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@missquerious
With readers on a reverse migration to print, the “e-book terror has kind of subsided” for bookstores and publishers.
Are you a hybrid reader, switching from digital to print and vice versa? Tumblarians, have you seen a drop in ebook circulation in your libraries?
Law vs. Little Free Library
You might be familiar with little free libraries, they might all look different ranging from a cupboard on a post to more ornate models with fancy woodwork or details added to make them look more like a house, but the idea behind them is still the same: a community accessible place to share books. Right now it's estimated that there are over 16,000 of them world wide, you can find them in a wide variety of places, for example; peoples front yards and even in some standing libraries.
While the model is different from that of an actual library, the sentiment is the same and they're garnered a lot of positive response. And not just as a “nice thing to do” either, little free libraries are now being seen as tools to be used to increase community engagement, address low-literacy issues, access to reading materials, and community unity (Collen, 2014).
Despite the benefits a Leawood man has been given a ultimatum by the city: take his down or face a citation as the little free library violates structural ordinances. Read the news story on it here.
There are a number of solutions to the problem: the library could be moved so that it is attached to the house, or it was suggested by the City Administrator to see if the public library would be willing to host a similar initiative. But both of these suggestions are missing part of the point. The intention of little free libraries is that they are incredibly accessible and in a way that the public library often can't be.
Collen, L. (2014). Big Visions for Little Free Libraries: Literacy and Community Engagement. ILA Reporter, 32(3), 4-9.
The Machine: Using a Raspberry Pi for Readers’ Advisory - Matthew Murray
"A Raspberry Pi is a tiny, low-cost computer that was created to teach young people about computer science and programming. They’ve been embraced by the maker community and are being used for everything from robots to spinning wheels to cellphones to Minecraft servers
A few months ago I saw a post on Tumblr that showed an “Electr-O-Matic Book Fortune Teller” that used an Arduino (a computer similar to a Raspberry Pi) to print book recommendations onto receipt paper when people pushed a button.”
Read More…
Some old books have hidden messages on the edge of their pages.
This was done through a technique called “fore-edge painting,” which is an illustration that is hidden on the edge of the pages of the book. The technique allegedly dates back to the 1650s.
Is it ironic to ask a librarian for information on information seeking behaviour?
Parent calls cops on teen for giving free books away at a free book giveaway
So, this happened: Someone called the cops on a teenager for giving away free books.
At—wait for it—a book giveaway event.
Just last week, we wrote about the difficulties Sherman Alexie’s acclaimed Young Adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, had faced during its four-year-run as one of the most banned books in the U.S.
Two weeks ago, parents in the Idaho school district of Meridian successfully campaigned to remove Alexie’s novel from its 10th-grade reading curriculum and additional reading lists.
Wednesday night, irate parents literally called the cops to the scene where Meridian teens were passing out free copies of Alexie’s novel. Boise news station KBOI reported that even the cops were baffled about why they’d been asked to police a book giveaway.
A National Book Award-winner, The Absolutely True Diary is a searing coming-of-age story about a Native American teenager who decides to attend an all-white high school outside of his reservation. It’s a powerful narrative about modern race relations in the U.S. But the Meridian school board sided with parents who objected to its alleged sexual and anti-Christian content, along with, as noted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, other stuff:
[A]n adult named Lonnie Stiles complained that the Alexie novel contains language “we do not speak in our home.”
Apparently the adults who objected to the book weren’t thinking about the teens living on Idaho’s four Native American reservations.
[READ MORE]
THEY HAVE THE ACE ATTORNEY OFFICIAL MANGA IN MY LAW LIBRARY I AM CRYING.
I was trying to get a head start on my reading for the upcoming semester when I found this:
Tumblarians, your Friday Fashion statement!
So this is a thing I could make.
