Internet

Record labels forgot these songs existed. One man rescued them

By day, he’s a 41-year-old working in business development for a London law firm. By night, he’s a music industry crusader %u2013 digging up obscure gems and persuading record labels to make them available online.
Over the last six years, he’s been responsible for 725 releases, including tracks by Sting, Cher and Annie Lennox, with a strong bias for late 90s pop acts such as Billie Piper, S Club and A*Teens.
He’ll admit itis a very strange thing to do, but it gives people a lot of happiness so why not?%u201D he tells the BBC.

Record labels forgot these songs existed. One man rescued them

August 29, 2024 by Internet Legal Issues Music

Ten Stories That Shaped 2023

It’s time yet again to take a look back at the memorable library stories from the past year.

Two themes dominated headlines in 2023: attacks on libraries; and the rising implications of generative artificial intelligence.

10. Misplaced Classified Documents

Fallout over politicians from both parties mishandling documents continued to make news early in the year.

9. Attacks on Librarians – Kirk Cameron

In a peculiar bid to paint himself the victim of library policies, Kirk Cameron staged conflicts over his right-wing children’s books and related library events.

8. Generative AI – Audio Books and Music

Continue reading…

December 15, 2023 by AI Censorship Google Internet Legal Issues Libraries Music School Libraries Stories Of The Year

“No one else is saving it”: the fight to protect a historic music collection

The ARChive of Contemporary Music, which houses more than 90m songs and is supported by names such as Martin Scorsese, is in need of a new home

The Arc preserves copies of every recording in all known formats. It has electronically catalogued more than 400,000 sound recordings and digitised 200,000 with the Internet Archive – more than any other public university or private library in America. It also contains more than 3m pieces of material including photos, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera and memorabilia.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/16/archive-of-contemporary-music-new-york

November 16, 2023 by Internet Libraries Music

Shining a Light on the Digital Dark Age – Without maintenance, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades

Shining a Light on the Digital Dark Age
Without maintenance, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades. How might we secure our data so that it survives for generations?

The Internet Archive also takes multi-century preservation energy costs into account: “We own and operate and run all our own data centers,” says Bailey. “That’s partly because we’re an archive and don’t want to be dependent on corporate infrastructure, and partly because we can then run less expensive climate control operations.”

September 1, 2023 by Archives Internet Technology

Internet Archive Responds to Recording Industry Lawsuit Targeting Obsolete Media | Internet Archive Blogs

Statement from Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive:“When people want to listen to music they go to Spotify. When people want to study sound recordings as they were originally created, they go to libraries like the Internet Archive. Both are needed. There shouldn’t be conflict here.”

August 15, 2023 by Archives Internet Legal Issues Libraries Music Technology

White House holds first-ever summit on the ransomware crisis plaguing the nation’s public schools and libraries

A pilot proposed by Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel %u2014 yet to be voted on by the agency %u2014 would make $200 million available over three years to strengthen cyber defense in schools and libraries.

%u201CThat%u2019s a drop in the bucket,%u201D said Keith Krueger, CEO of the nonprofit Consortium for School Networking. School districts wrote the FCC last fall asking that it commit much more %u2014 Krueger urged that several hundred million be made available annually from its E-Rate program, which has helped expand broadband internet to schools and libraries across the country since 1997.

White House holds first-ever summit on the ransomware crisis plaguing the nation’s public schools

August 10, 2023 by Internet Libraries School Libraries Technology

Behold a Digitization of “The Most Beautiful of All Printed Books,” The Kelmscott Chaucer | Open Culture

Behold a Digitization of “The Most Beautiful of All Printed Books” The Kelmscott Chaucer

The Kelmscott Chaucer Online.

The history of the printed book stretches back well over a millennium, the title of the oldest known book currently being held by a Tang Dynasty work of the Diamond Sutra. But what about the most beautiful book? As a contender for that spot, Michael Goodman (previously featured here on Open Culture for his projects on the illustrations of Shakespeare and Dickens) has put forth the Kelmscott Chaucer, including the testimony of no less a literary figure than W.B. Yeats, who called it “the most beautiful of all printed books.” Goodman has also made the book freely available for our perusal on his new web site, The Kelmscott Chaucer Online.

August 5, 2023 by Books Internet

Ten Stories That Shaped 2022

It’s again time (for the 20th time!) for a look back at the notable library stories from the last year.

The Good

10. Lizzo at LOC

In September, Lizzo toured the Library of Congress, stopping to play a crystal flute that once belonged to James Madison.

9. New Federal Open Access Memo

In August, another federal policy guideline was released encouraging publishers "to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost."

8. More Institutions End Late Fees

Libraries continue to drop the policy of assessing late fees for books returned past their due date.

7. Controlled Digital Lending Gains Support

News flash: libraries are allowed to lend books. And there is no legal provision restricting the format for doing so. Controlled Digital Lending makes use of this, although the practice faces challenges.

The Bad

6. WorldCat Monopoly Continues

After making waves by announcing a new, free shared catalog service called "MetaDoor," Clarivate responded to a lawsuit against the plan from OCLC by shuttering the project.

5. Theft of Presidential Documents

Unless you were hiding under a rock this year, you heard the story of a certain former President making off with confidential records.

4. Library Vendors and Surveillance Capitalism

The practices of several companies in the library industry also profiting from the monetization of personal data have made for an uneasy mix with privacy advocates.

The Ugly

3. E-Book Licensing Hits Snags

Multiple efforts to curtail publisher moves at making more restrictive electronic book agreements, including in Connecticut, Maryland, and New York, resulted in limited success.

2. Labor Disputes Aplenty

As documented in multiple reports and studies, library workers are enduring many hostilities in their working environments. It’s little wonder, then, that many worker movements happened in response this year, including in Illinois, Texas, and Washington.

