Anderson, from the beginning, wanted people to have access to the complete collection, and wanted much of it digitized and made available online. So she and Fleming reached out to the performing-arts library, which has extensive music collections and artists’ archives. “We were really impressed with the performing-arts people,” Anderson said.
From Lou Reed’s Archive, Coming to the New York Public Library | The New Yorker
In this article I’m going to tell you about five places to ask questions on the Internet. And hopefully you’ll get better answers than I did! I do think these are great places to ask questions, but I don’t know if I ask terrible questions, or since I’m asking at the beginning of the summer my timing is bad, or something else.
From An Experiment In Asking Questions That Mostly Failed. Twice. – ResearchBuzz
Fast forward thirty years. The magic of the bookmobile remains. But the magic has evolved. Whereas the bookmobile of my youth was a place for my imagination to run amok (and today’s bookmobiles still provide this outlet for all), bookmobiles today have changed the way a library connects to the people it serves. Bookmobiles today serve a more effectual purpose than before—but that is not to say bookmobiles of my youth were ineffectual. As a valued part of any library’s arsenal, bookmobiles today help to disseminate information, erase barriers, and equalize opportunity for all patrons—much like in the past, only in different guises today. Bookmobiles today have spawned other mobile outreach vehicles: vans, buses, campers, bicycles, and scooters; and it is within all these different vehicles that a new type of outreach has developed.
From The Relevance of Bookmobiles and Mobile Libraries in 2018 » Public Libraries Online
For centuries, lexicographers have attempted to capture the entire English language. Technology might soon turn this dream into reality – but will it spell the end for dictionaries?
From Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet? | News | The Guardian
There were Internet communities at the time, though they did not much resemble the social media of today – Slashdot, for example. MetaFilter was in its infancy, I believe, and I’m pretty sure Reddit wasn’t born yet. I didn’t spent a lot of time in those communities but as I recall it was fairly open – that is, you did not have a social media group of people with whom you could communicate exclusively. Therefore if you went to a community and tried to get people on board with your Venusian unicorn theory, you might get some interest – but you might also get stomped by astronomers and mythology experts.
From The Problem of Fake News Is Not Recent, But Our Current Internet Ecosystem Is – ResearchBuzz
Because history is a fight we’re having every day. We’re battling to make the truth first by living it, and then by recording and sharing it, and finally, crucially, by preserving it. Without an archive, there is no history.
Can you believe it’s almost 2018? That means it’s time to look back at some of the notable library-related stories from the past year.
10. Librarians Fight Fake News
The problems with fake news caused many of us to revamp our web evaluation handouts into guides for spotting bogus information sources.
9. Elsivier Roundup
Elsivier made several headlines this year, in the form of boycotts and resignations. Their buyout of bepress also raised eyebrows.
In related news, Beall’s List went dark in January.
8. ALA’s Trump Statements
Late last year, many librarians were quick to jump on an initial (and now retracted) press release by the American Library Association about being “ready to work with President-elect Trump.” Recent statements have taken a far more militant tone.
7. Milo’s Book Cancelled
Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos found himself out of a book deal after making pro-pedophilia comments. The use of sensitivity readers and related author edits also made the news this year.
6. Whither the Open Web?
It’s too early to tell what the end of net neutrality will mean for the Internet, although most experts predict it won’t be a good thing.
Bonus: Favorite Presentation
For anyone sick of hearing about how, “during these hardships, it’s time for you to demonstrate your coping skills,” the ACRL talk, Resilience, Grit, and Other Lies: Academic Libraries and the Myth of Resiliency is for you.
5. Remember Electronic Reserve?
I first heard about the Georgia State e-reserve lawsuit in grade school. Well, not quite, but after almost a decade, the case is still open.
4. Chinese Censorship
Both Springer and Cambridge found themselves in hot water this year for agreeing to self-censor parts of their web publications for Chinese readers.
3. Little Free “Libraries” Criticism
An interesting point about those community bookshelves was made recently: they don’t often reside in “book deserts” where the need is greatest.
2. The Opioid Crisis
A staggering number of people die every day from overdoses in the United States. This year, public libraries found themselves on the front lines in the fight against opioid overdoses.
1. The Paradox of Tolerance
In the wake of neo-Nazi protests, librarians found themselves discussing the fine line between protected and hate speech.
What was your favorite story of the year?
Via the Verge, New York Public Library’s CEO and president Anthony Marx and associate director of information policy Greg Cram discuss the issue, explaining exactly which library resources an open internet protects, who would be hurt the most by net neutrality’s rollback, and why handing the internet to ISPs could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
The rollback of net neutrality opens the possibility for ISPs to start to play with how we pay for the internet, but because [it hasn’t] been rolled back yet, we don’t have evidence that they will in fact do those things. It’s a little speculative at this point. I think everyone is speculating a little bit in this. But the indications we got from the ISPs are that there will be paid prioritization and for us, there are specific things that would likely end up in the slow lane.
“Librarians and patrons should not have to tolerate lewd behavior or drug use in public, but limiting what people access online is an anathema to free speech, and antithetical to the free flow of ideas,” FSC executive director Eric Paul Leue said via email. “Filtering software sounds like an easy solution, but we know that such software often casts an egregiously wide net, blocking not only sexually explicit content, but also sexual health information, LGBTQ sites and sites like ours, which contains no sexual imagery whatsoever, but discusses issues relevant to the adult industry.”
From Los Angeles Wants to Filter Out Porn at City Libraries | L.A. Weekly
Now playing at NYC’s Film Forum: Ex Libris NYPL.
Frederick Wiseman cracks open institutions: the military, the insane asylum, the high school, the police, the welfare system, the Paris Opera Ballet, the National Gallery of London, and now – in his 43rd film in 50 years – the New York Public Library, an institution eminently worthy of his immersive style. If you thought libraries are just repositories for books, you’re in for a big, wonderful surprise. The NYPL owns (and makes accessible) millions of images; sponsors lectures by people like Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and Ta-Nehisi Coates; circulates a growing collection of e-books; maintains a vast archive of materials not available online; and gives classes in digital technology. The magnificent Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (and 5th Avenue at 42nd Street) is the spine of the film, but equally vital is the role of branch libraries that act as community centers for civic life.
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