Much of the increase in library visits has been driven by people coming in to use computers. In Philadelphia, where library visits have risen 11 percent since 2005, the number of computer sessions has increased by 80 percent. Free Internet access has turned libraries into places where city residents, often with help from librarians or dedicated computer assistants, can accomplish tasks that otherwise would require trips to the unemployment office, the health clinic, or City Hall. Said one Philadelphia librarian: "People just think of the library as the first place to go."

The Document Availability Information API (DAIA) defines a data model with serializations in JSON and XML to encode information about the current availability of documents. This document defines the serialization formats DAIA/JSON and DAIA/XML and a HTTP query API to query DAIA information.

Some writers and researchers who use the Schwarzman building have said that the plan severely diminishes the library's position as a research institution.

David Nasaw, a writer and history professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, has been critical of the plan for that reason. He said one of the reasons CUNY’s Graduate Center center is located on Fifth Avenue was its proximity to the research halls of the Schwarzman library, "not because we very much want to be in Midtown."...

"If for the past ten years, the library has not been able to provide reliable 24-hour service, why are we to believe that with additional books moved there it will be able to do this? Is the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike going to decrease? Is congestion on the bridges and tunnels going to decrease?"...

One of the most vocal panelists was n+1 associate editor Charles Petersen, who wrote a lengthy piece criticizing the library's plans. He wondered whether the investment wouldn't be revealed to be short-sighted in a few years, when the technology needs of library users could be much clearer. The library has had a history of making expensive and ultimately faulty moves with respect to technology....

Darnton, who also wrote an article defending the plan, admitted expansions and attempts to predict the future of library technology in the 1970s and '80s were misguided. Specifically, money spent on the Mid-Manhattan branch is thought now, retrospectively, to have been largely wasted. "We are not trying to predict the future now and asserting that everything will be digital," he said. "We are trying to meet our commitments in the present where the printed book and digital source coexist and to make sure that we can handle to demands of readers into the future. So, I agree that that expansion in retrospect was a mistake. We cannot maintain three large libraries in mid-Manhattan and this extremely valuable real estate."...

The New York Public Library came under fire Tuesday night during a panel discussion held to debate its $300 million plan to remake its flagship Fifth Avenue branch. “We’re being told that the only way to save the library is to rip out its innards,” said David Nasaw, a panelist and a history professor at the City University Graduate Center, who called the plan “fatally flawed.”...

Critics on the panel said that the changes would diminish the library’s role as a leading reference center, that the money should be directed instead toward rejuvenating dilapidated branch libraries and that the retrieval of books was likely to take too long. “I’d rather have books available,” Mr. Nasaw said, “than a nice place to read.”

Mr. Nasaw also questioned the library’s promise that off-site volumes would be available in 24 hours, since, he said, there are currently delays with those already in storage. “If it’s going to work tomorrow, why doesn’t it work today?” he asked...

Charles Petersen, an associate editor at the magazine n+1, called the project shortsighted, given the uncertainty about the future of research. “There is good reason to be skeptical about doing something this drastic right now,” he said.

Joan Scott, a social science professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, was the final panelist. She helped draft the petition, given to Mr. Marx this month, which was signed by more than 1,000 writers, scholars and artists protesting the plan.

A replacement for the built-in OpenStruct

Shannon Mattern, a faculty member of the New School’s School of Media Studies, has a new and wonderfully wide-ranging article about “little libraries” that gets into a number of issues about public space, community involvement, and the essence of librarianship. (Disclosure: I’m quoted in the piece, but that’s not why I like it.) “Little Libraries in the Urban Margins” is published in Places, “an interdisciplinary journal of contemporary architecture, landscape and urbanism,” but I think that she “gets” the human aspects of librarianship in an important way (I mean, not that architects and planners don’t think about people, too). And if you’ve been trying to keep all these DIY library projects straight, this is the resource for you. Of course there’s discussion of the OWS libraries (with quotes from the excellent OWS librarians as well as one of my heroes, Barbara Fister).

PyRSA is a command line utility that allows users to digitally encrypt and sign messages using the public key encryption scheme, RSA. There are three basic functions that PyRSA performs: encryption, decryption, and key generation.

This is a collection of both secure hash functions (such as SHA256 and
RIPEMD160), and various encryption algorithms (AES, DES, RSA, ElGamal,
etc.). The package is structured to make adding new modules easy.
This section is essentially complete, and the software interface will
almost certainly not change in an incompatible way in the future; all
that remains to be done is to fix any bugs that show up.

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

Designed to meet the needs of the research community worldwide, our online portal offers quick and easy access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.

The connect-and-resume operator. Does not close the Source, but instead returns it to be used again. This allows a Source to be used incrementally in a large program, without forcing the entire program to live in the Sink monad.

2012-06-13 19:00:00 - 2012-06-13 23:59:00: Eva Norvind Tribute: "Born Without/Nacido Sin"
The late Eva Norvind (born in Norway to a Russian prince and Finnish sculptress), was a larger-than-life figure and a sexual pioneer whose life intersected with many random places and facets. This special tribute features screenings and a special round table on Eva Norvind, her persona, career and her legacy.