1. Book Bannings Continue

The ongoing and very widespread challenges to library materials is again this year’s top story. How has your library been impacted?

December 15, 2022 by EBooks Internet Legal Issues Libraries Privacy Stories Of The Year

Ten Stories That Shaped 2021

How time flies! Once again we look back at the memorable events of the past year.

10. More Libraries End Late Fines

Libraries continue to make headlines for discontinuing the assessment of financial penalties for returning books late. Not only does this practice help get overdue books returned, it promotes equitable access to library collections.

9. Cape Town Library Damaged by Fire

In April, a fire partially destroyed the main library at the University of Cape Town. Recovery efforts are still underway.

8. Taylor Swift…?

Not one but two copyright stories this year involved Taylor Swift: the dubious practice of the police playing her songs to avoid being live streamed, and the musician having to re-record her hits in order to regain ownership of them.

The Lighter Side: "Library Rap" Raises Eyebrows

All I can say about this story is to watch the video yourself, if you can get through it.

7. University of California Re-Ups with Elsevier

After a long standoff over pricing and author rights, the University of California agreed to again subscribe to the for-profit publisher’s titles.

6. Supply Chain Issues in Publishing

Shipping delays and understaffing hit many economic sectors this year, and the books trade was no exception.

5. "Illegal Aliens" LCSH Retired

After over a decade of controversy, the Library of Congress approved a change to their "Illegal Aliens" subject heading in November, replacing it with the terms "Noncitizens" and "Illegal Immigration," prompting an outcry from Senator Ted Cruz.

Dishonorable Mention: NFTs

Librarians are all too familiar with the contrived scarcity imposed on electronic formats by commercial interests. This year, the hype train that is non-fungible tokens reached fever pitch, causing concerns over their environmental impact.

4. Controlled Digital Lending

Whither libraries in the Internet Age? One answer is the use of metered circulation mechanisms that allow for libraries to "lend" electronic copies of materials. Commercial publishers, unsurprisingly, would prefer to set their own prices.

3. Cancel/Consequence Culture

The publishing industry has always had its fair share of scandals. This year’s controversies involved Josh Hawley, Doctor Seuss, Alex Gino, Alice Sebold, Captain Underpants, and Phillip Roth.

2. Covid Exacerbated by Misinformation

Ahmed Baba describes the situation perfectly: "It’s important to directly state that Republicans and right-wing media have spent this year blatantly sabotaging Biden’s COVID response while simultaneously criticizing him for not getting COVID totally under control. It’s a deliberate strategy and it’s unfortunately working."

1. Book Banning Intensifies

This perennial entry takes the top spot this year due to the drastic rise (or "dramatic uptick," to quote the ALA) in challenges led by conservatives to library books.

What was your favorite library story of 2021?

December 15, 2021 by Books Censorship EBooks Internet Legal Issues Librarians Libraries Music School Libraries Stories Of The Year

Ten Stories That Shaped 2020

Here’s my annual look back at some of the notable library headlines from this year. Can you guess what number one is?

10. News Flash: Prejudice Still Exists

The problem of algorithms propagating bias continues to be an important issue in our field.

9. More Elsevier Cancellations

Following the University of California’s break with their expensive subscription costs in 2019, other libraries have joined the cause.

8. The USPS Slowdown

As libraries rely upon the mail for many services, such as interlibrary loan, the problems with the postal service before the election was a story worth following.

Honorable Mention: Curbside Videos

On the lighter side, several libraries created innovative marketing materials for their adjusted pick-up procedures due to COVID-19.

7. Scandals Roundup

Issues attracting bad publicity this year included the beleaguered American Dirt release; former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh’s fraud conviction; the removal of Gone with the Wind from the airwaves; the weeding process at New Zealand’s National Library; toner theft from the Austin library; and J.K. Rowling’s dubious attempt to convince people that transgender people can be criminals by penning a novel featuring a transgender criminal.

6. Proctorio’s Bonkers Surveillance Practices

Online test taking had a bit of a moment this year, for obvious reasons. The methods employed by exam proctoring software, however, have raised several eyebrows.

5. The Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library

Due to the closure of many physical library buildings, the nonprofit organization running the digital library at archive.org opened its texts for free viewing, much to the chagrin of commercial publishers. An ensuing lawsuit had the desired effect: the project was shut down. The fair use practice of online story hours faced similar threats.

Dishonorable Mention: Bad Patron Behavior

Librarians adjusting their service models due to the pandemic this year were often challenged by patrons with unrealistic and uninformed expectations about how libraries should be operating, not to mention blatant acts of rudeness.

4. Vaccine Hunt Fraught with IP Issues

Ah, capitalism. The search for a COVID-19 vaccine was driven, and perhaps hindered by, interests of those seeking to monetize the cure.

3. Bookstores Challenge Amazon

Amazon reaped in record profits this year, while several brick-and-mortar stores closed their doors for good. The efforts of Bookshop.org to compete with the retail giant received some much needed attention.

2. Misinformation Endangers Lives, Democracy

Conspiracy theories about the coronavirus abounded this year, causing an untold number of unnecessary deaths. And earlier this month, a poll of Republican congressman discovered that just ten percent of them will say who won the presidential election. As for librarians, if our mission is to slay ignorance, our role in combating bad information remains unclear.

1. #closethelibraries due to COVID-19

With a few notable exceptions, library leaders were excessively slow to shut down their buildings in order to protect the health of their workers and clientele. A campaign to close the libraries spread before many of the closures finally occurred. How libraries will reopen in 2021 is yet to be seen.

What was your favorite story of 2020?

December 15, 2020 by Books EBooks Harry Potter Internet Legal Issues Libraries

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