A new provincial law requires public libraries to pull and restrict items with “graphic visual depictions of sexual acts.” Librarians are worried.
University libraries are being swarmed by AI bots, putting public access at risk | CBC News
Academic libraries are fighting off swarms of data-scraping bots — that are slowing or crashing sites meant for students, researchers and the public — as AI companies continue hunting for content to feed their large language models.
"They're just out there on the internet, just bombarding us with trying to grab up as much material as possible,"
From Linux to Wikipedia: How Volunteers Build the Internet
AAlthough radically different in terms of size, scale, and scope, Linux, Wikipedia, and GuttenPlag Wiki are all examples of what you might call “commons-based peer production,” a term coined in the early 2000s by a law professor named Yochai Benkler.
Drawing on Benkler’s work, we propose a new definition of peer production. We hold that these projects must do four things:
Motivate participants to contribute using diverse incentives that are frequently, if not exclusively, nonmonetary.
Be decentralized in that they are collectively self-governed and organized by participants.
Be decentralized in terms of how tasks are executed.
Create content that is protected as part of the public commons.
New York’s Queens Public Library battles ransomware crims: Wi-Fi, checkouts, and website go dark
A ransomware attack Wednesday on the Queens Public Library resulted in a system-side network outage that continued into Thursday and could take some time to be fixed, library officials said.
In posts on social media, the library said while all branches are open to the public, several services including the website, on-site computers, check out and return machines, and free Wi-Fi were unavailable. The library’s app and digital media services were also down.
Goodbye from Salon – Salon.com
Today, after 31 years, we are saddened to announce that Salon is ceasing publication.
Sad to see a site fail after so long 🙁
‘What Makes a Book Rare?’: Librarian Learns Answer at Rare Book School – WSU Libraries
A rare book isn’t necessarily expensive, old, or fragile. Some are truly unique, while others might exist in dozens of other libraries. The common ground that unites them, if any, is that they are remarkable in some way: for the information they contain, their role in the history of printing and bookmaking, or their place in the pantheon of the literature of a particular genre or place. But how “rare” a book is depends quite a lot on the particular knowledge and interests of the beholder.
What the Brave Lawsuit Says About AI – Plagiarism Today
It’s that crawler, not the browser itself, that is at the core of the issue. According to the lawsuits, Brave’s web crawler does not respect robots.txt and does not identify itself. Brave also doesn’t publish IP addresses or other information that would allow sites to block its bots.
According to the lawsuits, Brave indexed content and then sold access to that material via an API. Those companies include Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The lawsuits allege that Brave earned more than $100 million in revenue from these deals.
Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
About half of HISD campuses report zero library book checkouts this year as library staffing shrinks
About half of Houston ISD's campuses have had zero library checkouts so far this school year, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
Please Let the Internet Die | WIRED
Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.
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