Blake

Georgia Tech Discovers How Mobile Ads Leak Personal Data

Researchers found that 73 percent of ad impressions for 92 percent of users are correctly aligned with their demographic profiles. Researchers also found that, based on ads shown, a mobile app developer could learn a user’s:

gender with 75 percent accuracy,
parental status with 66 percent accuracy,
age group with 54 percent accuracy, and
could also predict income, political affiliation, marital status, with higher accuracy than random guesses.

From Georgia Tech Discovers How Mobile Ads Leak Personal Data

Researchers found that 73 percent of ad impressions for 92 percent of users are correctly aligned with their demographic profiles. Researchers also found that, based on ads shown, a mobile app developer could learn a user’s:

gender with 75 percent accuracy,
parental status with 66 percent accuracy,
age group with 54 percent accuracy, and
could also predict income, political affiliation, marital status, with higher accuracy than random guesses.

From Georgia Tech Discovers How Mobile Ads Leak Personal Data

February 25, 2016 by Blake Uncategorized

Baltimore librarian Carla Hayden nominated as Librarian of Congress: Will her Patriot Act opposition get in the way?

Carla Hayden is President Obama’s nominee for Librarian of Congress. She is CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, an African-American and a former president of the American Library Association.

What a contrast to James Billington, the long-time librarian who retired last year and was temporarily replaced by Acting Librarian David Mao. Billington’s background is from academia. He was not a professional librarian. What’s more, he was so far out of touch that he preferred fax to e-mail; and for the most part, this Reagan-era leftover hated e-books.

From Baltimore librarian Carla Hayden nominated as Librarian of Congress: Will her Patriot Act opposition get in the way? – TeleRead News: E-books, publishing, tech and beyond

Carla Hayden is President Obama’s nominee for Librarian of Congress. She is CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, an African-American and a former president of the American Library Association.

What a contrast to James Billington, the long-time librarian who retired last year and was temporarily replaced by Acting Librarian David Mao. Billington’s background is from academia. He was not a professional librarian. What’s more, he was so far out of touch that he preferred fax to e-mail; and for the most part, this Reagan-era leftover hated e-books.

From Baltimore librarian Carla Hayden nominated as Librarian of Congress: Will her Patriot Act opposition get in the way? – TeleRead News: E-books, publishing, tech and beyond

LIBRARIES NEED TO PRIORITIZE PATRON PRIVACY & SECURITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Over the past few months, we have been approached by groups leading a charge to recognize patron security and privacy as an important part of library purchasing responsibility. The facts are that many of the platforms licensed by libraries today do not prioritize and sometimes neglect basic steps to ensure libraries can protect patron security and privacy. The reason is simple: Libraries do not demand it.

From LIBRARIES NEED TO PRIORITIZE PATRON PRIVACY & SECURITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD — Medium

Over the past few months, we have been approached by groups leading a charge to recognize patron security and privacy as an important part of library purchasing responsibility. The facts are that many of the platforms licensed by libraries today do not prioritize and sometimes neglect basic steps to ensure libraries can protect patron security and privacy. The reason is simple: Libraries do not demand it.

From LIBRARIES NEED TO PRIORITIZE PATRON PRIVACY & SECURITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD — Medium

February 24, 2016 by Blake Libraries Privacy

Charting Literary Classics’ Punctuation, From Austen to Twain

Calhoun was curious to see how the punctuation in his favorite books stacked up, so he wrote a script that strips the words from the pages. Next to Rougeux’s swirling posters, Calhoun’s visualizations are less abstract, more straightforward. In one, he simply leaves them as-is—a block of periods, commas and dashes in all their geometric, grammatical beauty. In another, he assigns each glyph a color, creating glowing heatmaps that show which marks are most prevalent.

From Charting Literary Classics’ Punctuation, From Austen to Twain | WIRED

Calhoun was curious to see how the punctuation in his favorite books stacked up, so he wrote a script that strips the words from the pages. Next to Rougeux’s swirling posters, Calhoun’s visualizations are less abstract, more straightforward. In one, he simply leaves them as-is—a block of periods, commas and dashes in all their geometric, grammatical beauty. In another, he assigns each glyph a color, creating glowing heatmaps that show which marks are most prevalent.

From Charting Literary Classics’ Punctuation, From Austen to Twain | WIRED

February 24, 2016 by Blake Uncategorized

Fully Implement ESSA School Library Provisions

FULLY IMPLEMENT ESSA SCHOOL LIBRARY PROVISIONS
School librarians are on the front lines of librarianship. For many young minds they are the first contact with both librarians and libraries and provide the kinds of opportunities for imaginative exploration that libraries freely and democratically provide through their books, programs, and services. Children are allowed to explore literature and new ideas freely in school libraries while also developing a love of reading and strong skills in literacy that will help them throughout their life.

From Fully Implement ESSA School Library Provisions – EveryLibrary

FULLY IMPLEMENT ESSA SCHOOL LIBRARY PROVISIONS
School librarians are on the front lines of librarianship. For many young minds they are the first contact with both librarians and libraries and provide the kinds of opportunities for imaginative exploration that libraries freely and democratically provide through their books, programs, and services. Children are allowed to explore literature and new ideas freely in school libraries while also developing a love of reading and strong skills in literacy that will help them throughout their life.