The more I think about it the more terrifying the state on information privacy becomes, it’s not something that I know a lot about in the first place, and it’s not something that I think about all that often beyond who does and does not have access to my facebook profile. But the more I have to…
Even though Google claims to be hesitant with sharing information with the government and law enforcement, I would bet that when push comes to shove, if the right people lean on them who can make their lives miserable (i.e. CIA, FBI) they will cave and hand over everything to avoid paying large fines or legal fee. I would be astounded if Google stood up for its users and defended their rights at the cost of their own time and money but crazier things have happened I guess.
I agree! Above all Google is a corporation, and even though they might have some sway, they are not above the law. If they really had to (such as for legal reasons), I would imagine they would comply. But I think it’s great that in some cases, they didn’t just hand over the information when asked (like in my presentation when I spoke about the AOL search leaks), which suggests (to me) they must have some sort of policy in place for situations like that.
It reminds me a little of things I’ve discussed in other classes, about how libraries need policies — such as only providing patron information with a warrant. It’s not the same with Google — I doubt police officers are just strolling up to the Google HQ and trying to use their presence to intimidate people behind the desk into handing over what they need — but the idea seems similar in my head. Google must have some set policy for how to deal with these requests, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they required a warrant before turning anything over, and even then, it would only be about a few select users, not every one of them.
I agree that it seems unlikely that Google wouldn’t back down should push come to shove. They wouldn’t want to make like difficult for themselves, after all.
(I apologize for the string of quotes — Tumblr doesn’t have a good system for replying to people.)
I think that their choice of whether or not to resist these kinds of requests for information probably depends on what kinds of economic outcomes they predict resulting from the fallout. Giving up hundreds of thousands of user records would probably have a negative effect on Google's public image. Yahoo! gave up a bunch of information to the Chinese Government, but they also wanted an "in" into the Chinese market and being in the government's good books would be a definite bonus for them.
Also, Google is essentially a monopoly, I can;t remember where I read it but somewhere around 76% of search engine inquiries come from Google. They have a lot of power and a lot of money for some very expensive lawyers, and a lot of money that they can throw around politically.
(Tumblr's reply system does have some problems, I like how you can read the entire conversation but it does get long. You can delete text that is irrelevant in what you're reblogging to or just link to the post and use the @ tagging system to get the authors attention. i.e. masteringmlis )
All Hail the ???? Cloud: Smackdown! Glow Cloud vs. [Data] Cloud*
Today I would like to discuss two potentially harmfull, or possibly benign clouds.
In the first corner we have the Glow Cloud. The Glow Cloud is a physical cloud that appeared one day in the sky of fictional town Nightvale, glowing multiple colours and emitting a low whistling sound. During it's first appearance it rained down small animal corpses before growing to cover the entire town and beginning to drop larger animal courses. It also tends to evoke a certain response in people. All hail the Glow Cloud. Or that might just be the mind control. In later appearances it reappears as a concerned citizen and as the president of the school board to ensure that it's children are going to get a good education.
In the second corner we have the equally impressive [data] cloud! Shortened to just “the cloud” the cloud primarily refers to 'the internet' or how various types of data and software are being stored on outside servers rather than the users device. Consider Google Drive which allows users to save and share personal documents online, or rather on Google's servers which are accessible as long as you have an internet connection. Personal documents are far from the only things that can be stored in the cloud, itunes uses the cloud, and there are computers that are being built around the cloud such as Google's Chromebook. Obviously the cloud has an incredible amount of potential and can be hugely convenient. Being able to access information from anywhere? I'd never have to email myself a document again! Devices such as computers, tablets and phones will be able to shrink as they will no longer need to be able to hold as much data.
