Michael Kirby
Author archives

• Opposing Viewpoints update

  Opposing Viewpoints is constantly adding and updating coverage of current events and social issues, perfect for students writing argument papers. Here are some new and recently updated topics:

   

  • Compensation for College Athletes
  • Conservation
  • Cybercrime
  • Drugs and Athletes
  • Federal Nutrition Programs
  • Global Warming and Climate Change
  • Homeschooling
  • Obesity

  • Online Gambling and Prediction Markets
  • Patriotism
  • Pharmaceutical Industry
  • Sanctuary Cities
  • Terrorism
  • Voting Laws
  • Women in Combat
  • Workplace Diversity

  September 10, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 5637

• Free books

  Please see the latest spreadsheet of Library discards and contact Nathan if you’d like any of them for your department. Most of these books are about technical writing, safety, and architectural software.

  September 9, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 4604

• New titles

  Check out the new books, audiobooks, music, TV, and movies we’ve added to our collection since May. Here are just a few of the new titles:

                        
  
                                  
  
                          
  
                        

  September 3, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 6906

• The Reference Shelf update

  If you’re looking for extensive, unbiased coverage of social issues and topics in the news, check out the Reference Shelf series. You’ll find print copies on our shelves and most are also online at Salem Online. The latest three titles are:

  • Ethics in Artificial Intelligence
  • Cryptocurrency
  • U.S. National Debate Topic, 2026–2027: Health Insurance

      

  Get the facts and have an informed opinion!

  August 6, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 4612

• AccessScience update

  AccessScience has added lots of new science-related content since March. Editorial briefings include:

  • In pursuit of fusion for limitless clean energy, scientists surpass a plasma density limit within nuclear reactors
  • The growing role of large language models and robotics in biological research
  • Defying extinction of the northern white rhino through advanced reproductive technology
  • Earth’s rapidly changing magnetic field in the late Ediacaran Period resolves a paleomagnetic puzzle
  • NASA’s Artemis II mission: Preparing for crewed space travel within our solar system

  News stories include:

  • A chemical ‘Goldilocks zone’ may limit which planets can host life
  • A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils
  • In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater
  • One possible recipe for life on Titan is a bust
  • Simulations of your gut may predict which probiotics will stick
  • These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how
  • A fossil reveals early relatives of spiders—armed with claws
  • Digital heart twins can guide a lifesaving procedure
  • Hawaii is turning ocean plastic into roads to fight pollution
  • Seeing and imagining activate some of the same brain cells
  • Some plants can feed on dust that lands on their leaves
  • The earliest evidence of the first stars may lie in a distant gas clump

  

  June 2, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 7567

• New titles

  Check out the new books we’ve added to our collection since March. Here are just a few of the new titles:

    
  
          

  May 4, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 6818

• Free books

  Please see the latest spreadsheet of Library discards and contact Nathan if you’d like any of them for your department. Most of these books are about gardening and landscaping, just in time for spring!

  April 14, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 4583

• AccessScience update

  AccessScience has added lots of new science-related content since January, including articles on carcharhiniformes and genetic genealogy. Editorial briefings include:

  • Cyclin A2 gene reactivation enables cellular repair of damaged heart tissue
  • NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor’s planetary defense mission to detect potentially hazardous space objects
  • Birds’ evolutionary origin and diversification occurred earlier in the Jurassic Period than previously believed
  • Regulating SIRT6 levels to prevent age-related cognitive decline

  News stories include:

  • Earth is bathed in droves of neutrinos spewed by the Milky Way’s stars
  • These sick baby ants sacrifice themselves to protect their colony
  • This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math
  • This tool-using cow defies expectations for bovine braininess
  • A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test
  • AI models spot deepfake images, but people catch fake videos
  • Earth’s core may hide dozens of oceans of hydrogen
  • Seismometers can track falling space junk
  • Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops
  • Venus has a massive lava tube
  • Wanderlust may be written in our DNA
  • Widespread use of HPV shots could mean fewer cervical cancer screenings

  

  March 31, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 7403

• Opposing Viewpoints update

  Opposing Viewpoints is constantly adding and updating coverage of current events and social issues, perfect for students writing argument papers. Here are some new and recently updated topics:

   

  • Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling
  • Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health
  • Athletes and Sports
  • Censorship
  • Cosmetic Surgery
  • Daylight Saving Time
  • Divorce
  • Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Cars
  • Food Insecurity
  • Gerrymandering and Redistricting

  • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  • Medical Care
  • Medicare
  • Pollution
  • Prisons
  • Refugees in the United States
  • Socialism
  • US Armed Forces
  • US Population Growth
  • Women in Professional Sports

  March 26, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 5601

• New titles

  Check out the new books we’ve added to our collection since January. Here are just a few of the new titles:

                        
  
                            
  
    
  
          

  March 19, 2026 • Collection Updates • Views: 6661