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Dean Sterling Jones writes: “David Mikkelson, the cofounder of the fact-checking website Snopes, has long presented himself as the arbiter of truth online, a bulwark in the fight against rumors and fake news. But he has been lying to the site’s tens of millions of readers: A BuzzFeed News investigation has found that between 2015 and 2019, Mikkelson wrote and published dozens of articles containing material plagiarized from news outlets such as the Guardian and the LA Times.”
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Tricia Crimmins writes: “Great literature is closer than you think, and you don’t even need to visit a bookstore or pick up your e-reader to find it. If you haven’t got time to sit down with a book—or if you just like being read to—check out one of these sites, which allow access to thousands of free audiobooks. There’s the perfect one for you in the mix.”
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted August 10 to eliminate fines for overdue books and other materials from county libraries. Supervisor Janice Hahn proposed the change. “Library late fines do much more harm than good,” Hahn said. “They make up less than 1% of the library’s revenue and they can dissuade people from using the library’s services. Our L.A. County libraries are full of great resources and we want people to take advantage of them.”
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J. Brian Charles writes: “One day in June, the employees of Enoch Pratt Free Library gathered online to learn something new: how to de-escalate conflict, mediate grief, and help people feel better about themselves. That session was part of an experimental effort by Baltimore leaders, who hope to enlist city agencies, starting with the library, to answer a big question: How does a city that has suffered trauma for decades, including over 190 homicides just this year, begin to heal?”
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Amid racism and discrimination concerns raised by some Black library workers and patrons, the Central Indiana Community Foundation announced August 9 it is withholding future funding to Indianapolis Public Library until the institution makes “significant, meaningful, and measurable change” toward a more equitable internal environment and until a library board–approved climate improvement process concludes.
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Megan McCluskey writes: “Since its launch in 2007, Goodreads has evolved into the world’s largest online book community. The social networking site now has millions of users who rate and review books, find recommendations for new ones and track their reading. But over time, Goodreads has also become a hunting ground for scammers and trolls looking to con smaller authors, take down books with spammed ratings, cyberstalk users, or worse.”
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Since 1996, Oprah’s Book Club has included meticulously selected books—each chosen by the media mogul herself—that often become bestsellers. Now, in partnership with Apple, Oprah’s Book Club is experiencing a new chapter. Her most recent pick is Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, a history of the caste system in the US, which Oprah called the most “essential” Book Club pick yet. Look back at all 91 selections in this slideshow.
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ALA will hold its inaugural Virtual Volunteer Fair September 14 from 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. CT. The fair will be an opportunity for ALA members to drop in and speak with committee members and staff liaisons from various ALA groups that offer volunteer opportunities, including Association committees, divisions, and round tables. Members should register for the event, but attendance for the full two hours is not required.
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A provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would create the Affordable Connectivity Program, an extension of the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit passed by Congress last December to provide discounted broadband service to eligible low-income households, including Pell Grant recipients. The new program retains the eligibility of Pell recipients for monthly $30 subsidies toward purchasing high-speed internet—down from $50 in the Emergency Broadband Benefit—and makes the program permanent. ALA released a statement August 10 praising the passage of the infrastructure bill by the US Senate.
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The Freedom’s Phoenix, a local news site in Arizona, and The Atlanta Business Journal both published the same article about coronavirus vaccines in March. The author was Joseph Mercola, who researchers and regulators have said is a top spreader of misleading COVID-19 information. In the article, Mercola inaccurately likened the vaccines to “gene therapy” and argued against their usefulness.
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Liam Tung writes: “Bad passwords are easy to remember, but also easy to guess—and that can give an attacker access to your online accounts. That’s why the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has explained why it is still recommending users pick three random words for a password rather than meeting complex requirements, such as an alphanumeric string, that could permit the creation of bad passwords like pa55word.”
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Jon Bentley writes: “The age of big data is now firmly upon us, and we therefore face collective societal challenges on how our data is handled and used to target and track us. Data ethics is an emergent theme and one that poses complex questions for those of us who work in the identity and knowledge sector.”
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