TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Facebook will fight misinformation linked to the 2020 US census. “Facebook isn’t just limiting its anti-interference efforts to elections. The social network has published a second updated on its civil rights audit, and with it news that the company plans to treat the 2020 US census as if it were a vote. It will have a team dedicated to fighting misinformation surrounding the census, a policy to crack down on fake census-related stories and partnerships with non-partisan groups to foster participation. AI will help enforce the policy, Facebook said.”

British Library Medieval manuscripts blog: Even more digitised manuscripts. “Long-term readers of this Blog may be aware that we periodically publish lists of our digitised manuscripts. Our last one was published in July 2018 and the wait for a new one is over — here are up-to-date lists of manuscript hyperlinks to make it easier for you to explore our amazing digitised treasures.”

Fold3: New Naval Records on Fold3!. “We have added a new collection of naval records to our archives! The Navy Officers’ Letters 1802-1884 is a collection of letters to the Secretary of the Navy from officers assigned to naval ships, stations, and Navy bureaus. The letters contain routine personnel matters such as duty assignments, leave or furloughs, desertions, resignations, court-martials, and other administrative issues. The collection is organized by year and then alphabetically by sender. The letters offer a glimpse into military history and provide valuable genealogical records for ancestors that served in the Navy.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Next Web: This new photo AI lets you add, delete, and edit objects with one click. “The new tool, GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) Paint Studio, lets you upload a picture and manipulate it without ruining its original details. For instance, if you add a tree or grass to the scene, related objects will be rectified so as to make the resulting image look realistic.” Limited, as you might expect, but fun to play with. An unexpected timesink.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NIH: The “PROMIS” of Computer-Based Medical Records. “The National Library of Medicine recently acquired the Patient/Problem Oriented Medical Record System Archives, a collection of materials related to the development of an early computer system for organizing patient data and diagnostic decision-making. Jan Schultz generously contributed archival materials from his work with Dr. Larry Weed at the PROMIS lab at the University of Vermont. NLM archivist John Rees asked Jan Schultz about his perspective on the early history of electronic medical records.”

Institute of Museum and Library Services: IMLS Announces $16.2 Million in Grants to Libraries Across America. “National Leadership Grants for Libraries support projects that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used. The National Leadership Grants for Libraries program received 138 preliminary proposals requesting $33,570,544. Sixty-three projects were invited to submit full proposals, and of these, 36 projects were awarded $8,283,940…”

BBC: How apps power Hong Kong’s ‘leaderless’ protests. “In a tiny room on the edge of a nondescript building complex sits an unlikely participant in Hong Kong’s protest movement. Behind his laptop computer, Tony (not his real name) monitors scores of groups on private messaging app Telegram and online forums. Organisers say volunteers like Tony are running hundreds of Telegram groups that are powering Hong Kong’s protest turned civil disobedience campaign. They claim that more than two million people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to express opposition to a controversial extradition law.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: New Open-Access, Peer-Reviewed, Video Journal: Neurosurgical Focus: Video. “In 2012, our journal Neurosurgical Focus began publishing video supplements on operative techniques twice a year. Since that time, viewer interest in the educational video format has grown enormously and so, too, has the number of submissions. We saw the need for an enhanced platform and are pleased to present Neurosurgical Focus: Video as an independent, Web-based, open-access, quarterly journal.”

TechCrunch: Adopting a ratings system for social media like the ones used for film and TV won’t work. “While the MPAA’s ratings system works very well for pre-release review of content from a professionally- produced and curated industry, including the MPAA member companies and independent distributors, we do not believe that the MPAA model can work for dominant internet platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter that rely primarily on post hoc review of user-generated content (UGC).”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hackaday: Be On Twitter Without Being On Twitter. “Social media can connect us to a vibrant worldwide community, but it is also a huge time sink as it preys on both our need for attention and our insatiable curiosity. Kept on a leash by those constant notification sounds, we can easily look up from our phones to find half a day has gone and we’re behind with our work. [Laura Lytle] has a plan to tackle this problem, her OutBox project involves a single button press machine that posts a picture to Twitter of whatever is put in it.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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