August 2011

NOTICE

Erie Looking Productions will not release new programming this weekend in light of Hurricane Irene’s impending approach to the eastern coast of North America.

The potential for systems disruption impacting such a large portion of the United States population is something we must bear in mind. We remember the lessons of the 2003 regional outage that included us in an outage area that encompassed much of the northeastern United States as well as a major portion of the Province of Ontario. In light of recent local electricity reliability issues, we are preparing for the possibility of outages impacting us.

New episodes of LISTen: An LISNews.org Program and Ubuntu Ohio – Burning Circle are tentatively scheduled for release on September 5th, 2011.

The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions
Michael J. Kellat, Engineer
Gloria D. Kellat, Producer
Stephen Michael Kellat, Head Writer

Fifteen reasons for partnering with your local bookstore from Bookselling This Week.

In September 2009, two things became apparent to us at Lake Forest Book Store: one, e-reader sales were hurting independent booksellers, and, two, the libraries of Lake County, Illinois, were interested in and equipped to host author events, but couldn’t do so in a manner that was cost effective. These realizations led to a flurry of activity and a vigorous round of phone tag that resulted in our arranging to partner a store event with a library (and, thus, its larger venue and audience). Nearly two years later, Lake Forest Book Store works with 15 of the 20 libraries in Lake County and has plans to partner with the remaining five by the end of 2011.

When Lake Forest Book Store approached the current 15 libraries, we proposed that the store would bring authors for library events, but only with the stipulation that we would be able to sell books. The libraries were ecstatic, and the whole partnership has been beneficial on every level.

Just as bookstores need customers, libraries need patrons. State funding is based on user traffic, and lower library usage equals a smaller budget — and fewer opportunities for the community.  Author events have proved a reliable method of building patron traffic. In the past, a library that wanted to host an author had to pay a speaker’s fee, and library charters prevented internal book sales. Without the bookstore-library partnership, these events required more of a budget than they would end up stimulating.

The Library, it’s academic
“And what I am seeing, once the Ph.D. becomes a prof, is that they don’t ask the reference librarians for research help at all. Technical help using the databases, sure—but even then, a fairly narrow idea of technical help that doesn’t include, for instance, tips on advanced search techniques and the special crankiness of the Boolean operators on a particular site. No, it’s get me in to the top-line site, make my password work, link to the journal, and let me research. ”

Via: Why it matters how faculty view librarians

News today from OCLC that WorldCat has turned the big 4-0. Some more statistics are available.

Talk story by Lauren Collins about a Wikipedia “editathon” sponsored by the British Library.

(if you’re a New Yorker Magazine subscriber)
“Wikipedia has many cool features, but the coolest of them may be WikipediaVision, which László Kozma, the Romanian grad student who invented it, describes as a “visualization of edits” to Wikipedia at “almost the same time as they happen.” So: there’s . . . “(Subscription required.) Read more here (from the August 29, 2011 issue).

or

for more information on the event, check out the Wikimedia UK entry or the
British Library press release.

Bloomberg LP is buying legal tax and regulatory research company BNA for about $990 million in an all-cash deal.

Full article

See pictures on Flick of the results of the earthquake.

McKeldin Library, 6th Floor – University of Maryland

Books on floor:

Collapsed book stack:

Go to Surrey: Central Library
The Bing Thom-designed Surrey Central Library is ready for its reveal! The population of Surrey is now what Vancouver was when its central library was built. But unlike the VPL, the Surrey Library is not primarily about storing the collecton but about spaces that will support community activities – from concerts to one-on-one tutorials.

This is part five in my many part series on IT Security In Libraries. Part 4 was a general “How To Stay Safe Online” post that covered topics like patching/updating, watching links and downloads, and using good passwords. In Part Three I covered passwords. In part 2 we talked privacy. In Part One I tried to lay the foundation for security.

Today’s post is short and sweet, 20 myths I’ve run across while working on the series. I’ve tried to include a link on most of them that explains why something is wrong.

1. You have nothing important to steal ‘Steal everything’ era of hacking
2. Having antivirus software makes you completely safe Online security doesn’t exist and/or No Software Is 100% Fault Free And That Includes Antivirus Programs
   
   Your antivirus software is a seat belt – not a force field. – Alfred Huger

3. Using Mac/Linux makes you safe OSX Security Myths
4. Patches and updates make things worse and break them Test shows how vulnerable unpatched Windows is
5. You can look at a site and know it’s safe and not serving bad stuff Put that website down, you don’t know where it’s been! also, How To Check If A Site Is Safe
6. Using a firewall makes you safe The Three Myths of Firewalls
7. Complex frequently changed passwords make you safe How are passwords stolen?
8. Avoiding IE makes me safe Internet Explorer is most secure browser for malware
9. If an email comes from a familiar face it’s ok What Is Spearfishing?
10. If a link comes from a friend on Facebook/twitter it’s safe Facebook Worm Refuses to Die
11. If I just click a link it’s ok
12. Only porn, gambling, and other “sketchy” sites are dangerous Mass Infection Of WP Sites
13. Only naive users get infected with malware and viruses
14. You can only get infected if you download files Drive By Download
15. If I’m compromised I will know it How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests also… Opening the email that was used to hack RSA
16. Infections come from email
17. P2P and torrents are safe
18. Hardware can’t spread or come preinfected with malware Pre-infected hardware and software ships to the US
19. If I never log off / restart I can’t get infected
    And finally…

20. I’m too smart to get infected… Yes, you and me both!

Are books dead, and can authors survive?
At the Edinburgh international book festival this weekend, Ewan Morrison set out his bleak vision of a publishing industry in terminal decline. Here’s a shortened version of his argument