LISNews

As usual, I forgot! 20 years ago on Nov 2nd I brought LISNews online. I can't possibly thank everyone who has helped LISNews over the past 20 years. Steve Glabraith, Steven M Cohen & Nabeal Ahmed, were all instrumental in helping me during the early years (when I needed it most!). We also had a few authors that posted like bloggers possessed and are still with us, BIRDIE especially, and Ieleene, Aaron, Rochelle, and a few other authors who helped out for awhile and moved on. Behind the scenes Joe Frazee helped me get the original LISNews server up and running.

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

If you're reading this you're seeing LISNews on a new server and a new version of Drupal.

I finally spent some time moving LISNews from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 this weekend... what a mess that was! Long story short, the Drupal DB that runs LISNews was a total disaster and was almost unusable.

There's some pretty important things still missing, like all the old podcasts and images, but I'll have those moved soon.

Via Publishers Weekly.

Happy birthday to Blake Carver, our fearless leader!! Please join me in wishing him all the best.
smiling Blake
pensive Blake

This week's program is presented by owner/engineer Mike Kellat as the usual presenter is away.

Related links:

• UK National Libraries Day
• Jessamyn West: Should it be okay to sue librarians for saying your books are bad?

Download here (MP3) (Ogg Vorbis) (Free Lossless Audio Codec), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. We suggest subscribing by way of a service like gpodder.net.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

This week's program deals with Wikipedia hoaxing, an Internet icon, and a miscellany of brief items.

Related links:

• The Daily Mail: The war that never was: Most elaborate Wikipedia hoax ever as 4,500 word article on 'Bicholim Conflict' - a fictitious fight for Goan independence - fooled site for FIVE YEARS
• Yahoo News: War is over: Imaginary ‘Bicholim Conflict’ page removed from Wikipedia after five years
• PC World: Fake Wikipedia entry on Bicholim Conflict finally deleted after five years
• The Register: Anger grows over the death of Aaron Swartz -- Internet prodigy hounded to suicide claims family
• Althouse: "Prosecutor as bully."
• Threat Level: Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26
• EFF Deeplinks: Farewell to Aaron Swartz, an Extraordinary Hacker and Activist
• Reuters: Internet activist, programmer Aaron Swartz dead at 26
• BoingBoing: RIP, Aaron Swartz
• PCMag.com: Family of Aaron Swartz Blames U.S. Attorney's Office in Statement
• Legal Insurrection: Sad irony in Aaron Swartz case
• Patterico's Pontifications: EXCLUSIVE: Attorney for Aaron Swartz: Prosecutors’ Arguments Were “Disingenuous and Contrived”
• New York Times: Failing to Close the ‘Digital Divide’
• It's Not About the Books: Mission creep – a 3D printer will not save your library
• PCMag.com: FCC Chairman Wants to Ease Wi-Fi Congestion
• The Verge: JSTOR begins offering free yet limited access to its online academic library
• Public Libraries News: Discovery, warmth, knowledge, dreams, welcoming … what’s your five words to describe public libraries?
• Voices for the Library: Concern over loss of Arts Council England Libraries post
• Megan McCardle: Is Barnes and Noble Next?

Download here (MP3) (Ogg Vorbis), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. We suggest subscribing by way of a service like gpodder.net. The list of hardware sought to replace our ever-increasing damage control report can be found here and can be directly purchased and sent to assist The Air Staff in rebuilding to a more normal operations capability.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

The tag line for this week's episode: "Information As Weapon"

We've got a bit of an essay talking about that in connection with an awful case in Ohio. Information might want to be free, but couldn't it also be used as a weapon?

There's no miscellany this week as we thought that that would be enough to consider within the realm of preserving the knowledge ecology.

Related links:

• The Register: Anonymous turns private eye in Ohio rape case -- Releases purloined data after hacking attack
• The Plain Dealer: Protest over investigation of suspected rape turns spotlight on Steubenville
• WJW Fox8: Masked Protesters Storm Steubenville
• The Atlantic Wire: Inside the Anonymous Hacking File on the Steubenville 'Rape Crew'
• New York Times: Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City
• NewsNet5: National criticism on Steubenville rape case prompts website creation
• National Post: Matt Gurney -- Anonymous bullies the wrong (presumed) Amanda Todd bully
• Slate: Did Anonymous Unmask the Wrong Guy in Its Hunt for the Man Who Allegedly Drove a Teen to Suicide?
• The Globe and Mail: RCMP dismiss online rumour about Amanda Todd’s tormentor
• arXiv: How Much of the Web Is Archived?

Download here (MP3) (Ogg Vorbis), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. We suggest subscribing by way of a service like gpodder.net.

There is an opportunity available to purchase material goods to replace some of the hardware that has died at Erie Looking Productions over the past three weeks.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.