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Monthly Archives: January 2022

The ability to work well remotely isn’t a fixed preference or personality trait, but a skill you can develop

Inc. – This Is the Mindset You Need to Be Successful at Remote Work, According to a New Cambridge Study. “A simple change in how you think about remote work can make your days instantly more productive and pleasant. What does it take to make remote work successful? For both employees and entrepreneurs, a good tech setup and relatively distraction-free space is certainly essential. So are techniques to keep endless Zoom calls from destroying your productivity (and sanity). A modern approach to management that focuses on what people produce rather exactly how and when they produce it helps too.   But even with these basics in place, some people thrive in remote work while others struggle. Why is that? The nature of a team’s work clearly has something to do with it (experts say innovation is tougher at a distance), as does individual personality and seniority (young people benefit from the passive education of being around colleagues). But, according to a fascinating new study out of the University of Cambridge recently published in Human-Computer Interaction, there’s another hidden factor that’s essential for remote work success — the right mindset…”

Academic Journal Claims it Fingerprints PDFs for ‘Ransomware,’ Not Surveillance

Vice: “One of the world’s largest publishers of academic papers said it adds a unique fingerprint to every PDF users download in an attempt to prevent ransomware, not to prevent piracy.  Elsevier defended the practice after an independent researcher discovered the existence of the unique fingerprints and shared their findings on Twitter last week.  “The… Continue Reading

Some records sent to Jan. 6 committee were torn up, taped back together mirroring a Trump habit

Washington Post: “When the National Archives and Records Administration handed over a trove of documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the Trump White House records had been ripped up and then taped back together, according to three people familiar with the records. Former president Donald Trump was known… Continue Reading

How We Broke the Supply Chain

This article appears in The American Prospect magazine’s February 2022 special issue, “How We Broke the Supply Chain.” Anyone old enough to remember the Cold War is familiar with a scene routinely depicted on U.S. television at the time: the Soviet breadline. Warning Americans about life under communism, these clips showed Russian citizens lingering forlornly outside… Continue Reading

Stop trying to work in multiple browser tabs. It’s terrible for your focus.

Mashable: “If you’re reading this story in a single browser tab, because you only focus on one task at a time, congratulations, you can stop reading now. You likely know everything I’m about to say. This piece is for the rest of us, those who invariably juggle multiple tabs at once, convinced that we can… Continue Reading

Transforming Metadata into Linked Data to Improve Digital Collection Discoverability

Bahnemann, Greta, Michael Carroll, Paul Clough, Mario Einaudi, Chatham Ewing, Jeff Mixter, Jason Roy, Holly Tomren, Bruce Washburn, and Elliot Williams. 2021. Transforming Metadata into Linked Data to Improve Digital Collection Discoverability: A CONTENTdm Pilot Project. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/fzcv-0851. “This report shares the CONTENTdm Linked Data Pilot project findings. In this pilot project,… Continue Reading

It’s Not Just the IRS—the US Government Wants Your Selfies

Wired: “…More than 20 federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, use a digital identity system called Login.gov run by the General Services Administration. It’s built on services from LexisNexis and can use selfies for account verification. The GSA’s director of technology transformation services Dave Zvenyach says facial recognition is being tested for fairness and accessibility and… Continue Reading

Stop the Presses? Newspapers in the Digital Age

CRS Report – Stop the Presses? Newspapers in the Digital Age, January 27, 2022: “During the last 20 years, more than 200 local daily newspapers have either reduced their publication frequency or ceased publishing altogether. Among those that survive, many employ a fraction of the journalists that they did at the turn of the 21stcentury,… Continue Reading