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Testimonial of the Week
“I’m catching up on back issues — so impressive! I admire your discipline and editorial eye. This issue is esp powerful and an excellent snapshot of the Zeitgeist.” — @kikisandberg, Editor-in-Chief @blockchainRI
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Important Items
Federal judge strikes down most of New York’s limits on the concealed carry of guns in public.
slate.com
New York’s new concealed carry law is only the latest victim of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
Trump, seeking Russian investigation-related classified documents last fall from archives, proposed a deal to advisers: tell archives he would trade the Mar-a-Lago documents he had for them
www.nytimes.com
The former president exhibited a pattern of dissembling about the material he took from the White House, creating legal risk not just for himself but also some of his lawyers.
‘Disinformation Weekly’: How midterm newspapers are failing the electorate
Fake newspapers are turning up in Illinois letterboxes ahead of the midterms.
Call it data liberation day: Patients can now access all their health records digitally
www.statnews.com
Under new federal rules, health care organizations must give patients unfettered access to their full health records in digital format.
President Biden signed an executive order reestablishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and proclaimed October 2022 National Arts and Humanities month
The Future is Elastic!
More wisdom bombs from @rishad
Innovation
Prescription video games to help w ADHD, COVID brain fog, and more — www.vox.com
The future of video games is about more than just fun.
24 Hours in the Metaverse Version of Facebook — www.nytimes.com
Technology
AI-generated art from emerging products like Dall-e and Midjourney begs the question of what is creativity, what is art, who makes it, and who owns it— techonomy.com
New debunking website helps battle viral misinformation
mashable.com
RumorGuard, created by the News Literacy Project, supplies readers with misinformation debunks as well as tools to learn about fact-checking and media literacy.
TikTok said to be launching live shopping in the US
techcrunch.com
TikTok is talking with third-party companies to handle operations for launching a live shopping experience in the US
Now TikTok is copying Instagram with ‘Photo Mode’
The update allows TikTok users to share multiple still photos in a post, along with captions of up to 2,200 characters..
Shopify settles textbook publishers’ lawsuit over alleged piracy
E-commerce platform Shopify resolved a lawsuit with a group of publishers over alleged piracy and asked Virginia federal court to dismiss the case with prejudice. The publishers last year had asked the court for $2 million for each counterfeited trademark.
Spotify acquires firm that detects harmful content
Audio-streaming service Spotify Technology SA said it had acquired Kinzen, a firm that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform.
Twitter’s edit button is rolling out in the US for Twitter Blue subscribers
Twitter’s edit button will begin gradually rolling out the long-awaited feature to Twitter Blue subscribers in the US.
Fast Company website back after closing for 8 days due to hack
The drastic action was in response to an attack which saw obscene and racist alerts pushed to Apple News. The hackers said that unbelievably poor password security made multiple systems easy to access
How publishers can prevent cyberattacks after Fast Company’s hack
digiday.com
Tech executives shared what publishers can do to prevent getting hacked and avoid cybersecurity breaches.
AI Data Laundering: How Academic and Nonprofit Researchers Shield Tech Companies from Accountability
RT @michellemanafy Academic researchers who compiled the Shutterstock dataset acknowledged the copyright implications. Meta is using those academic non-commercial datasets to train a model, presumably for future commercial use in their products. Weird, right?
Canada’s Online News Act will force Google and Facebook to pay out $329.2m a year, parliamentary report finds
Publishing & Media
Where Is All the Book Data?
Since its launch in 2001, BookScan has grown in authority. All the major publishing houses now rely on BookScan data, as do many other publishing professionals and authors. But, as I found to my surprise, pretty much everybody else is explicitly banned from using BookScan data, including academics. The toxic combination of this data’s power in the industry and its secretive inaccessibility to those beyond the industry reveals a broader problem. If we want to understand the contemporary literary world, we need better book data. And we need this data to be free, open, and interoperable.
How TikTok is helping to diversify the publishing workforce
www.thebookseller.com
TikTok is not only bringing the book trade writers, it’s providing a crucial new pipeline of diverse staff.
Ingram invests in NFT e-book company aiming to let readers ‘truly own digital books’ — www.thebookseller.com
Ingram Content Group is investing in Book.io, a company making ebooks available on the blockchain where they can be sold as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Using @IngramContent’s print-on-demand service, Lightning Source, @book_io will bundle NFT e-books with “bespoke printed physical books.” #NFTs
Find #MarginsBookstores
findmarginsbookstores.thewordfordiversity.org
RT @wordisdiversity Have you explored our interactive map to find your new favorite bookstore? Our map & database lists nearly 100 bookstores owned &/ managed by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Disabled, and Neurodiverse booksellers. Comment w/ fav store or post a video about them. We’ll share #MarginsBookselling
Ageism in Publishing
Publishing is slowly working through its -isms, rightly yet belatedly self-flagellating over its lack of diversity of any kind. One -ism that is not being addressed, however, is ageism.
