three sessions were packed and engaging, and our dinners were as lively as ever. Stephanie Moore’s fantastic keynote, ‘Working GenAI into Shape: Ethics as Professional Agency and Leadership,’ gave us a brilliant framework for navigating the future of generative AI. A massive thank you to our incredible session planners, and to the industry partners who make these events possible:
Attendees also cast their votes to decide next year’s destination: Denver or New Orleans! There was passionate advocacy for both, and honestly, we win either way. Wherever the vote takes us, if this year was any indication, it’s going to be an unforgettable event.
This summer will also feature three virtual roundtables on Astronomy (July 8), Physics (July 15), and Mathematics (July 22). While we are postponing our business meeting to align with the ASIS&T calendar, we also expect to host a virtual PAM Awards ceremony over the summer. Keep an eye on your email for more details!
Finally, we reach a historic milestone! The PAM Transition Team has completed the first phase of its important work on the future of PAM within ASIS&T. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey to inform our next steps! The team’s final report, released this June, brings an exciting recommendation: the PAM and Chemistry communities are joining forces to form a brand-new CAMMP SIG. This is a bold new chapter for us. Please be sure to read the PAM Transition Team Update in this issue for more details!
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Brian Quigley
Following our shift into ASIS&T, the PAM Executive Board charged a dedicated Transition Team to figure out the best path forward. Consisting of Kayleigh Bohémier, Nicholas Dehler, Jerrel Horn, Nastasha Johnson, John Kromer, Henrik Spoon, and myself, the team set out to achieve an important goal: honor our legacy, preserve our unique PAM character, and keep vital vendor partnerships thriving, while remaining realistic about volunteer capacity. To ensure every voice was heard, we launched a community survey this spring that drew 74 respondents.
The feedback provided valuable input:
Grounded in these results and the team’s thoughtful discussions, we released our recommendations in late June: PAM’s Future within ASIS&T: Survey Findings and Recommendations. In summary, the team recommends establishing a new ASIS&T Special Interest Group through a merger of PAM and the former SLA Chemistry community, tentatively called the Chemistry, Astronomy, Mathematics, Materials Science, and Physics (CAMMP) SIG.
By joining forces with the Chemistry community, we will preserve our tight-knit disciplinary identity and strong industry partnerships, while expanding avenues for collaboration, membership growth, and professional development. In recognition of volunteer capacity, we will pair this merger with a streamlined leadership structure.
Next Steps: The Transition Team will now turn its attention to implementation.
The collective energy and dedication of this entire group is what makes PAM so special. I am entirely confident that CAMMP will provide a vibrant foundation for our next chapter.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Meg Eastwood & Jeffra Bussman
Twenty-nine PAMily members / future CAMPers joined us in Albuquerque for our PAM Roundtable at the 2026 ASIS&T ISS-SLC. Discussion roundtables were limited to one hour (rather than the 90-minute RT sessions we have had in the past), so we focused each table onto a specific, separate discussion topic. Conversations were rich with three (very full) tables followed by the share-out of the highlights of their discussion at the end of the session.
Our most popular table focused on Reference, Instruction, and Collections, the second most popular table discussed Generative AI, and the Open Access table came in at a solid third place. The format encouraged each table to explore their own questions in addition to the provided questions.
The Reference, Instruction, and Collections table was an “unconference” table, where participants could bring their own topics. At a conference with a strong focus on the impacts of AI, it was nice to dig into discussions of our day-to-day work.
The Generative AI table tackled topics such as how our viewpoints of AI are shaped by whether our AI use is optional or mandatory. Many reported receiving mixed messages from leadership about how AI should be used and which AI tools are allowed. A lack of university-wide policies can lead to everyone making their own policy, from instructors to students to librarians. The most pressing ethical concerns included the environmental impacts of AI and how AI can serve as a multiplier for academic fraud and lead to the theft of intellectual property. Finally, we discussed AI’s impact on cognition and the importance of teaching information literacy alongside the tools.
