Monday, February 29, 2016

Libraries’ Love Your Data Week raises awareness among research universities; Penn State News, 2/5/16

Penn State News; Libraries’ Love Your Data Week raises awareness among research universities:
"During the week of Feb. 8, university research libraries across the United States, including Penn State’s University Libraries — @psulibs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — are participating in a grassroots social media campaign to spread awareness about the importance of documenting, sharing, preserving and making available research data.
Love Your Data Week — hashtag #lyd16 — is about recognizing the ways in which individuals can start caring for data now, adopting consistent practices, modeling and implementing them for generations to come. Managing data in a conscionable way, with attention as well to affordances for reuse, is both a responsibility to the scholarly record and an important public good.
University students, in particular, are learning and researching in an era of increasing compliance with federal funding agencies’ requirements for public access to research results, including data. The themes of Love Your Data Week prompt faculty and staff to ask: How do we teach students to be responsible stewards of their scholarly outputs? How do we instill in them an awareness of potential future users of their work — a perspective that affects how data gets shared or not, is made accessible or not?"

Sunday, February 28, 2016

360 Reviews Often Lead to Cruel, Not Constructive, Criticism; New York Times, 2/26/16

Meg Halverson, New York Times; 360 Reviews Often Lead to Cruel, Not Constructive, Criticism:
"Given the time and cost involved in such reviews — each one takes about three weeks to complete including soliciting and collating the feedback, writing the review and prepping the manager — I’ve decided they are seldom worth the investment. Probably because of the anonymous and generic nature of the feedback, the whole process misses the mark in terms of its goal: to make people better at their jobs.
If you want feedback, do what one senior executive I know does: ask for it directly after meetings, interviews and tough conversations with customers or employees. You might be surprised what people will share, and how helpful it can be."

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Apple’s Privacy Fight Tests Relationship With White House; New York Times, 2/26/16

Michael D. Shear and Katie Benner, New York Times; Apple’s Privacy Fight Tests Relationship With White House:
"Current and former White House officials say Mr. Obama appreciated the attention that Mr. Cook brought to issues like immigration, gay marriage and climate change. When Mr. Obama solicited Apple and other companies to support his ConnectED program for technology in schools, Mr. Obama praised Mr. Cook’s decision to pledge $100 million worth of iPads and MacBooks, calling it “an enormous commitment.”
There were also tensions. White House officials were not happy about Apple’s decision to shelter billions of dollars in offshore accounts and have repeatedly pressed Mr. Cook to explain the company’s need to build its blockbuster products in China rather than in the United States.
But the encryption debate, and the government’s legal action against Apple last week, are testing the relationship with the company more than any other.
“A company thinks very hard before it defies the government,” said Nicole Wong, who was Google’s lead lawyer when Google resisted a Justice Department request for user data. But if a disagreement happens, “it’s not bad for this policy conversation to happen transparently in a court proceeding.”"

Time to fire Trump; The Economist, 2/27/16

The Economist; Time to fire Trump:
"The things Mr Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped."

The Governing Cancer of Our Time; New York Times, 2/26/16

David Brooks, New York Times; The Governing Cancer of Our Time:
"We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society — politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.
Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.
The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It’s messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal.
But that’s sort of the beauty of politics, too. It involves an endless conversation in which we learn about other people and see things from their vantage point and try to balance their needs against our own. Plus, it’s better than the alternative: rule by some authoritarian tyrant who tries to govern by clobbering everyone in his way."

Friday, February 26, 2016

What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team; New York Times, 2/25/16

Charles Duhigg, New York Times; What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team:
"The technology industry is not just one of the fastest growing parts of our economy; it is also increasingly the world’s dominant commercial culture. And at the core of Silicon Valley are certain self-mythologies and dictums: Everything is different now, data reigns supreme, today’s winners deserve to triumph because they are cleareyed enough to discard yesterday’s conventional wisdoms and search out the disruptive and the new.
The paradox, of course, is that Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs.
The fact that these insights aren’t wholly original doesn’t mean Google’s contributions aren’t valuable. In fact, in some ways, the ‘‘employee performance optimization’’ movement has given us a method for talking about our insecurities, fears and aspirations in more constructive ways. It also has given us the tools to quickly teach lessons that once took managers decades to absorb. Google, in other words, in its race to build the perfect team, has perhaps unintentionally demonstrated the usefulness of imperfection and done what Silicon Valley does best: figure out how to create psychological safety faster, better and in more productive ways."

