Thanks to John, human news aggregator and Reporter-At-Large for PomeRantz, for sending this one along. The Homer Street branch featured so prominently in this story was my home library for many many years, since I was about 8 or so and that branch was first built. Newton library forces FBI to get warrant to seize computers, from the Boston Globe A matter of principle — and law — made Newton.. Read More
Kojo
I got a call in the office on Thursday from Brendan, one of the producers of the Kojo Nnamdi Show, which airs on WAMU radio, in DC. They’re planning to do a show on Wikipedia and the “wiki phenomenon,” as this producer put it. Originally the show was supposed to be on this Tuesday; I got an email yesterday from the producer saying that it’s been rescheduled to February. I’m.. Read More
State’s new library catalog
NCSU Libraries Unveils Revolutionary, Endeca-Powered Online Catalog The NCSU Libraries announced today the first library deployment of a revolutionary new online catalog. Leveraging the advanced search and Guided Navigation® capabilities of the Endeca ProFind™ platform, the NCSU Libraries’ new catalog, which is located at www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/, provides the speed and flexibility of popular online search engines while capitalizing on existing catalog records. Update: Lorcan Dempsey has an excellent post on State’s.. Read More
It could be your data
Feds Seek Google Records in Porn Probe, from the WaPo Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period… Yes, that could be your data. Me, I use Google daily, several times. So do you. All Google searches from a.. Read More
DL curriculum grant gets press
Who’d have thunk it, that curriculum development was so interesting to the media? Wanda, our Director of Communications, wrote the UNC News release about our Digital Library Curriculum Development project, and the UNC News Service distributed it to the media. Almost immediately, Barbara was interviewed by WCHL.
Fu
I’m sure I’m not the first to notice this, but I’ve noticed that more and more I keep coming across the word fu. As in kung fu, or what is certainly one of the best names for a blog in the whole of the blogosphere, Geek Fu, or as one of my students put it recently, “Google Fu”. The OED has no entry for fu, though fou has two meanings:.. Read More
I thought I’d never see the day
Boston surfaces from the Big Dig, from CNN After more than a decade of ever-shifting traffic detours, the last major piece of roadway in Boston’s Big Dig opened Friday, officials said. From The Big Dig site: In order to finish the last three percent of construction, there are numerous road changes in place. Indeed.
Humans@Home
As anyone who’s been in my office knows, I dedicate my spare computer clock cycles to the SETI@home project. My computer is one node in a massive supercomputer. But now your brain could be one node in a massive supercomputer! Public to look for dust grains in Stardust detectors In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a.. Read More
The ghoulish side of librarianship
Some of nation’s best libraries have books bound in human skin, from The Boston Globe The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of George Walton’s memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman — a robber who specialized in ambushing travelers — and he left the volume to one of his victims, John Fenno. Fenno’s daughter gave it to the library.
Yet another award
Three weeks ago I wrote that my awards seem to be experiencing arithmetic growth. Well, I’m happy to report that this is still more or less true. In fact, I’m slightly ahead of my projected growth rate: earlier this week we learned that we’ve been funded by the NSF for $260,000 over 3 years. Project title: Curriculum Development: Digital Libraries Project purpose? Well, curriculum development for digital libraries, obviously. Or,.. Read More