Tech News: This Week Was a Doozy of Dooziness

Okay, here we go this week with the Library Tech news that I did not cover because I was hungover or something.  Honestly, I am barely able to read most of these, much less crank out 200 words on each subject.  On to the poopy!

A Wisconsin library has begun to loan out iPads to their public as a way to educate them about technology.  Why not loan them the most expensive and easy to use piece of equipment known to man?  That'll teach them about economics. Consumerist


Facebook began sharing movies, TV shows and music this week as an attempt to keep themselves relevant.  Next they will be mapping your brain to find out what are your exact "likes" so they can better target the ad space.  SF Business Times


IT departments in most large corporations allow their employees to choose whatever mobile device they want.  Whereas in the past and IT department would dole out equipment in a unified manner, now employees have more freedom of choice.  I want one of those huge brick cell phones like Zach Morris used to have.  Can you set me up, library? NYTimes


The Spartanburg library in Spartanburg, SC has suspended use of its elibrary to neighboring county Greenville users citing overuse of resources.  I bet they won't let them ride the monorail or eat from their lemon tree either.  WSPA


Madison, Wisconsin is looking to create a law wherein when you sell a used video game to a retailer, they take a photo of you for their databases in an effort to curb theft.  Next they will require blood, urine and semen samples which should make game stores much more interesting.  If only the library could take pictures of users that try to donate.  "Ratshit's back again with a pile of National Geographics!"  Madison via Kotaku

Google Denies Former Senator Rick Santorum

Former Senator Rick Santorum is still upset about the 2003 google bomb that was put against him by Dan Savage after Sen. Santorum made some comments that some most all saw as derogatory against homosexuals.  Savage created a website that links Santorum to a site named spreadingsantorum.com that defines the word "santorum."  (I will let you click on the link yourself if you wish to read the definition.  Hint: NSFW.)  If you were to do a search in Google right now, guess what the first site that pops up will be?  Santorum recently told Politico magazine that he has reached out to Google to change the search results but was met with a "no."  He then gave some reasons as to why he thinks the company with the slogan "Don't be evil" would be so mean to him:

“I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they’d get rid of it,” Santorum said. “If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country.” politico

Why in the greased poop would a search link to a goofy, possible-failed presidential candidate have any impact on the country, other than to rally us all together with a common goal to destroy one man?  Is he trying to be the Ozymandias from Watchmen in the dumbest way possible?  Only time will tell.

Banned Mark Twain Book Let Back in Library 105 Years Later

In 1906, the Charlton Public Library of Charlton, Massachusetts banned Mark Twain's "Eve's Diary" and in 2011, they voted it back into the library.  Illustrations of a naked Eve (of famed couple Adam and) were the cause of the banning.  Twain himself took notice of "the freaks of the Charlton Library" as he called them in a 1907 letter.  The un-banning is part of the library's Banned Books Week display that starts next week.  NYTimes

About time.  I mean, wow, who's dragging their feet on this one?  I call conspiracy.

"Hey, Jimmy, we got a book here on the suggestion list."
"Oh, yeah, what is it?"
"Eve's Diary by Mark Twain."
"Twain?  Don't freaking think so.  Man still owes my great-grandma $1."
"I'm going over your head, Jimmy.  It ain't right.  This ain't your library."
"Oh God, I'm a monster, what have I become?  Let it back in."

End Scene

Seattle Can Stop Feeling Special, We All Gotz Amazon

I feel like it was just yesterday I reported that Seattle and the King County library system were taking Amazon for a test drive.  Now everybody has it.  Well, when I say we all have Amazon, I do not mean every library has access to Amazon ebooks, just the 11,000 or so that deal with Overdrive for their books.  Read more in Amazon's press release.

Can you smell that?  Like a summer breeze, I tell ya.  Fresh off the ocean of dreams and kissed with a rainbow.  Welcome to the future, people of Earth, because Amazon became a time machine.

