Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

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Peter E. Murray

Library technologist, open source advocate, striving to think globally while acting locally

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  • Considerations for Online Age Verification (in the U.S.)

    The Congressional Research Service has posted four reports about verifying users' ages for various services online in the past few months. This is a tricky area because there are open questions around compliance and potential free speech impacts. Figuring out how to protect minors while not infringing on lawful communication …

     Posted on  September 02, 2023
     and last updated September 02, 2023
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Can Google's New "My Account" Page be a Model for Libraries?

    One of the things discussed in the NISO patron privacy conference calls has been the need for transparency with patrons about what information is being gathered about them and what is done with it. The recent announcement by Google of a "My Account" page and a privacy question/answer site …

     Posted on  June 10, 2015
     and last updated June 11, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • My View of the NISO Patron Privacy Working Group

    Yesterday Bobbi Newman posted Thinking Out Loud About Patron Privacy and Libraries on her blog. Both of us are on the NISO committee to develop a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems, and her article sounded a note of discouragement that I hope to …

     Posted on  June 09, 2015
     and last updated June 09, 2015
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • The Best of the "SOPA Blackout"

    Commentary, intentional and unintentional humor, and media from January 18, 2012.

    http://storify.com/datag/the-best-of-the-sopa-blackout-1

     Posted on  January 18, 2012
     and last updated January 19, 2012
  • Stop SOPA and Protect-IP

    This blog will be present first-time users with a warning page on January 18, 2012 -- the day that many internet sites are using to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) -- and January 23rd, 2012 -- the day before the U.S. Senate may vote on the PROTECT-IP act. DLTJ is …

     Posted on  January 18, 2012
     and last updated January 18, 2012
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • AIME v UCal Decision Says Streaming Equivalent to Public Performance

    NOTE! The title of this post was updated (replacing "Display" with "Performance") a day after it was originally published. See the update at the bottom of the post for more details.


    Last week a federal district court in California decided in favor of the University of California defendants in a lawsuit …

     Posted on  October 10, 2011
     and last updated October 10, 2011
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • Google Book Search Settlement Rejected

    Google Book Search Ruling Wordle

    Wordle of the Opinion Rejecting the Google Book Search Settlement Agreement
    This afternoon, Judge Denny Chin released the opinion of the court rejecting the proposed settlement agreement between authors/publishers and Google in the Google Book Search settlement. ARL's Public Policy Twitter account seems to have been the first to …

     Posted on  March 22, 2011
     and last updated March 22, 2011
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Real Life Example of Creative Commons License Applied to MARC Records

    Eric Morgan posted a message to the Next Generation Catalog for Libraries mailing list this morning that points to a announcement by the University of Florida library that they are now applying a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication statement to MARC records they create. Their announcement says:

    Beginning March 2011 …

     Posted on  March 18, 2011
     and last updated March 18, 2011
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Interesting Google Book Search Settlement Bits in Advance of Thursday's Fairness Hearing

    Thursday will be a big day in the Google Book Search lawsuit settlement: the parties to the lawsuit, along with the objectors, supporters, and friends-of-the-court, will be in the courtroom of United States District Judge Denny Chin offering oral arguments in the final settlement/fairness hearing. In his order, Judge …

     Posted on  February 15, 2010
     and last updated February 16, 2010
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • The Role of the Library in the Future of Reading

    A popular topic coming across my radar screen is the future of reading, and more specifically the role of libraries in the future of reading. Much of commentary seems to have been inspired by the announcement of the Apple iPad device, but it isn't necessarily limited to that. Here are …

     Posted on  February 11, 2010
     and last updated February 12, 2010
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Notes from the OCLC Record Use Policy Council discussion

    On Saturday morning of ALA Midwinter 2010, Dr. Jennifer Younger moderated a session on the progress of the OCLC Record Use Policy Council. The meeting started with an introduction to the reasons behind the creation of the Record Use Council, the charge of the Council from the board of trustees …

     Posted on  January 18, 2010
     and last updated January 18, 2010
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Revised Google Book Search Settlement from a Library Perspective

    Late, late in the day last Friday, the principle parties in the Google Book Search case submitted a revised settlement agreement agreement to the court. This post takes a look at the changes to the settlement from a library perspective. To keep this manageable, I'm not including discussion of library-oriented …

     Posted on  November 18, 2009
     and last updated November 19, 2009
     ·  11 minutes reading time
  • OCLC and the Associated Press -- Two Sides of the Same Information Provider Coin?

    I've run across a striking similarity between the bibliographic utility business and the newswire business, particularly in the area of cooperatives. Two cooperatives -- OCLC on the bibliographic utility side and the Associated Press on the newswire side -- have the same pattern of activity:

    • both are membership organizations,
    • both seek to …
     Posted on  November 11, 2009
     and last updated November 11, 2009
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • The Internet Comes of Age

    ICANN Logo Just as it turns 40, the internet comes of age. One day before of the anniversary of the first two computers connected together by a prototype network in 1969 ((From the BBN Timeline for ARPANET:

    On October 1, 1969, the second [Interface Message Processor] arrived at SRI and the first …

     Posted on  September 30, 2009
     and last updated October 01, 2009
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Google Book Search Settlement Hearing Is Likely Postponed

    Late today comes word that the plaintiffs (authors and publishers) and defendant (Google) have asked the court to postpone the settlement fairness hearing originally scheduled for October 7th. According to the memo from the parties supporting the request, the spark for this comes from the U.S. Department of Justice's …

     Posted on  September 22, 2009
     and last updated September 23, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Comments on Google Book Search Settlement Coming to a Head (Again)

    Ah, it is the beginning of September when thoughts turn to going back to school, the days turn a little colder (in the northern hemisphere) and the smell of lawsuit briefs is in the air. Well, okay -- the latter might not be what you expect, but this is a special …

     Posted on  September 03, 2009
     and last updated September 03, 2009
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Federal Research Public Access Act Reintroduced

    New legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week to support the publication of federally-sponsored research results under open access terms.
    Sponsored by Senator Lieberman …

     Posted on  June 30, 2009
     and last updated June 30, 2009
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Google Book Search Privacy, Orphan Works, and Monopoly

    A few weeks ago, a reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed Adam Smith, Google's director of product management, about the Google Book Search settlement and posted the interview in audio form. The page isn't dated, but guessing from metadata in the URL it was somewhere around the publication …

     Posted on  June 29, 2009
     and last updated June 29, 2009
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • OCLC Formally Withdraws Proposed Record Use Policy

    OCLC has published the final report from the OCLC Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship and announced the formal withdrawal of the proposed Policy on Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records. In doing so, OCLC has reaffirmed the existence and applicability of the "Guidelines for the …

     Posted on  June 28, 2009
     and last updated June 28, 2009
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • EBSCO in Cahoots With Harvard Business Press

    A controversy is starting to pick up in the business librarian community -- primarily in the U.K. it would seem -- regarding the licensing demands of Harvard Business Press (HBP) for the inclusion of Harvard Business Review articles in EBSCOhost. HBP content in EBSCOhost carries a publisher-specific rider that says use …

     Posted on  June 28, 2009
     and last updated June 28, 2009
     ·  10 minutes reading time