NEW RESOURCES

Library of Congress: The Open Access Books Collection: Expanding Access and Building Connections. “In March 2020, we first shared about the growing collection of open access e-books available on loc.gov. A lot has changed since then but, in particular, the Open Access Books Collection was created. This newly created collection brings together all known open access e-books available on loc.gov, the number of which has grown significantly from about 300 titles to over 3,200.”

KOLN (Nebraska): New website shows where you can get free Narcan. “A new website is making it easier for people to access Narcan for free in Nebraska…. you can enter your zipcode and it shows you a map of the closest locations offering free NARCAN along with resources for treatment centers.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

DigitalNC: Additional Smithfield Herald Issues Now Available. “Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partner, Johnston County Heritage Center, over five hundred issues from 1911 to 1925 of The Smithfield Herald are now available on our website. These issues expand DigitalNC’s previously digitized issues from 1901 all the way to 1925.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: 9 Useful Features for Anyone Who Takes Screenshots on Their iPhone. “Your iPhone’s built-in screenshot tool has several cool tricks up its sleeve. From turning your squiggly hand-drawn lines into perfectly symmetrical shapes to hiding sensitive information, there’s a lot more you can do than you might expect. Here’s how to make the most of your iPhone’s screenshot utility.” Slideshow, but useful.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Express: Queen looking for employee to work on royal archives – warns deadlines ‘will stretch you’ . “The new hire would join a team of experts at the Queen’s Berkshire home to work between February 2022 and March 2023. During this time, the perfect candidate will tackle the challenge to ‘digitise material held by the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection, producing valuable content for high profile public access.'”

BuzzFeed News: The One Place Left On Earth Not Ruled By An Algorithm Is Free To The Public. “The picture collection consists of exactly what you might think — visual information from magazines, postcards, clippings, and photographs collected by the New York Public Library’s staff since 1915. From Singapore to silver mining, Oklahoma to olive oil, there’s a folder containing a century’s worth of photographs for nearly everything. For visitors and artists, one of the most appealing things about the Picture Collection is that it’s one of the few spaces left available to us that is untouched by algorithms.”

Tone Deaf: Cardi B launches social media platform ‘Centerfold’ with Playboy. “Earlier this month, it was announced that Cardi B has been appointed the first creative director in residence of Playboy. Now, the singer has unveiled her first move: opening a social media platform called Centerfold.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Russian hackers made millions by stealing SEC earning reports. “A Russian national working for a cybersecurity company has been extradited to the U.S. where he is being charged for hacking into computer networks of two U.S.-based filing agents used by multiple companies to file quarterly and annual earnings through the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) system.”

Techdirt: Hey The North Face! When You Said Sending Us A Bogus Trademark Threat Was A Mistake, We Believed You; So Why Did You Do It Again?. “Nine years ago, someone Photoshopped a fake patch parodying The North Face logo, with one that said ‘Hey Fuck Face.’ They posted it to Flickr. You guys lost your shit and filed a bogus takedown notice on this obvious parody that was not being used in commerce in anyway. But, much worse, nine years later, you had your ‘brand protection’ company send us — a news organization — an even more bogus takedown for our reporting on it.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Research indicates the whole universe could be a giant neural network. “Vitaly Vanchurin, a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota Duluth, published an incredible paper last August entitled ‘The World as a Neural Network’ on the arXiv pre-print server. It managed to slide past our notice until today when Futurism’s Victor Tangermann published an interview with Vanchurin discussing the paper.”

9 News (Australia): National shark attack database rebrands to minimise stigma. “Formerly known as the Australian Shark Attack File, the organisation will now be referred to as the Shark Incident Database, with a particular emphasis on removing the word ‘attack’ and instead focussing on ‘bites’, ‘interactions’ and ‘negative encounters’.”

The Conversation: What will 2022 bring in the way of misinformation on social media? 3 experts weigh in. “At the end of 2020, it seemed hard to imagine a worse year for misinformation on social media, given the intensity of the presidential election and the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. But 2021 proved up to the task, starting with the Jan. 6 insurrection and continuing with copious amounts of falsehoods and distortions about COVID-19 vaccines. To get a sense of what 2022 could hold, we asked three researchers about the evolution of misinformation on social media.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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