NEW RESOURCES

Digital North Carolina: Materials Documenting the Life of Crystal Lee Sutton, Activist and Union Organizer, Now Online. “Crystal Lee Sutton was a union organizer and activist, recognized as the driving force behind the unionization of J.P. Stevens plant workers in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. Her story inspired the acclaimed 1979 film, Norma Rae. Items digitized in this collection give firsthand accounts leading up to that notable unionization, including a union cheer and a timeline of events recorded in several meeting recollections with J.P. Stevens management.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Texas Record: Remarkable Records: A New Blog Series!. “In the course of our work, we’ve become intimately familiar with the retention schedules for state agencies, public universities, and local governments. Our team keeps detailed lists of record series that need improvement and there are rarely times when we don’t have one of the schedules on the revisions chopping block. Some of us have adopted favorite records series, such as well-written descriptions or retention periods that support efficient workflows, but there are also some that are stinkers. So, we want to share some of the records series we like (or dislike) and why.”

Mumbrella: ABC signs letters of intent with both Google and Facebook. This is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “The ABC has signed letters of intent with both Google and Facebook, becoming the latest media outlet in the country to sign commercial agreements with the two digital giants. ABC Managing Director David Anderson made the statements during a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday evening.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Add a Watermark in Google Documents. “Unlike Microsoft Word, there’s no built-in support for Watermarks in Google Docs but there’s a simple workaround – create a faded image with the text of your watermark and place that image behind the text of your document pages. Here’s how.”

CNET: Google Photos is ending unlimited free storage next week. Here’s what to know. “Google Photos will end its unlimited free storage policy for photos and videos next week. After June 1, any new photos and videos you upload will count toward the free 15GB of storage that comes with every Google account. But don’t worry: Any photos or videos you’ve uploaded before that day won’t be part of the cap. And Google has added a new free tool to help you manage your storage quota.” Thorough overview.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: ‘Inconceivable’: why has Australia’s history been left to rot? . “Last week, it was revealed the archives had resorted to launching a crowdfunding site in a last ditch attempt to raise tens of millions of dollars to digitise disintegrating historical materials. The crowdfunding push has outraged Australia’s archivists and historians, and raised questions about the value Australia places on its national history.”

From ABC News in Australia, and I swear I did not plan for these two stories to go side by side: National Film and Sound Archive offering up some of its international collection of records, cylinders. “The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra is offering up 77 pallets of international sound material which curators say do not fit within the scope of their collection. The archive’s head of collection, Jacqui Uhlmann, says there are thousands of old records, wax cylinders and a MasterTouch Collection of international pianola rolls up for grabs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Financial Times: England’s NHS plans to share patient records with third parties. I do not usually share Financial Times articles because of the paywall, but this article was not paywalled to me. “England’s NHS is preparing to scrape the medical histories of 55m patients, including sensitive information on mental and sexual health, criminal records and abuse, into a database it will share with third parties. The data collection project, which is the first of its kind, has caused an uproar among privacy campaigners, who say it is ‘legally problematic’, especially as patients only have a few weeks to opt out of the plan.”

Government Technology: N.Y. Bill Targets Privacy Issues Around Criminal DNA Profiles. “Municipal DNA identification indexes in New York have raised privacy concerns after a report showed they’re widely unregulated. One state lawmaker proposes to shut down these databases and create a single state-run index.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mind Matters News: How A Searchable Database Is Helping Decipher A Lost Language. “There was once a flourishing civilization on the island of Crete called the Minoan culture (3000–11100 B.C.). Two languages are associated with it, Minoan A and, later, Minoan B. Minoan B was deciphered but Minoan A has remained a mystery that has ‘tormented linguists for many decades,’ as Patricia Klaus puts it. Deciphering it would give us a window back as far as 1800 BC.” Good evening, Internet…

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