Archives:
Papers of Benjamin Franklin Now Online
“The papers of American scientist, statesman and diplomat Benjamin Franklin have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress. The Library announced the digitization in remembrance of the anniversary of Franklin’s death on April 17, 1790. The Franklin papers consist of approximately 8,000 items mostly dating from the 1770s and 1780s.”
https://www.bespacific.com/papers-of-benjamin-franklin-now-online/
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Books and Reading:
Run Your Week: Big Books, Sure Bets, & Titles Making News | Book Pulse
“Welcome to Book Pulse, a daily update designed to help collection development and readers’ advisory librarians navigate the never-ending wave of new books and book news.
Here you will find highlights of titles moving in the marketplace and getting buzz, bookish stories making news, and key items from the literary web.”
Freedom of Information:
Americans Favor Protecting Information Freedoms Over Government Steps to Restrict False News Online
“The widespread concerns over misinformation online have created a tension in the United States between taking steps to restrict that information – including possible government regulation – and protecting the long-held belief in the freedom to access and publish information. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the majority of Americans are resistant to action by the U.S. government that might also limit those freedoms but are more open to action from technology companies. When asked to choose between the U.S. government taking action to restrict false news online in ways that could also limit Americans’ information freedoms, or protecting those freedoms even if it means false information might be published, Americans fall firmly on the side of protecting freedom. Nearly six-in-ten Americans (58%) say they prefer to protect the public’s freedom to access and publish information online, including on social media, even if it means false information can also be published. Roughly four-in-ten (39%) fall the other way, preferring that the U.S. government take steps to restrict false information even if it limits those freedoms, according to a survey conducted Feb. 26-March 11, 2018, among 4,734 U.S. adults who are members of Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel…”
John Moss and the Roots of the Freedom of Information Act: Worldwide Implications
“John Moss was an obscure Congressman from a newly created district in northern California when he arrived in Washington D.C. in 1953. He had survived a razor-thin general election victory (by about 700 votes), which included unfounded charges of being a communist, or a communist sympathizer. Those charges became an important force behind Moss’s long battle to enact the Freedom of Information Act.”
https://unredacted.com/2018/04/17/john-moss-and-the-roots-of-the-freedom-of-information-act-worldwide-implications/
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Intellectual Property:
The Feds Have It Wrong on Patent Law
“If there’s one constant in the Trump administration’s policy, it’s championing American companies over foreign competitors. So why is the administration arguing for a rule that would favor foreign companies over American ones?
In WesternGeco v. ION Geophysical, the Supreme Court is considering whether violations of U.S. patents can lead to damages awards across the globe. Traditionally, sovereign power has been closely tied to patents — the exclusive right for new inventions was historically granted in “letters patent” sealed by the Crown. As a result, the law has always been that patent enforcement stops at the national border; acts inside the United States can violate a patent, but acts abroad cannot.”
http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/383315-the-feds-have-it-wrong-on-patent-law
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Internet Access:
The California Senate Utilities Committee’s Net Neutrality Analysis Might as Well Have Been Written by AT&T
“S.B. 822, Senator Scott Wiener’s net neutrality bill, is currently pending in the California legislature. It’s a bill that prioritizes consumers over large ISPs, creating strong net neutrality protections. Unsurprisingly, AT&T and the rest of the giant telecom companies don’t like it. And unfortunately for Californians, the report on the bill issued by the California Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Communications parrots several misleading arguments by the large ISPs.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/california-senate-utilities-committees-net-neutrality-analysis-might-well-have
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Open Access:
Open As In Dangerous
“Sticking with the goal of talking about things I know, I figured I might start by talking a bit about why open access is important to me, a bit about the history and more importantly the future of OA at MIT, and then spend some time unpacking this “open as in dangerous” title I chose for my talk.”
https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/open-as-in-dangerous/
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Privacy:
Who Has More of Your Personal Data Than Facebook? Try Google
“Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Mims explains how Google hoovers up user data—through apps, web browsing, and more—much the way Facebook does. And how it uses all of that to sell advertising, just like Facebook. Oh, and how its terms of service are hard to understand. Like … yep, Facebook.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-has-more-of-your-personal-data-than-facebook-try-google-1524398401
Peekier – Privacy-Oriented Search Engine
“Peekier (pronounced /’pi·ki·er/) is a new way to search the web. Peek through search results fast and securely on a search engine that respects your privacy. Faster information discovery – Peekier shows you a website preview of the search results. Clicking on a result will maximize the preview and allow you to scroll through the website. You can then decide if the information displayed on the website interests you or not before clicking on the link.”
https://www.bespacific.com/peekier-privacy-oriented-search-engine/
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Research:
A Forum for Classified Research on Cybersecurity
“By definition, scientists who perform classified research cannot take full advantage of the standard practice of peer review and publication to assure the quality of their work and to disseminate their findings. Instead, military and intelligence agencies tend to provide limited disclosure of classified research to a select, security-cleared audience.”
https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2018/04/jscore-toc/
Science’s “Reproducibility Crisis” Is Being Used as Political Ammunition
“David Randall and Christopher Welser are unlikely authorities on the reproducibility crisis in science. Randall, a historian and librarian, is the director of research at the National Association of Scholars, a small higher education advocacy group. Welser teaches Latin at a Christian college in Minnesota. Neither has published anything on replication or reproducibility.”
https://www.wired.com/story/sciences-reproducibility-crisis-is-being-used-as-political-ammunition/
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Technology:
The Health Sector is Being Struck By Cyber Espionage
“Symantec reports that it’s observed a hacking team, called Orangeworm, compromise the systems of pharmaceutical firms, medical device manufacturers, healthcare providers, and even IT companies working with medical organizations. Victims don’t appear to have been chosen at random, but “carefully and deliberately.”
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610969/the-health-sector-is-being-struck-by-cyber-espionage/
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Transparency:
New York Judge Makes the Wrong Call on Stingray Secrecy
“A New York judge has ruled that the public and the judiciary shouldn’t second-guess the police when it comes to secret snooping on the public with intrusive surveillance technologies.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/new-york-judge-makes-wrong-call-stingray-secrecy
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Values:
Can Training Eliminate Biases? Starbucks Will Test the Thesis
“On Monday, reeling from an incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia that prompted accusations of racial bias, Howard Schultz, the company’s executive chairman, called the head of a nonprofit public-policy organization to discuss ways to prevent similar episodes in the future.
His idea: provide anti-bias training for his work force.
“He called and expressed that he felt personally accountable, and that the company was responsible, and took ownership over all of the events that unfolded, and then we went on to discuss his idea for this training,” said Heather McGhee, the president of Demos, the public policy group.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/business/starbucks-racial-bias-training.html
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Hearing on the Marrakesh Treaty for Persons With Print Disabilities
“On March 15, 2018, the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act (S. 2559) was introduced in the US Senate by Judiciary Committee Chair Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member Feinstein (D-CA), Foreign Relations Committee Chair Corker (R-TN), Ranking Member Menendez (D-NJ), and Senators Hatch (R-UT), Harris (D-CA), and Leahy (D-VT), to ratify and implement the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled (ARL’s press release on the introduction of the implementing legislation is available here). Today, April 18, 2018, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the Marrakesh Treaty. Witnesses include Manisha Singh (Department of State), Allan Adler (Association of American Publishers), Scott LaBarre (National Federation for the Blind) and Jonathan Band (Library Copyright Alliance).”
http://policynotes.arl.org/?p=1681
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Communications Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.