The Open Access table talked about the differences in open access policies between federal libraries and academic libraries. We debated whether the discussions around open access have changed much in 20 years — sometimes it feels like we’re stuck in a loop. Our discussion about the value of society publishers led some PAMily industry partners to volunteer to provide an overview of their sponsored student programs / travel grants (to be published in the PAM Bulletin).
You can check out the discussion questions and our short list of recommended readings on Generative AI. We welcome any questions you might have. Special thanks go out to Sam Hansen for providing their summary of the discussion at the AI table.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Alex Threlkeld, Kayleigh Bohemier, and Sam Hansen
In this session, Kayleigh Bohémier, Sam Hansen, and Alex Threlkeld presented on LaTeX instruction in academic libraries. In part, this session presented work on an forthcoming sequence of articles detailing case studies of LaTeX instruction at a variety of institutions, edited by Bohémier, Willow Dressel, and Cay del Junco, and to which Hansen and Threlkeld contributed. The presenters shared their experiences with LaTeX instruction at their institutions, although a full treatment will appear in the upcoming article series. The session also briefly introduced the basic motivations for using LaTeX and common tools for writing in LaTeX, particularly Overleaf, and aimed to show that there is a lower barrier to entry in providing LaTeX instruction than many librarians realize. In particular, Overleaf provides an intuitive interface, avoids setup issues due to being cloud-based, provides comprehensive and easy-to-read documentation, and offers streamlined integrations with other tools such as Dropbox and Zotero that makes collaboration, version control, and bibliographic management straightforward.
In response to questions, there were discussions on approaches and challenges to creating accessible documents using LaTeX, with many of the challenges arising due to the common standard of sharing final documents in pdf format, where other formats, particularly html, play better with screen readers. There were also discussions on the attractiveness of LaTeX to humanists, and more generally markup languages and WYSIWYM (“What You See Is What You Mean,” as opposed to “What You See Is What You Get”) text editors, who may find useful the ability to “just write” afforded by the separation of content and style, but may not have given serious consideration to moving away from WYSIWYG editors such as Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Educational LaTeX memes were also shared.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Phillip Jaffe
Our annual conference may be behind us, but the PAM Professional Development Committee still has more programming in store for this summer! We hope you’ll join us next month for a series of virtual roundtables in which we will discuss current issues in astronomy, physics, and mathematics. Please register at the links below:
Astronomy Roundtable
Wednesday, July 8
9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET
Moderated by:
William Jacobs, Associate Librarian for STEM, Video Games, and Comics; San Francisco State University
Henrik Spoon, Visiting Scientist; Cornell Center for Astrophysics & Planetary Science; Cornell University
This Roundtable will feature a presentation on an immense scientific undertaking that started for real on June 30: deploying the largest telescope-mounted digital camera on Earth to take snapshots of the entire southern sky every few nights to obtain an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe.
Clare Higgs (NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory‘s Education & Public Outreach team astronomer) will tell us about the scientific goals of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time and the challenges of managing, archiving, and describing the immense amounts of data being collected every night for the next ten years.
Registration: https://yale.zoom.us/meeting/register/32ThhyjlTMmK6HhBnENzTA
Physics Roundtable
Wednesday, July 15
12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET
Moderated by
Eliot Boden, Physics and Mathematics Librarian; Washington University in St. Louis
Emma Moore, Librarian, Mathematics and Natural Sciences; Institute for Advanced Study
Registration: https://yale.zoom.us/meeting/register/ybhS5dZESZuGpUVtSTPVCA
Mathematics Roundtable
Wednesday, July 22
9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET
Moderated by:
Jeffra Bussman, Associate Librarian for Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics; California State University, East Bay
Registration: https://yale.zoom.us/meeting/register/-HvahlEwTvCrFriuXzo7qw
Hope to see you all there!
