The National Library of the Republic of Indonesia and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in providing integrated journal access facilities and creating a research tool database system that can be used for the needs of universities. This is to facilitate access to electronic journals for readers and researchers in searching for references before conducting research.

The OCLC Metadata Quality team continuously enhances WorldCat data through manual and automated processes, ensuring its accuracy for global libraries. By integrating AI and human expertise, they refine metadata, improve duplicate detection, and enhance resource discovery.

In August 2023, OCLC launched a machine learning model to detect duplicate bibliographic records, incorporating feedback from 300+ catalogers on 34,000 records, leading to the removal of 5.4 million duplicates.

Now, AI-driven de-duplication expands to all formats, languages, and scripts. A test run in February 2025 merged 500,000 duplicate English print records, with broader cleanup efforts to follow. Libraries should enable WorldCat updates for seamless integration.

2024 was an eventful year for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and its membership of research libraries and archives in major public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL’s 2024 impact report showcases a successful year, highlighting its advocacy for research libraries, policy influence, and leadership development. It emphasizes collaboration among universities, government agencies, and public institutions in Canada and the US, promoting equitable access to knowledge and the benefits of ARL membership.

Recent developments in scholarly communication and research assessment show promising trends, such as the growth of preprints, open access, and more equitable publishing models. However, bibliographic databases like Web of Science and Scopus hinder innovation by excluding certain journals, like eLife, from their core indices. These databases prioritize traditional models, which limits the visibility of new approaches to research evaluation. To support innovation, databases should accommodate diverse scholarly platforms, recognize open peer review, and involve the research community in governance.

In continuation of UMM AL-Qura University’s pursuit of supporting the digital transformation journey for all its educational and operational processes to continue achieving its strategic goals in a way that aligns with Saudi Vision 2030, UQU has chosen Naseej for Technology, the region’s leading knowledge and eLearning solutions provider, to provide it with the latest Quality, Assessment and Evaluation, Academic Accreditation, Library Management, Library Portal, and Digital Assets Repository. MEDAD solution has also been chosen by United Arab Emirates future ISSN centre.

Since January 1, 2000, the German Serials Database aka Die Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB) has been processed online in the ILTIS system of the German National Library (DNB). This followed a project between DNB and the Berlin State Library (SBB) under tight deadlines. Since 2016, the German ISSN Centre has been assigning and cataloging ISSNs directly in ZDB. Since 2018, ZDB and the ISSN portal have included mutual links. Today, ZDB, now containing over 2.1 million titles and 5.5 million holdings, is the largest database for ongoing resources globally. It offers cooperative, freely accessible data. Over time, ZDB has expanded its services, including batch deliveries and metadata harvesting. In 2023, it became a « trusted partner » in WorldCat, further solidifying its role in bibliographic data.

The British Library faced challenges in cataloging over 4.7 million records lacking language information. To address this, a statistical model based on Bayesian methods was used to predict the language of resources from catalogue metadata, such as titles. The model analyzed patterns in word usage across known language records to generate probabilities for language identification. Results varied by language, with high precision but varying recall. The project successfully added language codes to over 2 million records, improving curatorial work and resource discovery. Ongoing efforts aim to code millions more records.

The British National Bibliography (BNB) has resumed publication, following a period of unavailability due to a cyber-attack in 2023. Having started in 1950, the BNB includes books and periodicals, covering both physical and electronic material. The BNB is the first national bibliography to be made available on the Share Family initiative‘s platform. It is published as linked data, and forms part of an international collaboration of libraries to link and enhance discovery across multiple catalogues and bibliographies.