NEW RESOURCES

A digital archive of shipwreck journals is now online. “The Western Australian Museum and the Netherlands National Archives is creating a digital archive of journals and documents relating to the ships and shipwrecks associated with the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) in Australia.” Looks like there are three online so far, 2 from 1727 and one from 1658.

A new Web site aims to provide advice for poison-related emergencies (PRESS RELEASE). “The new tool provides critical, lifesaving poison information from any computer or smart device. The nation’s 55 poison control centers, collectively known as ‘poison control,’ are staffed by specially-trained physicians, pharmacists, and nurses who are experts in toxicology, poisoning information, prevention, and treatment—many of these same experts created and vetted the new online tool. ”

The Connecticut State Library has partnered with other organizations to launch a new resource: “The Voices of World War I” (PDF link, sorry). The press release describes the new resource as “a new, first-of-its kind service that aims to improve access to historical documents and archival records for people of all abilities, including those who are blind or unable to read due to learning, physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Instagram will now let you save your live video to your phone. “Starting today, you’ll have the option to save your live video to your phone at the end of a broadcast. While live videos will continue to disappear from the app when you’re done, this update gives you the flexibility to hold onto your video and re-watch it later, especially if something exciting happens during your broadcast that you want to remember or share.”

The Library of Congress has acquired the photographic archives of Bob Adelman. “The Library of Congress today announced the acquisition of the archives of Bob Adelman, one of the best-known photographers of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The collection, containing 575,000 high-quality images, was given to the Library as a gift from an anonymous donor. The materials, which represent a wide range of images covering the latter half of the 20th century, will be housed in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. Of the 575,000 images, 50,000 are prints and the rest, negatives and slides.”

USEFUL STUFF

Social Media Examiner: How to Maximize Your Facebook Reach. “Looking to improve your Facebook exposure? Organic reach has become harder to achieve on Facebook and marketers are turning to creative ways to get their messages seen. In this article, you’ll discover how to help your Facebook posts go further.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Feral Librarian: What happens to libraries and librarians when machines can read all the books?. “This ongoing digital evolution of libraries and of how students and faculty use scholarly content is significant and has arguably made research and teaching more efficient and more productive. The advent of online and digital libraries has also made more information more accessible to more people than ever could have been possible when scholarly materials were available only in tangible, physical formats. But if this switch, from individuals reading books and articles one at a time in print to individuals reading books and articles one at a time on their own digital device is all we get from the digital revolution, then it won’t have been much of a revolution.” Good stuff.

Stanford Daily: A photo of every protest: Stanford archivists memorialize activism as it unfolds. “…every year, the graduating class Wacky Walks its way to Commencement — and risks exiting Stanford without leaving a trace. The University Archives address these questions of legacy and memory for students by piecing together the tangible items each class leaves behind, documenting student life across time. From Vietnam-era anti-war posters to photographs of the Fossil Free Stanford protest, the Archives aim to actively transcribe history as it unfolds in the present.”

Quartz: This is now what happens when you try to post fake news on Facebook. “The Facebook fact-checker has begun flagging a story that was shared widely on the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) that falsely claims thousands of Irish people were brought to the United States as slaves. This is what happens when you try to share the story on Facebook…”

RESEARCH & OPINION

LSE Impact Blog: Google Scholar is a serious alternative to Web of Science. “Many bibliometricians and university administrators remain wary of Google Scholar citation data, preferring ‘the gold standard’ of Web of Science instead. Anne-Wil Harzing, who developed the Publish or Perish software that uses Google Scholar data, here sets out to challenge some of the misconceptions about this data source and explain why it offers a serious alternative to Web of Science. In addition to its flaws having been overstated, Google Scholar’s coverage of high-quality publications is more comprehensive in many areas, including in the social sciences and humanities, books and book chapters, conference proceedings and non-English language publications.”

US News & World Report: Sharers Rather Than Authors More Important on Social Media. “The person who shares a news story on social media is more important than the story’s actual source in determining whether readers believe it, a study by the Media Insight Project has found. In a previous study, consumers said they paid greater heed to where the story originated. But the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute, set up an experiment that found something different.”

Charlotte Observer: Your dinging, buzzing, vibrating phone is stressing you out — and so is its silence. “Many people find the constant dings, rings, buzzes and beeps that come from their computers and cell phones impossible to ignore. Experts say its a sign of our dependency on technology, which validates and entertains us while also cutting into our productivity and altering our attention span for the worse.” Good morning, Internet…

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