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

President Obama Announces His Intent to Nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress; WhiteHouse.gov, 2/24/16

WhiteHouse.gov; President Obama Announces His Intent to Nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress:
"Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress.
President Obama said, “Michelle and I have known Dr. Carla Hayden for a long time, since her days working at the Chicago Public Library, and I am proud to nominate her to lead our nation’s oldest federal institution as our 14th Librarian of Congress. Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to modernizing libraries so that everyone can participate in today's digital culture. She has the proven experience, dedication, and deep knowledge of our nation’s libraries to serve our country well and that’s why I look forward to working with her in the months ahead. If confirmed, Dr. Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position – both of which are long overdue.”
Carla D. Hayden, Nominee for Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress:
Dr. Carla D. Hayden is CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, a position she has held since 1993. Dr. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Dr. Hayden was Deputy Commissioner and Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an Assistant Professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Dr. Hayden was Library Services Coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the Young Adult Services Coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as a Library Associate and Children’s Librarian from 1973 to 1979. Dr. Hayden was President of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an afterschool center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Dr. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago."

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your penne could be wood; Bloomberg News via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/16/16

Lydia Mulvany, Bloomberg News via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your penne could be wood:
"Acting on a tip, agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration paid a surprise visit to a cheese factory in rural Pennsylvania on a cold November day in 2012.
They found what they were looking for: evidence that Castle Cheese Inc. in Slippery Rock was doctoring its 100 percent real Parmesan with cut-rate substitutes and such fillers as wood pulp and distributing it to some of the country’s biggest grocery chains...
Some grated Parmesan suppliers have been mislabeling products by filling them with too much cellulose, a common anti-clumping agent made from wood pulp, or using cheaper cheddar, instead of real Romano.
Castle president Michelle Myrter is scheduled to plead guilty this month to criminal charges. She faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of purity laws drawn up 500 years ago. Champagne makers prohibit most vineyards outside their turf from using the name. Now the full force of the U.S. government has been brought to bear defending the authenticity of grated hard Italian cheeses."

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Evolving with time and technology, public libraries expand their offerings; Albuquerque Journal, 2/14/16

Elaine D. Briseno, Albuquerque Journal; Evolving with time and technology, public libraries expand their offerings:
"People might no longer be calling their local library reference desk to find out who the 23rd president was or to settle a debate with their neighbor. They have their smartphone for that.
Instead, they now can go there to learn how to knit, attend community meetings, get tips on using their tablets and phones, even on how to start a business.
Of course, that’s in addition to the library’s core mission of providing books and information – only now on a lot of different platforms.
And it’s all free."

Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely?; Harvard Business Review, January-February 2016

James R. Detert and Ethan R. Burris, Harvard Business Review; Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely? :
"Leaders use a variety of tools to get people to speak up, like “climate” surveys and all-staff feedback sessions. Many of these efforts focus on improving communication up and down the hierarchy. But they usually fall short, regardless of good intentions, for two key reasons: a fear of consequences (embarrassment, isolation, low performance ratings, lost promotions, and even firing) and a sense of futility (the belief that saying something won’t make a difference, so why bother?). Here, we’ll look at how leaders’ misguided attempts to promote candor fail to address—and sometimes stir up—those feelings. We’ll also discuss tactics that are much more effective.
In a number of studies, we’ve found that when employees can voice their concerns freely, organizations see increased retention and stronger performance."

Gearing Up for the Cloud, AT&T Tells Its Workers: Adapt, or Else; New York Times, 2/13/16

Quentin Hardy, New York Times; Gearing Up for the Cloud, AT&T Tells Its Workers: Adapt, or Else:
"To Mr. Stephenson, it should be an easy choice for most workers: Learn new skills or find your career choices are very limited.
“There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop,” he said in a recent interview at AT&T’s Dallas headquarters. People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning, he added, “will obsolete themselves with the technology.”...
By 2020, Mr. Stephenson hopes AT&T will be well into its transformation into a computing company that manages all sorts of digital things: phones, satellite television and huge volumes of data, all sorted through software managed in the cloud.
That can’t happen unless at least some of his work force is retrained to deal with the technology. It’s not a young group: The average tenure at AT&T is 12 years, or 22 years if you don’t count the people working in call centers. And many employees don’t have experience writing open-source software or casually analyzing terabytes of customer data."