If we are to believe Marc Andrejavic the term 'cloud' is purposely being used to “obscure obscure the very concrete shifts in control over information associated with the recentralization of information and communication resources envisioned by the architects of the internet “cloud.” I mentioned Google Drive and the Chromebook earlier, and last week I made a post about Google's privacy policy which was big on collecting user information, and right now the way the business model for the cloud is headed it's going to end up with a similar plan. Remember this includes making use of information such as how, where and when you use these services. Out course this procuring of information can be seen as part of a trade-off, you are able to use these services for free and in return Google is able to use the information that they gather about you in order to make money. It's pretty much a win-win situation. But before you make a decision to reject the Glow Cloud in favor of this flashier more technical model consider that the cloud is still fairly new and there are issues that will be upcoming in the future, who owns the material stored on the cloud (did you know that you don't own your itunes library?), what happens when you can't get internet access? What is the likelihood that you can be identified because of the data gathered by the corporations behind the cloud (see: the AOL fiasco of 2006)?
Now that you know the contenders, who do you pledge your eternal allegiance to? The Glow Cloud, or the [data] Cloud?
*A small understanding of the podcast Welcome to Nightvale might be necessary to understand the audio file and some of the content of this post. It was the last one, I wanted to have a little fun.
Works Cited:
Andrejevic, M. (2007). Surveillance in the digital enclosure. The Communication Review, 10(4), 295-317
Your Sunday morning inspiration!
Duck Duck Google or I'm on the brink of paranoia
The more I think about it the more terrifying the state on information privacy becomes, it's not something that I know a lot about in the first place, and it's not something that I think about all that often beyond who does and does not have access to my facebook profile. But the more I have to think about it the more worried I get, and I don't really know how to deal with that. On one hand the internet allows me to do marvelous things and continues to make my life easier. My Google results have started to tailor themselves to my needs (which is great because otherwise library related results would not usually be anywhere near the top of the results), it knows my location so when I search for a company it shows me the nearest location, and now I'm mostly seeing ads for online stores I visit anyway (I could get ad-blocker but I have reasons okay!). But to actually look at the Google privacy statement and see all of the information that they are collecting (a reminder that this information is being stored by Google, it's not my computer that's doing these things for me but a corporation) is a little intimidating. To give a short list of things listed on their privacy policy page; personal info (ie. Name, address, phone number, email address); information on what services we use and how we use them, this includes the ads; information on the devices you use; your search queries; information on telephone calls; and location information.
Not only is all of this information being collected, we: the user, don't have any control over what is done with this information.
On the plus side while they can and will share information with their affiliates and partners we know Google is hesitant to turn over search strings to the government or other law enforcement agencies. In 2006 the U.S Department of Justice asked a federal judge to compel Google to hand over records of the searches made by millions of users as part of some plan to combat child pornography. While Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo all complied when compelled, Google resisted the order. So it's nice to know they have our backs in this one area.
On the topic, this isn't the only time AOL has shared its users info. Again in 2006 AOL released over 20 million search queries from 658,000 of its users. The records were released so that they could be studied for academic purposes, but the records were also made accessible by the public. AOL had made efforts to make the records anonymous however by studying the search terms and strings individual users were able to be identified. The database is still available online in a number of places; aolstalker lets you rate how interesting each users search terms are.
Another search engine, Duck Duck Go seems to have taken a different approach, on their privacy statement page (which is just actually kind of interesting) we learn that they don't log your IP address, there is no way to connect your search strings together, they don;t use cookies by default. They do let us know that they will include little pieces of code that let websites like amazon that you came from Duck Duck Go so that they can get a little bit of a commission. The downside of Duck Duck Go is that the search results I've been getting have been a little less relevant. But that's what the MLIS is for right? Knowing how to make better search strings.
Another important message from @DanWilbur
"It's now possible to purchase books via Toronto Public Library's website. For every book you buy, the Library receives a portion of the sale price, which will be used to support library collections and services."
Toronto Public Library Retail Affiliate Program and Privacy Statement
I'm not from Toronto so I don't use their public libraries, but I was browsing their site earlier and found this. It's kind of interesting, libraries which have always kind of been the anti-bookstore are now acting as a method of capital creation for them.
It's definitely an interesting way to raise money for public libraries, and as long as it doesn't screw up my shipping I'll probably try to do this for any Indigo purchases I make in the future.
