Rental Assistance: Resources in the United States

LC – In Custodia Legis July 8, 2022 by Anna Price – “Sometimes we are inspired by reference inquiries and current events to write blog posts on a specific topic. In 2020, for example, we published guides about the coronavirus pandemic and resources for individuals facing domestic violence. This post focuses on options for people …

Subjects: Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research, Libraries

Some Surprising Good News: Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse

The New York Times – “More than 300 bookstores have opened in the past couple of years — a revival that is meeting a demand for “real recommendations from real people….Two years ago, the future of independent book selling looked bleak. As the coronavirus forced retailers to shut down, hundreds of small booksellers around the …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries

A copyright lawsuit threatens to kill free access to Internet Archive’s library of books

Popular Science: “Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library and a massive repository of online artifacts, has been collecting mementos of the ever-expanding World Wide Web for over two decades, allowing users to revisit sites that have since been changed or deleted. But like the web, it too has evolved since its genesis, and in the …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Listen to Earth.fm a Free Archive of Natural Soundscapes

Open Culture: ““Just listen. Silence is the poetics of space. What it means to be in a place…. Silence isn’t the absence of something, but the presence of everything.” – acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton “The study of acoustic ecology doesn’t get much mainstream attention. But if you’ve been a reader of Open Culture, you’ve likely …

Subjects: Health Care

National Parks Log Plastic Litter

Gizmodo“: You’re hiking through glorious nature when you see it—a dirty, squished plastic water bottle along the trail. Instead of picking it up and impotently cursing the litterer, you can now take another small helpful step—you can report the trash to a new data project that aims to inspire policy change. Environmental nonprofit 5 Gyres …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans

Center for Data Innovation: “PEN America, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to free expression through literature, has created a dataset tracking books banned or restricted in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 2021 to March 2022. The dataset contains the book’s name and author, the school district, the month of challenge …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 9, 2022

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 9, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

Sentence Rephraser

“Using machine learning, Ginger’s tools keep up to date with the way language usage evolves. Works across all websites, tools and devices. Get suggestions from Ginger while posting a Tweet, writing on Gmail, drafting a Word document, and anywhere you write..Ginger goes beyond spelling and grammar. It takes into account full sentences to suggest context-based …

Subjects: AI, E-Mail, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Deleting files isn’t enough. Here’s how to properly erase hard drives.

Washington Post – “The right software can help. So can some power tools…just because you’ve deleted a file on your computer and emptied the Recycle Bin doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. Making sure those files are properly gone will take some extra work, but if you’re considering donating, selling, or even recycling an old computer …

Subjects: Cybersecurity, Privacy

How are cities planning for heat? Analysis of United States municipal plans

V Kelly Turner and Emma M French and John Dialesandro and Ariane Middel and David M Hondula and George Ban Weiss and Hana Abdellati, How are cities planning for heat? Analysis of United States municipal plans, Vol 17, No 6 Environmental Research Letters,2022. UCLA Newsroom: “…To assess heat planning, the researchers — from UCLA, Arizona …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Education, Environmental Law, Knowledge Management