Dan G.

EPIC 2014 has been circulating on the web for some time now. This flash movie really forces someone to think about media and communication well into the future.

Notice there is the old 2014 version that was actually pretty close on some of its early predictions and a newer, improved 2015 version.

Anonymous Patron writes “Spotlight: S.O.S for Information Literacy announces the premier issue of Educators’ Spotlight Digest, the first multimedia, online magazine dedicated to providing information and ideas to teachers of information literacy skills.

Educators’ Spotlight Digest is edited by Marilyn Arnone, research associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. Ruth V. Small, professor and director of Syracuse University’s Center for Digital Literacy, is associate editor. Educators’ Spotlight Digest, published three times per year, is a free, online publication of S.O.S. for Information Literacy, a project of Syracuse University’s Center for Digital Literacy, in collaboration with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).”

Vacula writes “Crestwood Library Board members have spent $602 to buy themselves police badges and leather badge holders, but they won’t explain why. …more
from the Daily Southtown“

Reminds me of this Unshelved comic from October 14, 2004

coastal writes “I saw the news on Slashdot this morning that hundreds of thousands of medical records belonging to Oregon patients were stolen.

The Slashdot article is here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/27/02 37222&from=lisnews.org
Scathing editorial here:
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/5588 /C426/L426

Unfortunately, poor data security procedures are probably fairly common within the medical industry, except (I hope) in large hospitals. With the coming rush to implement Electronic Medical Records even in small physician practices, theft of data could occur more frequently. EMR is an exciting technology, but I fear that while giving better access, it will give patients less privacy and less control over their own records. If we should ever have such a system as a national EMR share system(and I don’t doubt that we could after billions of dollars and a couple of decades) I see it being used as much by insurance companies to deny claims based on pre-existing conditions, as much as it would be used by doctors to assist in diagnosis, and by patients to manage their own health.

HIPAA. HIPAA is an important effort and I think it has the right idea, but has it actually provided any benefits to patients? Don’t most patients sign a waiver that gives the care provider authorization to release records to basically anyone? Based only on observations, it seems to me that many health care workers see HIPAA regulations as an obstacle to doing their jobs.

Okay, enough ranting. Any medical librarians to the rescue?

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tangognat writes “The Chronicle of Higher Education features an article, Bridging the Chasm: First-Year Students and the Library about strategies to incorporate libraries into the first-year college experience.”

Stephanie Gerding writes “One Stop for New Library Grant Opportunities

For more information on applying for grants, purchase their new Neal-Schuman title, Grants for Libraries. Visit the Library Grants Blog at http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/ for a complete listing of grant opportunities.”

stevenj writes “To go along with several recent items about Peter Morville, author of the book Ambient Findability, those interested in the book and author can find a good interview over at Boxes and Arrows. If you don’t have time to read the book, this interview will at least clue you in about the concept and what Morville thinks is important about it. Read the interview.“

Anonymous Patron writes “Christine Borne announces “After nearly 3 years, I’ve decided not to do NexGen Librarian anymore, as I need to make space in my life for newer projects. I am also looking for someone to take over ownership of the listserv, nexgenlib-l. If that someone should be you, let me know why…NexGen Librarian was very important to me in my early career, but I just have other things to do now. Good luck!””

mdoneil writes “The OpinionJournal piece notes that Kennedy called the the prevaricating student requested “The official Chinese translation of the Communist Manifesto”. That is so wrong in so many ways.

The article gets better when the author quotes Heinlein

These people could “prove” their opinions by quoting any number of Americans and American newspapers and magazines. That they were able to quote such American sources proved just the opposite, namely that we do continue to enjoy free speech even to express arrant nonsense and unpopular opinion, escaped them completely.

I thought it was brilliant and hilarious.”

Kathleen writes “Librarians are encouraged to raise public awareness regarding the many ways in which disinformation and media manipulation are being used to mislead public opinion in all spheres of life. Here again is another example where we must be vigilant.

The Bush administration has been pressuring newspaper editors as reported by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post :
Peter Ferrara of the Institute for Policy Innovation has acknowledged taking payments years ago from a half-dozen lobbyists, including Abramoff…

“There is nothing unethical about taking money from someone and writing an article.”

The ALA encourages its members to help raise public consciousness regarding the many ways in which disinformation and media manipulation are being used to mislead public opinion in all spheres of life, and further encourages librarians to facilitate this awareness with collection development, library programming and public outreach that draws the public’s attention to those alternative sources of information dedicated to countering and revealing the disinformation often purveyed by the mainstream media”