Library Week Internet Round-up

The American Library Association (ALA ) has released a State of America’s Libraries Report 2016 to coincide with the celebration of Library Week. Dig in!

An explanation of how DNA is folded, by Carl Zimmer, is part of the STAT News series Science Happens!, Episode Five: Everything You Thought You Knew About the Shape of DNA is Wrong.

A recent study found a link between higher levels of vegetation around homes and lower death rates in women. More in this press release from the NIH.

Good Things from the Internet

In the spirit of fresh beginnings, this edition of blog buzz is dedicated to good things that have come up recently in a fairly grim month of news;

Twitter has added the ability to include descriptions of images (up to 420 characters!) to enrich content for the visually impaired. More here from Gary Price on InfoDocket.
From Science Magazine, a brief item on a study indicating a particular species of woodpecker may have a symbiotic relationship with wood decaying fungi which help them hollow out shelter from living trees.
A children’s book from the 17th century (an educational primer of sorts) was recently found in a University Archive in Britain. More on this story here.
A nice April Fool’s gag from the Indiana University Lilly Library’s Twiter Feed, here.

President Obama has announced his intention “to nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress.” More in this press release.

An American Libraries blog post on the announcement quotes a statement from current ALA President, Sari Feldman applauding the selection of Hayden – who is a former ALA President and the current Head of Baltimore’s Pratt Library.
Inside Higher Ed reported that her nomination drew support from library groups, and that Librarian of Congress nominations rarely face delays in congress, however this NY Times coverage was less rosy that her confirmation was certain.
The LOC has an important role to play, not just for libraries, but also because of copyright and information law. From this summer, here was Jessamyn West’s wishlist for the next Librarian of Congress.

Via Gary Price on the Library Journal’s InfoDocket, researchers at Georgia Tech (a report from the University site (which links to the the study) here) have published a study showing how ad networks and personalized in-ap advertising could leak the sensitive data of mobile phone users to app developers.