What's at stake isn't merely buildings with books and artifacts, but our shared commitment to an informed society.

The two research collections state officials ordered for deletion included material from professional journals, conference papers, books, student dissertations, periodicals and newspaper articles.

When Brigitte Weinsteiger became the vice provost and director of the Penn Libraries last year, she took the helm of what she characterizes as “one of the most consequential research libraries in the country.” With 19 libraries, 300-plus staff, a $95 million budget, and 10 million volumes across print and digital formats, she now leads an intellectual ecosystem that reaches across Penn’s campus and beyond.

Attacking colleges and universities has reverberations far beyond campuses.

A federal judge says Iowa for now cannot continue to enforce part of its book ban law. The decision Tuesday gives major publishers that sued the state their latest temporary reprieve.