Monday, February 15, 2016

Rally held against defacement of LGBT-friendly banner on North Side; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/15/16

Karen Kane, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Rally held against defacement of LGBT-friendly banner on North Side:
"Determined to transform a “message of hate” to a “message of hope,” about 75 people attended a rally Sunday that involved signing their names and well-wishes on a North Side banner that had been vandalized Friday with words derogatory to the homosexual community.
“[The rally] was about hope and healing and moving forward. It was about bringing people together to send a message that all people need to be treated with dignity and respect. We wanted to say that we're not going to let this incident determine who we are and what we’re about,” said Christine Bryan, director of marketing and development with the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, a leading organization in Western Pennsylvania dedicated to improving the lives of the LGBT community.
The vandalized sign had been hanging outside the Central Wellness Outreach Center on Anderson Street. The center, open since August, provides medical care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, specializing in the areas of Hepatitis C, HIV and transgender.
Ms. Bryan said the cloth banner, which measures about 12 feet wide by 3 feet tall, had contained the name of the center and its logo. A vandal added a profane, homophobic phrase. On Sunday, the same banner became a canvas for messages of inspiration and support."

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Defaced LGBT Sign Prompts Rally For Acceptance; KDKA, 2/14/16

Bob Allen, KDKA; Defaced LGBT Sign Prompts Rally For Acceptance:
"The Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church is taking a stand against hate, while calling for diversity and acceptance.
The morning church service ended with members signing the flag for the Central Outreach Wellness Center after someone defaced it with hate speech on Friday...
The Central Outreach Wellness Center offers medical care to members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community. Graffiti scrawled on the flag was aimed at patients, and some believe those words have a uniting effect on the community.
“I think the Dignity & Respect Campaign along with a number of members in the community we are all about trying to let people know that one incident doesn’t define the community, doesn’t define the organization and it surely doesn’t define who we are in the city of Pittsburgh,” said Candi Castleberry-Singleton, CEO of the Dignity & Respect Campaign.
In a show of support, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald signed the flag.
“We’re a city and a region again that’s attracting people. It’s attracting young people, it’s a attracting people from all over the world and we want to make sure when people come here they feel welcome,” Fitzgerald said."

Rally held after business sign defaced with LGBT hate speech; WPXI, 2/14/16

[Video and Article] WPXI; Rally held after business sign defaced with LGBT hate speech:
"A rally was held Sunday after a North Side business sign was vandalized with LGBT hate speech on Friday.
Dozens of people gathered to show their support after a sign at the Central Wellness Outreach Center’s was found with LGBT hate speech...
A “Hope Against Hate” rally was held, and attendees signed the sign that was defaced in hate.
"We've really turned it into a positive message when we've all come together today to show them that they're not going to win," Lane said."

Saturday, February 13, 2016

ATTENTION: Library Toilet Paper Thieves, You've Been Warned; DNAInfo New York, 11/6/15

Eddie Small, DNAInfo New York; ATTENTION: Library Toilet Paper Thieves, You've Been Warned:
"Although patrons can be banned for stealing library property, this is used as a last resort, and toilet paper theft likely would not qualify, according to NYPL spokeswoman Angela Montefinise.
Staffers at the Morrisania branch put the sign up three months ago but took it down Friday — after DNAinfo New York asked about it — because it is not an official library sign, she continued.
However, if you remain responsible with your toilet paper usage anyway, we're sure Elaine Benes will appreciate it."

