Blake

Online legal publishers squabble over the right to copyright the law

Two big-name legal research companies are battling in federal court over the right to exclusively publish the law—in this case, the Georgia Administrative Rules and Regulations.

The lawsuit (PDF) comes as states across the nation partner with legal research companies to offer exclusive publishing and licensing deals for digitizing and making available online the states’ reams of laws and regulations. The only problem is that the law is not copyrightable—or so says one of the publishers involved in the Georgia litigation.

From Online legal publishers squabble over the right to copyright the law | Ars Technica

Maker kit program turns libraries into places for content creation, not just consumption

Librarianship is a funny profession–the day is often a mixture of hokey jokes from people who haven’t been in a library in years, and strategizing ways to implement robotics and computer coding into programs for everybody from preschoolers to seniors. When people see what libraries actually get up to these days, they’re almost always surprised. So many people in America depend on their libraries to help them forward when it comes to technology, and lots of libraries have answered that call with aplomb, learning as they go.

From Maker kit program turns libraries into places for content creation, not just consumption | KnightBlog

February 12, 2016 by Blake Libraries School Libraries

Open-source textbooks gain in push for college affordability

An early adopter of open source textbooks, Neth said he turned to the new technology out of frustration with spiraling prices of commercial textbooks.
“It’s seeing the costs go up every semester and almost feeling powerless,” Neth said.
Universities and state governments are lining up behind the cause as a way to make college more affordable. The open textbooks, produced with publicly available material, are issued to students for free or a small fraction of the hundreds of dollars they typically spend annually on books.

From Open-source textbooks gain in push for college affordability

February 12, 2016 by Blake Academic Libraries Books

Library freedom, free speech and the freedom to tinker

But, we’re not as great at dealing with our patrons’ digital interactions. We’re not as great at making sure their web transactions are secure, we’re not as great at making sure their wifi transactions are secure, that they can browse the internet securely. And so there’s this awesome project called the Library Freedom Project, which is all about raising awareness about that issue, number one, but number two actually giving libraries the tools that they need in order to do this. I mean we’re a democracy and so part of that is that everybody is equal to every other person. And you deserve, you know, the same rights to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, that kind of thing, as everybody else gets. But in reality we’re a very tiered system where people who are more rich or more powerful have access to more and better services, more and better access to things, to tools, to jobs — as well, to obscure stuff like privacy.

From Library freedom, free speech and the freedom to tinker — Medium

February 11, 2016 by Blake Censorship Internet Librarians Libraries

Why Alabama plans to use schools, libraries to fill broadband coverage gaps

And that’s by targeting secondary education. By working with 35 school districts across the state, the Office of Broadband Development will use the Federal Communication Commission’s E-rate Modernization Order, which makes it possible for schools and libraries to construct and operate their own fiber networks. The districts will make competitive bids, and if their needs qualify as more cost-effective than lit services, they can take advantage of the match-rate program.
“Through this program, if the state will help pay required match, the FCC will kick in an additional 10 percent, making it possible for schools and libraries to build and own their fiber network that is paid for up to 90 percent with federal funds,” Johnson said. “This offer was made available due to the high cost of getting adequate connectivity to schools and libraries.”

From Why Alabama plans to use schools, libraries to fill broadband coverage gaps – Birmingham Business Journal

February 11, 2016 by Blake American Library Association Libraries School Libraries

Come Talk Security And Privacy At ALA Annual!

LITA Preconferences: Friday, June 24, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Digital Privacy and Security: Keeping You And Your Library Safe and Secure In A Post-Snowden World

Orlando Convention Center,
Presenters: Blake Carver, LYRASIS and Jessamyn West, Library Technologist at Open Library

Learn strategies on how to make you, your librarians and your patrons more secure & private in a world of ubiquitous digital surveillance and criminal hacking. We’ll teach tools that keep your data safe inside of the library and out — how to secure your library network environment, website, and public PCs, as well as tools and tips you can teach to patrons in computer classes and one-on-one tech sessions. We’ll tackle security myths, passwords, tracking, malware, and more, covering a range of tools from basic to advanced, making this session ideal for any library staff.

From LITA Highlights at 2016 ALA Annual Conference | Library Information Technology Association (LITA)

February 11, 2016 by Blake American Library Association Libraries Privacy

Project Seeks to Preserve the Digital Scholarly Record

“None of the individual institutions, including UVA, had a model that committed to long-term preservation solutions,” Sites said. “We each had a model in which we were keeping content until it broke, and we were faced with questions of how to preserve the digital works of our scholars for the long term.”

From Project Seeks to Preserve the Digital Scholarly Record | UVA Today

February 11, 2016 by Blake Uncategorized

Deficit Threatens Stability of University of California

The chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, said Wednesday that the university had a “substantial and growing” deficit that could threaten its long-term stability and that it needed to reduce expenses and raise revenues to maintain its position as a premier public institution.

From Deficit Threatens Stability of University of California, Berkeley, Official Says – The New York Times

February 11, 2016 by Blake Academic Libraries

Fistfights and Beggars: Found Street Life in Old Prints

All we see of teh bridge though is is decking, though we do see a huge rise, which gives us a hint of teh bridge’s nature–it turns out that this is the oldest elliptic arch bridge in the world. While the architecture is beautiful and teh perspective intersting, teh characters populzting the foreground are sometimes even more interesting. In general figures like this were used to take up empty bits of space and to provide perspective, and were depicted in the standard ways in which walking/riding humans are represented. In this case, however, there is a lot of social drama going on amidst the simple space fillers.

From JF Ptak Science Books: Fistfights and Beggars: Found Street Life in Old Prints (1757)

February 11, 2016 by Blake EBooks

On the Merits of Disturbing Literature

Yet I do not only want the reader to fear for Elsie. I tried to both intensify and relieve that fear by placing it alongside the hope that Elsie will heed the best in herself, as she is, intermittently, able to do. Elsie’s journey does not ultimately paint a disturbing portrait of life. Rather, Wreck and Order sets a young woman’s disturbing behavior against her attunement to the “countless earthly riches” of having a body and a mind, showing how difficult and how necessary it is to honor the simple and the good.

From On the Merits of Disturbing Literature