Chat in library reference services

Cassell and Hiremath, in Reference and Information Services, have identified several virtual platforms where Reference transactions take place. These can include “e-mail, chat reference, IM, social media, or videoconferencing” (2023, p. 5). Among articles that Cassell and Hiremath recommend for further reading, an article by Dempsey, et al. (2022) piqued my interest because of my preference for text-based communication and my dislike for using the telephone. I am autistic and “existing evidence suggests that autistic people may prefer written modes of contact” (Howard & Sedgewick, 2021, p. 2266).

Cyber-bullying: Lawsuit based on product liability

A man has filed a harassment lawsuit against the Grindr dating app (as reported via NBC News). The claim is based on consumer protection from dangerous or unsafe products.

Matthew Herrick is claiming that he was harassed via the Grindr app, through a former partner creating fake profiles that impersonated Herrick. “The alleged harassment continued for months, even after Herrick obtained a temporary restraining order against Grindr that required the company to disable the impersonating profiles.”

Online bullying is concerning to me, through direct experience. When I worked as a journalist, I was “trolled” by anonymous commenting. In my writings, I argued that comments should be tied to a registered account.

More recently, I became the unwilling audience to a campaign on Facebook to deliberately “shame” another person. I wondered then, and continue to wonder now, how we can move beyond an impulse to humiliate people and destroy their lives and careers?

Currently, people have little recourse if they’re subject to online bullying, because a “free-speech” law protects companies from liability for content that is posted by “third-parties.” But this could change if Herrick is successful with his lawsuit.

In the words of David Ingram, reporting for NBC News: “[Herrick’s] lawsuit alleges that the software developers who write code for Grindr have been negligent, producing an app that’s defective in its design and that is ‘fundamentally unsafe’ and ‘unreasonably dangerous’ — echoing language that’s more typically used in lawsuits about, say, a faulty kitchen appliance or a defective car part.”

Speaking as someone who strongly believes that bullying is not “free speech,” this case intrigues me for possibly holding companies responsible for abuses their platforms facilitate.

‘Google It’ by Anna Crowley Redding

Google It by Anna Crowley Redding (Feiwel and Friends, 2018) tells the story of Google and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

This book follows Google’s origin as a doctoral thesis project at Stanford University, to its existence today as part of a company that has revolutionized technology and the seeking of information.

Prior to Google, Internet searches were based solely on keywords. “So if you were looking for information about horses, web searches would give you every site that mentioned the word horse. And you would have to sit there and load each result, searching for the information you needed.”

Trolling: ‘part of the job’ for women in online media?

For The Mary Sue, Jill Pantozzi raises a valid question: “Is Dealing With Vicious Internet Trolls ‘Just Part of the Job’ For Women In Online Media?” She links to a piece in which “Jezebel Staff” describe the placing of violent pornographic images in the discussion section of their articles.

Although Jezebel staffers can manually dismiss comments and ban offensive commentators, “Literally nothing” stops abusive posters from signing up for another untraceable account and posting more abusive images. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole with a sociopathic Hydra.”

TurnItIn identifies 10 ways to rip off others’ work

Detail from an infographic
by TurnItIn.com: The degree
on a scale of 0 to 10
to which types of plagiarism
are considered problematic

In an infographic, TurnItIn identifies and provides examples of 10 types of plagiarism.

“Each type of plagiarism has been given a digital moniker to reflect the significant role that the Internet and social media play in student writing.”

It’s worthwhile viewing for anyone who works with composing or editing of text.

“The Plagiarism Spectrum,” according to TurnItIn, “moves plagiarism beyond the black-and-white definition of ‘literary theft’ to one that captures the nuances of how plagiarism can take form in student writing, with a severity scale based on student intent.”

A full study, which presents results from 879 secondary and higher-education teachers, is also available for download.

ALA president responds to ‘net neutrality’ ruling

“Here’s something you probably didn’t know,” writes Barbara Stripling, American Library Association president, at Wired.com. “The recent ruling striking down network neutrality doesn’t just affect websites and internet service providers — it affects libraries, too.”

Library should be student researchers’ first stop

A report by Angela Hill for the San Jose Mercury News (republished Nov. 19 by the Ashland Daily Tidings) omits an important question.

When history and English teacher Annie Hatch “often” sees students use inaccurate sources or “run wild” with a theory that they found presented as “fact,” why doesn’t Hatch educate her students about resources available through their school and public libraries? Why isn’t her class making use of curated databases or eBooks available through libraries’ increasingly digital collections?

Final thoughts on LIBT 213

Through its explanations of Boolean logic and summary of available resources, this course met my expectations for becoming more proficient at Internet search.

I enjoyed following step-by-step exercises in the book. Of particular value were the annotated bibliography and literature review, which encouraged thinking critically about the information we viewed online.

The one area of improvement that I would recommend is directed less toward the instructor than toward the authors of our text. While written in 2010, the book has not kept pace with options that are no longer offered by providers.

While otherwise of value for detailed step-by-step instructions, the book needs to eliminate references to services and features that are no longer online.

U.S. mining data from Internet ‘partners’

Has your online communication fallen under government surveillance? The Washington Post and the Guardian reported Thursday that the U.S. government is collecting data from top U.S. service providers -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.

Monsanto marches: Not really ignored by media

A grammatically and factually wrong meme

A Facebook user named Jason Aaron Wood has a fantastic “Monsanto” meme. “Hate Monsanto? Want to make an effective viral meme?” it reads. “Try facts.”