The real impact of #BookTok on library circulation
How are #BookTok-trending titles performing at Canadian libraries?
Zelensky to appear virtually at Frankfurt Book Fair — www.thebookseller.com
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is to appear at Frankfurt Book Fair this year, speaking to delegates via videolink.
Wiley Plans to Restore Access to Approximately 1,380 E-Book Titles Removed from ProQuest Platform
New audiobook platforms are launched to rival Amazon’s Audible
www.theguardian.com
Spiracle will feature titles from independent presses, while last month, Spotify also began offering audiobooks to US customers
Book bans target nonwhite authors and characters — www.ajc.com
The campaign to portray public education as a liberal training camp has conjured a new and unlikely villain — school librarians.
Book bans raise the question: Have we forgotten what a library is for?
HT @EveryLibrary Librarians aren’t trying to force children to read books their parents don’t like. Their job is to uphold access to information for all.
Libraries Across the US Are Receiving Violent Threats — www.vice.com
Librarians and patrons believe the threats were part of a coordinated effort to limit information access, and come amidst a recent wave of book bans.
Hate groups stir up book controversy + shift school boards
Who Are The Groups Banning Books Near You?
Florida teacher wants review of over 100 books discussing sexual, political and LGTBQ+ topics
HT @PENamerica The Department Chair of English at Northview High School in Escambia County is calling for the school board to evaluate more than 100 books that she says contain explicit sexual content, graphic language, themes, vulgarity and political pushes.
Book banning in schools and libraries gains momentum
A library in Michigan could close after the town voted to defund it over a handful of LGBTQ+ books that some deem inappropriate.
In Walla Walla, efforts continue to remove books from public school libraries — www.union-bulletin.com
A WA student reacted to book challenges at her school by organizing fellow students. The books remain in the collection & students donated extra money they raised to the public library. #UniteAgainstBookBans
Resources & Opportunities
Let’s Connect! Fall Outdoor *In-Person* Celebration
@WMG_NYC Members: Monday, 10/10 is the last day to register for the IRL Fall Party. Hope to see you there! Also, bring a brand-new book appropriate for kids 0–12 for a WMG group donation to @PajamaProgram
A Virtual Celebration of the Targaryen Dynasty — sites.prh.com
RT @randomhouse Join us on 10/24 for a conversation with @GRRMspeakingas he discusses all things Targaryen! There will be an audience Q&A, videos from HBO’s House of the Dragon, and more! #teamPRH
2022 Festival Schedule — Latinx Kidlit Book Festival — www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com
MT @diversebooks The virtual @LatinxKidLitBF is this week from 10/13 to 10/14! Full schedule: http://ow.ly/ytkf50L3QHn
Also, applications for the Latinx Book Creators School Visit Fund are OPEN thru 12/15/22 — apply for virtual visits from Latinx authors & illustrators: http://ow.ly/Lmth50L3QHo #teamPRH
How to Get Into Publishing — www.penguinrandomhouse.com
Here are tips from Penguin Random House to help navigate the process of finding a job in the publishing world. #teamPRH
The Art & Business of Author Platform
HT @MaggieSimsAuthr Master Class by @JaneFriedman just in time for NaNo! Open to everyone, and great for all genres. Please re-share. #WritingCommunity #writersofinstagram @Austin_RWA
JAWS Health Journalism Fellowship — JAWS
RT @womenjournos Apply today for JAWS Health Journalism Fellowship Application in partnership with @commonwealthfnd — unique opportunity to emerging and early career journalists. Deadline: 5 p.m. ET, Nov. 7.
NYPL’s Special Edition Spider-Man Library Card Coming October 11 — www.nypl.org
MT @nypl This fall, discover your inner Super Hero at the Library! Beginning 10/11, visit any NYPL branch for a limited-edition library card featuring the world’s favorite web-slinger — and lifelong New Yorker — Spider-Man. Apply for an #AmazingLibraryCard today!
Download 586 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art — www.openculture.com
NYC Women’s Fund Cycle 4 Info Session: Overview
The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre provides grants to encourage and support the creation of digital, film, music, and television.
Tink’s Podcast Hotline ☎️ — twitter.com
MT @tinkmediaco Hello? Podcasts? Are you there? If you’ve ever wanted a hotline where you could hear podcast recommendations and leave some of your own, then today’s the day that dream comes true! ✨ Introducing ✨ ☎️ Tink’s Podcast Hotline ☎️
Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — open.spotify.com
Podcast on freelance writing from @EstelleSErasmus