Research Libraries and Tools

Solidarity Movement. Perestroika and Glasnost. The fall of the Berlin Wall. All of these movements, policies, or events had a tremendous influence on the dissolution of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. While not attributed the same attention and certainly less well known, many diplomats operating behind the Iron Curtain recognized that the Helsinki Final Act, signed August 1, 1975, was a crucial step towards the fall of communism...

Les Murray (1945-2017)

• Born in small village on outskirts of Budapest, immigrated to Australia in 1957 as refugee
• Began work as a journalist in 1971, moving to SBS in 1980
• Host of SBS's World Cup coverage since 1986, covering eight World Cups

Hungarian Les Murray Australia's voice of soccer aka football dies aged 71 - Les was 11 during 1956 Hungarian Revolution 

Gangs in the '70s and '80s meant business – so much so that many even had their own business cards. A new book by urban historian Brandon Johnson looks at 60 of the best.

THE GRAPHIC DESIGN OF GANG BUSINESS CARDS

Via LLRX – The Library of Congress opened its catalogs to the world. Here’s why it matters. – Melissa Levine’s article articulates for us the historic significance and professional impact of the recent announcement by the Library of Congress that 25 million digital catalog records are now available to the public, at no cost. This remarkable treasure trove of free descriptive data sets includes records from 1968 to 2014

North Korea Makes Hacking Into a Profit Center New York Times. Bill B: “Oddly, so does the American defense industry. To the tune of $70 billion a year:https://fas.org/irp/budget/.”

“The bipartisan Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) was introduced in the US House of Representatives on July 26, 2017. Co-sponsored by Representatives Kevin Yoder (R-KS-3), Mike Doyle (D-PA-14), and Zoe Lofgren, (D-CA-19), FASTR will accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.”

• Extensive legislative history – Notes on the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act via the Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP)

Unlocking the Mystery of Paris' Most Secret Underground Society (combined) - Gizmodo Exposing the Charter 77 cold war Code:


Test your knowledge of prominent people and major events by taking our short 10-question quiz. When you finish, you will be able to compare your News IQ with the average American and compare responses across demographic groups

Via LLRX – The Real “Black Box” Dilemma of Legacy Legal Research Tools – Andrew Arruda, CEO/Co-founder of ROSS Intelligence talks about how new artificial intelligent methods currently under development to leverage deep learning and neural nets will be game changers in the area of legal research

“In this report, we offer a comprehensive but not exhaustive accounting of the Trump administration’s record on open government to date…In the following report, organized into sections we consider the record to date, in context. Six months from now, we will compare and contrast the Trump administration’s progress — or further regression — with the Obama administration’s mixed record on open government and reflect further on the way forward…”

Draft Research and Learning Agenda for Archives, Special, and Distinctive Collections in Research Libraries

OCLC Research is pleased to invite comments to our draft Research and Learning Agenda for Archives, Special, and Distinctive Collections in Research Libraries. The Research and Learning Agenda was produced by Practitioner Researcher-in-ResidenceChela Scott Weber who has worked collaboratively with the broad archives and special collections community in the OCLC Research Library Partnership and beyond, as well as with Program Officer Jackie Dooley and Senior Program Officer Merrilee Proffitt. An early version of the Research and Learning Agenda was vetted by an invited group at the 2017 RBMS Conference in Iowa City. Input from this group has helped to inform the current document, which will be reviewed by a broader group at the 2017 Society of American Archivists meeting. You can review the Research and Learning Agenda and give comments directly in Google Docs or download a PDF version and send comments by email to RLPStrategy@oclc.org. Please submit comments no later than Monday 28 August. A finalized version of the Research and Learning Agenda will be presented and discussed at the OCLC Research Library Partnership meeting in Baltimore on 1 November.”'

185 studies reveal men’s sperm count has plunged worldwide over the last 40 years Business Insider


Researchers examined the brains of 111 former NFL players. Only one didn’t have CTE. Idaho Statesman (Re Silc). CTE: chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Study: US is slipping toward measles being endemic once again Ars Technica