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Emma Moore
Inaugural Information Science Summit and Special Libraries Conference: Albuquerque 2026
One of the biggest promises made by last year’s merger of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) was preserving a conference focused on the needs of special library practitioners. A conference focused on the day to day practice of information science had been in ASIS&T’s strategic plan even before the merger, as the Board had identified a need to connect faculty research with librarian experiences on the ground. After the successful votes by SLA and ASIS&T members in favor of the merger in early Autumn 2025, a tireless Conference Planning committee, lead by Kendra Levine, quickly got to work. From June 6 to June 9th at the Clyde Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, all their hard work came to fruition.
The conference was intentionally smaller and more focused in scale, which provided a feeling of “right-sizedness” at least to your correspondent. We were lucky to have a local expert, Dr. Stephanie Moore of UNM, give a targeted, accessible and optimistic keynote: ““Working GenAI into Shape: Ethics as Professional Agency and Leadership”. That blend of big picture ethical thinking and on-the-ground efficacy set a tone for the sessions of the next few days. In the intimate scale of the Clyde’s meeting rooms, there were sessions on popular topics which became standing room only! One of my favorites was on “information friction”, by Darin Freiburg of the University of South Carolina- Darin is also the leader of the Libraries and Librarianship Special Interest Group (SIG), and their leadership is quite interested in integrating the knowledge of newly arrived members from SLA.
As always, there was a mix of sessions focused on successful projects; those focused on new tools and frameworks that might be useful back at the office; and roundtables that let the audience explore their professional needs and strengths along with panelists and moderators. PAM (soon to be CAMMP) had three very successful sessions accepted. The Math Roundtable focused on uses and ways to teach LaTex to diverse student populations, and that was immediately followed by a lively and collegial PAM dinner at the 505 foodhall. Many thanks also to Sharice and Byron of AAAS for their generous sponsorship of the Monday night PAM dinner! The industry partners of PAM were well represented, both at the exhibit hall and in the always popular industry partners roundtable on Monday the 7th. While I had to leave early, it was great to see that Meg Eastwood and PAM were leading a great session on AI and Open Access to close out the weekend.
In the wake of the conference, there was a general feeling both of optimism and lessons learned, especially as attendees were given the choice to vote on a 2027 conference location (New Orleans or Denver). This feels like the ABQ conference will be a first step in the right direction, as the new organization created by last year’s merger figures out what we look like at this new frontier.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
These are opportunities for students to apply for scholarships or stipends to attend various ASIS&T or PAM-related events, from our vendor partners. Thank you to all who shared!
AAAS/Science: The Science prizes and awards program and Science Careers resources provide librarians with valuable tools to support faculty, postdocs, and students throughout the research lifecycle. From prestigious awards that recognize emerging scientific talent to free career-development resources and global job opportunities, these programs help advance researcher success, strengthen institutional reputation, and enhance the library’s role as a strategic partner in scholarly and professional development.
AIP: AIP’s Student Opportunities
SIAM: Programs and Student Resources
SPIE: SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, supports students in becoming changemakers by providing access to global networks and high-quality technical and professional resources. Committed to advancing students’ academic journeys in optics, photonics, and related fields, SPIE offers reduced membership fees along with a range of funding opportunities, including student conference support to attend and present research at SPIE conferences, educational scholarships, and grants such as the Outreach Grant and Student Chapter Activity Grant. Student members also benefit from exclusive networking events, community-building resources, and discounted access to the SPIE Digital Library, including reduced download and publication costs. For more information about these and other SPIE student resources, visit spie.org/students.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Jeff Bond
Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations. And a personal thank you to NuRee Lee and John Kromer, fellow awards committee members, who devoted their time and efforts to the committee this year.
Congratulations to our winners!!!
PAM Achievement Award – Chris Doty
PAM Division Award – STEM Librarians Collaborative
Please see the award text below.
PAM Achievement Award
The PAM Achievement Award is reserved for those recipients whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in astronomy, mathematics and/or physics. The purpose of the award is to recognize those Division members who have made outstanding contributions to the Division.