While unfamiliar to a large number of library users, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is becoming more and more prevalent in library systems. As implied by the name; RFIDs are small chips that are able to emit a signal that identifies the object to which it is attached. Necessary to read these signals are scanners that can receive the signal and computer software that is required to translate the signal into something readable by humans or cataloguing software.
The traditional method of checking in and out books that most libraries have been using for years involving barcodes and manual scanners has been criticized for being too slow, and causing “long queue, bottle necking and complains from dissatisfied patrons (1). RFIDs are becoming more and more attractive as an alternative to the barcode system for a number of reasons; the first being that they are faster. Because they use a frequency rather than a printed code a scanner does not need to be aimed or directly applied, as well a RFID scanner can pick up the frequency of many RFIDs at a time, further speeding up the process. RFIDs can also be used to store data; which can either be written over or read and they can contain a large amount of information. Numerous sources have expressed the ways that libraries can use this function such as to keep track of the; item code, a brief description of the item, and even the circulation history of the item (1). RFID technology has also been a proposed solution to the “information gap” phenomena which is what occurs when the status of a book may be incorrect because of the limitations of the computer system. Essentially, when the computer catalogue says that a library book is on a shelf, when in fact it has been checked in but not yet been put in its place, or another patron either currently has it or has moved it (1). Another function that the RFIDs can serve is a security measure to reduce the threat of stolen library property.
Introducing RFID technology to libraries is not an easy task, it would involve the installation of a large amount of new hardware and software into the library, staff would need to be trained on the new system
and there are a number of privacy and security concerns that arise from the use of RFID technology that will need to be considered. One of the primary concerns is that since the RDID tags have the capability to store information, they will record personal information that can then be viewed by others who have the technology required to do so. There is also concern that the RFID scanners in the library will be able to pick up signals from other RFID chips that the patron might have on them (which is growing increasingly likely as RFID technology becomes more popular, it can be found in a number of common items including; drivers licenses, money, car keys, passports...)
Discussions about these concerns is problematic because there isn't a consensus in the literature as to whether or not these concerns are legitimate. For example in their conclusion Pop et. al. state that,
“the tags are “powerless”, have a very small read range, store a minimum amount of data (normally a barcode) and carry no patron data on the tags. All these factors make privacy concerns almost non-existent at this time (2011, p. 272).”
On the flip side the list of uses mentioned earlier, “item code, a brief description of the item, and even the circulation history of the item” were taken from an article written the very same year (Wu, et. al., 2011). These fears seem valid when we learn that some libraries the the Oakland Public Library had been leaving their tags unlocked. While this makes sense from the management perspective as having the tags unlocked meant that library staff are able to make changes to the data, it also leaves the tags open to vandals or other individuals who are able to access the tags using commercially produced RFID readers. There are also threats beyond people just accessing the data currently on a RFID chip, Lukas Grunwald, a German security expert has been able to program a tool that would allow him to install “cookies” onto RFID chips. These cookies can be used in the same way that they are online, to track users. For example, “s, a stalker could, say, place a cookie on his target's E-ZPass, then return to it a few days later to see which toll plazas the car had crossed (and when).”
In order to address these concerns a number of different organizations have created various sets of guidelines in order to protect libraries and patrons. But again, very little consensus has been reached in regards to how to protect library patrons and what kinds of information needs to be protected.
Is the convience and time savings that RFID technilogy can offer worth the security risk? Does it really matter when we are already sharing so much informatio about ourselves both willingly and unknowingly?
Pop, C., Mailat, G., & Helera, E. (2011). RFID System and Automation in University Lirbaries. Proceedings Of The International Conference On Library & Information Science / Conferinta Internationala De Biblioteconomie Si Stiinta Informari, 267-272.
Wu, T., Yeh, K., Chen, R., Chen, Y., & Chen, C. (2011). Integrated library service application platform based on the smart book shelf. Malaysian Journal Of Library & Information Science, 16(3), 103-119.
