January 2012

5 Key Points From Google’s Privacy-Policy Letter to Congress

5 Key Points From Google’s Privacy-Policy Letter to Congress
Point No. 1: Google still isn’t selling your personal data.
Point No. 2: You’re still up the creek if you get reeled in by a phishing scam.
Point No. 3: You can still use Google and YouTube for searching without Google knowing that you are the one doing the search.
Point No. 4: Users still have lots of options over how they’re tracked across the Web.
Point No. 5: If you don’t love the new integrated Google, you can always leave it.

No More E-Books Vs. Print Books Arguments, OK?

Jonathan Franzen’s in the news again, this time talking about how e-books are chiseling away at the foundations of civilization as we know it. Absurd, isn’t it? That the author of two of the better regarded novels of the past decade (give or take) would be concerned about how you read his books. The problem, according to Franzen, is manifold. E-books and digital readers are a con designed to rob you of money that you could otherwise be spending on paper books; e-books are trivial non-objects that you cannot hold and fetishize; print books are durable (“I can spill water on it and it would still work!” he is quoted as saying); and, most perniciously, e-books are supplanting the gorgeous permanence of book-books. “But I do fear that it’s going to be very hard to make the world work if there’s no permanence like that,” Franzen said. “That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government.”

Full piece on NPR

Interested in an Internship at Library of Congress This Summer?

Here’s an opportunity for talented college-age students headed for the field of LIS:

This summer the Library of Congress once again is offering special 10-week paid internships to college students. For a stipend of $3,000, the 2011 class of Junior Fellows Summer Interns will work full-time from May 29 through Aug. 3, 2012, with Library specialists and curators to inventory, describe and explore collection holdings and to assist with digital-preservation outreach activities throughout the Library.

In addition to the stipend (paid in bi-weekly segments), interns will be eligible to take part in programs offered at the Library. Applications will be accepted online only at usajobs.gov , keyword: 308129000, from Friday, Jan. 27 through midnight, Monday, Feb. 27. For more details about the program and information on how to apply, visit www.loc.gov/hr/jrfellows/. Questions about the program may be sent to [email protected].

The Library of Congress is an equal-opportunity employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities who meet eligibility requirements are strongly encouraged to apply. [ed. note: not positive about transgendered individuals, see previous story on LISNews.]

Here’s an opportunity for talented college-age students headed for the field of LIS:

This summer the Library of Congress once again is offering special 10-week paid internships to college students. For a stipend of $3,000, the 2011 class of Junior Fellows Summer Interns will work full-time from May 29 through Aug. 3, 2012, with Library specialists and curators to inventory, describe and explore collection holdings and to assist with digital-preservation outreach activities throughout the Library.

In addition to the stipend (paid in bi-weekly segments), interns will be eligible to take part in programs offered at the Library. Applications will be accepted online only at usajobs.gov , keyword: 308129000, from Friday, Jan. 27 through midnight, Monday, Feb. 27. For more details about the program and information on how to apply, visit www.loc.gov/hr/jrfellows/. Questions about the program may be sent to [email protected].

The Library of Congress is an equal-opportunity employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities who meet eligibility requirements are strongly encouraged to apply. [ed. note: not positive about transgendered individuals, see previous story on LISNews.]

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.

UF librarian teaches answer to question of life, the universe and everything

Ask University of Florida librarian Donna Wrublewski about the meaning of life and the answer you might get is “42.”

Wrublewski is an assistant university librarian in chemical and physical sciences and engineering at UF. She also teaches a one-credit honors class on “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the cult classic science fiction novel by Douglas Adams.

Full article

The Declining popularity of libraries in India

The Declining popularity of libraries in India
Delhi is home to some of the oldest libraries in the country. Spread across the entire City, the many libraries here are a rich source of knowledge and learning and serve as an invaluable source of information to various students, researchers and management graduates.

But in this day and age when information is available at the click of a mouse, are libraries still popular? Metrolife talks to Delhi youth and finds out.

Time for OverDrive to sell itself to America’s public libraries?

OverDrive—the leading supplier of popular e-books for America’s public libraries—should sell itself to its library customers or at least think about it if they are willing and able to buy.

In Rockford, Illinois, a much-needed controversy rages about the local library system’s spending almost a quarter of this year’s $1.2 million acquisitions budget on e-content from OverDrive. Will the nonelite suffer in a recession-battered city of 153,000 with high rates of poverty and joblessness? How many low-income people own e-readers, and can 50 or 100 loaner Kindles really do the trick?

But what about a related question—whether a private company should lord it over our nation’s e-libraries in the first place? Why not sell OverDrive to our public libraries, then, if they can find the financing? O maybe to a nonprofit run on their behalf, with librarians and educators setting the direction and with capable, truly involved business people advising them? Such a transaction would allow OverDrive founder and CEO Steve Potash to leave a memorable legacy to the American people while still reaping financial rewards. In one leap we could be truly on our way toward a well-stocked national digital library system for all Americans.

Full piece at Teleread