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It’s that time of the year again, when the days grow shorter, a chill creeps into the air, and the supernatural and otherworldly are ubiquitous, even in the library world. Join American Libraries Associate Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart for a very special Halloween edition of the podcast, featuring conversations with Greg Hager (director of the haunted Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana), conjuring arts librarian Jake Adler, and horror author and Booklist editor Daniel Kraus. Not enough ghostly activity for you? Read about the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County’s ghost, described by Library Director Alan Hall....
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 27; Steubenville (Ohio) Herald-Star, Oct. 28 |
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On October 25, ALA announced six books shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, awarded for the previous year’s best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published in the United States. The two medal winners will be announced at the RUSA Book and Media Awards event at ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits in Atlanta on January 22. Carnegie Medal winners will each receive $5,000, and the four finalists each receive $1,500....
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 25 |
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John Amundsen writes: “Just across the river from downtown Cincinnati, 255 bookmobile and outreach professionals converged in Covington, Kentucky, for the 2016 Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services conference. With the theme of ‘Outreach Services—Building Community,’ attendees could choose workshops ranging from library services to English-language learners, incarcerated people, and ex-offenders; working with volunteers; and the latest trends and technologies in bookmobiles.”...
AL: The Scoop, Oct. 27 |
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In a win for privacy advocates, the FCC voted October 27 to place new restrictions on internet providers that limit the information they can share about their subscribers. When the rules go into effect, likely sometime early in 2017, internet providers will be required to get explicit permission from subscribers before sharing sensitive information about them, such as their browsing history, their app usage, their location, and the content of emails and other communications....
The Verge, Oct. 27 |
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Jeff John Roberts writes: “The government agency responsible for recording authors’ rights has been riveted by intrigue as US Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante (right) abruptly resigned on October 24 after being locked out of her computer last week. Pallante’s resignation, which came after she refused to accept a new position, has led to speculation over what her ouster signifies for the tech and entertainment industries—and for the future of the US Copyright Office.”...
Fortune, Oct. 27; Techdirt, Oct. 25; Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 25 |
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With more than 30,000 books in the Taunton (Mass.) High School Library, there are bound to be some books that kids don’t like, that parents find inappropriate, or that some even want removed, and THS recently saw that firsthand. Assistant Superintendent Christopher Scully told the Taunton School Committee that the school received a complaint about First French Kiss: And Other Traumas by Adam Bagdasarian and was asked that it be removed from the 9th-grade summer reading list....
Taunton (Mass.) Daily Gazette, Oct. 27 |
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Margaret Heller writes: “It’s Open Access Week, which for scholarly communications librarians and institutional repository managers is one of the big events of the year to reflect on our work and educate others. Everyone seems to have a perception of open access and an opinion about it. But the commercialization of open access means that it may now be too expensive to pursue for individuals to publish open access and too complicated for institutions to attempt without buying a product.”...
ACRL TechConnect Blog, Oct. 27 |
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Barbara Fister writes: “There are two ways to think about the library’s purpose: It’s either there to make information from outside available to a local community, or it’s a place where new ideas and understandings are incubated so that they can be shared. These are not mutually exclusive purposes, but they can sometimes be at odds. An example of the first idea can be seen in a Change.org petition asking the University of Ottawa libraries to continue to subscribe to over 4,000 journals that it is cutting.”...
Inside Higher Ed: Library Babel Fish, Oct. 26
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Louise Lief writes: “Today more than ever, the news media’s role as a mediator and gatekeeper of civic discourse is being questioned. Jeffrey Rutenbeck, American University’s dean of the School of Communication, proposed an interesting way to tackle the problem. ‘I think journalists could learn a lot from hanging around with successful librarians.’ Why librarians? Their job is to navigate the world of information, help scholars and students get what they need, and distinguish good information from bad.”...
Columbia Journalism Review, Oct. 24
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Elle Benak writes: “The US National Archives has many records that can assist researchers in their search to discover their family history. In fact, from the 1970s onward, genealogical records have been the largest resource that draws people to the archives. After the premier of Roots in 1977, the National Archives saw a 60% increase in researchers using genealogical records. The number of researcher cards issued increased by 400%, and inquiries about genealogical records went up by 300%.”...
Prologue: Pieces of History, Oct. 25
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The International Dunhuang Project is a collaboration between the British Library and Georgetown University to make information and images of manuscripts, paintings, textiles, and artifacts from archaeological sites of the eastern Silk Road freely available on the internet for their use through educational and research programs. The project aims to collaborate with libraries in North America to incorporate materials from northwestern China between 200 BC and AD 1400 into its open-access, multilingual database....
International Dunhuang Project, July 27
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Michael Muchmore writes: “Whether you merely shoot the occasional selfie or you are a professional photographer with a studio, you need software to organize and edit your photos so that you can find the best ones and then make them look even better. If you really care how your photos look, you’ll want to import them into your PC to organize them, pick the best ones, and then perfect them. Here we’ve compiled the best choices for photo editing software to suit every level of photographer.”...
PC Magazine, Oct. 26
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