Monthly archives: August, 2015

NYC Expands Access to Public Contracts and Hearings

News release: “Mayor Bill de Blasio announced [August 10, 2015] a powerful new tool to increase government transparency with the launch of an expanded City Record Online (CROL). CROL is now a fully searchable database for all the notices contained in the City Record newspaper – including schedules for public hearings, land-sales and contract awards …

Subjects: E-Government, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

Paper – Is Biblioleaks Inevitable?

Dunn AG, Coiera E, Mandl KD. Is Biblioleaks Inevitable? J Med Internet Res 2014;16(4):e112 “In 2014, the vast majority of published biomedical research is still hidden behind paywalls rather than open access. For more than a decade, similar restrictions over other digitally available content have engendered illegal activity. Music file sharing became rampant in the …

Subjects: Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Freedom of Information, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

McKinsey insights on change management

The phrase “change management” has been widely referenced across the private and public sectors for decades.  Librarians have embraced and executed objectives based upon change management concepts in no small measure due to the inherent agility, adaptability and futures thinking of the professional. From the nacent World Wide Web to the current multi-faceted scope of …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries, Marketing, Social Media

Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale

Wilson AM, Likens GE (2015) Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0134454. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134454 “Wikipedia has quickly become one of the most frequently accessed encyclopedic references, despite the ease with which content can be changed and the potential for ‘edit wars’ surrounding controversial topics. Little is known about how …

Subjects: Climate Change, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

GAO Reports – Electronic Health Records, Trends in U.S. and Chinese Economic Engagement

Electronic Health Records: Outcome-Oriented Metrics and Goals Needed to Gauge DOD’s and VA’s Progress in Achieving Interoperability, GAO-15-530: Published: Aug 13, 2015. Publicly Released: Aug 13, 2015: “DOD and VA did not, by the October 1, 2014, deadline established in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014 for compliance with national data …

Subjects: E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care

Apple releases new diversity report

Apple’s Diversity Report still highlights a staff of employees that are 54% white and 69% male: “Our most recently filed Federal Employer Information Report EEO-1 is available for download here, representing employees as of July 2014. We will make the 2015 EEO-1 available when we file it with the federal government. We make these documents …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Marketing

NYDatabases.com

“As journalists, we work with mountains of data to help us spot trends, identify problems in our community and to hold public officials accountable. We present that data here at NYDatabases.com (formerly RocDocs), so that you can explore the issues yourself. Learn more about where you live, make informed decisions as a citizen, parent, or …

Subjects: E-Government, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Health Care, Housing, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Bloomberg Law Survey of Law Librarians Yields Reiteration of Expertise Not Recognized

August 13, 2015 – “Last month, Bloomberg Law surveyed 80 librarians from large and medium sized law firms about their respective roles. The result? Law firm librarians feel underutilized as analysts and underpaid for the analytical work they’re already doing. Ninety-three per cent of respondents said their library resources and training could be put to greater use servicing …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Another Snowden Reveal – Telecom Giant Provides Massive Data Pipeline to NSA

NYT and ProPublica investigative reports: “The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy

Who Drives to Work? Commuting by Automobile in the United States: 2013

Who Drives to Work? Commuting by Automobile in the United States: 2015, August 13, 2015, Report Number: ACS-32, Brian McKenzie “The automobile has played a fundamental role in shaping where we live and how we get around. It has influenced the form and density of our communities and expanded the geographic range of daily travel. …

Subjects: Economy, Government Documents, Transportation

Centre for Study of Existential Risk

“The Centre for Study of Existential Risk is an interdisciplinary research centre focused on the study of human extinction-level risks that may emerge from technological advances. We aim to combine key insights from the best minds across disciplines to tackle the greatest challenge of the coming century: safely harnessing our rapidly-developing technological power.” One of …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research