FEBRUARY 2026

FEBRUARY 2026

Welcome, SNL members.
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We promised you periodic information with suggestions of action you might take. Here you go.
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Friends of HISD Libraries Funded 11 Grants for TLA Attendance
The Texas Library Association Annual Conference is in Houston this year, March 29-30-31. This conference is famous across the US for being big, fun and power-packed with information for all kinds of librarians. FOHL has a mission to support excellence in HISD Libraries and librarians. What better opportunity than this conference here in Houston. The grantees are expected to share with other HISD Library staff things they learn, so that all our existing libraries can benefit. 

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Write Your Legislators! OFTEN       
Every Texan lives in a school district. Every Texan is a taxpayer. And everyone has a stake in strong public school libraries - regardless of whether you are a parent, a school librarian, or work in another type of library.
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That's why we're asking all of you to take a few minutes to contact their local school board members and encourage them to keep school libraries in mind as they discuss budgets, legislative and planning priorities.

This is the opening of instructions for sending a template letter you can personalize and send to your appointed HISD Board of Managers as well as our ELECTED school board. You can copy City Council and the Mayor as well, if that is your style. HISD is in a mess, yes. But we who care about school libraries need to treat the BOM et al as if they can hear reality. We need to keep reminding them why school libraries matter when how they could improve literacy across HISD. We have not chosen an easy path, but it’s truth will win out eventually. We cannot give up.
BOM addresses; Elected School Board addresses

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When School Stops Feeling Safe: Librarians Supporting Immigrant Students in Real Time [title is live  linked]
What Minnesota librarians are doing right now, and what every school can put in place this week. (The AI School Librarian, 23 Jan 2026 – this newsletter helps school librarians not get lost in the AI wormhole.)
This comes from Stand with Minnesota and offers 6 specific ways to support students in the face of ICE threats. Rumor control. Privacy. Calm, respectful responses to reasonable questions from kids.

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AI Hallucinations
Few of us reading this newsletter spend our days looking at bibliographies in support of graduate researchers. But this article is eye-opening and useful in broader understanding of how the AI which is daily in all of our faces actually affects us.

“ChatGPT doesn’t lie, exactly. It patterns matches. When you ask for a “cited article about remote work productivity,” it knows what citations look like. Author name, year, compelling title, respectable journal. It assembles these patterns into something that feels right. Like a dream where everything makes sense until you wake up.”
How to Spot AI Hallucinations Like a Reference Librarian
IMAGE SOURCE: https://www.wsj.com/tech/hallucination-when-chatbots-and-people-see-what-isnt-there-91c6c88b

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Strength in Numbers​
January and February have been whirlwinds. We are all struggling to keep up with the pace of developments in HISD and beyond. CVPE would love your voice at school board meetings. This week we learned of school closures not on the BOM agenda. :(

The Primary Election opens in a few days. We will stand together for strength. And keep raising our voices in behalf of school libraries for all HISD students. Be sure to tell the candidates to remember school libraries. ​Every candidate remains a community leader even if they don't prevail in the election; they remain a potential voice for our cause. Keep them engaged in our work.

WRITE YOUR LEGISLATORS! About education and libraries - and anything else that concerns you. We elected them. They WORK FOR US!

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