NEW RESOURCES

British Library Asian and African Studies Blog: Bollinger Singapore digitisation project completed. “In 2013, through the generous support of William and Judith Bollinger, the British Library embarked upon a five-year project, in collaboration with the National Library Board of Singapore, to digitise materials in the British Library of interest to Singapore…. The digitised materials are being made accessible through the websites of both the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts and the National Library of Singapore’s BookSG.”

Capital Journal, South Dakota: State Library digitizes 41 volumes of S.D. Historical Collections. “From 1902 to 1982, the Historical Collection series was published biennially by the Department of History — now the S.D. State Historical Society — as part of its mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible the history of the state. All 41 volumes are now available in the Featured Collections section of the S.D. State Library’s Digital Collections.”

EVENTS

Saint Louis Art Museum: National summit on diversity at museums will focus on the Romare Bearden fellowship. “The Saint Louis Art Museum will host arts professionals from around the country for a summit on increasing diversity among professional staff within museums and cultural institutions. The virtual event will focus on the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, a nearly 30-year program at the museum that has been hailed as a national model.” The event is May 6. It’s free but requires registration.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: New Google Play Store Rules Aim to Weed Out Spammy Apps. “In an attempt to boost confidence in its Play Store offerings, Google has announced new rules that will look to weed out misleading, low-quality apps from its marketplace. In an update published Thursday, the company announced new metadata policies designed to moderate how developers present their apps. The rules, meant to drive more ‘meaningful downloads’ for consumers, will take effect later this year.”

Reuters: Australia’s Seven West Media signs Google, Facebook deals after media law feud. “Australian television and newspaper firm Seven West Media Ltd signed multi-year content deals with Facebook Inc and Google as tough new media laws enabled the industry to secure new revenue sources and adapt to the internet age.”

ScreenRant: Snapchat’s Five Los Angeles AR Monuments: What Are They & How To View Them. “Snapchat has partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to create five augmented reality monuments around LA. The LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives artworks were built using Snapchat’s technology and can be viewed through the Snapchat Camera. They are intended for exploring the histories of LA communities and to highlight their perspectives.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NPR: ‘Renegade’ Rug Makers Create Community, Tufting On TikTok . “While Justin Clarke was scrolling through his TikTok feed last summer, a tufting video came across his screen. He was hooked. In these TikTok videos, tufters draw with an industrial metal tool, making textured zig zags and bright curves on a blank canvas. Their tufting guns shoot out yarn in shaggy lines of color.”

University of Arkansas: Tyson Family Foundation Gift to Create Digital Library and Art Publication Funds . “Mike Bieker, director of the U of A Press and assistant vice chancellor and director of operations and finance, said, ‘As the University of Arkansas Press celebrates its 40th anniversary, we are grateful for this tremendous gift from the Tyson Family Foundation. These funds will be used for two purposes: to digitize our entire collection of books, making them more widely available and accessible than ever before, and to advance our potential in the field of art publishing by supporting scholarship that explores the history and meaning of art and its effect on our lives. These fantastic initiatives would not be possible without the continued support and generosity of the Tyson family.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: How the A.T.F., Key to Biden’s Gun Plan, Became an N.R.A. ‘Whipping Boy’. “If there was one moment that summed up the current state of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it was when the floor at the agency’s gun-tracing center caved in a couple of years ago under the weight of paper. The accident was not entirely accidental. The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, has for years systematically blocked plans to modernize the agency’s paper-based weapons-tracing system with a searchable database. As a result, records of gun sales going back decades are stored in boxes stacked seven high, waiting to be processed, against every wall.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Foreign Policy: Russia Can’t Afford to Block Twitter—Yet. “On March 16, Russia’s internet and media regulator, Roskomnadzor, threatened to block access to Twitter from within Russia in 30 days if the platform failed to comply with government demands to delete content allegedly related to child pornography, suicide, and drug use. But just three weeks later, Roskomnadzor backed away from that threat, citing discussions with Twitter characterized by both sides as productive—although it then reiterated the threat on April 30. At the same time, however, the regulator expressed its intent to continue slowing down Twitter traffic in Russia, as it has done since March, through May 15, an attempt to make the platform less accessible for Russian users. What explains this seemingly confused and contradictory approach from the Russian government?”

Scienmag: C-Path Opens Access To Duchenne Regulatory Science Consortium Database. “Critical Path Institute (C-Path) announced today that it will open access to the Duchenne Regulatory Science Consortium (D-RSC) database to qualified researchers, through its Rare Disease Cures Accelerator, Data and Analytics Platform (RDCA-DAP®). The D-RSC database includes data from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) clinical trials, natural history studies and clinical data collections. The contributors of these datasets have given permission for this data to be shared externally to accelerate therapy development for DMD. DMD is a rare, fatal, genetic neuromuscular disorder that is diagnosed in childhood and primarily affects males.”

BBC: ‘I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them’. “Matt Ginsberg is good at a lot of things – he is an AI scientist, author, playwright, magician and stunt plane pilot. But he isn’t very good at crosswords. In fact, despite writing them for the New York Times, he says that when they are published, he often cannot solve his own. So when he was sitting in a hotel ballroom losing yet again in a major US crossword competition, he decided to do something about it.” Good morning, Internet…

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