Richard Christopher “Chris” Doty is honored for his sustained and deeply impactful service to the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division of the Special Libraries Association, as well as for his broader contributions to science librarianship.
Chris’s connection to PAM began early in his career when he was awarded the Louise Leckner Memorial Travel Stipend, an experience that helped launch his long and active involvement in the Division. Since joining PAM in 2014, he has become one of its most dedicated and reliable contributors, consistently giving his time, expertise, and energy in support of the community.
Over the past decade, Chris has played a central role in shaping how PAM connects and communicates. Since 2016, he has served as Webmaster and Chair of the Networking Committee, strengthening the Division’s digital presence and ensuring that members remain informed and engaged. His work in this area has been both visible and behind the scenes, including preserving PAM’s history by archiving its website in the Wayback Machine, which continues to serve as an important record of the Division’s activities. During a period when SLA’s website was compromised, affecting many divisions, Chris Doty’s steady stewardship and technical expertise were critical in maintaining continuity and access for PAM members.
Chris Doty’s leadership was especially important during a period of broader disruption and uncertainty. From 2020 through 2023, he served as Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past Chair of PAM, and he continued as Past Chair for an additional term during the pandemic. In these roles, he provided thoughtful and steady guidance, helped the Division adapt to changing circumstances, and ensured that programming and engagement remained strong.
Chris has also contributed widely across the Division through service on the PAM 50th Anniversary Task Force, the Hospitality Committee, and the Nominations and Elections Committee, among others. He has consistently stepped forward to support the Division’s governance, celebrate its history, and help cultivate its future leadership.
In his professional role as Science Librarian for Chemistry and Physics at Emory University, Chris advances research, teaching, and scholarly communication in the disciplines at the core of PAM. His publications and presentations reflect a deep and ongoing engagement with the issues shaping science librarianship.
In 2025, Chris was named a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association, a recognition that speaks to the respect he has earned across the profession.
Through his sustained leadership, technical contributions, and genuine commitment to the PAM community, Chris Doty has made a lasting difference to the Division and is a most deserving recipient of the PAM Achievement Award.
PAM Division Award
The PAM Division Award recognizes a significant contribution to the literature in physics, astronomy, and/or mathematics that benefits libraries, enhances the ability of librarians to provide service, and improves the exchange of information.
The STEM Librarians Collaborative (STEMLibCo) emerged through the vision, dedication, and collective efforts of PAM librarians and industry partners in response to concerns about the potential insolvency of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). Members of the PAM community conducted a survey to better understand the professional development needs and priorities of their colleagues. The results revealed a strong desire for broader connections across STEM disciplines and interest in a conference focused on STEM librarianship as a whole.
Building on those findings, members of the survey group began reaching out to colleagues in related organizations, including ACRL’s Science and Technology Section (STS), to explore the feasibility of creating something new. These conversations expanded the effort, bringing together individuals whose ideas, expertise, and leadership helped shape the vision for STEMLibCo.
From its inception, STEMLibCo was guided by a commitment to affordability, accessibility, active participation, and practical problem-solving. The organization sought to create an inclusive and welcoming space where STEM librarians could move beyond traditional conference agendas and address the issues and challenges they encounter in their work. This commitment is reflected not only in its low-cost conference model but also in its emphasis on community engagement and year-round networking opportunities, including an active Discord community that enables members to connect, collaborate, and support one another beyond the annual virtual conference.
STEMLibCo was not the work of a single individual but the result of a remarkable grassroots effort. The founding 2021 committee, together with numerous contributors who served in unofficial yet essential roles, transformed a period of uncertainty into a vibrant and sustainable professional community. Their collective leadership established an organization that continues to foster connection, collaboration, innovation, and professional growth for PAM members and the broader STEM librarian community.
