• For Open Access Week, Barbara Fister wrote a great post called Checking our Library Privilege on Inside Higher Education, which I missed in my last post. “My wish this Open Access Week is that we all examine our privilege and think about what it is we want to do in the world as scholars and librarians – and commit to changing the systems we’re implicated in that makes knowledge available at high cost for the few for only as long as subscriptions are paid. We don’t have to do it that way anymore.”

• Look at these rare book gifs from Girl in the Moon! She explains how she made them with simple tools (tripod, camera, Photoshop) using materials for an upcoming exhibition. Check them out!

With Halloween approaching, here are some silly and some legitimately scary items I’ve come across lately; Continue reading →

Catching my attention these past few weeks:

A decision on the Google Books case came out today. The big points are that scanning is transformative and the snippets as used by Google are ok. Here are the storified tweets of Nancy Sims and co. (aka @CopyrightLibn) on the issue while we wait for the more substantial analysis.

An interesting Op-ed item in the NY Times on Sunday discusses stool banking for reseeding the microbiome and mentions a stool banking study here at MSK.

The issue of sexual harassment in science is back in the news following reports that a famous UC Berkeley astronomer had violating sexual harassment policies. After he apologized on Monday, a piece appeared on Inside Higher Ed asking if that was good enough. A university investigation found the professor guilty of violating their policies, but the university also said it was difficult to fire Dr. Marcy. He resigned on Wednesday after colleagues called for his departure. According to the NY Times, he had been placed on probation over the summer but it had not been announced publicly. San Francisco Chronicle covers the story here. The story was all over blogs and social media. Last Sunday, Michael Eisen, posted an angry discussion of Berkeley’s lack response and critiqued the University’s sexual harassment training.

• A new development in scholarly publishing scams. According to this post, in addition to predatory publishers, authors should be on the look out for companies selling fake metrics. If you need help evaluating a journal prior to publishing or with calculating citation metrics contact MSK Library. (Hat tip to Donna Gibson)
• IEEE Tech Talk has an item about creating 3D printed model hearts based on MRI scans of patients to help doctors. (Thanks to Marina Rosenfield)
• This report in the NY Times says ebook sales have slipped and projections that print would be doomed may have been too hasty. (Spotted by Sylvie Larsen)
• Two items this week about adblockers reports that they allow companies to pay for exemptions (Thanks again to Donna Gibson), and a very interesting report on ad-blockers and ethics from Note-to-Self (the full story is 23 minutes and very worthy of a listen in my opinion).