Today’s news included items about Net Neutrality, a semi-bookless library, the Stop Online Piracy Act and The South Circular, an ejournal of new fiction.
Thanksgiving Week Serves Up Net Neutrality
Despite new FCC regulations (PDF file) on net neutrality taking effect on Nov 20th, the issue remains unresolved. A “lawsuit filed by Verizon in January” and then “amended… in October and gathering amicus curiae petitions (PDF file) continues to challenge the underlying principles codified by the Federal Communications Commission.”
UMKC Roos have new ’bots to fetch books
The University of Missouri-Kansas City Miller Nichols Library is undergoing a $70 million renovation with far less public space being made for books. Only 200,000 titles will be visible with the bulk of the collection being “stored away, stacked four stories high in a newly constructed corner of the library with two giant robotic arms to retrieve them.” Dean of Libraries Sharon Bostick, “said the library went semi-bookless to make room for the students and its growing collection. It had amassed so many books the students were crowded out of the space by the stacks.”
Wide Backlash Greets Internet Antipiracy Bill
Introduced in late October, The Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) “would require internet service providers to police users’ online activities for potential copyright infringement.” Supporters of the bill fear that “the internet currently challenges their ability to innovate because of piracy threats to their proprietary content.” Critics counter that while such concerns are valid, the bill goes too far in its current form. On November 15th, ALA joined other civil liberties organizations in sending a letter (PDF file) to House leaders outlining their fears that the bill would create an “irreversible precedent that encourages the fracturing of the internet, undermines freedom of expression worldwide, and has numerous other unintended and harmful consequences.”
(On November 17th, ATG NewsChannel reported on another article focused on opposition to this bill, Law Professors Join Critics of Antipiracy Bill Discussed at House Hearings.)
New Digital Journal Of Fiction Launched
A new quarterly ejournal of new fiction, The South Circular, has been launched by Aoife Walsh who say that she “has been watching the irresistible way in which digital is changing the consumption of content’ and that ‘rather than fear[ing] these developments, THE SOUTH CIRCULAR is committed to being an active participant in this continuing conversation on the communal reinvention of the publishing process.”
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