Each month, the LITA bloggers will share selected library tech links, resources, and ideas that resonated with us. Enjoy – and don’t hesitate to tell us what piqued your interest recently in the comments section!
Brianna M.
Here are some of the things that caught my eye this month, mostly related to digital scholarship.
- Yasmeen Shorish unpacked data-related roles in the library.
- Thomas Padilla gave practical ideas for undertaking text analysis projects.
- I’m intrigued by the NCSU Libraries Social Media Archiving Toolkit.
- DH + Lib shared a cool CFP from the Journal of Open Humanities Data.
- I enjoyed CRL‘s webinar on text mining tools in the social sciences and humanities.
John K.
- Jason Griffey gives us an overview of Carbon 3D who uses ‘stereolithography’ technology in 3D printing
- I’m a sucker for to-do lists and Bullet Journaling might be the ultimate to-do list!
- David Lee King has a round-up of iBeacon technology articles you might interesting.
- Archiving and Twitter, how the user affects the archive by deleting tweets.
Jacob S.
- I’m thankful for Shawn Averkamp’s Python library for interacting with ContentDM (CDM), including a Python class for editing CDM metadata via their Catcher, making it much less of a pain batch editing CDM metadata records.
- I recently watched an ALA webinar where Allison Jai O’Dell presented on TemaTres, a platform for publishing linked data controlled vocabularies.
Nimisha B.
There have been a lot of great publications and discussions in the realm of Critlib lately concerning cataloging and library discovery. Here are some, and a few other things of note:
- Chris Bourg and Bess Sadler examine some of the cultural biases inherent in both library classification systems and newer forms of information access in their Code4Lib article “Feminism and the Future of Library Discovery.”
- A critique of regressive gender conceptions in RDA Rule 9.7 by Amber Billey, Emily Drabinski, and K.R. Roberto.
- The latest Cataloging & Classification Quarterly’s issue addresses Indigenous knowledge organization.
- An automatic citation generator for referencing tweets in academic papers!
Michael R.
- Adobe Flash’s days seem numbered as Google Chrome will stop displaying Flash adverts by default, following Firefox’s lead. With any luck, Java will soon follow Flash into the dustbin of history.
- NPR picked up the story of DIY tractor repairs running afoul of the DMCA. The U.S. Copyright Office is considering a DMCA exemption for vehicle repair; a decision is scheduled for October.
- Media autoplay violates user control and choice. Video of a fatal, tragic Virginia shooting has been playing automatically in people’s feeds. Ads on autoplay are annoying, but this…!
Cinthya I.
These are a bit all over the map, but interesting nonetheless!
- Data Carpentry certification to expand the reach of those who train others in dealing with data and its many related issues.
- Recently mentioned in Educause Review, love the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities’ toolkit that enables annotation of streaming video.
- Jealous of the NC State Makerspace(s) that enable both hands-on learning and high-end fabrication.
Bill D.
I’m all about using data in libraries, and a few things really caught my eye this month.
- Daniel M. Coughlin and Bernard J. Jansen have a great article in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology about using local bibliometric data where the rubber actually meets the road: decisions about which journals to cough up money for.
- The ever-wonderful Pew Research Center has data about teens and smartphones that’s well worth a look (spoiler: not all teens have smartphones).
- David Lee King reminds us that the most used service at your library likely isn’t reference or checkout. It’s the website.
- Finally, a shout-out to Jonathan Rochkind for his work on a virtual shelf browse, the creation of which forced him to shore up (and replace much of) my old LC Callnumber normalization code as used by Princeton, removing what had been a constant thorn in many of our sides.
David K.
- Steve Marks‘ MODULE 8: Becoming a Trusted Digital Repository, published through the SAA series Trends in Archives Practice, provides insight into ISO 16363, Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories.
- Heather Senef, Shea-Tinn Yeh, and Fernando Reyes on Using the Getty Vocabularies as Linked Open Data in a Cataloging Tool for an Academic Teaching Collection: Case Study at the University of Denver
- Lisa Gregory and Stephanie Williams , sharing their experience developing North Carolina’s DPLA Service Hub. On Being a Hub: Some Details behind Providing Metadata for the Digital Public Library of America. A great resource for potential and developing hubs.
Whitni W.
- Kalid Azad, Aha! Moments When Learning Git, a great piece that helped tie together some confusing aspects of Git
- Amanda Paquette’s piece Challenging the Model of 1:1 BYOD which discusses how “It is no longer optimal to have everyone do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way.”
- Martin Kleppmann piece Apache Kafka, Samza, and the Unix Philosophy of Distributed Data fascinating read of applying old ideas to new technology, in this case Unix Philosophy, which is in brief, make each program do one thing well and expect the output of every program to be the input of another program (known or unknown)
Marlon H.
- Ever since I read an ACRL piece about library adventures with Raspberry Pi, I’ve wanted to build my own as a terminal for catalog searches and as an self checkout machine. Adafruit user Ruizbrothers‘ example of how to Build an All-In-One Desktop using the latest version of Raspberry Pi might just what I need to finally get that project rolling.
- With summer session over (and with it my MSIS, yay!) I am finally getting around to planning my upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10. Lifehacker’s Alan Henry, provides quite a few good reasons to opt for a Clean Install over the standard upgrade option. With more and more of my programs conveniently located just a quick download away and a wide array of cloud solutions safeguarding my data, I think I found my weekend project.
Share the most interesting library tech resource you found this August in the comments!