Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Robert Spitzer,' Most Influential Psychiatrist,' Dies at 83; Associated Press via New York Times, 12/27/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Robert Spitzer,' Most Influential Psychiatrist,' Dies at 83:
"Gay-rights activists credit Dr. Spitzer with removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the D.S.M. in 1973. He decided to push for the change after he met with gay activists and determined that homosexuality could not be a disorder if gay people were comfortable with their sexuality.
At the time of the psychiatric profession's debate over homosexuality, Dr. Spitzer told the Washington Post: "A medical disorder either had to be associated with subjective distress — pain — or general impairment in social function."
Dr. Jack Drescher, a gay psychoanalyst in New York, told the Times that Spitzer's successful push to remove homosexuality from the list of disorders was a major advance for gay rights. "The fact that gay marriage is allowed today is in part owed to Bob Spitzer," he said.
In 2012, Dr. Spitzer publicly apologized for a 2001 study that found so-called reparative therapy on gay people can turn them straight if they really want to do so. He told the Times in 2012 that he concluded the study was flawed because it simply asked people who had gone through reparative therapy if they had changed their sexual orientation."

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Apple Makes Shifts in Senior Management; New York Times, 12/17/15

Katie Benner, New York Times; Apple Makes Shifts in Senior Management:
"Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, is continuing to make over the company’s executive ranks.
On Thursday, Apple made several shifts in its senior management team, including the promotion of a longtime executive, Jeff Williams, to the job of chief operating officer, a position that had gone unfilled since 2011...
The changes, which include new leadership in the company’s hardware and marketing divisions, are the latest executive moves by Mr. Cook, who became chief of Apple in 2011. Early in his tenure, Mr. Cook shook up the management team that had been put in place by his predecessor, Steven P. Jobs, by pushing out Scott Forstall, the mobile software head."

Friday, December 18, 2015

Star Wars Trigger Warnings: These are the microaggressions you are looking for; Reason.com, 12/15/15

Zach Weissmueller, Austin Bragg, & Justin Monticello, Reason.com; Star Wars Trigger Warnings: These are the microaggressions you are looking for:
"Before seeing Star Wars, read the trigger warnings.""

Mustaches Outnumber Women Among Medical-School Leaders; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/17/15

Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education; Mustaches Outnumber Women Among Medical-School Leaders:
"Q. There’s an absence of female leaders in many professions. Are there reasons specific to the medical field that explain why there aren’t more women in charge?
A. Our data show that there is variation based on type of specialty. There are certain specialties that have fewer women — many of the surgical specialties, for example. There are several steps that department leaders can take to address these issues. In addition to policies that limit sexual harassment and allow for maternity leave, there are two really strong, evidence-based solutions that we make.
One is ensuring that people doing the hiring have well-defined, very specific hiring criteria. Unconscious bias is well documented: When interviewers and recruiters are making hiring decisions, they tend to favor the male candidate and then excuse or explain their decision in retrospect. Having very clear, a priori criteria makes them more likely to make a fair decision.
The second thing is that women are penalized for taking short breaks off for childbearing when jobs are structured in a way that reward long, continuous hours. So giving more control over where you work and how you work really helps women’s advancement."

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Big-Box Bookstores Don’t Have to Die; Slate.com, 12/15/15

Stephen Heyman, Slate.com; Big-Box Bookstores Don’t Have to Die:
"While Barnes & Noble devolves from a bookstore into a thing store, Waterstones, the biggest bookstore chain in Britain, is plotting an entirely different course. In 2011, the company—choked with debt and facing the same existential threat from Amazon and e-books as B&N—nearly declared bankruptcy. Today, however, Waterstones isn’t closing shops but opening a raft of them, both big-box (in suburban shopping centers) and pint-size (in train stations). It has accomplished a stunning turnaround under the leadership of its managing director, James Daunt, who just announced Waterstones’ first annual profit since the financial crisis. How he pulled that off is a long story, involving old-fashioned business cunning, the largesse of a mysterious Russian oligarch, and some unexpected faith in the instincts of his booksellers."

