Libraries
You can follow their Mastodon account here: https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive People are rightfully angry. I hope this helps the world relize that we need more than one public digital library in the world. When the EU (for example) does not have a digital public library and relies on archive.org, it heightens everyone’s vulnerability to a single point of failure. For me, I cannot access roughtly half the world’s websites right now because Cloudflare blocks me -- which makes me almost wholly reliant on archive.org and to some extent google caches via 12ft.io. (update) Looks like there is a project underway -- a Digital Knowledge Act being proposed: https://communia-association.org/2024/10/09/video-recording-why-europe-needs-a-digital-knowledge-act/
Here's an [archive.is link](https://archive.is/mYNbK) for those who need it.
fedia.io
The EU has implemented a free public wi-fi infrastructure and is pitching this service to various public buildings, including public libraries. This “Wifi4EU” project is limited to people with smartphones, and only those that are running iOS or Android OS. The app needed to connect to the network is closed-source and exclusively available in the walled gardens of Google and Apple. The network is inaccessible without the special app. AFAICT, these are the excluded demographics of people: * people with laptops * people who do not have or carry a smartphone * people with old non-updatable smartphones (all iOS & AOS devices are designed for obsolescence) * people with cheap Chinese phones that exclude Google Playstore (which requires licensing with Google that some vendors do not subscribe to) * people with deGoogled phones * people with no Google account (i.e. those without the mobile phone number needed to register with Google) * people who refuse to install and execute non-free closed-source software, and those on FOSS platforms that do not support such software My concern is that when a public library decides to deploy Wifi4EU, they will discontinue their current wi-fi service, which does not require a special app and which is generally open to more demographics of people. Note that it’s a bit of a shit-show already because some current library wi-fi services already exclude people who cannot overcome the shitty captive portal + SMS verification design. Wifi4EU is even more exclusive.
[Archive.is link](http://archive.today/lHRlj) for those who need it.
FTA: *MARCIVE, Inc. will officially cease operations by the end of December 2024. Until then, the company will continue to function as usual, ensuring that all clients experience uninterrupted service. During this period, MARCIVE, Inc. will be reviewing all existing subscriptions and renewals on a case-by-case basis to determine the most appropriate course of action for each client.*
FTA: *Visitors can now use public computers at Seattle Public Library, three months after a ransomware attack shut down much of its system.* *Patrons can also now suggest new items to add to the library collection and use pickup lockers. Access to microfilm will be available in late September, the library posted online Tuesday.*
azluminaria.org
FTA: *“Our new focus unlinks our services from brick-and-mortar, to make us nimble, responsive, innovative, and relevant to all communities as we go where customers are — both in person and online,” the report says. “This is a big departure from previous expectations that every library [is] as close to every type of Programming as possible.”* *Several of the libraries that will be closed will have parts of their programming shifted to nearby community centers. In some cases, book borrowing services would move to book lockers or pop-up libraries, or mobile book-mobiles.*
www.insidehighered.com
Oh those sad, sorry publishers. It'll be so hard on them if they can't make as many billion dollars per year off publicly funded research. How will they ever survive on less than $19 billion? FTA: *Although open-access advocates and library groups support the move, opponents argue the new policy will limit researchers’ ability to maintain control of their published work—and cut into the $19 billion academic publishing industry’s profit margins.*
This one is for the library automation nerds like me. For the unfamiliar, Lyngsoe makes and sells material movement systems like check-in and sorting systems. Some of these are fairly simple things like a sorter with bins on either side and items are shunted into bins based on whatever criteria the library decides. Other systems can ferry library materials to different floors of the library and deposit them in the proper locations for a faster return-to-shelf time.
Religion is a hell of a drug. FTA: *“The Bible says, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,’” he said. “Well, when you have leaders that are not allowing the nation to be blessed of God, they’re not doing godly things, you need to replace them, get rid of them, get them out of office, put people back in there that will. You’ve got schools where they’re fighting over allowing homosexual, LGBTQ material to be utilized to groom children. … There needs to be people that will take up and sue anybody that is allowing that sort of thing to go on in our school districts and in our libraries.”*