Facebook Has More Photos Than Anybody

The photography blog 1000memories did some number crunching and found that Facebook has nearly 140 Billion photos in total at a rate of 200 million photos uploaded per day.  That is nearly 10,000 times the size of the Library of Congress photography collection.  Holy crap, check out the article here because the numbers are truly staggering.

What does that mean though?  Our archives, our history, is becoming digital more and more each day.  Our photos have moved from physical albums to online ones, our records are either scanned or typed directly, our books are on non-existent bookshelves.  And you know what?  It has made us more present.  We are more as a people.

Chances are, most of you did not build the house or were not the first person in your apartment.  Have you ever looked up your residence in an old city directory?  Seen the name of the person who lived there?  Just a guy, right?  A name on a piece of yellow paper in a dusty book.

Think about how our grandkids (or kids if you start getting busy now) will look that up.

You are your grandkid.  You have the address of your home.  You put that address into the ether and find a list of names of people who lived there.  You pick a name.  That name is on several social networking sites, but one in particular seems to be from around here.  Sure enough, he lived in your house and there are pictures of a Halloween party tagged there.  As you go through the pictures, vowing to clean up that corner a little better, you see a couple dressed as Jack and Jill making out.  Her face is visible and tagged.  Its your grandma. But Jack is most def not your grandpa.  Ewwww.

Welcome to the future.

Banned Books Returned to Missouri Library. Sorta.

A little more than two months ago, a Missouri school board voted to remove Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler from the school library and curriculum after one man voiced a complaint.  After a public outcry of censorship, the board has recently voted to allow the books to return to the library, only in a secure fashion to be checked out by parents for independent student reading.  Some, including students, wonder if this is the right choice.

"Jaymes Haney, 17, said he didn't understand why the board acted on a complaint filed by a man who has no children in the district.
"One religious man's complaint and opinion has caused a review and affected 1,500 people," he said of the high school students. "Now they're putting it in the library and putting it in a secure location? Only parents can come in and check it out; it's not accessible."" Houston Chronicle

I am all for this mode of action.  "Wha?!" you say, "the books are there but harder to get to."  Yeah, I know.  They are also placed in a mysterious prison in a library filled with students.  That makes them special.  I read Harry Potter, I know kids will break all the rules to get at something they seem as 'forbidden'.  Plus, if the parents have to give permission to check out books, they know what the kid is reading.  I say the librarian go nuts and put the whole damn library in that section.  Who knows what dangerous ideas can be found in Junie B. Jones? And we all know Green Eggs and Ham is just capitalist propaganda.  Protect the children!

Let's take the words of John Ciardi and make them real again: "The [public] library is the most dangerous place in town."

Community in Conflict, Book Donation Business Told To Move On

Marin, CA library supporters are waging a boring war on book donation boxes placed around their city.  The book donation boxes are placed by the Thrift Recycling Management company, a for-profit venture that recycles the items.

"Of the books collected in the bins, approximately 25 percent are resold, another 25 percent are donated to nonprofits, and the rest are sold for their value as pulp, [TRM co-founder Phil] McMullin said." MarinIJ

"Friends of the Library" groups complain that the books take away donations to libraries that could be used to fund the library through book sales or replace old library copies.  TMR has been under suspicion for not being as charitable as they claim, selling most of the items instead of donating them as they claim.  Marin Independent Journal

Okay, in this corner we have people profiting from old hippie ideals about saving mother earth.  They weigh in at approximately the size of capitalism and are looking to make a buck on the feelings that people are doing good by the planet by recycling.  They have made millions.

In the other corner we have people looking to enrich their lives by saying the library can benefit from a cubic ton of old National Geographics and books that may or may not have been pooped on by a rat.  These people may or may not collect and sort the materials donated to the library, but do feel a sense of satisfaction when they vote to buy a computer or maybe that god-awful book shaped reading furniture for the children's department when they meet once a year.

Solution:  Put the bins at libraries.  Allow the library system to sort the materials it wants and give the for-profit the leftovers.  Or just let the company do what it does until the Oregon Department of Justice shuts them down for being a fake charity.  Or a five on five deathmatch, Friends VS Thrift in a winner take all pay-per-view for the fate of the county.