Sunday, December 13, 2015

IUP president calls for campus-wide discussion following racist photo; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/10/15

Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; IUP president calls for campus-wide discussion following racist photo:
"Fallout from the photo is being felt across campus and beyond, including IUP president Michael Driscoll, who told the campus this week he already had grown uneasy this fall about “how we talk about and treat each other” on the campus of 14,000 students.
In a campuswide e-mail sent a day after the photo surfaced on social media, Mr. Driscoll announced that a series of campus discussions will occur during spring semester. He urged the community to take stock over the upcoming holiday break of what can be done.
“My concern is not about a single incident or some specific sequence of events. It is not just about free speech, stereotypes, civility or prejudice -- although all of those are important parts of the discussion,” he said. “Rather, it is about how we come together as a family to challenge ourselves to grow individually and as a collective.”
Michelle Fryling, an IUP spokeswoman, said Thursday that the photo’s source was a female student, whom she declined to identify. She would not comment on prospects that the woman would be disciplined, but when asked about campus rules in general, Mr. Fryling said: “If you read the student code (of conduct) there are very clear guidelines about civility, about harassment or ethnic intimidation, which follow a lot of state and legal guidelines.”
Ms. Fryling said the photo was sent on a private Snapchat account not controlled by IUP. She said without elaborating that the student since has faced threats.
In recent months, a number of U.S. campuses have become flash-points over race, ethnicity and inclusion, sometimes due to events within their boundaries, and other times over broader national debates about such topics as police use of deadly force, immigration and events overseas."

How to defeat Donald Trump and his ilk: fight fire with fire; Guardian, 12/12/15

Jonathan Freedland, Guardian; How to defeat Donald Trump and his ilk: fight fire with fire:
"Think of it as a vaccine, a small dose of right-wingery that can inoculate the rest. The exemplar remains the greatest slogan of left populism of recent times: New Labour’s “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. Because you’ve reassured to your right, you’re allowed to go left. The trick is to get the dosing right, and not let the message of reassurance drown out the rest.
Once that’s done, all kinds of paths are open to the left populist. In today’s US, you could appeal to empathy, telling those hailing Trump that their Irish or Italian or Polish great-grandparents were once just like today’s Muslim would-be immigrants to America: decent, faithful people looking for a better life. You could appeal to their better angels, telling them that you know them – and that they’re better than this. Or you could cast Trump as the villain, doing what the rich and powerful have always done – pitting the poor and disadvantaged against each other rather than against the banks, big business and their enablers in Washington, those truly responsible for the pain they’re in. Labour MP Jon Cruddas, who has defeated his share of fascists in his Dagenham constituency, likes to deploy an English version of that message: “Don’t let these people play you for a mug. All they’re doing is pouring petrol on your grievance without offering you a solution.”
The point is, the new populists are on the march. Their rage cannot be fought with statistics. Their canny articulation – and exploitation – of people’s visceral pain cannot be defeated by an appeal to cool reason alone. The blaze has started. It’s time to start fighting fire with fire."

Friday, December 11, 2015

Better Together: The Cohort Model of Professional Development; Library Journal, 12/3/15

April Witteveen, Library Journal; Better Together: The Cohort Model of Professional Development:
"Higher ed is changing fast right now, and so is librarianship. Traditional in-person library and information science (LIS) education provided students with a robust network of peers for support. Over the last couple of decades, however, trends in higher education have reduced that automatic peer group—not only asynchronous online courses but also “unbundling,” in which students take classes at their own pace and from a variety of institutions. Postgraduate professional development opportunities, ranging from one-day conferences to workshops to certificate programs, were already more isolated, and these, too, have felt the further distancing impact of the digital shift. In addition, the proliferation of new competencies in librarianship can mean that a given librarian’s coworkers may have few if any points of overlap with what they do every day or need to learn—especially if they’re the sole representative on staff of a new library function.
Fortunately, there’s a movement afoot offering learners increased peer support without forgoing the benefits of self-directed and distance learning. Back in 2004, in a College Quarterly article titled “Cohort Based Learning: Application to Learning Organizations and Student Academic Success,” Kristine Fenning defined the term, noting that a paradigm shift toward learning communities, particularly those supported by a cohort-based framework, was under way. The cohort model has gained significant traction in higher ed. Cohorts are also growing in popularity across the LIS field, creating new venues for professional development and project management at multiple points in career paths, from MLS graduates just starting out to seasoned library leaders."

