Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

  • About the Jester
  • Categories
  • Tags
  • Résumé / CV
  • Newsletter

Peter E. Murray

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

This site uses Robust Links.
  • Thursday Threads: Data Management Plans, Better Q/A Sessions, App for Bird Identification

    This week's threads:

    • Where should you keep your data? Your library can help with that answer!
    • Use index cards for your next presentation's question and answer session -- it'll make for a better experience for you and your audience.
    • What's that bird? There is an app for that! Give it your …
     Posted on  June 25, 2015
     and last updated June 25, 2015
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Changes to "Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church" Wikipedia Page, Visualized

    Edited after initial publication to add: My thoughts are with the people in and around Charleston, South Carolina, this evening. What is making it out of the media fog to me tonight is your compassion for each other. Please be well as you absorb, internalize, and recover from this shocking …

     Posted on  June 19, 2015
     and last updated June 20, 2015
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Let's Encrypt is coming, Businesses want you coming to the office, OR2015 Summary

    This week's threads:

    • Let's Encrypt announces its launch schedule, so soon everyone can have web servers with encrypted transmissions;
    • Ploys by businesses to get you to come into the office, if you work at a place where coming into an office is optional; and
    • A summary of Open Repositories 2015 …
     Posted on  June 18, 2015
     and last updated June 18, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Top Tech Trends, ALA Annual 2015 edition: Local and Unique; New metrics and citation tools

    I threw my hat into the ring to be on the LITA Top Tech Trends panel at the ALA annual conference later this month in San Francisco, and never could I say that I was more excited not to be selected. (You can find more info on this year's Top …

     Posted on  June 12, 2015
     and last updated June 12, 2015
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Advertising and Privacy, Giving Away Linux, A View of the Future

    In just a few weeks there will be a gathering of 25,000 librarians in the streets of San Francisco for the American Library Association annual meeting. The topics on my mind as the meeting draws closer? How patrons intersect with advertising and privacy when using our services. What one …

     Posted on  June 11, 2015
     and last updated June 11, 2015
     ·  5 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
  • Seeking new opportunity in library technology

    Dear Colleagues,

    Know of someone looking for a skilled library technologist? The funding for my position at LYRASIS will run out at the end of June, and I am looking for a new opportunity for my skills in library technology, open source, and community engagement. My resume/c.v. is …

     Posted on  June 08, 2015
     and last updated June 08, 2015
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Setting the Right Environment: Remote Staff, Service Provider Participants, and Big-Tent Open Source Communities

    NOTE! I was asked recently to prepare a 15 minute presentation on lessons learned working with a remote team hosting open source applications. The text of that presentation is below with links added to more information. Photographs are from DPLA and Flickr, and are used under Public Domain or Creative Commons …

     Posted on  May 29, 2015
     and last updated May 29, 2015
     ·  10 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Man Photocopies Ebook, Google AutoAwesomes Photos, Librarians Called to HTTPS

    In this week's threads: a protest -- or maybe just an art project -- by a reader who saves his e-book copy of Orwell's 1984 by photocopying each page from his Kindle, the "AutoAwesome" nature of artificial intelligence, and a call to action for libraries to implement encryption on their websites.

    Feel …

     Posted on  May 28, 2015
     and last updated May 28, 2015
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Advancing Patron Privacy on Vendor Systems with a Shared Understanding

    Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a short talk at the second virtual meeting of the NISO effort to reach a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems. The slides from the presentation are below and on SlideShare, followed by a cleaned-up transcript …

     Posted on  May 26, 2015
     and last updated May 26, 2015
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Institution-wide ORCID Adoption Test in U.K. Shows Promise

    Via Gary Price's announcement on InfoDocket comes word of a cost-benefit analysis for the wholesale adoption of ORCID identifiers by eight institutions in the U.K. The report, Institutional ORCID, Implementation and Cost Benefit Analysis Report [PDF], looks at the perspectives of stakeholders, a summary of findings from the pilot …

     Posted on  May 22, 2015
     and last updated May 22, 2015
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Library RFP Registry, Transformed Libraries talk at IMLSfocus, DIY VPN

    Welcome spring in the northern hemisphere! Thoughts turn to fresh new growth -- a new tool to help with writing documents for procuring library systems, a fresh way to think about how libraries can transform and be transformed, and spring cleaning for your browsing habits with a do-it-yourself VPN.

    Feel free …

     Posted on  May 07, 2015
     and last updated May 07, 2015
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • From NISO: Invitation to NISO Patron Privacy Virtual Meetings

    This article has been translated into Polish.

    Over the next couple months, NISO is managing a project to "develop a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems." ((From NISO's March 11, 2015, press release about the project.)) I'm honored and excited to be on the …

     Posted on  May 04, 2015
     and last updated May 04, 2015
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Fake Social Media, Netflix is Huge, Secret TPP is Bad

    In this week's Thursday Threads we look at the rise of fake social media influence, how a young media company (Netflix) is now bigger than an old media company (CBS), and a reminder of how secrecy in constructing trade agreements is a bad idea.

    Feel free to send this newsletter …

     Posted on  April 23, 2015
     and last updated April 23, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • The Hourglass of a National E-Book Program

    This weekend I was at the second "DPLAfest" for the Digital Public Library of America. For a while I was in the national e-book program track. Participants from public and academic libraries, from consortia, from publishers, and from authors discussed what a national ebok program for libraries would look like …

     Posted on  April 19, 2015
     and last updated April 19, 2015
     ·  9 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  April 16, 2015
     and last updated April 16, 2015
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • What Does it Mean to Have Unlimited Storage in the Cloud?

    We've seen big announcements recently about unlimited cloud storage offerings for a flat monthly or fee. Dropbox offers it for subscribers to its Business plan. Similarly, Google has unlimited storage for Google Apps for Business customers. In both cases, though, you have to be part of a business group of …

     Posted on  March 31, 2015
     and last updated April 01, 2015
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Web Time Travel, Fake Engine Noise, The Tech Behind Delivering Pictures of Behinds

    In this week's DLTJ Thursday Threads: the introduction of a web service that points you to old copies of web pages, dispelling illusions of engine noise, and admiring the technical architecture of Amazon Web Services that gives us the power to witness Kim Kardashian’s back side.

    Feel free to …

     Posted on  February 05, 2015
     and last updated February 05, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Google Maps is Good, DRM is Bad, and Two-factor Authentication can be Ugly

    Black and white photo of four men in suits examine a tabletop map in an office setting, with additional maps displayed on the wall behind them.

    Looking at maps, Eastern Carolina University Digital Collections.

    Three threads this week: how mapping technologies have come such a long way in the past few years, and why explaining digital rights management is bad for your sanity, a cautionary tale for those trying to be more conscious about security their …

     Posted on  December 18, 2014
     and last updated December 18, 2014
     ·  4 minutes reading time