August 2014

Author interview in Variety

http://www.postcarbon.org/article/2339769-just-how-legal-are-seed-libraries
After the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture cracked down on a community seed library, hundreds of seed libraries in the U.S. are suddenly wondering if they are breaking the law. According to PA regulators, in order to give out member-donated seeds, the Simpson Seed Library in Cumberland County would have to put around 400 seeds of each variety through prohibitively impractical seed testing procedures in order to determine quality, rate of germinability, and so on. The result of the PA crackdown is that the library can no longer give out seeds other than those which are commercially packaged.

Amid growing concerns around the origins of seed stock and genetic modification, “seed libraries” are sprouting up all over the country — allowing neighbors to connect with one another and their local food systems by sharing the seeds from their own garden.

As much as some places in the United States have struggled to get good, affordable, accessible Internet connectivity, one type of spot on the map has struggled even more than most: tribal lands. Broadband deployment in the whole of the U.S. stands at about 65 percent, the Federal Communications Commission found a few years ago, but on tribal lands the official rate is just 10 percent, with “anecdotal evidence suggest[ing] that actual usage rates may be as low as 5 to 8 percent.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/13/tribal-libraries-doing-okay-on-the-internet-lagging-on-tech/

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/12/uc-riversides-world-class-sc.html
Science fiction author Nalo Hopkinson, a professor at UC Riverside, sounds the alarm about a change in management at the Eaton Science Fiction Collection, the largest public science fiction and fantasy in the world.

The new library administration has alienated long-term staff (according to Hopkinson, it shades over into actual abuse), triggering waves of resignations, and is planning to drastically reduce the collection size.

As E-Book Subscription Services Grow Their Catalogs, the Age-Old Institution Trumps All
http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-the-public-library-beats-amazonfor-now-1407863714
All of the big five publishers sell their e-book collections for loans, usually on the same day they’re available for consumers to purchase. They haven’t always been so friendly with libraries, and still charge them a lot for e-books. Some library e-books are only allowed a set number of loans before “expiring.”

Publishers have come to see libraries not only as a source of income, but also as a marketing vehicle. Since the Internet has killed off so many bookstores, libraries have become de facto showrooms for discovering books.

Reading Public Library, MA

Canton Public Library, MI

New York Public Library, NYC

Video piece featuring Robin Williams Announcing the opening of the San Francisco Main Library from Free for All Films

He will be sorely missed.

http://www.govtech.com/network/The-Challenges-of-Broadband-in-Rural-Libraries.html
Ninety-eight percent of libraries now provide free public access to Wi-Fi, up from 89 percent in 2012. But digital differences among states still exists — as does an urban/rural divide, according to the new 2014 Digital Inclusion Survey released by the American Library Association (ALA).
http://www.ala.org/research/digitalinclusion

Joplin Library Director Jacque Gage says county libraries will be the hardest hit. Those are the ones that depend on the state funds to keep their doors open. She encourages everyone to contact the governor’s office to get the funds restored.
http://www.ozarksfirst.com/story/d/story/state-funds-withheld-from-missouri-libraries/42757/c0Y4JuKLZkOdilPdUcxbdQ

“Take the ex­am­ple of desk­top web browsers. Let’s face it, un­less you’re re­al­ly slow on the up­take, you’ve out­fit­ted your web brows­er with an ad block­er. Ha ha, you win! But wait—that means most web ads are only reach­ing those who are re­al­ly slow on the up­take. So their dol­lars are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly im­por­tant in sup­port­ing the con­tent you’re get­ting ad-free. “Not my prob­lem,” you say. Oh re­al­ly? Since those peo­ple are the only ones fi­nan­cial­ly sup­port­ing the con­tent, pub­lish­ers in­creas­ing­ly are shap­ing their sto­ries to ap­peal to them. Even­tu­al­ly, the con­tent you liked—well, didn’t like it enough to pay for it—will be gone.”

http://practicaltypography.com/economics-year-one.html