We would like to recognize and thank the following individuals for their leadership in launching the first STEMLibCo in 2021 Kayleigh Bohemier, Sharice Collins, Leslie Eager, Samuel Hansen, Jenny Hart, Nastasha Johnson, Laura Palumbo, Donna Thompson, and Alyssa Young.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Dr. Deborah Garwood
Deborah’s presentation at this year’s ISS/SLC presented the idea that industry experts and special collections librarians / archivists could benefit from opening “hidden collections” in scientific libraries of yore. She was inspired by her dissertation research interviews with archivists at history of medicine collections in Philly, who estimated that only 2% of their collections were digitized (or ever would be). Last year she also learned about an Air Force Research Libraries program to hire MSLIS grads to come up with ways to access its scientific manuscripts and records from the 1960s to 1980s. The information in these holdings is scientific, but she think also a rich cultural record of American life blending science and business for consumers while supporting the economy. Dr. Garwood’s pitch is that opening hidden collections gives businesses an edge in competitive intelligence (deep knowledge of a region’s geography, transportation for example) while the preserving institution benefits from increased access to collections.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Jerrel Horn
I was able to attend a webinar on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 talking about the Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) and the Revs Institute, and I thought it was really fascinating and wanted to share.
The CCC is a membership organization of 60+ institutions composed of public and private universities, public libraries, special libraries, museums, and other repositories with collections that chronicle the rich history of Chicago. Ellen Keith, Executive Director, will discuss their portal, the organization’s other outreach activities, and the organization’s next steps in its second decade.
The Revs Institute is a nonprofit organization specializing in automobile history, research and related educational programs. Arthur Carlson, Director of Archives and Research Center – Revs Institute, will highlight current projects at Revs Institute including a machine learning metadata generation project, the development of a specialized large language learning model to support research, and efforts to document and share specialized at-risk knowledge and share that with the world.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Holy cow! On May 25th, “A Fiery Visitor From Space Photo-Bombs an Erupting Volcano – For a split second, a fireball outshone the rivers of molten lava flowing from the Philippines’ most active volcano.” As reported in the New York Times and captured on AfarTV, a flaming meteor streaked over the actively-erupting Mayon volcano in the Philippines. Watch here, or on the AfarTV YouTube page!
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Curious about upcoming events? Have a look!
RCIS 2026 conference proceedings are now available!
ACM SIGIR, July 20-24, 2026, Melbourne, Australia
57th AAS SPD, August 9-14, 2026, Baltimore MD, USA
IFLA WLIC 2026 in Busan, Korea, August 10-13, 2026.
ASIS&T 2026 Annual Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. November 6-10, 2026; virtual conference December 2-4, 2026.
249th AAS meeting, January 10-14, 2027, Salt Lake City UT, USA
AAAS Annual Meeting, February 18-20, 2027, Chicago IL, USA
ACRL, April 7-10, 2027, Portland, OR USA
ALA 2027 Annual Conference, June 24–28, 2027, New Orleans, Louisiana
Additionally:
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Ken Herold, President of Setting Stars Exoplanet, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the pursuit of citizen astronomy for all, reports they appeared Sunday, June 15th, 2026, at the Pasadena Convention Center for an AstroFest 2026 event coinciding with the AAS Meeting in Pasadena. He showed a bit of the Exoplanet Explorer VR program they are developing.
Volume 53, Issue 3 —— Summer 2026
Cornell mathematician Steven Strogatz has recently read Chasing a Conjecture: Inside the Mind of a Mathematician by Chandrashekhar Khare, a renowned number theorist at UCLA, and he highly recommends it. It takes the reader on an intellectual adventure, with very illuminating analogies and vivid storytelling. It’s a book about some brilliant math, but it also has a great heart. (Posted with permission!)
Volume 53, Issue 2 —— Spring 2026
Volume 53, Issue 2 —— Spring 2026
Brian Quigley
Happy Spring! I hope you are all enjoying the returning warmth after a long winter. Just as the landscape shifts around us, PAM is entering its own season of transition – moving past a period of uncertainty and stepping into a spring defined by new beginnings.
