Author archives

New Website Lets You Fax Art to Congress to Save the NEA

Artsy Editorial – “In the months since President Donald Trump took office, members of Congress have watched their phone lines reach capacity and their email inboxes overflow as constituents voice their displeasure with the administration’s policies and appointees… Now, a new website is giving citizens a way to get artistic with their political grievances. Artifax …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Open Access Innovations Are Impacting Academic Publishing

Chronicle of Higher Education: “Open-access advocates have had several successes in the past few weeks. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started its own open-access publishing platform, which the European Commission may replicate. And librarians attending the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in March were glad to hear that the Open Access Button, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries, Search Engines

Wolfram – How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis

And now for something completely different, via the Wolfram Blog: “Vibration measurement is an important tool for fault detection in rotating machinery. In a previous post, “How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis, Part 1: The Wolfram Language,” I described how you can perform a vibration analysis with a smartphone and Mathematica. Here, I …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

UVA Law Librarians Present Travaux Préparatoires at Human Rights Conference

“At the “What’s Next for Human Rights Scholarship?” conference on March 31, law librarians Ben Doherty and Loren Moulds presented the Law Library’s new searchable database of preparatory works, or travaux préparatoires, of the United Nations’ core human rights agreements. More than 30 human rights scholars from North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania participated in the two-day interdisciplinary conference, which …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Issues of modern homelessness – broad, complex, affecting too many of our neighbors, communities

Gretchen Keillor’s new data project – Understanding Homelessness: “From the system perspective, a society with a lack of supportive and health services, a suffering economy, or a lack of affordable housing can be challenging for individuals on the brink of homelessness. From an individual perspective, these people can be classified as those unable to work …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Portraits of Nineteenth Century African American Women Activists Posted by LC

Library of Congress – The following is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. “African American women as well as men assumed civic responsibilities in the decades after the Civil War. William Henry Richards (1856-1941) was active in several organizations that promoted civil rights and civil liberties for African …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Trump Can Pull Money From His Businesses Whenever He Wants

ProPublica: “Update, April 4, 2017: In an interview with ProPublica, Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten confirmed that President Trump can withdraw profits and underlying assets from his trust at any time. He also said the president has been able to withdraw money since Trump took office on Jan. 20. That language was not included in …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Four Flavors of Automated License Plate Reader Technology

EFF – “Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) may be the most common mass surveillance technology in use by local law enforcement around the country—but they’re not always used in the same way.  Typically, ALPR systems are comprised of high-speed cameras connected to computers that photograph every license plate that passes. The photo is converted to …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Legal Research, Privacy, Transportation

Partial Transcript: Trump’s Interview With The Times

“The following is a partial transcript of President Trump’s interview with The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush. It has been lightly edited for content and clarity, and omits several off-the-record comments and asides.At least six White House aides were sitting in: Gary D. Cohn, President Trump’s lead economic adviser and a former …

Subjects: Economy, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Library of Congress National Recording Registry – 2016 inductees include Bowie, Sonny Rollins, Talking Heads

“Each year since 2002, the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) and members of the public have nominated recordings to the National Recording Registry. The depth and breadth of nominations received highlights the richness of the nations’ audio legacy and underscores the importance of assuring the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations. Each year, …

Subjects: Congress, Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

WaPo – How Gorsuch’s judicial experience compares with current justices

Follow up to several related postings on Judge Gorsuch – via the Washington Post: “By comparing how frequently a judge saw one of 23 legal topics on the appeals court with how frequently the same topics reached the Supreme Court in the last three years, The Washington Post created a relative exposure index that measures …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Twitter pushes back on revealing anti Trump account identity

Reuters: “Twitter Inc on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit to block an order by the U.S. government demanding that it reveal who is behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies. Citing freedom of speech as a basis for not turning over records, Twitter filed the lawsuit in federal court in San …

Subjects: Blogs, Courts, Free Speech, Legal Research, Social Media