Defaced sign won't deter medical practice from its mission; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/13/16

Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Defaced sign won't deter medical practice from its mission:
"Dr. Lane, who specializes in care to the LGBT community, said the homophobic and profane graffiti saddened her. But she has a message that is more important and will connect with more people, she said...
“Unfortunately, many people that I serve are used to being victimized and marginalized,” she said. “They’re used to having to deal with this on some low level regularly in their lives. That saddens me deeply, that this happened in my space. We intentionally try to make a space that’s welcoming, where this doesn’t happen.”
Dr. Lane said the only change she anticipates in the wake of the incident is the purchase of four more signs — to show that her work will go on.
“I think that awareness that these kind of things still go on is important for Pittsburgh, as a city and us as a community, to realize,” she said. “There are people still out there that hate for no good reason.
“Many people have felt marginalized at some point in their lives, probably including the people that write these type of messages. I would encourage all people to take a good look at themselves and their lives and their families. I would think that most of us would be hard-pressed to have a family that doesn’t have someone that doesn’t necessarily fit into the box that the rest of us fit into.
“We have to remember that we don’t have to like each other. We don’t have to agree with each other’s opinions. But we do have to treat each other with dignity and respect.”"

Pitt to merge SIS, CS department; The Pitt News, 2/11/16

Taylor Mulcahey, The Pitt News; Pitt to merge SIS, CS department:
"Within the next year and a half, Pitt’s computer science department and school of information science will become one.
The new undergraduate school, the School of Computing Informatics, is slated to accept its first students in the fall of 2017 and will combine the 32 SIS faculty with the 18 CS faculty and distribute the 50-person staff in three new departments: computer science, informatics and network systems and information culture and data stewardship...
A “shift from a singular focus on high performance computing to embracing big data, data analytics, [and] the interaction between computation and information, is driving the department merger,” Larsen said.
A growing number of other universities around the country, such as University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan, Indiana University and Drexel University, have reorganized their programs in similar ways.
For Pitt, the change comes as the University looks to shift its focus to big data projects. In March 2015, Pitt teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University and UPMC to form the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance, a partnership to find new ways to use large sets of patient data in health care.
In October 2015, Pitt collaborated with UPMC, CMU and other city and county officials to open the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, which has published city and county data, such as logs of the city’s 311 calls and information about opioid deaths, online."

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Constant Campaign; Library Journal, 2/10/16

John Chrastka and Rachel Korman, Library Journal; Constant Campaign:
"In 2015, nearly 150 libraries in 24 states held referenda to renew or enact taxes for operations, staffing, or facilities. More than 1.1 million voters showed up at the polls in 2015 to decide on tax measures for their libraries. Just over 650,000 people voted yes and nearly 470,000 voted no. Of the 148 library ballot measures we have identified (through news reports, surveys, and direct involvement of EveryLibrary, the national library PAC the authors work for), 127 were won and 21 lost. One, while technically passing, actually rolled back the library’s funding, making it, in our opinion, a loss.
Though the outcomes of these elections were only directly germane to the health of these particular institutions, the results will be read for trends for the entire field. While this article is an examination of elections held nationwide, it does not represent a national plebiscite on libraries."

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Chipotle Meeting Outlines Food Safety to Workers and Message for Public; New York Times, 2/8/16

Stephanie Strom, New York Times; Chipotle Meeting Outlines Food Safety to Workers and Message for Public:
"Chipotle Mexican Grill closed its more than 2,000 restaurants for four hours on Monday to hold a “virtual” town hall meeting with its employees about steps it said it was taking to improve food safety and regain consumers’ trust...
Marketing experts applauded the company for its transparency about the meeting, but said the company would need to do a lot more to win back the trust of consumers. Chipotle has experienced six food safety failures involving norovirus, salmonella and E. coli since July, with more than 500 customers reporting that they fell ill afterward. Most of those illnesses were associated with two outbreaks of norovirus.
“Whether that’s sufficient to persuade consumers to come back in a significant way is questionable,” said Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimple, a marketing consultancy. “It’s going to take significant meaningful action that goes beyond telling employees to be more careful and, unfortunately, some time before consumers start to believe it.”
Mr. Adamson said the best example of a company regaining consumer trust was of Tylenol in 1982 after seven people died after taking medicine that had been tampered with...
Chipotle has started its most expensive marketing and promotion campaign ever and plans to spend some $50 million to try to lure existing customers back into its restaurants and communicate the steps it has taken to improve its food safety practices."