At our most recent meeting, the PAM Executive Board approved the charge and membership for the PAM Transition Team, which will be exploring our options for continuing as a community within the ASIS&T organization. The team’s goal is to recommend the path that will best honor our legacy, preserve our unique PAM character, and maintain our strong vendor relationships while taking into account the ways in which members’ roles and capacity are changing. The team consists of the Executive Board plus three additional PAM members: Brian Quigley (chair), Kayleigh Bohémier, Nicholas Dehler, Jerrel Horn, Nastasha Johnson, John Kromer, and Henrik Spoon. We hope to have a recommendation ready by late April and plan to host a town hall in May to discuss it.
I am also pleased to announce that I have finished appointing our PAM committees for the year. Even during this transitional year, we continue to support each other through awards, professional development, mentoring, watercoolers, newsletters, and more.
Archives
Awards
Bulletin
Hospitality
Industry Partner Relations
Outreach
Professional Development
A huge thank you to our new and returning committee members! And to everyone who considered serving – we appreciate your dedication to PAM’s mission. It’s the collective energy of this entire group that makes our work possible. Here’s to a productive and rewarding year ahead.
Brian Quigley
PAM President 2026
Volume 53, Issue 2 —— Spring 2026
Brian Quigley
This summer’s Information Science Summit & Special Libraries Conference is shaping up to be a standout event. Between a timely keynote, a program packed with cutting-edge presentations, and a strong showing from our PAM exhibitors, the schedule is bursting with value. And, of course, the Dance Party tradition is back! A huge thank you to the Conference Planning Committee for their tireless work in bringing this vision to life.
PAM members have also been hard at work on our programming for the conference. We’ve had three proposals accepted as sessions:
While still in the planning stages, we will also have our PAM Dinner on either Sunday or Monday night plus an informal no-host dine around on the other night. Over the summer, after the conference, we plan to have a virtual business meeting plus three virtual roundtables for Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics. Stay tuned for more information!
Hope to see you in Albuquerque this June!
Brian Quigley
PAM President 2026
Volume 53, Issue 2 —— Spring 2026
Meg Eastwood and Jeffra Bussmann
This year’s June ASIS&T conference will feature a combined Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics (PAM) Roundtable. Roundtables at our new conference are limited to one hour, so we’re going to split into three groups / tables, discuss separate topics, then come back together before the end of the hour to share out the discussion points from all three tables.
The first table discussion will focus on our experiences with generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) – how has AI changed our interactions with faculty and students? We will tackle questions such as, how are your faculty members discouraging or encouraging students to use AI in their work? How do you demonstrate the value of a library database when AI is freely and readily available? Has AI saved you time in any areas of your work? We’ll provide a selection of university policies on the use of generative AI in classrooms and in research.
The second table discussion will consider recent developments in the Open Access (OA) landscape. The Gates Foundation decided to stop paying Article Processing Charges (APCs) for Gold OA in 2025 and instructed grantees to post preprints instead – will other funders follow their lead? How are your faculty reacting to the cost of Gold OA? In the world of Green OA, how have publishers in PAM areas responded to recent agency implementations of the 2022 OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy) Public Access Memo? PAM publishers have led the way in pioneering models such as subscribe-to-open – is your library participating in any subscribe-to-open or other “Diamond” OA programs? Finally, what are your preferred methods for encouraging open access? We will provide statistics on the average cost of APCs and comparisons of current publisher policies.
Our third table discussion will talk over the year’s most challenging issues in reference, instruction, and collections. How have your reference practices changed? Are you using any new software or methods to enliven your instruction? In a time of drastic budget cuts, how do we prioritize spending our remaining funds? Do you have recommendations on collection analysis techniques, to prepare for upcoming budget cuts? This table will be organized in a more “unconference” style, where participants drive the topics, although we will provide a list of potential discussion questions.
