August 2016

As users browse the web, their browsing behavior may be observed and aggregated by third-party websites (“trackers”) that they don’t visit directly. These trackers are generally embedded by host websites in the form of advertisements, social media widgets (e.g., the Facebook “Like” button), or web analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics).

Though web tracking and its privacy implications have received much attention in recent years, that attention has come relatively recently in the history of the web and lacks full historical context. In this work, we conduct a longitudinal archaeological study of tracking on the web from 1996 to 2016. Our key insight: that the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine enables a retrospective analysis of properties of the web, even though researchers did not anticipate in advance the need to study these properties over time. We evaluate the potential and limitations of the Wayback Machine for this purpose and offer strategies to overcome several challenges we encountered in relation to using its data to study tracking.

From Tracking Excavator

By the end of the 18th century, children’s literature was a flourishing, separate and secure part of the publishing industry in Britain. Perhaps as many as 50 children’s books were being printed each year, mostly in London, but also in regional centres such as Edinburgh, York and Newcastle. By today’s standards, these books can seem pretty dry, and they were often very moralising and pious. But the books were clearly meant to please their readers, whether with entertaining stories and appealing characters, the pleasant tone of the writing, or attractive illustrations and eye-catching page layouts and bindings.

From The origins of children’s literature – The British Library

A woman who worked as a custodian at Krause Memorial Library apologized for taking dozens of books, games and CDs, saying she never intended to hurt the Rockford library.

“I feel bad for doing that to the library,’’ 33-year-old Sarah Lynn Fifelski told a judge at sentencing Tuesday. “I was grateful for the opportunity of working there and I feel bad for betraying their trust.

From Library custodian who pilfered books after hours sentenced to probation | WZZM13.com

The Danville Public Library has spent the past two years purging its collection of worn, duplicate and rarely checked-out books.

That hasn’t prevented the library’s director from receiving complaints from at least one resident convinced that books on the Confederacy are being targeted for removal. Residents have also criticized the library’s actions on Facebook.

Danville Public Library Director Joe Zappacosta said the library has not set out to remove books on the Civil War and the Confederacy.

From Removal of Confederacy books opens debate; director calls it routine process | Danville | godanriver.com

Now, three new e-books set in the fantastical world are reportedly set to be release. While Rowling hasn’t officially announced the releases, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Apple’s US iBook store have all listed three E-Books, written by the author about the world of Harry Potter.

From Harry Potter: Three new e-books written by JK Rowling appear on multiple bookseller websites

Thousands of hard-to-find films will be saved for the public as an iconic rental store gets set to close. 

Halifax Public Libraries and Dalhousie University said Tuesday they will buy the films from Halifax’s Video Difference.

“To have parts of that collection live on and be available for the public is really part of the lasting legacy of Video Difference,” Halifax Public Libraries chief librarian and CEO Asa Kachan said in an interview.

From Video Difference film collection being bought by Halifax Public Libraries, Dalhousie – Nova Scotia – CBC News

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has measured the public’s usage of libraries in England since 2005. In the 12 months to March 2016, it reported that just 33.4% of adults had used a public library, compared with 48.2% of adults in 2005/2006, when the survey began. This marks a drop of 30.7% over the decade, and is the first time the government department has highlighted a “significant decrease” in the proportion of adults who used public libraries. In comparison, the proportion of adults visiting heritage sites, museums and galleries increased over the decade.

From Library use in England fell dramatically over last decade, figures show | Books | The Guardian

In 2013, the IFLA Trend Report identified five high level trends which are in the process of transforming our global information environment. These evolving developments spanned access to information, education, privacy, new forms of digital engagement and technological transformation. Deliberately conceived to embody more than a stationary snapshot of detected trends, the IFLA Trend Report was designed to serve as a catalyst for wider discussion, analysis and action across the international library community.
Key themes and questions
• Re-envisioning library services and the future role of
libraries
• Does the digital disruption of education present new
opportunities?
• Libraries need to play a physical and digital role in
their communities
• How can libraries communicate their achievements
more effectively?
• Learners still need a blend of digital and face-to-face
environments
• How can librarians embrace innovation without
replacing themselves?

From Update 2016 | IFLA Trend Report

In 2012, Chicago Public Schools had 454 librarian positions in the budget. That dropped to 313 in 2013 and 252 in 2014. Last year there were 217 library positions in the budget.

This year, there are just 160 librarians budgeted.

“Less than 300 librarians was crazy,” Wiltse said. “We were pretty confident that that was a low point that really needed attention and needed correcting. And now, here we are.”

From Librarians Continue Disappearing From Chicago Schools | WBEZ

This past spring, Google began feeding its natural language algorithm thousands of romance novels in an effort to humanize its “conversational tone.” The move did so much to fire the collective comic imagination that the ensuing hilarity muffled any serious commentary on its symbolic importance. The jokes, as they say, practically wrote themselves. But, after several decades devoted to task-specific “smart” technologies (GPS, search engine optimization, data mining), Google’s decision points to a recovered interest among the titans of technology in a fully anthropic “general” intelligence, the kind dramatized in recent films such as Her (2013) and Ex Machina (2015). Amusing though it may be, the appeal to romance novels suggests that Silicon Valley is daring to dream big once again.

From Will Reading Romance Novels Make Artificial Intelligence More Human? | JSTOR Daily