NEW RESOURCES

Getty Blog: New Database Underway Recording Sixty Years of Getty Publications. “Greg Albers, digital publications manager at Getty Publications, is leading a project to collect and provide access to information on every Getty book published since Publications’ origins in 1954….Publications staff is actively adding to the database now, and the public-facing component will go live within an expanded version of the Virtual Library, which currently features just over 300 downloadable backlist books. The expanded version will launch later in 2017, and will include a record for every book published by the Getty.”

World Health Organization: Increasing transparency of abortion laws and policies: launch of a new online database. “WHO and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs have launched a new, open-access database of laws, policies and health standards on abortion in countries worldwide. The database aims to promote greater transparency of abortion laws and policies, as well as to improve countries’ accountability for the protection of women and girls’ health and human rights.”

BusinessWire: NewFounders Launches the EveryElection app (PRESS RELEASE). “In an effort to reconnect people and politics, NewFounders today launched the EveryElection app , a user-friendly app that alerts citizens when a local election is coming up, as well as how and where to vote.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Congress: NLS Rolls Out New Digital Initiatives. “The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at the Library of Congress is enhancing its ability to serve its patrons through several major technological initiatives being advanced this summer. NLS is launching a new and improved website and a new multimedia education campaign—both designed to raise awareness of NLS’s remarkable free services.”

Online Journalism Blog: Facebook safety for journalists – new initiative launched. “Facebook has launched a new initiative in partnership with a number of journalism organisations to help journalists ‘protect their accounts and themselves on Facebook.’ The Facebook Safety for Journalists page covers 10 steps that journalists should take, ranging from password protection to abuse and harassment.”

Google Blog: The world as you see it with VR180 . “We know that virtual reality videos can be really powerful, which is why we have invested in supporting 360 and VR formats for over two years. And today, VR video is the most popular way to experience VR. But, we’ve heard from creators and viewers who want to make and see even more immersive videos on YouTube. So, we’ve been working with Google’s Daydream team on a brand new video format, called VR180, that we believe will make VR content even easier to create.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNET: Google Maps dismissed as ‘unreliable’ by Indian government. “The country’s mapping and surveying agency, Survey of India, urged citizens to stop relying on Google Maps and Google Earth, saying neither has been authenticated by the government, reported Business Standard. To encourage this, the SoI made its own maps available online for citizens to use at no cost.” Is this the same Indian government that’s using Google Maps in a court case?.

Los Angeles Times: This year’s hot graduation gift: Snapchat geofilters. “In the year since Snapchat began welcoming geofilters, paid submissions have increased to tens of thousands per day. Graphics tied to weddings and birthdays are most popular. But graduations, with 15% of buys, claimed the No. 2 spot from birthdays last month, according to data from Snapchat’s template library. About half of users design from templates provided by Snap Inc., with the rest turning to their own skills or contractors found online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Nature: US court grants Elsevier millions in damages from Sci-Hub. “One of the world’s largest science publishers, Elsevier, won a default legal judgement on 21 June against websites that provide illicit access to tens of millions of research papers and books. A New York district court awarded Elsevier US$15 million in damages for copyright infringement by Sci-Hub, the Library of Genesis (LibGen) project and related sites.”

Boing Boing: How hackers can steal your 2FA email account by getting you to sign up for another website . “In a paper for IEEE Security, researchers from Cyberpion and Israel’s College of Management Academic Studies describe a “Password Reset Man-in-the-Middle Attack” that leverages a bunch of clever insights into how password resets work to steal your email account (and other kinds of accounts), even when it’s protected by two-factor authentication.”

Ars Technica: How the CIA infects air-gapped networks. “Documents published Thursday purport to show how the Central Intelligence Agency has used USB drives to infiltrate computers so sensitive they are severed from the Internet to prevent them from being infected.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Quartz: The US government’s websites are so unreadable they actually break their own laws. “Federal agencies must use plain language. It’s the law. Yet the new 2017 US Government Website Clarity Index (pdf), put together by the content analysis company Visible Thread, shows that many sites defy the Plain Writing Act with puzzling prose.” Good morning, Internet…

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