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Digital versus Digitized: On the Hachette v. Internet Archive Appeal Oral Argument
One thing that would dramatically clarify the controlled digital lending concept in general and the Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit in particular is having distinct terms for types of ebooks. I propose that we refer to them as digital and digitized. A digital book is one that is born digital …
Posted on· 14 minutes reading time -
The ILS without patron data: open questions
In my prior two posts, I outlined a strategy to minimize personally identifiable information in library automation systems (idea overview, impact on FOLIO). This approach uses a unique single-service identifier (the "pairwise-id") recognized exclusively by the identity provider (IdP) and the library's service provider (SP), effectively preventing any cross-system correlation …
Posted onand last updated July 06, 2024· 5 minutes reading time -
The ILS without patron data: a thought experiment realized with FOLIO
In the previous blog post, I outlined the concept of a library system with no personally identifiable information as a way to safeguard a patron's right to privacy. Library systems commonly retain traces of a patron's library activity, and the librarian ethos protects a patron's privacy as they conduct their …
Posted onand last updated July 06, 2024· 8 minutes reading time -
The ILS without patron data: a thought experiment
Library systems hold significant information about patrons, including their search and reading histories. For librarians, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of this data is an essential component of professional ethics. In the United States, for example, the third point in the American Library Association Code of Ethics is "We protect …
Posted onand last updated July 06, 2024· 7 minutes reading time -
On Open Library Services: Reflections from the GIL User Group Meeting
In May 2023 I was asked to join the opening session at Georgia's GIL User Group Meeting. Along with Chris Sharp and Emily Gore, we reflected on the conference theme: The Future is Open. GALILEO has an exciting time ahed of it...their libraries are adopting FOLIO and a new …
Posted on· 5 minutes reading time -
Trip Report: NISO Plus Forum 2022
Earlier this week, NISO held its one-day NISO Plus Forum for 2022. This was an in-person meeting that is intended to feed into the online conference in February 2023. Around 100 people from NISO's membership groups—libraries, content providers, and service providers—attended to talk about metadata. The meeting was …
Posted onand last updated October 05, 2022· 5 minutes reading time -
What EDUCAUSE's 2022 Top 10 IT Issues Mean for Libraries
Last month, EDUCAUSE published its Top 10 IT Issues for 2022 with the subtitle "The Higher Education We Deserve". To reach the top 10, EDUCAUSE members were asked to prioritize 17 issues identified by the EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel members. The members of the Issue Panel then broke up into …
Posted on· 10 minutes reading time -
More Thoughts on Pre-recording Conference Talks
Over the weekend, I posted an article here about pre-recording conference talks and sent a tweet about the idea on Monday. I hoped to generate discussion about recording talks to fill in gaps—positive and negative—about the concept, and I was not disappointed. I'm particularly thankful to Lisa Janicke …
Posted on· 8 minutes reading time -
Should All Conference Talks be Pre-recorded?
The Code4Lib conference was last week. That meeting used all pre-recorded talks, and we saw the benefits of pre-recording for attendees, presenters, and conference organizers. Should all talks be pre-recorded, even when we are back face-to-face?
Note! After I posted a link to this article on Twitter, there was a …
Posted onand last updated April 08, 2021· 6 minutes reading time -
Engaging with Open Source Technologies
These are the presentation notes for the Engaging with Open Source Technologies presentation during the Open Source Publishing Technologies: Current Status and Emerging Possibilities webinar on Wednesday, August 14, 2019.
Webinar Description
This session will focus on discussions of open source publishing platforms and systems. What is the value proposition …
Posted onand last updated April 03, 2021· 2 minutes reading time -
Ensuring System Interoperability: Readers and Ebooks — A NISO/BISG Forum
These are the presentation notes for the Ensuring System Interoperability presentation during the Readers and Ebooks: Making The Connection during the NISO/BISG Forum on Friday, June 21, 2019.
Posted onand last updated April 03, 2021 -
Privacy in the Context of Content Platforms and Discovery Tools
These are the presentation notes for the Privacy in the Context of Content Platforms and Discovery Tools presentation during the NISO Information Freedom, Ethics, and Integrity virtual conference on Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Posted onand last updated December 07, 2022· 17 minutes reading time -
Anxious Anger -- or: why does my profession want to become a closed club
I'm in the Austin, Texas, airport -- having just left the closing session of the Re-Think It conference -- and I'm wondering what the heck is happening to my chosen profession. When did we turn into an exclusive member's only club with unrealistic demands on professionalism and a secret handshake?
The closing …
Posted onand last updated April 03, 2021· 4 minutes reading time -
Open Access Attitudes of Computer Science Professors
My Communications of the ACM came in the main recently, and in an article about the future of scholarly publishing in computer science (in general -- and what the ACM Publications Board is thinking about doing), there was this paragraph about the attitudes of a subset of ACM members towards open …
Posted on· 1 minutes reading time -
Mystery in the Library
A colleague e-mailed me the other day expressing appreciation for the DLTJ blog in part, and also describing a mystery that she is running in her library:
[caption id="attachment_6639" align="alignright" width="225"] Adrian (MN) Police Chief Shawn Langseth gathering evidence in the library "crime".[/caption]Because I am …
Posted on· 1 minutes reading time -
Model Language on Library Data Ownership
In September, Carl Grant wrote a blog post on the ownership of library data ("We have a problem... another vendor appearing to need education about exactly WHO owns library data") that has been rolling around my own thoughts for, well, months. The spark of Carl's post was a Twitter conversation …
Posted on· 5 minutes reading time -
The Security Implications of Teaching Librarians to Program
Should librarians be learning to how to develop software? This theme has come up in the past few years ((Going back to Karin Dalziel’s 2008 Why every Library Science student should learn programming, continuing through Dianne Hillmann’s keynote at Code4Lib 2011 to this year’s LITA/ALCTS Library …
Posted on· 5 minutes reading time -
Libraries as Provisioner, Quartermaster, and Curator
Yesterday I heard Catherine Murray-Rust give a keynote at the Georgia Knowledge Repository workshop. She used the phrase, and I think I transcribed this correctly, "provisioning of knowledge" when describing the activities that institutional repositories can do. That phrase reminded me about a recent discussion on a mailing list (I …
Posted on· 2 minutes reading time -
But Is It a Library? -- Reflections on 'Little Free Libraries
Little Free Library, near Cafe Zoma by Jeremy Cusker, on Flickr There are these places popping up around the country where people are putting out books in containers ranging from little huts to hutches to converted fire extinguisher cases for others to take, share, and return or substitute with a …Posted on· 2 minutes reading time -
A Walk Through the Vancouver Public Library
I'm in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the Access 2011 meeting which starts tomorrow. Coming across from the eastern timezone I had to come a day early, so -- being a self-confessed library nerd -- I checked out the Vancouver Public Library. I'm impressed with not only the physical structure but also the …
Posted on· 6 minutes reading time