Technology

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 Technology

Stephen King: My Books Were Used to Train AI

My Books Were Used to Train AI

I have said in one of my few forays into nonfiction (On Writing) that you can’t learn to write unless you’re a reader, and unless you read a lot. AI programmers have apparently taken this advice to heart. Because the capacity of computer memory is so large—everything I ever wrote could fit on one thumb drive, a fact that never ceases to blow my mind—these programmers can dump thousands of books into state-of-the-art digital blenders. Including, it seems, mine. The real question is whether you get a sum that’s greater than the parts, when you pour back out.

August 24, 2023 by AI Authors 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 Technology

The Smithsonian Will Restore Hundreds of the World’s Oldest Sound Recordings

The Smithsonian Will Restore Hundreds of the World’s Oldest Sound Recordings
They were made by Alexander Graham Bell and his fellow researchers between 1881 and 1892

“Over the three-year duration of this remarkable project, ‘Hearing History: Recovering Sound from Alexander Graham Bell’s Experimental Records,’ we will preserve and make accessible for the first time about 300 recordings that have been in the museum’s collections for over a century, unheard by anyone,” says Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan director, in a statement. The new initiative will begin in the fall.

January 18, 2023 by Technology

It Really Does Take a Village – Learn About It Takes a Village and How Samvera and Fedora Are Using It In Their Sustainability Planning

Long-term sustainability planning is something that poses a unique challenge for many open source programs. These programs are often funded and supported in ways that do not give appropriate consideration to the long-term sustainability of the applications and their communities. The It Takes a Village (ITAV) framework was created to give OSS communities, like Samvera and Fedora, the tools and information needed to begin the planning process for their futures. Through a series of guided activities, ITAV presents program participants with the opportunity to look both inward and outward to evaluate what is working and what is not and how to take actionable steps forward.
This panel will outline the ITAV framework and explain the process for using the tools from within the toolkit. Megan Forbes will provide background and process. Panelists include Heather Greer Klein, Community Manager at Samvera and Arran Griffith, Program Manager at Fedora. Heather and Arran will share their experiences participating in ITAV and showcase some of the activities they have used. They will highlight and share the lessons learned while undergoing the process for each of their own program%u2019s sustainability planning.

It Really Does Take a Village – Learn About It Takes a Village and How Samvera and Fedora Are Using It In Their Sustainability Planning

January 6, 2023 by Announcements Technology

Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots

Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots

After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, all bets were off for live musicians who played in movie theaters. Thanks to synchronized sound, the use of live musicians was unnecessary — and perhaps a larger sin, old-fashioned. In 1930 the American Federation of Musicians formed a new organization called the Music Defense League and launched a scathing ad campaign to fight the advance of this terrible menace known as recorded sound.

January 2, 2023 by Technology

Seattle Public Librarians Just Want to Read You Stories – Slog – The Stranger

The Lit Line (206-386-4656) isn’t necessarily a newfangled idea, SPL librarian Robin Rousu told me. It’s pretty old. Rousu has been a librarian with SPL for 15 years. She used to run the Dial-a-Story program where kids were encouraged to call a number to get a story read to them. That program was built around the idea of landlines. So, naturally, it’s since faded from relevance. But, the infrastructure and the idea were perfect for the COVID-19 era.

 

From: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/07/22/44139355/seattle-public-librarians-just-want-to-read-you-stories Seattle Public Librarians Just Want to Read You Stories – Slog – The Stranger

July 23, 2020 by Books Librarians Public Libraries Technology 0

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