Free speech is under attack in three ways. First, repression by governments has increased. Second, a worrying number of non-state actors are enforcing censorship by assassination. Third, the idea has spread that people and groups have a right not to be offended. “Never try to silence views with which you disagree. Answer objectionable speech with more speech. Win the argument without resorting to force. And grow a tougher hide.” http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21699909-curbs-free-speech-are-growing-tighter-it-time-speak-out-under-attack
Blake
Robotic librarians hit the books in Singapore
This autonomous robotic shelf-scanning (AuRoSS) platform scans RFID tags on the books and produces a report. In the morning, the human librarians can check the results and can easily see which books are in the wrong spot and where they belong. There’s still a need for human labor, but it’s far less time-consuming than manually searching every shelf for misplaced titles.
The best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture
Unlike fiction, nonfiction is not a genre. It’s a headache. Compiling 100 great books of nonfiction in English takes the reader into a universe of titles unrestricted by the limitations of a canon or the strictures of critical theory. Anything goes – so long as it’s in English (once again, to keep things manageable, we have excluded translations).
From The best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture | Books | The Guardian
Unlike fiction, nonfiction is not a genre. It’s a headache. Compiling 100 great books of nonfiction in English takes the reader into a universe of titles unrestricted by the limitations of a canon or the strictures of critical theory. Anything goes – so long as it’s in English (once again, to keep things manageable, we have excluded translations).
From The best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture | Books | The Guardian
Why Libraries Have So Many Toys
I’d had it. I called my library branch to ask them why on earth they lumped those dingy virus-hosting toys with all the magnificent books. I half-expected to get a nodding librarian on the other end, lamenting the end of childhood imagination and cursing the downfall of humanity as we know it. Instead, I was told this was “a new trend in libraries,” and that in my city, upwards of 14 institutions now have similar “play spaces.”
In fact, many are now loaning out toys like they do books.
Fine. But when I asked why the toys were set out in the open, it was as if I asked for documentation to prove elementary school is actually educational. The librarian went on about the importance of play in early childhood learning.
From Why Libraries Have So Many Toys | POPSUGAR Moms
I’d had it. I called my library branch to ask them why on earth they lumped those dingy virus-hosting toys with all the magnificent books. I half-expected to get a nodding librarian on the other end, lamenting the end of childhood imagination and cursing the downfall of humanity as we know it. Instead, I was told this was “a new trend in libraries,” and that in my city, upwards of 14 institutions now have similar “play spaces.”
In fact, many are now loaning out toys like they do books.
Fine. But when I asked why the toys were set out in the open, it was as if I asked for documentation to prove elementary school is actually educational. The librarian went on about the importance of play in early childhood learning.
How Are Libraries Doing Around the World?
The Annual Library Budget Survey, a global study that queries 686 senior librarians about their budget spending predictions for the year, was published last week by the Publishers Communication Group (PCG), a consultancy wing of Ingenta, the self-described “largest supplier of technology and related services for the publishing industry.” The survey found uneven growth expectations for libraries worldwide.
For North American libraries, the survey was more cautious than optimistic, with librarians in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico expecting only a 1% increase in budget spending. In other developed or “mature markets,” the report says, growth expectations were negative. In Europe, for example, budgets are expected to fall by 0.1%.
Literary Dopplegängers and interestingness
I started this post with a few digital-humanities posturing paragraphs: if you want to read them, you’ll encounter them eventually. But instead let me just get the point: here’s a trite new category of analysis that wouldn’t be possible without distant reading techniques that produces sometimes charmingly serendipitous results.
I’ll call it dopplegänger books. A dopplegänger is, for any world-historically great work of literature, a book that shares many of the same themes, subjects, and language, but is comparatively obscure, not widely read, and–most likely–of surpassingly mediocre quality.
From Sapping Attention: Literary Dopplegängers and interestingness
I started this post with a few digital-humanities posturing paragraphs: if you want to read them, you’ll encounter them eventually. But instead let me just get the point: here’s a trite new category of analysis that wouldn’t be possible without distant reading techniques that produces sometimes charmingly serendipitous results.
I’ll call it dopplegänger books. A dopplegänger is, for any world-historically great work of literature, a book that shares many of the same themes, subjects, and language, but is comparatively obscure, not widely read, and–most likely–of surpassingly mediocre quality.
From Sapping Attention: Literary Dopplegängers and interestingness
DPLA Launches Full Support for HTTPS
DPLA is pleased to announce that the entirety of our website, including our portal, exhibitions, Primary Source Sets, and our API, are now accessible using HTTPS by default. DPLA takes user privacy seriously, and the infrastructural changes that we have made to support HTTPS allows us to extend this dedication further and become signatories of the Library Digital Privacy Pledge of 2015-2016, developed by our colleagues at the Library Freedom Project. The changes we’ve made include the following:
Providing HTTPS versions of all web services that our organization directly controls (including everything under the dp.la domain), for both human and machine consumption,
Automatic redirection for all HTTP requests to HTTPS, and
A caching thumbnail proxy for items provided by the DPLA API and frontend, which serves the images over HTTPS instead of providing them insecurely.