Monday, February 8, 2016

Microsoft’s Cortana gets sexually harassed, but she fights back; Digital Trends, 2/6/16

Lulu Chang, Digital Trends; Microsoft’s Cortana gets sexually harassed, but she fights back:
"According to Harrison, when Cortana was first launched in 2014, “a good chunk of early queries were about her sex life.” Now the team behind the AI is fighting back; Cortana is a true woman of the 21st century, you see, and she doesn’t take any crap.
“If you say things that are particularly a**holeish to Cortana, she will get mad,” said Harrison during a talk at the Re•Work Virtual Assistant Summit in San Francisco. “That’s not the kind of interaction we want to encourage.”
To combat this sort of behavior, Harrison and seven other Microsoft writers tasked with the fascinating job of determining how Cortana responds to inquiries have decided to be very careful with the way in which they structure this virtual woman."

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Student Demands: Who’s Resigned, What’s Renamed; New York Times, 2/3/16

Kate Sinclair, New York Times; Student Demands: Who’s Resigned, What’s Renamed:
"This academic year, administrators have wrestled with a deluge of student demands related to cultural and racial issues on campus. Some have been met. Here’s a recap:"

After Racist Episodes, Blunt Discussions on Campus; New York Times, 2/3/16

John Eligon, New York Times; After Racist Episodes, Blunt Discussions on Campus:
"The new frontier in the university’s eternal struggle with race starts here, with blunt conversations that seek to bridge a stark campus divide. Yet what was evident in this pregnant moment during a new diversity session that the university is requiring of all new students was this: People just don’t want to discuss it...
Yet administrators might have been missing a trickier truth: Diversity is one thing, inclusion is another...
Inclusion starts with ensuring that minority students are “not on campus in token amounts,” said Linda S. Greene, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has served in various administrative roles that included diversity work. While some universities, particularly wealthy elites and flagships, conduct outreach to minority high school students, Ms. Greene challenges them to be as committed to building diverse and thriving student bodies as they are to recruiting top-flight athletes. She advocates identifying, developing and nurturing minorities as early as kindergarten, and investing in research on initiatives that drive success. “The big picture for me is this: You can determine an institution’s priorities by its dollar commitments,” she said. “We know what it takes for stem cell advancements and transplantation breakthroughs. When diversity becomes important enough, those commitments will be made.”
The terms “campus climate” and “inclusion” have taken off as diversity buzzwords."

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Humane Society boss resigns after petition demands her removal; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/5/16

Madasyn Czebiniak and Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Humane Society boss resigns after petition demands her removal:
"The head of the Western PA Humane Society has resigned, days after she was put on administrative leave.
Joy Braunstein had been under pressure after an online petition demanded her removal was circulated.
Statement from Joy Braunstein:
In a statement this afternoon, Ms. Braunstein said: “Given the present circumstances, I have made a personal choice to step away from The Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and resign my position effective immediately out of respect for my family and out of respect for the organization. I wish the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society well and will continue to be a supporter of the organization. At this time, I have not decided what I plan to do next professionally. Before I do, I plan to take some time with my family. I want to thank the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society for my time there and everyone else for their concern, but I have no further comment.”
Former employees estimate that in Ms. Braunstein’s 13-month tenure as executive director of the Western PA Humane Society, more than a third of the roughly 60-member staff was either fired or quit."

Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media; New York Times, 2/4/16

New York Times; Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media:
"On Tuesday, Amy Harmon reported that a prominent professor at the University of Chicago had stepped down in response to accusations of sexual harassment. The article ignited a heated discussion on Twitter, with some readers sharing their experiences of harassment in the science field.
The professor, Jason Lieb, a molecular biologist, made unwelcome sexual advances to several female graduate students at an off-campus retreat of the molecular biosciences division, according to a university investigation letter obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Lieb, 43, also engaged in sexual activity with a student who was “incapacitated due to alcohol and therefore could not consent.”
The article highlighted an increasingly tense debate over how universities deal with harassment claims in their science departments. Students and faculty members at the University of Chicago blamed the school, saying it overlooked previous accusations against Mr. Lieb when he worked at the University of North Carolina, and did not find out why he resigned abruptly from Princeton University after just seven months.
Below is a selection of the responses to the article on Twitter."

