Recent scientific breakthroughs offer encouraging possibilities, but questions remain about treatment effectiveness, patient safety, affordability, and access.
An earlier version of this article was published on LinkedIn. This expanded version includes additional discussion of legal, ethical, and public-policy implications, together with resources of particular interest to librarians, legal researchers, and information professionals.
David G. Badertscher
The future of AALL is in great hands. Here are the results of this year’s Executive Board election and welcome the members who will help guide AALL in the coming year. Please join in congratulating our newly elected members, who will begin their terms in July 2027, and thanking all the candidates who stepped forward to serve our community. This year, 25% of members voted. Thank you for making your voices heard! The election results are
here
Promising results suggest a potentially groundbreaking approach to predicting undesirable AI behavior, but limited experimental testing calls for further independent verification.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into professional practice, education, government, healthcare, and everyday life, questions concerning the reliability and safety of AI-generated responses have taken on growing importance. A particularly troubling possibility is that an AI chatbot may initially provide appropriate, useful, and accurate information, only to begin producing potentially harmful responses as a conversation progresses.
Professional conferences have long occupied an important place in the continuing education and development of law librarians and legal information professionals. They provide opportunities to learn about emerging technologies, exchange ideas, establish professional relationships, and consider developments affecting the future of the profession. Yet these benefits raise a question that has become increasingly important in an era of constrained budgets and rapidly evolving technology: How can the value of conference participation be demonstrated not only to those who attend, but also to the institutions that employ them and pay the bills?
A September 29, 2026, article published on On Firmer Ground, titled “Why Attend? Reflections on the 2026 AALL Annual Conference and the PLLIP Summit”, provides a timely starting point for considering this question. The reflections in that article invite a broader examination of professional conferences as opportunities not merely for individual advancement but also for strengthening the institutions that employ legal information professionals. That distinction becomes especially important as artificial intelligence transforms legal research, information management, and organizational decision-making.
Artificial intelligence policy has often been characterized as a contest between those urging rapid innovation and those seeking greater regulation. A recently released statement entitled Pacing the Frontier suggests that this characterization may no longer be sufficient.
Signed by more than one thousand researchers and employees from leading AI organizations (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and others) the statement does not advocate halting AI research. Instead, it urges governments to help develop the technical and institutional mechanisms needed to ensure that future advances remain under meaningful human oversight.
The March 30, 2026 issue of Information Insights, published by Association for Information Science and Technology, offers a timely snapshot of a profession in transition. From the growing centrality of artificial intelligence to the strategic implications of the ASIS&T SLA merger, this edition highlights how information professionals are redefining their roles in an increasingly data-driven and interconnected world. The selected items underscore a clear message: adapting to technological change while strengthening professional collaboration is now essential to the future of information science. The following includes a Synopsis of the March 30, 2026 issue for the convenience of some, followed by a link to the entire issue.
The March 30, 2026 issue of Information Insights highlights a profession in transition, shaped by artificial intelligence, organizational consolidation, and a renewed emphasis on global collaboration and professional development. The newsletter blends association updates with broader trends affecting information science, libraries, and knowledge management.
Metaphysics is often described as the branch of philosophy that asks the most fundamental question of all: what is real? It explores the nature of existence, identity, causation, and the structure of reality itself. While this may sound abstract, metaphysics is far from remote. In practice, it quietly shapes the assumptions underlying every legal system and every act of legal research.
From the time of Aristotle and Plato, metaphysics has served as the foundation of traditional philosophy. It provides the conceptual framework within which other fields, knowledge, reasoning, and ethics, operate. In law, that framework is not theoretical; it is embedded in doctrine, interpretation, and everyday practice.
Consider a few familiar legal questions:
Congressional Budget Office — Immigrant Earnings Assimilation, 1981–2021 (Report No. 62202, March 2026)
The report analyzes how immigrants’ earnings evolve after arriving in the United States and how closely their wages eventually approach those of U.S. born workers. Using several decades of census and survey data, the CBO examines the economic process known as “earnings assimilation”, the extent to which immigrants’ wages increase with time spent in the U.S. labor market.
Welcome to The Education Edge—the new name and refreshed look of what was formerly the [AALL] Education Update. Designed to keep you learning and moving forward, The Education Edge highlights timely resources, ideas, and opportunities to support your professional growth.
Explore resources of The Education Edge.
Two recent opinion columns published on Justia Verdict – Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia examine the legal, political, and moral implications of the continuing disclosures surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein investigations. Written by Professor Marci A. Hamilton of the University of Pennsylvania and founder of CHILD USA, the essays present a forceful argument that accountability for systemic abuse requires sustained legal pressure and public transparency. The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the official position of Justia.
In The Three Avenues to Justice in the Epstein Cases, Professor Hamilton argues that meaningful accountability is likely to emerge through three principal legal pathways rather than through federal prosecutorial initiative alone.
Criminal Law Library Blog