David Rothman follows up on his review of the Voice Dream TTS e-book reader which can also read Web pages aloud, by highlighting the High Contrast add-on for Google’s Chrome Web browser. It doesn’t just add contrast to Web pages – it also turns black-on-white text into the reverse. Significantly, it works with the Kindle Cloud app within Chrome.
A new incarnation of the Voice Dream text-to-speech program–for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch–hit the Apple app store recently. David Rothman says that at $9.99 is it worth every penny.
In his article, Ken Strutin examines how the 21st century use of watch lists might or might not resemble the labeling of the McCarthy period, and how the experience of that era might inform an evaluation of present-day designation of the dangerous. After first describing the two labeling mechanisms, it compares them along several axes, finding that watch listing has both repeated some 1950s failings and moved on to develop some new ones of its own. In particular, because they are compiled and used in an opaque and completely one-sided process, watch lists run a substantial risk of incorrectly including many people who pose no threat.
David Rothman’s proposed FAQ includes suggested wording for an ALA resolution on the National Digital Library Endowment. His focus is less on the exact language at this point and more on the basic endowment concept on the agendas of various constituencies, NGOs, library associations and Washington policymakers.
David Rothman continues to expand upon the seminal foundation he has built with his critical advocacy for American libraries to do more to meet the digital content needs not just of K-12 students but also of their parents and other Americans.
Marcus P. Zillman’s guide is a comprehensive, timely and actionable resource inclusive of a wide range of privacy resources for individuals as well as organizations. His guide includes references to associations, indexes, search engines as and topical websites and sources that provide current applications, information and resources on the salient topic of privacy and how it relates to your use of the internet and social media.
On June 13, 2013 the Supreme Court issued its opinion in the much–awaited Myriad case, which challenged the validity of patents on isolated human genes. The Court held that the isolated genetic sequences claimed in Myriad’s patents did not satisfy the inventive threshold for patentability, although the complementary DNA (cDNA) claimed in the patents did. Prof. Annemarie Bridy examines critical elements of the case with a focus on the extent to which the outcome turned on a single conceptual choice: When assessing patentability, should the legal analysis focus on the isolated DNA’s chemical structure or its information-coding function?
Via the American Society of Access Professionals, of which he is President, attorney and FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes informs us about the new guidance to all federal agencies that acknowledges the need for federal employees to attend mission-related conferences and provides some best practices for approving travel and conference expenses. This new guidance adopts many of the best practices suggested in a meetings protocol that the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) provided to OMB at their request.
This guide by Katie Thomas completely updates her previous article from 2006, and focuses on resources that promote and disseminate information about international visits and exchanges for librarian around the world.
Ken Strutin focuses on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper, and the upcoming appeal in Burt v. Titlow in regard to placing plea bargaining front and center on the national stage. As a result, they have divided practitioners and scholars into two camps: (1) those who consider the rulings to be a new statement in the law of plea bargaining and right to effective assistance of counsel; and (2) those who believe they are only a restatement of established principles. These cases have generated interest in the centrality and regulation of plea bargaining, the ethics and effectiveness of defense counsel as negotiator, the oversight of prosecutors regarding charging decisions, sentence recommendations and pre-trial discovery, and the scope of federal habeas corpus review and remedies. Ken’s article is a comprehensive annotated guide to high court opinions, scholarship and commentary regarding the themes addressed by the Supreme Court in Lafler and Frye as well as their implications for the administration of criminal justice.