Facts are too often absent from social media memes.

Case in point: a montage of images from the international protest against Genetically Modified Organisms that took place on Saturday. It reads: “Meanwhile the mainstream media completely ignores [sic] the global march against Monsanto in over 400 cities.”

As a former journalist and aspiring librarian, a claim like this matters to me. I have a doubly-vested interest in setting the record straight. Indeed, a search on Google disproved the claim with links to coverage by the Washington Post, USA Today and regional and local network affiliates.

Newswatch 12, an ABC affiliate, covered the protest march in Medford, Oregon. It reported a turnout of 800 people who joined their marching counterparts in more than 250 cities in 36 countries around the world.

A more accurate caption would read: “Meanwhile, March Against Monsanto organizers ignore coverage of their marches because they belie the marchers’ portraying themselves as ‘ignored’ by mainstream media.”

‘Captive portals’ for filter-free Internet

To filter or otherwise when allowing access to the Internet on library-owned computers?

During an assignment last semester for my Internet ethics class, I suggested ID barcode “flagging” that would require booking a juvenile whose parents had requested it only at those computers with filtered access to the Internet.

Libraries that accept federal funding are required to install filters under terms of the Children’s Internet Protection Act. In posting my class response, I was trying to envision a scenario in which only those children whose parents wanted restrictions placed on their access to the Internet would be affected by computer filtering.

Adult patrons and children whose parents saw no need for such restrictions could use full-access computers.

Jessamyn C. West suggests, in Librarians Without a Net (Libraries Unlimited, 2011), a similar and simpler concept for navigating library filters: the “captive portal” that Internet users click through before getting online:

“Larger libraries such as Boston Public Library use this method to allow patrons to choose whether they would like their Internet access filtered or unfiltered. When a patron first connects to the BPL’s wireless network, they arrive at a page that asks them if they want filtered access, which is available to anyone, or unfiltered access which is available to authenticated adult card holders. This sort of thing can be set up using freely available software and is worth building in to any library system that offers free wireless.”

The beauty of her solution, like that of account flagging, is that verified adult users would be spared the inconvenience of what I believe is an ineffective strategy.

From our course reading in Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace by Richard Spinello (July 2010) we learned that filters often block legitimate information and manufacturers fail to disclose which sites their filters will block.

A company could impose a political ideology through the application of its filters, negating the ability to build library collections based on objective national standards. If libraries must have filters, then let their impact be limited to those children whose parents want restrictions placed on their Internet use.

Workplace troubleshooting: Menu icons

At the University of California, Berkeley Library:
An explanation of how to set preferences when using Google Scholar

My assignment this week for LIBT 115, Technology in the Workplace, was to document troubleshooting a problem that I could expect to encounter at work.

The problem I encounter with social media websites and web-based email applications is a shift in usability away from clearly-labeled menu functions to pictorial icon-based labeling. No matter how many times I see a gear wheel, I have to think every time what each menu icon means.

Here are the trouble-shooting steps I came up with:

1. Does the icon appear familiar? Think about other programs that made use of this icon. Did those other programs use this icon to represent the function you are trying to access now?

2. If the icon is unfamiliar: With cursor, rollover the pictorial icon and wait for alt-text description to appear.

3. Is it the function you want? If yes, press the icon.

4. If the icon does not correspond to the function that you are trying to locate, choose another icon and repeat from step 2 as necessary until desired menu function is located.

Online comments should be tied to known accounts

The subject of #DFMChat this week among Digital First Media journalists was improving conversations on social media. Specifically, it addressed trolling or online bullying.

Bill Keller writes, in “The Bullying Pulpit,” his piece for the New York Times, that anonymity is license to be vicious. Chat moderator Ivan Lajara shared a link to Keller’s commentary as an introduction to the subject.

I offered a suggestion in response to a question of how to deal with online bullying:

Comment platform hosts should insist that posting ability be tied to an identified account. The host can then actively block abusive users from being able to persist in online bullying.

Library of Congress has archived 170 billion tweets

Way to go! The Library of Congress has archived 170 billion tweets. According to Seth Fiegerman on Mashable, “The volume of tweets collected into the archive on a daily basis has grown exponentially from 140 million in early 2011 to 500 million as of October, 2012.”

Filters on library computers

My studies this week for LIBT 117 concern filters that limit access to the Internet. Our class discussion board asked what policy libraries should follow about minors accessing materials and websites.

To the Best of Our Knowledge: ‘Privacy’

I continue preparation for my “con” privacy argument for LIBT 117 in the Cuesta College Library/Information Technology Program.

My assignment is to argue that “Individual citizens don’t need the right to privacy in order to discharge their rights as citizens.”

Building a case against privacy on the Internet

My assignment for a Cuesta College course in Internet ethics is to argue that “Individual citizens don’t need the right to privacy in order to discharge their rights as citizens.”

Arguing con in debate over Internet privacy

Aug. 13, 2009: Toastmasters Club No. 8731, Tenacious Talkers, hosts a debate.

 I face an interesting assignment for LIBT 117 in the Cuesta College Library/Information Technology Program. Not only did our teacher assign each of us a topic, but also whether we would argue pro or con.

‘Your e-Book is reading you’

The rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way that people read, according to a recent article by Alexandra Alter for the Wall Street Journal.

What broadband access can do for a community

Economist.com posted an interesting article about what broadband access can do for a community. The author stated that Google chose Kansas City, Mo. as the recipient of a fiber-optic broadband network.