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Santa's Powerful Message For Boy With Autism: 'It's Okay To Be You'; Huffington Post, 12/10/15

Dominique Mosbergen , Huffington Post; Santa's Powerful Message For Boy With Autism: 'It's Okay To Be You' :
"“Santa sat him next to him and took L's hands in his and started rubbing them, calming them down. Santa asked L if it bothered him, having Autism? L said yes, sometimes. Then Santa told him it shouldn't. It shouldn't bother him to be who he is,” Johnson wrote in her post.
Landon told Santa that he sometimes “gets in trouble at school and it's hard for people to understand that he has autism,” but that he's “not a naughty boy.”
“You know I love you and the reindeer love you and it’s OK. You’re a good boy,” Santa told WOOD-TV, recalling the exchange with Landon. “You’re a good boy, you know.”
Johnson said she was incredibly moved by Santa's thoughtful words.
“This stranger in a red suit told my son the same message I've been trying to get through to him for a while now -- that he's special and I love him just the way he was made,” the mom told Today.com. “Seeing Landon's face light up in that moment was just incredible. I couldn't stop crying.”"

Friday, December 4, 2015

Baldwin Township man leaves $500,000 to Carnegie Library system; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/4/15

Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Baldwin Township man leaves $500,000 to Carnegie Library system:
"A retired Baldwin Township man who researched his investments at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Downtown branch did well enough to donate $500,000 to the library system.
Last month, a plaque was installed at the Downtown and Business branch entrance to honor the donor, Orest Seneta, who was in his late 80s when he died in 2011.
Mr. Seneta graduated from McKees Rocks High School and attended the University of Pittsburgh. He moved away but later returned and lived in Baldwin Township at the time of his death. His brother, John Seneta of Dunn Loring, Va., told library leaders that his brother regularly did research on his investments at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Downtown and Business location.
In a prepared statement, John Seneta said, “This is a fitting tribute to my brother and a way to ensure that others have the same access to resources into the future,” noting how much libraries have evolved over the years since his brother did his research manually...
Ms. Cooper said the bequest was “one of the more significant gifts that we have gotten from an unknown donor. If people are interested in leaving money to the library, we’d love to meet them.”"

Thursday, December 3, 2015

[Post-Public Draft 2016-2020 Strategic Plan] Positioning the United States Copyright Office for the Future: Strategic Plan 2016-2020; U.S. Copyright Office, December 2015

[Post-Public Draft 2016-2020 Strategic Plan] Positioning the United States Copyright Office for the Future: Strategic Plan 2016-2020:
[Excerpt]"This Strategic Plan organizes and prioritizes objectives for the next five years. It draws on four years of internal evaluations and public input — that is, two initial years of fact-findings, public inquiries, and special projects, and two additional years of public roundtables, reports, and Congressional hearings. These initiatives, announced in October 2011, coincided with government-mandated budget cuts as well as staff reductions and backlogs. We seized these challenges, however, as an opportunity to examine inefficiencies, dismantle dated practices, and propose new paradigms. Much of this exciting work and our accomplishments to date are described in the back of this Plan. We also introduce here a revised mission statement that better captures our statutory mandate.
Here is my vision for a modern Copyright Office:
Customers should be able to transact with the Office easily, quickly, and from anywhere at any time, using mobile technologies and any number of consumer-friendly platforms and devices to secure rights or access data. They should have at their fingertips an integrated life-cycle of copyright information — not only the date on which a work was created, published or fell into the public domain, but also all of the authors, owners, licensees, derivative uses, rights, and permission information that are both relevant to the marketplace and invaluable to meaningful research. The Office should have businessto-business capabilities that both leverage and support private sector activities, while ensuring and facilitating transparency and fairness.
Although technology improvements are an essential part of the future, true modernization involves much more than making incremental upgrades to hardware or software. It requires re-envisioning almost all of the Copyright Office’s services, including how customers register claims, submit deposits, record documents, share data, and access expert resources, and it requires meeting the diverse needs of individual authors, entrepreneurs, the user community, and the general public.
Maria A. Pallante
United States Register of Copyrights,
Director, U.S. Copyright Office

