Internet

Once Centers Of Soviet Propaganda, Moscow’s Libraries Are Having A ‘Loud’ Revival

Until recently, that culture seemed doomed to become a relic of the analog past. After Russia’s rocky transition from Communism and the rise of the Internet, there seemed little use for the more than 400 city libraries as public spaces fell into neglect and Russians found new sources of information. Unexpectedly, Moscow’s libraries are now experiencing a transformation from musty houses of Soviet propaganda into bustling work spaces for 21st century city-dwellers.

From Once Centers Of Soviet Propaganda, Moscow’s Libraries Are Having A ‘Loud’ Revival : NPR

January 21, 2019 by Internet Libraries

Book sales are up this year over last year, and physical books are thriving

It’s a tale as old as time, or, at least, the internet: None of us are reading any more, the physical book is dead, Amazon has killed the independent bookstore, and it’s all only going to get worse. But this year, the story looks like just that—a fiction. We are buying books—especially the kind with physical pages—and we’re doing so, increasingly, in well-loved indie bookstores.

From Book sales — Quartz

January 16, 2019 by Books Internet

A Survey of the First 20 Years of Research on Semantic Web and Linked Data

ABSTRACT. This paper is a survey of the research topics in the field of Semantic Web, Linked Data
and Web of Data. This study looks at the contributions of this research community over its first
twenty years of existence. Compiling several bibliographical sources and bibliometric indicators, we identify the main research trends and we reference some of their major publications to
provide an overview of that initial period. We conclude with some perspectives for the future
research challenges.

From A Survey of the First 20 Years of Research
on Semantic Web and Linked Data

January 3, 2019 by Internet

Ten Stories That Shaped 2018

As we limp our way into 2019, let’s take a look back at some of the notable library stories from the past year.

10. The Opioid Epidemic Continues

The abuse of narcotics has become so widespread in this country that our average life expectancy has declined as a result. The use of Narcan to treat overdoses occurring in libraries is one way we can contribute to public health.

9. More Fake News

Although political propaganda is nothing new, the growing threat of what has been dubbed “information terrorism,” aided by technological advances in the creation of bogus pieces of reporting, make our role as archivists and educators all the more important.

8. Search Engines are Bigots

The popular book Algorithms of Oppression brought to light something that librarians have long known: “Garbage In, Garbage Out” applies when it comes to aggregating information. Here’s hoping that future generations of AI can unlearn the prejudices of the past.

7. Prison Book Bannings

The majority of Republicans think that higher education is bad for the country. So it’s little wonder that efforts to provide for a literate prison populace have met stiff resistance by those in charge of the prison–industrial complex.

6. Judicial Issues Roundup

Legal cases making headlines in 2018 include: the right to repair; abandonware and Fair Use; the GSU e-reserves case; the Marakesh Treaty; Ebsco and pornography; 3D printing of guns; and moving the Copyright Office out of the Library of Congress.

Honorable Mention

Kudos to John Oliver for donating all proceeds to The Trevor Project and AIDS United from the sales of his bunny book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.

5. A New “Fake Paper” Scandal

There was a split verdict this year over the success of an elaborate sting to publish hoaxes and other dubious scholarship in peer-reviewed humanities journals.

4. Whither Open Access

A proposed European policy that would eventually require journals to make published articles freely available and without an embargo, known as “Plan S,” has won over many Open Access advocates, although not everyone is totally on board with the idea.

3. Eschewing Fines

Several libraries made the news this year by eliminating fees for overdue books.

2. Data Breaches Fuel Privacy Concerns

The Cambridge Analytica scandal and similar exploits have led librarians to carefully examine their own data collection practices. Be on the lookout for a gradual erosion of patron privacy through new tracking mechanisms on the horizon.

1. LGBT Challenges & Drag Queen Story Hours

Amidst the backdrop of a Utah library director banning LGBTQ-themed displays and an Iowa man burning LGBTQ library books, libraries in Louisiana, Kansas, and Texas faced strong criticism for planning childrens’ programs with drag queens, prompting a reasoned blog post titled, “Appeasement Doesn’t Work.”

What was your favorite library story of 2018?

December 14, 2018 by EBooks Google Internet Legal Issues Libraries Privacy Stories Of The Year

Harvard Converts Millions of Legal Documents into Open Data

A new free website spearheaded by the Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School makes available nearly 6.5 million state and federal cases dating from the 1600s to earlier this year, in an initiative that could alter and inform the future availability of similar areas of public-sector big data.

Led by the Lab, which was founded in 2010 as an arena for experimentation and exploration into expanding the role of libraries in the online era, the Caselaw Access Project went live Oct. 29 after five years of discussions, planning and digitization of roughly 100,000 pages per day over two years

From Harvard Converts Millions of Legal Documents into Open Data

November 5, 2018 by Internet Legal Issues Libraries School Libraries

The Library of Congress Launches the National Screening Room, Putting Online Hundreds of Historic Films

The Library of Congress just cut the ribbon on the National Screening Room, an online trove of cinematic goodies, free for the streaming.

Given that the collection spans more than 100 years of cinema history, from 1890-1999, not all of the featured films are in the public domain, but most are, and those are free to download as well as watch.

Archivist Mike Mashon, who heads the Library’s Moving Image Section, identifies the project’s goal as providing the public with a “broad range of historical and cultural audio-visual materials that will enrich education, scholarship and lifelong learning.”

From The Library of Congress Launches the National Screening Room, Putting Online Hundreds of Historic Films | Open Culture

October 18, 2018 by Internet Librarians Libraries

The Internet’s keepers? “Some call us hoarders—I like to say we’re archivists”

The longtime non-profit’s physical space remains easy to comprehend, at least, so Graham starts there. The main operation now runs out of an old church (pews still intact) in San Francisco, with the Internet Archive today employing nearly 200 staffers. The archive also maintains a nearby warehouse for storing physical media—not just books, but things like vinyl records, too. That’s where Graham jokes the main unit of measurement is “shipping container.” The archive gets that much material every two weeks.

The company currently stands as the second-largest scanner of books in the world, next to Google.

From The Internet’s keepers? “Some call us hoarders—I like to say we’re archivists” | Ars Technica

October 7, 2018 by Archives Google Internet

In 1979, a chain email about science fiction spawned the modern internet.

But the message sent to Cerf’s email wasn’t a technical request. And it hadn’t been sent just to him. Instead, an email with the subject line “SF-LOVERS” had been sent to Cerf and his colleagues scattered across the United States. The message asked all of them to respond with a list of their favorite science fiction authors. Because the message had gone out to the entire network, everybody’s answers could then be seen and responded to by everybody else. Users could also choose to send their replies to just one person or a subgroup, generating scores of smaller discussions that eventually fed back into the whole.

About 40 years later, Cerf still recalls this as the moment he realized that the internet would be something more than every other communications technology before it. “It was clear we had a social medium on our hands,” he said.

From In 1979, a chain email about science fiction spawned the modern internet.

October 5, 2018 by Internet

Inside Wayback Machine, the internet’s time capsule

“On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change,” he wrote. “It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours… need to design for change. For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible.”

According to anonymous sources, the Wayback Machine has since become more selective about accepting omission requests.

In a “post-fact” era, where fake news is rampant and basic truths are openly and brazenly disputed, the Wayback Machine is working to preserve a verifiable, unedited record of history — without obstruction.

“If we allow those who control the present to control the past then they control the future,” Kahle told Recode. “Whole newspapers go away. Countries blink on and off. If we want to know what happened 10 years ago, 20 years ago, [the internet] is often the only record.”

From Inside Wayback Machine, the internet’s time capsule

September 30, 2018 by Internet

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