NEW RESOURCES

Registers from the Archbishops of York have been digitized and put online. “They provide unique insights into ecclesiastical, political and cultural history across the North of England from 1225-1650 – a period that witnessed significant events including the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation and the English Civil War….The website, launched today, provides free access to over 20,000 images of registers.”

Florida State University has launched a new digital library and research repository. “University Libraries are proud to announce the launch of DigiNole, Florida State University’s unified platform for FSU-created and maintained digital resources. DigiNole will enable users’ seamless access to a range of materials through two portals including the Digital Library and the Research Repository.”

The Indian Institute of Science is creating a huge digital library. “The process of digitisation began six years ago. So far, the IISc has digitised 2,500 books and as many theses. Now, 10,000 bound volume journals and more than 5,500 titles are available online. … The library has more than 8,000 theses and at least two lakh books, according to Puttabasavaiah, deputy librarian at the IISc.” (A lakh is 100,000.)

Why yes, I am an infrastructure nerd, thanks for noticing. The US Federal Railroad Administration has launched a way for municipalities and states to request information on railroad bridges. “Once FRA receives the request, the railroad that owns the bridge will have 30 days to respond. The agency plans to provide a copy of the report to the requester within 45 days of the original request. Under the FAST Act, information about the bridge such as the date of the last inspection, length and location of the bridge, type and features of the bridge, railroad contact information and a general statement on the bridge’s condition will be included in the report.”

TWEAKS & UPDATES

The EcoData Retriever has gotten a new release. “We are very exited to announce the newest release of the EcoData Retriever, our software for automating the downloading, cleaning, and installing of ecological and environmental data. Instead of hours or days trying to get complicated datasets like the Breeding Bird Survey ready for analysis, the Retriever lets you simply click a button or run a single command from R or the command line, and your computer does the rest.”

Interested in VR? Want to get your mittens on Google Cardboard? Here ya go. “Google is offering three headsets on the Google Store, with their own Cardboard headset selling for $15USD, the Mattel View-Master VR Starter Pack, which includes an iPhone 5/5c/5s adaptor and View-Master preview reel selling for $29.99USD and the Goggle Tech C1-Glass VR Viewer selling for $14.99USD.”

USEFUL STUFF

From LITA Blog: How to start using Google Cardboard in your library.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

According to the linked story, Snapchat is getting eight BILLION video views a day. Congratulate me, I sent my first Snapchat yesterday (or at least I think I did.) It was a of an almost-empty tortilla chip basket along with a few random emoji. I felt like a fingerpainting three-year-old.

Ooops. A Google self-driving car has caused an accident for what may be the first time. It bumped a bus.

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

There’s a new ransomware going around, and it’s threatening Web sites. “Once installed on a Web server, the program replaces the site’s index.php and creates a directory called Crypt that contains additional PHP files. It starts to encrypt all the files in the server’s Web directory when it receives a specifically crafted request from an attacker. After the encryption process is complete, the website’s home page will display a message asking for a payment to be made in bitcoin.”

How bad at hack incidents at this point? Vice.com now has an entire section called “Another Day, Another Hack”. Today’s hack story is about the theft of 27 million passwords from a dating site.

A German court has fined Facebook what is, let’s face it, couch-cushion money for failure to warn German users about how it would use their intellectual property. “The Berlin regional court ruled that Facebook had not adequately changed the wording of a clause on intellectual property in its terms and conditions after a complaint was filed by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV).” Good morning, Internet…

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