DPLA is pleased to announce that the entirety of our website, including our portal, exhibitions, Primary Source Sets, and our API, are now accessible using HTTPS by default. DPLA takes user privacy seriously, and the infrastructural changes that we have made to support HTTPS allows us to extend this dedication further and become signatories of the Library Digital Privacy Pledge of 2015-2016, developed by our colleagues at the Library Freedom Project. The changes we’ve made include the following:
Providing HTTPS versions of all web services that our organization directly controls (including everything under the dp.la domain), for both human and machine consumption,
Automatic redirection for all HTTP requests to HTTPS, and
A caching thumbnail proxy for items provided by the DPLA API and frontend, which serves the images over HTTPS instead of providing them insecurely.
In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All
“I’ve always thought of libraries as places full of tools. Books are tools, scrolls are tools, computers are tools,” she says. “This vision of bringing technology to everyone in the community, it just gets people very excited.”
Taxpayers didn’t fund this library. Instead, Heritage Services, a coalition of Omaha philanthropists, donated $7 million to renovate the building — which had been a Borders bookstore — and pay for computers, 3-D printers and the Internet bandwidth. Sue Morris speaks for the donors.
From In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All : All Tech Considered : NPR
“I’ve always thought of libraries as places full of tools. Books are tools, scrolls are tools, computers are tools,” she says. “This vision of bringing technology to everyone in the community, it just gets people very excited.”
Taxpayers didn’t fund this library. Instead, Heritage Services, a coalition of Omaha philanthropists, donated $7 million to renovate the building — which had been a Borders bookstore — and pay for computers, 3-D printers and the Internet bandwidth. Sue Morris speaks for the donors.
From In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All : All Tech Considered : NPR
The purposeful change at the heart of librarianship
Adaptation to change that’s based on thoughtful planning and grounded in the mission of libraries: it’s a model that respected LIS thinker and educator Michael Stephens terms “hyperlinked librarianship.” And the result, for librarians in leadership positions as well as those working on the front lines, is flexible librarianship that’s able to stay closely aligned with the needs and wants of library users. Stephens’ new book “The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive, and Purposeful Change,” published by ALA Editions, is a collection of essays from his “Office Hours” columns in Library Journal which explore the issues and emerging trends that are transforming the profession. Among the topics he discusses are:
the importance of accessible, welcoming, and responsive library environments that invite open and equitable participation, and which factors are preventing many libraries from ramping up community engagement and user-focused services;
challenges, developments, and emerging opportunities in the field, including new ways to reach users and harness curiosity;
considerations for prospective librarians, from knowing what you want out of the profession to learning how to aim for it;
why LIS curriculum and teaching styles need to evolve;
mentoring and collaboration; and
the concept of the library as classroom, a participatory space to experiment with new professional roles, new technologies, and new ways of interacting with patrons.
From The purposeful change at the heart of librarianship | News and Press Center
Adaptation to change that’s based on thoughtful planning and grounded in the mission of libraries: it’s a model that respected LIS thinker and educator Michael Stephens terms “hyperlinked librarianship.” And the result, for librarians in leadership positions as well as those working on the front lines, is flexible librarianship that’s able to stay closely aligned with the needs and wants of library users. Stephens’ new book “The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive, and Purposeful Change,” published by ALA Editions, is a collection of essays from his “Office Hours” columns in Library Journal which explore the issues and emerging trends that are transforming the profession. Among the topics he discusses are:
the importance of accessible, welcoming, and responsive library environments that invite open and equitable participation, and which factors are preventing many libraries from ramping up community engagement and user-focused services;
challenges, developments, and emerging opportunities in the field, including new ways to reach users and harness curiosity;
considerations for prospective librarians, from knowing what you want out of the profession to learning how to aim for it;
why LIS curriculum and teaching styles need to evolve;
mentoring and collaboration; and
the concept of the library as classroom, a participatory space to experiment with new professional roles, new technologies, and new ways of interacting with patrons.
From The purposeful change at the heart of librarianship | News and Press Center
How to print things
This page has two main purposes:
To present a new method, the “Möbius method”, for printing and reading double-sided, loose-leaf documents.
To collect and summarize concise explanations of the pros and cons of different methods for printing and reading loose-leaf documents, including single-sided, standard double-sided, and Möbius double-sided. (If you know of other methods, or have anything to add, please contact me!)
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