Please feel free to reach out if there are particular discussion questions you’d like us to include – we hope to see you in Albuquerque!
Volume 53, Issue 2 —— Spring 2026
Ruth Kneale
It’s been a nerve-wracking fiscal year so far for all of us in the (US-based) PAM libraries. After the President was elected, he and his new Cabinet were extremely clear in their anti-science bias. That led to the utter massacre that was DOGE. Between that disaster, and some organizations’ anticipatory cutting of budgets, massive damage has been done to science in the US. For example, NASA’s astrophysics research division was facing a 44% cut1, which would have defunded an astonishing 41 programs, including OSIRIS-APEX, Keck Observatory, and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Additionally, all money going towards STEM engagement (which includes REU programs) would be cut. The budget threats across the board were, frankly, terrifying from a science point of view.
Thankfully, albeit with a lot of effort and strain, the 2026 Appropriations budget was approved at a nearly-flat rate for the NSF and NASA2. However, that didn’t mean the crisis was over…
Many organizations, whether hit by the DOGE chainsaw or suffering from the enactment of as-yet unapproved budget cuts, began FY2026 by cutting their budgets and laying off staff. I’ve heard back from a few folks to my PAMnet message who shared similar stories: their institutions restructured in some way, or faced loss of grants (note: NSF-wide, there have been almost 2,000 grants cancelled so far3), that required astronomers and other scientists to take a serious hit to their salaries. This led to the departure of said staff, and we all know if the staff numbers go down, so does the library’s budget. A couple of librarians reported they’d had to cancel subscriptions as a direct result. Thankfully, no one has reported they had any layoffs of staff, but tension is high as we approach budgeting for FY27.
One of the most visible impacts late last year was the abrupt closure of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) library, which was nominally part of a planned physical reorganization of the campus, but came as a surprise to a lot of the scientific and library community4. According to an article from the New York Times5, “a NASA spokesman said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away.” I’m sorry, tossed away? That library contained not only many older paper-based resources that aren’t available online, it also had “specialized equipment and electronics designed to test spacecraft [that] have been removed and thrown out”. This is just horrifying to me. The library is not the only part of the GSFC being targeted; between the DOGE layoffs, the office and building closures, and the sudden closure of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, there’s a fear that the entire shebang will be gone by the end of FY2026.
Closer to home are cuts to the NSF that can possibly impact what I consider “my” observatories – cuts to both the National Solar Observatory, which runs the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), and the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratories (NOIRLab), which runs the Gemini Observatories. Both observatories skinned through the FY2026 budget approval process, but are in the process of having to plan for the worst. NOIRLab could be facing huge cuts, at the levels where Gemini will be operationally reduced by 50%, making it hard to actually operate it; ownership of Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo International Observatory would actually be transferred somewhere else; and the brand-new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is transitioning from construction to operations and was expecting an appropriately-sized budget increase, will get, at most, half of that6. As for DKIST, still my home and only operating for a couple of years, the threatened FY26 budget was for only $13M. “To put it bluntly,” [DKIST Director] Keller said, “for DKIST, at $13 million, we cannot operate. There’s no way for us to operate such a complex facility.”7 I just can’t wrap my mind around the possibility that the NSO would have to mothball the world’s most powerful solar telescope only a couple of years after bringing it online.
So, what can we do? Right now, not much, it seems. Protect our budgets as much as possible, continue to keep our scientists and senior administrators aware of our values, and write to our representatives and senators of our concerns. Handwritten letters, especially, carry a lot of weight, but even e-mail and typed letters are taken seriously.
More than ever, I think we need to save as much data as possible (i.e. LOCKSS). We need to be civically involved so our Senators and Representatives know how much we value science. And we can remember the song “Light One Candle,” by Peter, Paul & Mary from 1982. It’s a peace anthem and struggle for justice, and the chorus gave me goosebumps:
Don’t let the light go out
It’s lasted for so many years
Don’t let the light go out
Let it shine through our love and our tears
