MOBIUS Libraries

An article about a trend today to use apps that track and record behavior and wearable fitness devices, and who owns the data those devices store in the cloud. I also found it interesting there was little analysis of how the data could be severely skewed by age and demographics; that the behaviors and data stored could be from people who don't care or want it spread it to the world.

An article about Diederik Stapels, a formerly well known behavioral scientist who was outed for for falsifying much of his data and research, even though it pass peer review. What is more interesting is his justification--that a lot of it was because he wasn't finding clear conclusions in his research so he made them appear.

This is starting to take off in some libraries.

Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen recently returned from a trip to North Korea and discuss the role of the Internet in repressive countries.

The Digital Public Library of America opened last Thursday. http://dp.la/

The website for an event to give out books to people who don't regularly read. IN the U.S. the figures are 25,000 volunteers giving out 500,000 books. While an annual event that happened on April 23rd it needs more promotion, I hadn't heard of it until I read an article about it.

The website of Central Registry for looted Nazi books and Art, including two databases; one for books and one for objects.

An article about how, books that were looted by the Nazis from Jewish owners are being returned to their descendants through the cooperation of libraries and a registry on cultural property from the Second World War.

A very interesting article about a former mainstream academic who had taken to developing his own press, and sued a librarian because of blog posts he had made that were critical of the press. The Wikipedia entry on the press shows the press has also sued a magazine and a website.

An interesting approach for a library in Wisconsin where fines are resolved not by money but by food, with the food being donated to the needy. The resolution is not complete, only knocking $1 off for each food item up to $50, but does increase library involvement in the community.

An interesting case heard before the Supreme Court about whether genes can be patented, with the according debate about how much of a human genome can thus be regulated or controlled.

While not particular breaking new ground, this article does look at the status quo and issues with self publishing, in particular the slop of enthusiasm versus demand, and that self publishing may still be in the early stage of inflated expectations.

"The global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors' income streams. It seems almost every player - publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars - is vying for position at authors' expense."

A taped college lecture about how large scale social media has connected millions of people, but many of the promises of the early Internet have been lost, such as people owning their own identities and websites.

A concerning article about the rate of theft at the Austin public library. Surprising is how only recently have borrowing limits been enacted and patrons required to renew their cards A collections agency is used for delinquent accounts, but there is little mention of a security system or how much is lost due to simple theft.