Make Use Of: “The Portable Document Format (PDF) was released in 1993 by Adobe Inc and has grown to become one of the most popular document formats available. PDF files are generally considered to be safer, but did you know that you can further secure your PDF file by adding a watermark? In this article,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Digital Rights
Librarian’s lament: Digital books are not fireproof
ZDNet – Chris Freeland is a librarian and Director of the Internet Archive’s Open Libraries program: “The disturbing trend of school boards and lawmakers banning books from libraries and public schools is accelerating across the country. In response, Jason Perlow made a strong case last week for what he calls a “Freedom Archive,” a digital repository of… Continue Reading
The West already monopolized scientific publishing. Covid made it worse.
Quartz: “The coronavirus pandemic triggered a torrent of academic papers. By August 2021, at least 210,000 new papers on covid-19 had been published, according to a Royal Society study…Of the 720,000-odd authors of these papers, nearly 270,000 were from the US, the UK, Italy or Spain. Scientists have paid to publish their covid-19 research—sometimes as… Continue Reading
Libraries, Publishers Battle Over Terms for E-Books’ Use
Bloomberg Law: “States that want to give libraries a better deal on e-books are watching a publishers’ suit against Maryland, the first state to set terms for how digital books are distributed for public borrowing. Library associations, including the American Library Association and several state groups, have been pushing for state laws to require publishers… Continue Reading
Digitized Data as a Political Object
“Digitized data is used as a powerful tool: national security actors see it as a surveillance tool, and the Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) sector treats it as an economic commodity with great financial value. Fundamental to the findings in this book, data is now tied to your personal identity, and is therefore worthy of… Continue Reading
Mozilla guide to help you shop for safe, secure connected products
CNET – “Santa isn’t alone in keeping an eye on you this holiday season. Nearly a third of the 151 popular connected gifts analyzed by the Mozilla Foundation as part of its annual “Privacy Not Included” shopping guide didn’t meet basic standards for digital security and privacy, the digital rights group said Tuesday. Among the… Continue Reading
Giant, free index to world’s research papers released online
Nature – Catalogue of billions of phrases from 107 million papers could ease computerized searching of the literature. In a project that could unlock the world’s research papers for easier computerized analysis, an American technologist has released online a gigantic index of the words and short phrases contained in more than 100 million journal articles… Continue Reading
The Library Technology Market’s Failure to Support Controlled Digital Lending
The Scholarly Kitchen – The Library Technology Market’s Failure to Support Controlled Digital Lending – This article is by Nathan Mealey, Michael Rodriguez, and Charlie Barlow. Nathan is Associate University Librarian for Discovery & Access at Wesleyan University. Michael is Collections Strategist at the University of Connecticut Library. Charlie is the Executive Director of the… Continue Reading
Nonprofit Websites Are Riddled With Ad Trackers
New on LLRX – Nonprofit Websites Are Riddled With Ad Trackers – Enterprise reporter Alfred Ng and Investigative Data Journalist Maddy Varner detail how many non profit organizations that often deal in sensitive issues, like mental health, addiction, and reproductive rights—are feeding data about website visitors to corporations. Continue Reading
I Set Out to Build the Next Library of Alexandria. Now I Wonder: Will There Be Libraries in 25 Years?
TIME – Brewster Kahle, Founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. Member, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Internet Hall of Fame< “When I started the Internet Archive 25 years ago, I focused our non-profit library on digital collections: preserving web pages, archiving television news, and digitizing books.… Continue Reading
Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries
Publishers Weekly: “The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) today announced that it has signed a much-anticipated agreement with Amazon Publishing to make all of the roughly 10,000 Amazon Publishing e-books and digital audiobooks available to libraries, the first time that digital content from Amazon Publishing will be made available to libraries. In a release… Continue Reading
Cancellation, Culture, and Copyright
Ordinary Times – “…This problem was explored in-depth by Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz in their book The End of Ownership. I don’t need to know how many books you have on your Kindle or iPad to tell you that you own none of them. Suppose a DMCA takedown notice is sent regarding an allegedly… Continue Reading
