LISNews: Librarian News

Apple recently applied for a patent for a technology that would disable the recording functionality of the iPhone and other Apple devices when at certain events (concerts and movies, for example.) This disabling is accomplished via a transmission that tells them to not record. The goal is to prevent piracy via illegal recording, although Apple has not officially announced that this will be included in future iterations of their products.

The news was responded to by librarians on Twitter, who began a discussion of digital rights management and new devices and culminated in a decision to create a librarian-created user guide to guide our patrons as they make choices about which new gadgets to purchase. Details are available on this blog post.

The guide is a publicly-available Google document that all librarians and info pros are encouraged to add their thoughts to. It is available here.