COPYRIGHT OFFICE NEEDS MORE TECH AND DATA EXPERTS; NextGov.com, 12/2/15

Hallie Golden, NextGov.com; COPYRIGHT OFFICE NEEDS MORE TECH AND DATA EXPERTS:
"To keep pace with the demands of the digital age, the U.S. Copyright Office needs fewer file clerks and more techies, Maria Pallante, the office's director, told lawmakers on Wednesday.
“It used to be catalogers, now it needs to be technology and data [experts],” Pallante described the agency’s hiring needs. “I don’t know how we can administer the law without it.”
Every year, the Copyright Office's staff examines and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims submitted by book authors, music artists, software manufacturers and other creators of intellectual property.
The office needs to restructure its workforce, Pallante told members of the Committee on House Administration during a hearing on the office’s tech plans. The office would like to eventually “morph” about a third of its staff -- 150 employees -- into tech and data experts, she said.
“These experts should not merely be assigned or on-call from another part of the agency, but rather be integrated into the copyright office mission where they can work side by side with legal and business experts,” she said."

Library of Congress, Copyright Office butt heads over IT vision; FedScoop.com, 12/2/15

Whitney Blair Wyckoff, FedScoop.com; Library of Congress, Copyright Office butt heads over IT vision:
"During the hearing, U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante reiterated a call for more autonomy over her agency’s technology. She referenced a report her agency released Tuesday that laid out a five-year plan that heavily focused on technology improvements.
“What we’re asking for is the autonomy to make sure that IT is intertwined with our business and legal expertise,” Pallante said. (Some House lawmakers have been shopping a draft bill to make the office an independent agency, but the legislation has yet to be introduced.)
Pallante also underscored the need to update the office’s 10-year-old copyright registration system, called eCO — which she said was “probably outdated by the time it was implemented.” The system, she said, simply replaced rather than improved upon paper copyright registration forms. It doesn't have a digital interface that is interoperable with the private sector technology and isn't flexible enough to be updated as copyright law evolves, she said...
“Your predecessor did many wonderful things in his long career,” Lofgren said to acting Librarian Mao. “Being a techie was not one of his fine points. So you have your work cut out for you.”"

Copyright Register: IT outage shows why agency must modernize; FedScoop.com, 11/30/15

Whitney Blair Wyckoff, FedScoop.com; Copyright Register: IT outage shows why agency must modernize:
"U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante still grimaces at the mention of a major IT outage that struck her agency this summer.
What started as routine data center maintenance shuttered critical Library of Congress IT systems — including those at the Copyright Office — for nine days. Pallante said it forced her staff, who were unable to fix the problems directly, to field angry calls from customers unable to register their songs, books or other creative works online.
“This is an illustration of the fact that my IT, and my databases, are in the hands of people who are not statutorily responsible for that information,” she told FedScoop, speaking in a Copyright Office conference room lined with the portraits of past registers. She added, "I just really feel that people who work on Copyright Office IT should be in the Copyright Office, in the mission, working side by side with the other experts."
It’s a point alluded to in the Copyright Office's five-year strategic modernization plan, finalized and released Tuesday. The 65-page document includes overarching goals that span from building a robust and flexible technology enterprise to recruiting a diverse workforce. But woven into the report is the need to tailor the office's technology to the needs of the people it serves.
“I think the main message of this is that the Copyright Office has to be directly involved in technology — for one, we can’t administer the law without having control of tools to allow us to do that,” said Pallante, who spent nearly 10 years as intellectual property counsel and director of the licensing group at the Guggenheim Museums before coming to her current job in 2011."