NEW RESOURCES

Columbia University Archives: Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation Launches the Brazilian Presidential Transition (2018) Web Archive. “The Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation is pleased to announce the launch of the Brazilian Presidential Transition (2018) Web Archive. Built by the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, member libraries of the Latin America Libraries of the Northeast Group, and with significant contributions from members of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, the Archive comprises Brazilian government websites in the areas of human rights, the environment, LGBTQ issues, and culture, for the period following the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil on October 28, 2018, up to his inauguration on January 1, 2019.”

USDA: New Web Page Makes Info on Agricultural Pests and Diseases More Accessible. “Each year, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) must respond to new threats to America’s agricultural and natural resources often in the form of invasive species or emerging diseases. To raise awareness about these growing threats and our efforts to manage, monitor and regulate their impacts, we’ve launched the new Pests & Diseases web page.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Google’s Inbox by Gmail app will apparently shut down April 2. “The Inbox by Gmail app will join Google+ in digital oblivion in two weeks, it seems. We’ve known for a few months that Google would be discontinuing the personalized email app, but some people using it on Android devices got a notification saying it will shut down on April 2 and a link pushing them to the main Gmail app.”

Washington Post: Facebook agrees to overhaul targeted advertising system for job, housing and loan ads after discrimination complaints. “Facebook on Tuesday agreed to overhaul its lucrative targeted advertising system to settle accusations that landlords, lenders and employers use the platform to discriminate, a significant shift for a company that built a business empire on selling personal data.”

Illinois State University: The Vidette Digital Archives now available through 1980. “In January 2018, the first 75 volumes of The Vidette became available online. Now 93 volumes, comprised of over 4,620 issues and over 47,000 pages, are available. This is part of the ongoing plan to continue adding volumes of The Vidette to the digital archives collection through present day.”

USEFUL STUFF

Medium: There is a good variety of alternatives to Instagram. “When it comes to Instagram, there is a good variety of alternatives that ditch the psychological manipulation tactics and are generally more respectful of our privacy and how we want to share with each other. Here are some of my recommendations.” Couple of these I had never heard of.

Lifehacker: Get Ahead of Twitter Harassment by Checking Your Lists. “Being harassed on Twitter is never fun. And it can happen to you whether you’re already a decently well-known figure with that blue check mark of authenticity, an up-and-comer in the world of online witticisms, or if you came up with a single tweet that blew up beyond your wildest expectations. Or, of course, if you’re a woman.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

British Library: “The Barbados Mercury”: Thoughts from the digitisation team. “In December 2018, we completed the digitisation of The Barbados Mercury Gazette, funded through EAP1086. We have previously written about different stages of the project, such as the start and the digitisation training. In addition, on February 1, 2019, the Barbados Archives held an event to celebrate the launch of the digitised newspaper online. You can see information and images about this event here. In this post, two members of the digitisation team, Brian Inniss and Lenora Williams, discuss their thoughts about and experience during the digitisation process.”

New York Times: Scarecrow Video Has Survived This Long. Can It Hang On?. “As for Scarecrow, it survived bankruptcy, the threat of closing and the death of its charismatic founder. In 2014, it became a nonprofit. And now, after 30 years, with more than 132,000 titles — many on VHS, laser disc and DVD — it is as much a cultural warehouse as anything else. And that gives Kate Barr, Scarecrow’s president, pause.”

The Spinoff NZ: The quiet deletion of the Islamophobic archives. “In the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, organisations around New Zealand have removed content which might be seen as part of the culture which mainstreamed and enabled Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. These range from promoters to media outlets to political parties, though few are drawing attention to what they have removed or publicly stating their motivations. However others which have long-harboured or propagated Islamophobic views have opted to leave them on their platforms.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: U.S. top court jeopardizes Google settlement in internet privacy case. “The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday put in jeopardy an $8.5 million settlement Google has agreed to pay to resolve a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating a federal privacy law by sharing users’ search queries with other websites.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Miami Herald: UN: Gene editing for human reproduction is ‘irresponsible’. “A panel convened by the World Health Organization said it would be ‘irresponsible’ for scientists to use gene editing for reproductive purposes, but stopped short of calling for a ban. The experts also called for the U.N. health agency to create a database of scientists working on gene editing.” Good morning, Internet…

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