Financial Times – [unpaywalled] We’re in the midst of a listening revolution — and a new debate over text versus voice – “The numbers are eloquent. In the US, 52 per cent of adults have listened to an audiobook, and revenue from the audiobook market jumped to $2bn in 2023, according to a 2024 consumer… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Education
Election Grief Is Real. Here’s How to Cope
Scientific American [unpaywalled]: “…Is it possible to cultivate more resilience to this kind of grief in the future? Yes. Increase your tolerance for ambiguity and keep increasing your tolerance for uncertainty. We hate uncertainty in this culture. There is, in fact, a tolerance for ambiguity scale. It was born out of a scale now called… Continue Reading
How the death of cursive is complicating our elections
Fast Company: “The death of cursive has become a problem for voters and election officials. Young people who vote by mail and were never taught cursive risk having their ballots tossed if the signature they sign on their mail-in ballot envelope doesn’t match the signature on file, which the state uses to verify their identity.… Continue Reading
For Teens Online, Conspiracy Theories Are Commonplace
News:iterary Project: News Literacy in America: A survey of teen information attitudes, habits and skills (2024). “American teens spend hours each day scrolling social media platforms, immersing themselves in an often-confusing stream of entertainment, ads, news, rumors and conspiracy theories. Young people need the knowledge, skills and habits of mind to assess the credibility and… Continue Reading
This Election Should Not Determine the Fate of Libraries
EveryLibrary – (But it Might Have) – “Libraries have never been immune from political and social movements, but we have behaved as if we are somehow a special place, a place apart from these fights. The last three years of censorship and discrimination fights should have been a wake-up call for our library organizations, stakeholders,… Continue Reading
Freedom to Read Advocates Notch a Legal Victory in Alaska
Publisher’s Weekly: “After a favorable legal ruling in August, freedom to read advocates in Alaska have scored a significant victory in court over would-be book banners. In an October 31 filing, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska agreed to pay $89,000 to settle claims that the district improperly removed dozens of books, including several… Continue Reading
Books to Distract You From Doom
Bookshop.org: “This is a list of books compiled to help distract you from the state of the election in 2024, or any other dreadful time in your life.” See also Defector – Books You Can Read Tonight To Distract Yourself From Whatever Is To Come Continue Reading
When Online Content Disappears
“The internet is an unimaginably vast repository of modern life, with hundreds of billions of indexed webpages. But even as users across the world rely on the web to access books, images, news articles and other resources, this content sometimes disappears from view. A new Pew Research Center analysis shows just how fleeting online content… Continue Reading
What is voter turnout like in recent elections? How do Americans vote? How are Americans represented in government?
USA Facts – What are the basics of elections and voting in the US? Explore data on turnout rates, representation, and methods of voting. Turnout rate in federal elections for citizen voting-age population In 2020, 66.8% of the citizen voting-age population voted in the presidential election, the highest turnout since 1992. Table of Contents What… Continue Reading
Download 1,600+ Publications from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Books, Guides, Magazines & More
Open Culture: “Many of us in these past few generations first heard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while reading E. L. Konigsburg’s novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. More than a few of us also fantasized about running away to live in that vast cultural institution like the book’s young… Continue Reading
Nearly 200 Percent Surge in School Book Bans (2023-2024 School Year)
“PEN America today released new documentation of public school book bans for the full 2023-2024 school year, recording 10,046 instances of books banned nationwide, a dramatic 200 percent rise over the previous school year. Since 2021, the free expression organization has counted close to 16,000 instances of book bans in public schools.” “Nineteen Minutes by… Continue Reading
Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
Open Culture: “The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic works. Even better, the museum has placed the vast majority of these images into the public domain, meaning they can be downloaded directly from the museum’s website for non-commercial use. When you browse the Met collection and find an image… Continue Reading
