CNET: Without Google, people behind bars pen their questions to librarians. “Rachel Kinnon and Jeanie Austin, librarians at the San Francisco Public Library, receive about 60 questions a week from a dedicated group of fans: prison inmates. The inquiries, usually handwritten and sent by post, range from requests for information about transitioning to life outside of prison to explanations of technologies that may not have existed before a prisoner was put away, like 5G and bitcoin. Song lyrics are a frequent ask.”
libraries
CNET: Libraries lean on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to reel you in
CNET: Libraries lean on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to reel you in. “The success libraries are having on social media helps them combat their biggest challenge: the perception they’re just old buildings bulging with dusty books. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram let libraries tell the world that they have more to offer.”
Medium: Uncovering the global picture of Open GLAM
Medium: Uncovering the global picture of Open GLAM. “How many cultural heritage institutions make their digital collections available for free reuse? How do they do this, and where is open access most prevalent? 12 months ago, Andrea Wallace and I set out to find some answers. In the first post in a short series, I recount the origins and motivations of the Open GLAM survey.”
CNET: Library services get digital, testing privacy values
CNET: Library services get digital, testing privacy values. “Librarians stood up to the US government over requirements in the 2001 USA Patriot Act to share records with law enforcement. They designed policies that require that records of the books you’ve checked out are deleted as soon as you return them. And they’ve pushed every US state to adopt protections for patron records. E-books and audiobooks, now standard at libraries, make protecting privacy harder. Titles are usually provided through private companies, which can access your data. And today’s software can create more comprehensive records about you than a simple list of the books you checked out.”
Ghana News Agency: Ghana Library Authority to digitize public libraries
Ghana News Agency: Ghana Library Authority to digitize public libraries. “Mr Hayford Siaw, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Library Authority (GLA), will soon be digitizing all libraries the country to boost patronage. This, he said would see an increase in the number of e-libraries and the hosting of digital libraries to enhance accessibility and easy usage.”
New York Times: New York Times Access Now Available for Free in All California Public Libraries
New York Times: New York Times Access Now Available for Free in All California Public Libraries. “The New York Times and California State Library today announced that all of the nearly 1,200 public libraries across the state will offer their patrons free NYTimes.com access.”
CityLab: Should Libraries Be the Keepers of Their Cities’ Public Data?
CityLab: Should Libraries Be the Keepers of Their Cities’ Public Data?. “In recent years, dozens of U.S. cities have released pools of public data. It’s an effort to improve transparency and drive innovation, and done well, it can succeed at both: Governments, nonprofits, and app developers alike have eagerly gobbled up that data, hoping to improve everything from road conditions to air quality to food delivery. But what often gets lost in the conversation is the idea of how public data should be collected, managed, and disseminated so that it serves everyone—rather than just a few residents—and so that people’s privacy and data rights are protected. That’s where librarians come in.”
