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On August 24, the Internet Archive hosted a conversation with Oya Rieger about the work she and Anne Kenney did and the book they developed. A recording of the event is available through the Internet Archive (66 min.).
Listening to Chris Freeland and Oya Rieger talk about digitization activities in the 1990s and early 2000s brought back many memories. If you have been involved in digitization over the last 30 years, it is likely the conversation will bring back memories for you too.
Have you dipped your toe into Threads, the new social media platform by Meta? Are you thinking that you need to learn more about how to use social media, rather than using trial and error?
In 2021, Paul Signorelli published the book, Change the World Using Social Media, through Rowman & Littlefield.What is it about?
Starting with an overview of what social media tools provide, Signorelli shows how social media tools can be quickly learned and easily adapted to produce small- as well as large-scale changes when used effectively in conjunction with other collaboration resources and tools.
Book chapters include:
I was among the people Paul interviewed for the book, along with many others. We provided examples of positive social media use, how-tos, and more. All of the topics are covered in a way to be helpful as you adopt newer or different platforms.
Now the book is available in paperback (in addition to Kindle and hardbound), which makes it available to a wider audience. Amazon provides a peek inside the book, so take a look!
In 2021, Paul Signorelli, Maurice Coleman, and I were interviewed by San Francisco Public Library about the book and using social media. That one-hour interview is available on YouTube. (Yes, my face is this first thing you see! Ha ha!)
This post contains paid links from Amazon.
This spring and summer, I have seen many photos of little free libraries. Each one is carried for and each one is used. However, let's think about the items in those little free libraries.
The mantra of a little free library (LFL) is:
Take a book. Share a book.
That means that the LFL is dependent on donations. Someone may be curating the LFL, but it is unlikely that the person is filling the LFL based on a collection development policy. Even if that person does have some standards, do those standards assure diversity of content? Is the content inclusive? Is there accessible content? Does the LFL support the diversity in the community (racial, ethnic, gender, etc.)?
I've helped to install little free libraries and I've placed books in them, but the fact that they are generally reliant on donations means that a LFL may not contain the books that will resonate with the community it's in. Imagine an LFL in a Black and Hispanic community that is filled by non-Black and non-Hispanic people who don't live in that community. Will the materials in the LFL represent the community that is using it? No.
This hit home for me when I looked at a little free library outside of a food pantry and realized that the people filling the LFL were from a different demographic.
I don't know how to ensure that a little free library is filled with works that are diverse and inclusive, without causing more work and more cost. Perhaps if folks recognize the problem, that can be a first step towards making each LFL more inclusive, more diverse, and better connected with the community it serves.
If you have ideas on how to solve this problem, post a comment.
A few weeks ago, Library Futures released their 2022 Annual Report, which is a website that links to other resources. Library Futures had an amazing 2022 including submitting 3 amicus briefs, hosting 18 webinars, and producing 3 research papers.
One thing that caught my eye is that:
Community Fellow Emily Finch converted the American Library Association Conference copyright booth into a portable Open Educational Resource that can be used anywhere.
You know that copyright questions often fall into specific categories and this handout captures that idea, while also provide using advice and pointing to other resources.
Yes, use it! It's an Open Education Resource (OER), which means it is meant to be used and shared.
Rachel Alexander's opening text to this article gets at our fears:
Creatives are worried about being thrown out of a job by generative AI, while artificial intelligence developers leave themselves open to copyright infringement claims by training their AI on unlicensed material.
Her article is written from a UK perspective but does touch on approaches being used in the U.S. and EU. And if you're wondering why you should read it, this should capture your attention:
Generative AI presents a new scenario on which to apply questions that copyright has been grappling with for centuries such as: Who can be an author? What is original? What constitutes ‘fair dealing’ with a protected work?Information Age, which published this article, has a number of stories on generative AI. If that is a topic you are following, you may want to follow Information Age.