Friday, February 5, 2016

David Giles and Story Bellows: BPL’s Strategy Team Looks Ahead; Library Journal, 2/3/16

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; David Giles and Story Bellows: BPL’s Strategy Team Looks Ahead:
"In Fall 2015, the Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) strategy team gained two codirectors, David Giles and Story Bellows—urban innovators with strong backgrounds in government policy. Giles joined the library as chief strategy officer in November 2015, after serving as research director at New York’s Center for an Urban Future (CUF), which in 2014 published Re-Envisioning New York’s Branch Libraries, a report examining the physical and economic challenges facing the buildings that make up New York City’s three library systems. In his new role, he will provide strategic leadership around program development, partnerships, advocacy, and capital planning, among other aspects of BPL’s mission.
Leading the strategy team with Giles is Bellows, who became BPL’s chief innovation and performance officer in October. Before arriving in Brooklyn, Bellows cofounded and directed the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Philadelphia, an in-house research and development lab aimed at supporting innovative approaches to civic problem solving.
LJ recently caught up with Giles and Bellows to talk about their previous work, aspirations for BPL, and thoughts on what 21st-century libraries can accomplish."

New UN stamps promote LGBT rights; Associated Press via Guardian, 2/4/16

Associated Press via Guardian; New UN stamps promote LGBT rights:
"The United Nations Postal Administration has released six new postage stamps promoting equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The colourful stamps by artist and UNPA art director Sergio Baradat are also meant to celebrate the diversity of the gay community and marks the first time the global body’s post office has issued stamps with an LGBT theme...
“We need to change attitudes to one of acceptance,” said Stephen Cutts, UN assistant secretary general.
The stamps support the UN human rights office’s Free & Equal campaign, which aims to promote fair treatment of the LGBT community.
Charles Radcliffe, chief of the global issues section of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said there have been advances in human rights for members of the LGBT community, but more must be done because hate crimes are still too common and homosexuality is still criminalised in some countries."

Humane Society boss on leave says she is victim of smear campaign; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/4/16

Madasyn Czebiniak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Humane Society boss on leave says she is victim of smear campaign:
"Former employees estimate that in Joy Braunstein’s 13-month tenure as executive director of the Western PA Humane Society, more than a third of the roughly 60-member staff was either fired or quit.
Those seeking to get her fired say that exodus is part of the driving force behind an online change.org petition demanding her removal. The petition, which has attracted more than 1,400 signatures, also describes Ms. Braunstein’s decision “to purchase a collie puppy from a breeder who charges $1,000 per pup as opposed to adopting one of the dogs at her own shelter or another dog in need of rescue” as “the height of hypocrisy.”
Earlier this week, Ms. Braunstein was placed on paid administrative leave — a decision that she told the Post-Gazette was made to “get me out of the direct line of fire.” Against the advice of her attorney, she spoke to the Post-Gazette late Wednesday, saying that she was the victim of an online bullying and character defamation campaign and had received violent threats.
Two women, Diane Bandy and Tara Vybiral, were charged Tuesday with harassment for making threats on social media against Ms. Braunstein, who could not be reached for further comment Thursday...
Ms. Braunstein’s supporters on Wednesday started their own counter-petition in which they laud her efforts at the society, including increasing donations, outreach and community awareness, and advocacy. It also had about 1,400 signatures by Thursday."

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation; New York Times, 2/2/16

Amy Harmon, New York Times; Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation:
"Both the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology have fielded criticism recently for failing to publicly acknowledge their own conclusions that a prominent male scientist on each faculty had harassed female students until the details were uncovered by news media. A third case was reportedly unearthed only because of a bureaucratic error at the University of Arizona.
“Although institutions proclaim that they have zero tolerance for abuse of the policies that they claim to enforce, too often their primary concern seems to be secrecy and reputation management,” the science journal Nature wrote in a Jan. 20 editorial headlined “Harassment Victims Deserve Better.”
At Chicago, students praised the university for swift and decisive action. But some students and faculty members also raised pointed questions about whether the university had placed female graduate students at risk by hiring Dr. Lieb, who brought scientific cachet and a record of winning lucrative grants to a department that had recently lost two of its stars to other institutions.
He was put on staff despite potential warning signs.
Before he was hired, molecular biologists on the University of Chicago faculty and at other academic institutions received emails from an anonymous address stating that Dr. Lieb had faced allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct at previous jobs at Princeton and the University of North Carolina."

