February 2014

How Academia and Publishing are Destroying Scientific Innovation

http://kingsreview.co.uk/magazine/blog/2014/02/24/how-academia-and-publishing-are-destroying-scientific-innovation-a-conversation-with-sydney-brenner/

“I think there was a time, and I’m trying to trace the history when the rights to publish, the copyright, was owned jointly by the authors and the journal. Somehow that’s why the journals insist they will not publish your paper unless you sign that copyright over. It is never stated in the invitation, but that’s what you sell in order to publish. And everybody works for these journals for nothing. There’s no compensation. There’s nothing. They get everything free. They just have to employ a lot of failed scientists, editors who are just like the people at Homeland Security, little power grabbers in their own sphere.

If you send a PDF of your own paper to a friend, then you are committing an infringement.”

‘Rent It Out’: Portlandia Spoofs The Sharing Economy

There isn’t much hipster culture that doesn’t get lampooned by the IFC program Portlandia. And one of the big cultural shifts of the moment is the move away from ownership and toward access. Younger generations say they care less about owning a home, for instance, or even a car. Why bother, when you can couch surf and car share, bike share and more? It’s powering the sharing economy, an economy of bartering and entrepreneurship, where people offer their own excess goods and services.

Librarians know all about ownership vs. access. Full NPR report here.

If You Think You’re Anonymous Online, Think Again

“I want all the benefits of the information society; all I was trying to do is mitigate some of the risk,” she says.

Angwin’s book is called Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance. She considers dragnets — which she describes as “indiscriminate” and “vast in scope” — the “most unfair type of surveillance.”

Author interview at NPR

Wyh Yuo Sholud Raed Mroe…

So how do we improve that? Simple. We read. Take 30 minutes each day to open a book or magazine article. Anything from War and Peace to Cosmopolitan will do—I’m always on the prowl for a new romantic tip.

https://medium.com/architecting-a-life/d00406faacbd

Right-Wing French Politician Protests Childrens Book “Everybody Get Naked”

Here’s the story via Melville House about a three year old childrens book that is ruffling some French feathers.

In a country where the banning of books is rare and mostly unheard of, France has recently experienced a spate of attacks by its politicians on the most liberal of French children’s books. Right-wing and even mainstream politicians have begun calling for the censorship of certain books in a trend that seems to reflect that “the domestic political system in France is under strain”, as Olivia Snaije noted for Publishing Perspectives.

In the most public example, the leader of the UMP, France’s main opposition party (which was previously led by President Nicolas Sarkozy), Jean-François Copé, appeared on French TV holding a copy of Tous à Poil (Everybody Gets Naked). Surely one of the sweetest ideas for a children’s book, Tous à Poil is a story in which everyone, the baby, the babysitter, the neighbour, the teacher and even the CEO get naked. The book’s authors, Claire Franek and Marc Daniau, explained they had written it in in order to show:

“Real bodies in natural situations from a child’s everyday life to counter the numerous images of bodies, often undressed, altered by Photoshop or plastic surgery, that are shown in ads or on the covers of magazines.”

Hundreds of Ann Frank’s Diary Copies Vandalized in Tokyo’s Libraries

From The New York Times:

TOKYO — Japan on Friday promised to begin an investigation into the mysterious mutilation of hundreds of copies of “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” and other books related to her at public libraries across Tokyo.

Local news media reports said 31 municipal libraries had found 265 copies of the diary by Frank, the young Holocaust victim, and other books vandalized, usually with several pages torn or ripped out. The reports said some libraries had taken copies of the diary off their shelves to protect them.

Officials said they did not know the motive for the vandalism, the first cases of which were discovered earlier this month.

Mayor to Miami-Dade libraries: get more efficient to receive more money

Mayor to Miami-Dade libraries: get more efficient to receive more money
When librarian and task-force member Katherine Seaver responded, “We’re down to 400 employees,’’ Gimenez suggested the county may need to look at whether the wages match the positions needed at the libraries.

“What do we pay our employees?” Gimenez asked. “That’s tough for me to say, but it’s the truth.”

His comments are the latest installment in the mayor’s push to remake the library into something that is both more modern and less expensive to run. The department’s $50 million budget faces a $20 million shortfall next year thanks largely to Miami-Dade lowering a special library tax rate while leaving the library to burn through reserves to sustain operations.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/21/3951680/mayor-to-miami-dade-libraries.html#storylink=cpy

James Patterson Is Giving $1 Million To Indie Bookstores

Independent bookstores, with their paper-thin profit margins and competition from Amazon, have found themselves a Daddy Warbucks.

The best-selling author James Patterson has started a program to give away $1 million of his personal fortune to dozens of bookstores, allowing them to invest in improvements, dole out bonuses to employees and expand literacy outreach programs.

Full article

Queens president: Trustees must nix money-flush library head’s $2M exit deal

Queens president: Trustees must nix money-flush library head’s $2M exit deal

Melinda Katz has asked Queens Library trustees to get rid of Thomas Galante’s golden parachute, the news of which comes after revelations about his secret job, $392,000 salary and private smoking deck that cost the taxpayer-funded library system $26,000.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-president-trustees-nix-money-flush-library-head-2m-exit-deal-article-1.1619207