From Fully Implement ESSA School Library Provisions – EveryLibrary

February 24, 2016 by Blake Librarians Libraries School Libraries

Libraries are for reading not knitting

Warnings about libraries spreading their resources too thin are partly based on the fact that book funds are in decline. But the real issue here is that society finds it difficult to take the authority of knowledge seriously. It cannot find any justification for quiet spaces and rows of bookshelves. The trust’s emphasis on extracurricular activities undermines the purpose of libraries – that is, to foster independence and self-realisation.

It seems the Carnegie Trust no longer wants us to read books – it would rather we drank tea and ate biscuits instead.

From Libraries are for reading not knitting – The Future Cities project

Warnings about libraries spreading their resources too thin are partly based on the fact that book funds are in decline. But the real issue here is that society finds it difficult to take the authority of knowledge seriously. It cannot find any justification for quiet spaces and rows of bookshelves. The trust’s emphasis on extracurricular activities undermines the purpose of libraries – that is, to foster independence and self-realisation.

It seems the Carnegie Trust no longer wants us to read books – it would rather we drank tea and ate biscuits instead.

From Libraries are for reading not knitting – The Future Cities project

February 23, 2016 by Blake Libraries

The Unruly Pleasures of the Mid-Manhattan Library

In recent years, there has been much talk about what to do with the various library branches as they continue to adapt to the digital era. Originally, the Mid-Manhattan was due to be sold and its services moved into a fully renovated main building. Now those controversial plans have been scrapped in favor of a new “Midtown Campus Renovation,” and the Mid-Manhattan has been tapped for an overhaul, with designs set to be unveiled later this year, and completed by 2019. The carpets could certainly use a good cleaning, and it would be nice if the elevators and climate control worked better, but I hope the revamp won’t alter the branch’s freewheeling energy.

From The Unruly Pleasures of the Mid-Manhattan Library – The New Yorker

In recent years, there has been much talk about what to do with the various library branches as they continue to adapt to the digital era. Originally, the Mid-Manhattan was due to be sold and its services moved into a fully renovated main building. Now those controversial plans have been scrapped in favor of a new “Midtown Campus Renovation,” and the Mid-Manhattan has been tapped for an overhaul, with designs set to be unveiled later this year, and completed by 2019. The carpets could certainly use a good cleaning, and it would be nice if the elevators and climate control worked better, but I hope the revamp won’t alter the branch’s freewheeling energy.

From The Unruly Pleasures of the Mid-Manhattan Library – The New Yorker

February 23, 2016 by Blake Librarians Libraries

IFLA 2016 President’s Meeting – Call to Action: Building the Change Agenda for the Information Profession

Call to Action: Building the Change Agenda for the Information Profession
IFLA President’s Meeting: Donna Scheeder
Thursday/Friday April 7-8, 2016 with Welcome Reception; Pre & Post Library Tours, April 6 & 9

This two day summit focuses on the exploration of building the change agenda at the global, national, institutional and personal level. It brings together leading thinkers, information professionals, and experienced practitioners from different segments of the library and information services community who represent efforts to address new directions needed as a result of societal trends reflecting both regional and library sector perspectives. Engage with public, academic, and institutional librarians as well as library educators, creative and critical makers, futurists, and others in conversation about the change agenda for the information profession.

From IFLA 2016 President’s Meeting – Home

Call to Action: Building the Change Agenda for the Information Profession
IFLA President’s Meeting: Donna Scheeder
Thursday/Friday April 7-8, 2016 with Welcome Reception; Pre & Post Library Tours, April 6 & 9

This two day summit focuses on the exploration of building the change agenda at the global, national, institutional and personal level. It brings together leading thinkers, information professionals, and experienced practitioners from different segments of the library and information services community who represent efforts to address new directions needed as a result of societal trends reflecting both regional and library sector perspectives. Engage with public, academic, and institutional librarians as well as library educators, creative and critical makers, futurists, and others in conversation about the change agenda for the information profession.

From IFLA 2016 President’s Meeting – Home

February 20, 2016 by Blake Libraries

web application that runs the inlibraries.com website

inlibraries.com
Flask web application that runs the inlibraries.com website

The application generates a random library conference website based on the subdomain of the request URL. Underscores in the subdomain will be replaced with spaces.

Examples:

http://badgers.inlibraries.com
http://rabid_badgers.inlibraries.com

From inlibraries.com/README.md at master · waharnum/inlibraries.com

inlibraries.com
Flask web application that runs the inlibraries.com website

The application generates a random library conference website based on the subdomain of the request URL. Underscores in the subdomain will be replaced with spaces.

Examples:

http://badgers.inlibraries.com
http://rabid_badgers.inlibraries.com

From inlibraries.com/README.md at master · waharnum/inlibraries.com

February 20, 2016 by Blake Internet Libraries

Black Lives Matter ‘color-only’ rule runs afoul of Nashville library

Nashville Public Library officials have told Nashville’s chapter of Black Lives Matter that meetings that welcome only people of color can’t take place inside the city’s libraries.

That decision has outraged members of Black Lives Matter, who say the library canceled all future meetings the group had organized for later this month.

From Black Lives Matter ‘color-only’ rule runs afoul of Nashville library

February 20, 2016 by Blake Librarians Libraries