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This free online encyclopedia has achieved what Wikipedia can only dream of

“The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy may be the most interesting website on the internet. Not because of the content—which includes fascinating entries on everything from ambiguity to zombies—but because of the site itself. Its creators have solved one of the internet’s fundamental problems: How to provide authoritative, rigorously accurate knowledge, at no cost to readers. It’s something the encyclopedia, or SEP, has managed to do for two decades. The internet is an information landfill. Somewhere in it—buried under piles of opinion, speculation, and misinformation—is virtually all of human knowledge. But sorting through the trash is difficult work. Even when you have something you think is valuable, it often turns out to be a cheap knock-off.” (via Quartz)

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Patrons split on how fast libraries should move into the digital age

“The word “library” conjures up a very specific image for most people: rows upon rows of books. But as libraries evolve into a place for more digital research, and teach a different kind of literacy, how long should the bookshelves stay? That’s one of the questions the Pew Research Center has asked in a new survey focused on library use — and it got some very divided answers.” (via Washington Post)

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Dynamic New Team Leads the Internet Archive’s Web Group

“The Internet Archive is proud to present a dynamic new leadership team at the helm of our growing Web Services group. Whether you are among the 400 partners capturing the Web through an Archive-it subscription, a national library preserving your digital heritage, or a researcher doing cutting-edge work in web archiving, you will appreciate the passion and professionalism of the Internet Archive’s new web team leaders.” (via Internet Archive)

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New LA libraries program turns ‘story time’ into hands-on ‘coder time’

On a recent afternoon at the central library in Los Angeles, nine-year-old Perla Hernandez typed on a provided laptop, working on a drawing game called “Phenomenal Turtle”. Getting the turtle to move across the screen required her to break down big complex problems into small sequential steps. In other words, the nine-year-old girl was learning to code. She was one of about a dozen elementary school children gathered at a class called “coder time” for elementary and middle school kids.” (via scpr)

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BPL assessing rare book section after mold outbreak

“A significant mold outbreak has forced the Boston Public Library to close its Rare Books Department for five to 10 weeks after staff found fuzzy white spores on a medieval manuscript and other prized items in the renowned repository for ancient publications and artifacts. The library routinely battles mold, but has never faced an outbreak “to this scale,” according to Laura Irmscher, the chief of collections strategy. Mold was discovered on a reference book by a staff member Monday in the main library in Copley Square, Irmscher said.” (via Boston Globe)

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University at Buffalo librarian has health info at her fingertips

“Pamela Rose has seen a lot of changes over five decades at the University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library. She’s also developed a deeper appreciation for animals. “My worlds are colliding,” Rose said recently as she sat in her office at the historic library on South Campus. “I’ve placed cats with many, many of my colleagues over the years because I used to foster and rescue them. Therapy dogs are coming here. And I’ve had zoo docents here because there are connections between historical medicines and animals.” Rose, 68, lives in Parkside with her husband, Joel, a retired UB computer programmer who led the fight years ago to keep the Buffalo Zoo in Delaware Park and in more recent years to try to quash the Buffalo Creek Casino.” (via Buffalo News)

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Avondale Library introduces ukulele lending program

“The lending library is a cultural institution first established in the United States by Benjamin Franklin, who founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. It was only fairly recently, however, that libraries branched out from their usual circulation fare of books, tapes, DVDs and other media to include, of all things, the ukulele. The small instrument, with roots in 19th-century Hawaii, has been varyingly popular in different places and times, but has lately been undergoing a revival as a number of libraries across the country have begun circulating the instruments to the public.” (via Weld)

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No Library For You: French Authorities Threatening To Close An App That Lets People Share Physical Books

“EFF’s Parker Higgins recently tweeted a question detailing the truly messed up state of copyright law. What do you think would happen if someone invented the public library today? It’s not necessarily a new idea. Nearly four years ago, we asked a similar question right here at Techdirt. And even after centuries of having public libraries, we sometimes still see authors lash out at them. And, indeed, you see some weird situations like when people put up little personal libraries in their front yards, people have tried to shut them down, but for being “illegal structures” rather than over the horror of the free lending of books. And you could argue that various attacks on parts of copyright law on the internet really are attacks on the modern form of a library.” (via Techdirt)

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Decisions in Judicial Misconduct Cases to be Posted Online

“U.S. courts will publish the outcome of misconduct complaints against judges on their websites, in an effort to “provide for greater transparency,” the federal judiciary’s policy-making arm said Thursday. The country is divided into 12 judicial circuits, each containing a circuit court of appeals and at least one federal trial court. About half of the circuit courts currently publish orders resolving misconduct complaints online; the others make them available to the public only in the office of their circuit clerk, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said.” (via WSJ)

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Boston Public Library Foundation Welcomes New Executive Director

“Today, the Boston Public Library Foundation (the “Library Foundation”), a non-profit affiliate of the Boston Public Library (“BPL”), announced that Lisa Bevilaqua, former Director of Development at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, will serve as the new Executive Director of the Library Foundation. The Library Foundation’s mission is to be an advocate, and to raise public awareness and philanthropic support for the operations and capital projects of the BPL’s Central Library and 24 branches.” (via BPL)

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