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

LGBT-Inclusive Companies Are Better at 3 Big Things; Harvard Business Review, 2/2/16

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Kenji Yoshino, Harvard Business Review; LGBT-Inclusive Companies Are Better at 3 Big Things:
"For the first time in the history of Davos, LGBT rights made the official agenda at the World Economic Forum. Business leaders including Beth Brooke-Marciniak, the global vice chair for public policy at EY, and Shamina Singh, the executive director of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, spoke at length about the unparalleled opportunity businesses have to make a difference in the lives of LGBT individuals around the world. “Multinational companies have enormous economies and employ millions of people,” said Brooke-Marciniak. “This gives them the ability to influence change on this issue in a unique and powerful way.”
LGBT inclusion is top of mind for the business community — and not just because it’s the right thing to do. The Center for Talent Innovation’s newest report, “Out in the World: Securing LGBT Rights in the Global Marketplace,” demonstrates that countering LGBT discrimination makes a corporation competitive on three fronts. Fostering an LGBT-inclusive workplace helps a company attract and retain top talent, woo and win critical consumer segments, and innovate for underserved markets."

A Yahoo Employee-Ranking System Favored by Marissa Mayer Is Challenged in Court; New York Times, 2/1/16

Vindu Goel, New York Times; A Yahoo Employee-Ranking System Favored by Marissa Mayer Is Challenged in Court:
"Mr. Anderson’s suit provides a peek inside Yahoo’s controversial quarterly performance review system, which Ms. Mayer adopted on the recommendation of McKinsey & Company, a management consulting company. Similar systems were once widely used in corporate America, and companies like Amazon.com still employ analogous methods.
But others, like General Electric and Microsoft, have dropped such rankings as a tool for routine firings because of their corrosive effect on productivity and employee morale.
At Yahoo, the program, known internally as Q.P.R., has been a sore spot among managers and employees since it began. The court filing said that managers were forced to give poor rankings to a certain percentage of their team, regardless of actual performance. Ratings given by front-line managers were arbitrarily changed by higher-level executives who often had no direct knowledge of the employee’s work. And employees were never told their exact rating and had no effective avenue of appeal.
“The Q.P.R. process was opaque and the employees did not know who was making the final decisions, what numbers were being assigned by whom along the way, or why those numbers were being changed,” the lawsuit says. “This manipulation of the Q.P.R. process permitted employment decisions, including terminations, to be made on the basis of personal biases and stereotyping.”"

Monday, February 1, 2016

Best Small Library in America 2016; Library Journal, 1/28/16

John N. Berry III, Library Journal; Best Small Library in America 2016:
"After decades of low funding and an inadequate facility, in 2007 the citizens of Warwick, NY, voted to approve an $8.5 million bond issue to build a new library. Their new Albert Wisner Public Library (AWPL), completed a short six years ago, has been totally reborn.
And not just the library itself: through careful planning, engaged public input, and the creative acquisition and introduction of technology and social media, AWPL has transformed its community as well. It has modernized both library service and life in Warwick and the district...
ABOUT THE BEST SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICA AWARD
LJ’s annual award, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was created in 2005 to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of libraries serving populations under 25,000.
The winning library receives a $20,000 cash prize from the Gates Foundation, along with conference costs for two library representatives to attend the Public Library Association (PLA) biennial conference in 2016 in Denver. The two finalist libraries will each receive a $10,000 cash award, conference costs for two library representatives to attend the 2016 PLA meeting and award celebration, and more."

Suffolk University’s board taking a PR hit; Boston Globe, 2/1/16

Adrian Walker, Boston Globe; Suffolk University’s board taking a PR hit:
"Ultimately, McKenna wanted to dislodge Suffolk’s entrenched power structure — which includes Regan, who has managed to maintain an outsized influence since he left the Suffolk board.
He resigned several years ago after Coakley, ironically, charged that it was a conflict of interest for a board member to also hold a $366,000 annual contract to be the school’s public relations czar. But Regan didn’t need a title to maintain his juice with the board. It doesn’t hurt that his deputy remains on the board...
Lost in the maneuvering is the fate of the school itself. Honestly, who would want to work for this board? Or become a serious donor? The guys who run Suffolk like to say all they care about is the school and its mission. But everything they are doing says just the opposite."