From The Philadelphia Inquirer a question many library workers have to answer these days.
December 2017
The Future Library
A few years ago, in a forest just outside of Oslo, 1000 trees were planted. In 2114, after a century of growth, the trees will be cut down and made into paper for an anthology of books. Meet the Future Library, an artwork by Katie Paterson.
From The Future Library
2018 Microsoft ebook predictions
In 1999 Microsoft made a series of predictions about the upcoming 20 years and ebooks. There was a prediction about 2018. See all the predictions here.
Ten Stories That Shaped 2017
Can you believe it’s almost 2018? That means it’s time to look back at some of the notable library-related stories from the past year.
10. Librarians Fight Fake News
The problems with fake news caused many of us to revamp our web evaluation handouts into guides for spotting bogus information sources.
9. Elsivier Roundup
Elsivier made several headlines this year, in the form of boycotts and resignations. Their buyout of bepress also raised eyebrows.
In related news, Beall’s List went dark in January.
8. ALA’s Trump Statements
Late last year, many librarians were quick to jump on an initial (and now retracted) press release by the American Library Association about being “ready to work with President-elect Trump.” Recent statements have taken a far more militant tone.
7. Milo’s Book Cancelled
Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos found himself out of a book deal after making pro-pedophilia comments. The use of sensitivity readers and related author edits also made the news this year.
6. Whither the Open Web?
It’s too early to tell what the end of net neutrality will mean for the Internet, although most experts predict it won’t be a good thing.
Bonus: Favorite Presentation
For anyone sick of hearing about how, “during these hardships, it’s time for you to demonstrate your coping skills,” the ACRL talk, Resilience, Grit, and Other Lies: Academic Libraries and the Myth of Resiliency is for you.
5. Remember Electronic Reserve?
I first heard about the Georgia State e-reserve lawsuit in grade school. Well, not quite, but after almost a decade, the case is still open.
4. Chinese Censorship
Both Springer and Cambridge found themselves in hot water this year for agreeing to self-censor parts of their web publications for Chinese readers.
3. Little Free “Libraries” Criticism
An interesting point about those community bookshelves was made recently: they don’t often reside in “book deserts” where the need is greatest.
2. The Opioid Crisis
A staggering number of people die every day from overdoses in the United States. This year, public libraries found themselves on the front lines in the fight against opioid overdoses.
1. The Paradox of Tolerance
In the wake of neo-Nazi protests, librarians found themselves discussing the fine line between protected and hate speech.
What was your favorite story of the year?
What Public Libraries Will Lose Without Net Neutrality
Via the Verge, New York Public Library’s CEO and president Anthony Marx and associate director of information policy Greg Cram discuss the issue, explaining exactly which library resources an open internet protects, who would be hurt the most by net neutrality’s rollback, and why handing the internet to ISPs could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
The rollback of net neutrality opens the possibility for ISPs to start to play with how we pay for the internet, but because [it hasn’t] been rolled back yet, we don’t have evidence that they will in fact do those things. It’s a little speculative at this point. I think everyone is speculating a little bit in this. But the indications we got from the ISPs are that there will be paid prioritization and for us, there are specific things that would likely end up in the slow lane.
Stolen Car Crashes into Southwest Side Chicago Library
A 14-year-old boy was shot while riding in a stolen car Tuesday night on the Southwest Side, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a public library, according to Chicago police.
The Scion crashed into the Chicago Lawn Library in the 6100 block of South Kedzie Avenue, sending books, wooden tables and glass flying. The car came to rest in the middle of a large room of the library, breaking out its glass windows.
Scientific Search Engines Are Getting More Powerful | WIRED
But most science is still paywalled. More than three quarters of published journal articles—114 million on the World Wide Web alone, by one (lowball) estimate—are only available if you are affiliated with an institution that can afford pricey subscriptions or you can swing $40-per-article fees. In the last several years, though, scientists have made strides to loosen the grip of giant science publishers. They skip over the lengthy peer review process mediated by the big journals and just … post. Review comes after. The paywall isn’t crumbling, but it might be eroding. The open science movement, with its free distribution of articles before their official publication, is a big reason.
From Scientific Search Engines Are Getting More Powerful | WIRED
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