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The FCC voted along party lines on December 14 to repeal landmark 2015 rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, setting up a court fight over a move that could recast the digital landscape. The approval of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal marked a victory for internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, and hands them power over what content consumers can access. Consumer advocates and trade groups representing content providers have planned legal challenges aimed at preserving those rules. Anthony Marx, president and CEO of the New York Public Library; Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library; and Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of the Queens Library issued an open letter December 13 outlining how the repeal could negatively affect public library systems....
Reuters, Dec. 14; Slate, Dec. 14; The Verge, Dec. 13 |
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Emily Wagner writes: “On December 14, ALA staff gathered alongside other free internet advocates in front of the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate its solid support for net neutrality in a ‘Wake-Up Call’ rally organized by the Voices for Internet Freedom, a coalition fighting to protect the digital rights of communities of color. Activists from as far away as Pennsylvania and New Mexico traveled to participate in the rally, making noise and drawing attention to how the repeal will affect everyone, especially communities of color.”...
AL: The Scoop, Dec. 15; District Dispatch, Nov. 21 |
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The latest ALA Book Club Central SJP pick, chosen by Honorary Book Club Central Chair Sarah Jessica Parker, is Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Knopf, 2017). Shortlisted for the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and named a Notable Book by the New York Times, Stay with Me is Adebayo’s debut novel. Set in Nigeria, Stay with Me gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their marriage and the forces that threaten to tear it apart. Book Club Central debuted in June as a resource for book clubs and readers everywhere....
AL: The Scoop, Dec. 13 |
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Daniel Funke writes: “In 2017, fake news was everywhere. It’s a term that has been constantly redefined and repurposed. Beyond its definitional ambiguity, there’s the fact that fake news has been become a popular mechanism by which politicians discredit the media. Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist at the Washington Post, was among the first press critics to come out against the term, writing in a January column that the president repeatedly labeling media ‘fake news’ undermines its legitimacy. And it’s only gotten worse.”...
Poynter, Dec. 14; Washington Post, Jan. 8 |
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Paul Darvasi writes: “On Thursday afternoons, in the heart of the Beacon Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library, you might find an animated group of youth on laptops designing parkour courses, rendering torch-lit dungeons, or co-constructing capture the flag arenas—all in Minecraft. To some, this scene might seem somewhat out of place in a library. Not according to Juan Rubio, SPL digital media and learning program manager.”...
YALSA Blog, Dec. 14 |
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Mario ran amok in New Donk City, a cat dropped out of college, and Angel Carter haunted What Remains of Edith Finch. But it was the mighty Zelda who took video gaming—and cooking—to a new dimension in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Here are The Guardian’s picks for the top 10 video games of 2017....
The Guardian (UK), Dec. 13 |
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Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has teamed up with the Digital Media Lab at UC San Diego’s Geisel Library to create what is believed to be the first 3D-printed brace for a sea turtle’s shell. The loggerhead sea turtle was rescued from a New Jersey power plant in 2013 with a large gap in the bottom right part of her shell. This gap, along with an abnormal curve of her spine and paralysis of her back flippers, is likely due to trauma experienced in the wild before she was rescued....
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dec. 11; Nov. 20, 2014 |
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T. J. Lamanna writes: “With the recent release of tools like Certbot and HTTPS Everywhere and organizations like Let’s Encrypt, it’s becoming easier and easier for non-enterprise web administrators to add SSL certificates to their websites, thus ensuring a more secure connection between the user and server. The question that needs to be answered is, why, with so many tools available, are libraries lagging behind in implementing HTTPS on library web servers?”...
Intellectual Freedom Blog, Dec. 12
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Angie Miller writes: “This is a busy time of year in schools—one that puts a great deal of pressure on our teachers. But let’s remember that as librarians, our career is to serve others. We are the ultimate givers. And we can make this strained season in schools easier by offering up our services to the educators in our building. So how can you make the library a gift for our teachers? Here are 10 ideas.”...
Knowledge Quest blog, Dec. 15 |
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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on December 13 announced the 2017 selections to LC’s National Film Registry. Selected for their cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance, these 25 motion pictures range from an early film of the New York subway in 1905 and the musical biopic La Bamba to the holiday action thriller Die Hard and The Goonies, the adventure tale of a band of misfits. Spanning 1905–2000, the films named to this year’s registry include Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, and independent and home movies....
Library of Congress, Dec. 13 |
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Jamie Bennett writes: “I had a lot of fun putting together last year’s Books to Read before the Movies Come Out and I couldn’t wait to put together this list for 2018. I am excited about many of these that I’ve already read and I found 42 new books to read before they come out as movies or TV shows.” Included are The Miseducation of Cameron Post; Where’d You Go, Bernadette; Crazy Rich Asians; and You....
The Perpetual Page-Turner, Dec. 13; Aug. 29, 2016 |
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Allison Meier writes: “The exhibition ‘Designing English: Graphics on the Medieval Page’ at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries examines how the creation of early English manuscripts can be viewed as pioneering graphic design. Whether a hunting manual with the ages of deer described through illustrations of antler growth, or an elegant 15th-century copy of The Canterbury Tales where borders and titles guide the reader through the text, these manuscripts grappled with engaging their readers through visual design.”...
Hyperallergic, Dec. 8 |
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