Dewey Decibel: The YMA episode.


American Library Association • February 20, 2018
 
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Dewey Decibel: Bonus YMA episode

Dewey Decibel YMA episode

In this special bonus episode, Dewey Decibel goes behind the scenes at the 2018 Youth Media Awards, held February 12 at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. American Libraries Associate Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart joins the award-selection committees as they make phone calls to the winners the morning before the award announcement event....

AL: The Scoop, Feb. 15, 16

Librarian’s actions spared lives in Florida shooting

Diana Haneski, a librarian at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, poses for a portrait near one of the crosses erected for the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Photo by Reuters/Jonathan Drake

As soon as she heard “Code Red Lockdown” on her radio in a Florida high school library, Diana Haneski (right) remembered how a fellow librarian saved lives by locking 22 people in a supply closet during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “She was there that day in Sandy Hook and because of her I knew what to do,” said Haneski, a library media specialist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Her longtime friend Yvonne Cech, was the librarian on duty at the Newtown, Connecticut, school in 2012....

Reuters, Feb. 16

Florida high school helped Virginia Tech heal in 2007

Condolence book, In Memory of 32, sent by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to Virginia Tech in 2007 after the shootings there

After the 2007 shootings on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, students and staff at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, sent a more than 100-page handcrafted wooden book (right) to the university that is now part of VT’s April 16, 2007, condolence archives. Two then–Stoneman Douglas students collected letters and artwork from fellow students across Florida to fill the large wooden book that says “in memory of 32” on its front. It is the largest condolence book Tech received after the shooting....

Roanoke (Va.) Times, Feb. 16; Apr. 11, 2017

Embedding a tweet could be infringement

Embedded tweets could be infringement

Daniel Nazer writes: “Rejecting years of settled precedent, a federal court in New York has ruled that you could infringe copyright simply by embedding a tweet in a web page. Even worse, the logic of the ruling applies to all in-line linking, not just embedding tweets. If adopted by other courts, this legally and technically misguided decision would threaten millions of ordinary internet users with infringement liability.”...

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Feb. 15; May 16, 2007; Oct. 24, 2017

Facebook will use postcards to verify advertisers

Postcard showing the Kremlin in Moscow

Facebook will soon rely on centuries-old technology to try to prevent foreign meddling in US elections: the post office. Baffled in 2016 by Russian agents who bought ads to sway the US presidential campaign, Facebook’s global politics and government outreach director, Katie Harbath, told the National Association of Secretaries of State on February 17 that the company would send postcards to potential buyers of political ads to confirm they reside in the United States....

Associated Press, Feb. 18
 
ALA news
 

Social justice: A core library mission

Inscription at Brooklyn Public Library: “offers to all the people perpetual and free access to the knowledge and the thought of all ages”

February 20, World Social Justice Day, is a good time to celebrate libraries as social justice institutions—places where the power that information and knowledge can bring is available for all. The core functions of libraries are reflected in the right of access to information and the right to participate in the cultural life of the community, both of which appear in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These rights are part of an overall framework that seeks to promote free, just, and peaceful societies....

IFLA Library Policy and Advocacy Blog, Feb. 20

The Tempe Principles

Arizona State University’s Hayden Library

A growing number of independent organizations strive to provide digital information access where internet access is limited. Arizona State University Library and Bibliothèques Sans Frontières / Libraries Without Borders, with the involvement of IFLA, organized an international summit, January 30–February 1, at the ASU Library in Tempe. As a result of these discussions, the active participants framed the following “Tempe Principles.”...

ASU The Library Channel, Feb. 19
 
Latest Library Links
 

An MIT exchange program for public librarians

A playtest workshop took place in the LLK lab space at the Media Lab with local educators and other Media Lab researchers

Katherine McConachie writes: “Here at the MIT Media Lab, we are big fans of public libraries. Which is why we’ve recently announced the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX). This project, run by the ML Learning Initiative and supported by the Knight Foundation, aims to foster a community of collaborative innovation—where librarians and Media Lab researchers work together to identify community challenges, dream up new ways to address them, and create easy-to-use programs for public libraries.”...

MIT Media Lab, Feb. 16; Oct. 3, 2017

The most unusual menus found in libraries

Menu from Lincoln’s second inauguration, March 6, 1865

Anne Ewbank writes: “Not many libraries have menu collections, but they are still a vital part of the historical record that reveals tastes, trends, and local environmental conditions. Menu collections are often passion projects. Perhaps the most famous examples are Frank E. Buttolph, who collected 25,000 menus that eventually ended up at the New York Public Library, or Louis Szathmary, a chef whose collection is split between two universities and ranges from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural ball (right) to a space-age feast.”...

Atlas Obscura, Feb. 16; Aug. 4, 2017

How to read faster

Don't re-read

Matt Grant writes: “Remember the 1996 John Travolta movie Phenomenon? No? Well, neither do I. But I remember the trailer, in which Travolta gets zapped by an eerie light and wakes up with the power to read 2–3 books a day. Lots of speed-reading tricks skirt the edges of legitimacy—not reading the entire page, or skipping less important chapters. Instead, here are some tips for how to read faster that don’t require you to skimp on comprehension.”...

Book Riot, Feb. 18; Sky TV YouTube channel, Sept. 2, 2010
 
Dewey Decibel podcast
 

10 picture books about observation and perspective

Cover of Infinity and Me, by Kate Hosford

Katey Howes writes: “As a scientist, clinician, author, and parent, observation is one of my most important skills. The tools and perspective we use to observe the world shape our thinking—and in turn shape our actions. Hand a kid a kaleidoscope, binoculars, a magnifying glass—everything changes. A new perspective can make the distant familiar, the universe small, the possibilities endless. Here are 10 picture books that encourage readers to observe the world in new and different ways.”...

Nerdy Book Club, Feb. 3

The resurgence of Afrofuturism

Letitia Wright stars as Shuri, T’Challa’s technologically savvy sister, in Black Panther

Sonia Rao writes: “The long-awaited Black Panther will dominate the pop culture scene over the next few weeks, and amid praise for the cast and director, you’re likely to hear one word quite often: Afrofuturism. The term, coined by cultural critic Mark Dery in his 1994 essay ‘Black to the Future,’ refers to an aesthetic that infuses science fiction and fantasy with cultures of the African diaspora. It shakes up our preconceived notions of history and race by envisioning an often utopian future shaped by black technological innovation.”...

Washington Post, Feb. 17

Eight audiobook apps for your Android device

Audible Android app

Piotr Kowalczyk writes: “Many people have recently discovered the joy of playing audiobooks on their smart speakers, such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, or Apple HomePod. You don’t have to buy a smart speaker, though. All you need is a free app. If you have a phone or tablet powered by Android, you’ll find plenty of audiobook apps. Here are eight of the most popular and interesting Android audiobook apps.”...

Ebook Friendly, Feb. 13

The best Android tablets of 2018

Amazon Fire HD 10

Sascha Segan writes: “More than other tablet operating systems, Android goes from low to high. The broad flexibility of Google’s OS lets manufacturers build useful products ranging from $50 to more than $500, fitting a broader range of niches and tastes than the Apple iPad, which has dominated the tablet market since it first came out. We’ve rounded up our top picks here.”...

PC Magazine, Feb. 14; Apr. 4, 2017

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