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Google is the first major company to let people decide what happens to emails, photographs, blogs and social networks if their account becomes inactive. [...] "In a new feature called Inactive Account Manager, users can choose what happens to their emails, photographs, videos, blogs, social networks and other Google services if their account becomes inactive. Users can decide to have their data deleted after a certain period of inactivity of between 3 months and one year. They can also choose to have some or all of their data sent to up to ten people they know. The service applies to Gmail, Google + profiles, Picasa albums, YouTube, Blogger, Google Drive, Google Pages and Google Voice."
BY CLAIRE CONNELLY: "HISTORIANS will be facing a black hole when it comes to studying the 20th and 21st centuries because much of our digital history is stored on technology that no longer have devices to read them, experts claim. The information stored on everything from floppy disks to CDs, mobile phones to cameras is at risk of being lost forever, Canadian information security consultant Robert Slade told News Ltd.
"There was a sci-fi story from years ago about how all the knowledge in the universe was put into a huge storage library and then it got lost because nobody knew how to access it," Mr Slade said.
"That is getting to be frightening close to reality."
"It's rather ironic for the 'social media age', n'est ce pas," Mr Slade said.
Right now, the only solution is to continually transfer information from one device to another as old technologies die and other forms of media take their place.
And don't think cloud storage is a solution. That carries with it all kinds of problems, Mr Slade said.
Cloud service providers can lose, corrupt or make mistakes with data. Even worse, what if the company goes bust?"
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/digital-history-could-be-lost-forever-due-to-changing-devices-says-expert/story-e6frfro0-1226466893848#ixzz25ldicQrI
BY HENRIETTA THORNTON-VERMA: 'Library Journal "Beating Siri at Her Own Game: What's Next for Virtual Reference" The librarians who attended Saturday's “What's Next for Virtual Reference” discussion group at ALA left with a lot to ponder." Courtney Young's, a 2011 Library Journal Mover and Shaker [...],
first prediction: Cloud computing will become more ubiquitous in virtual reference. Using the cloud, she explained, means taking advantage of storage and other functions that are offered by Internet companies instead of being limited to the functions that are available on your own computer. Young used a show of hands to demonstrate that while many librarians are using services such as DropBox to store their work or personal documents, they aren’t using them with patrons, a change she urged the librarians in the room to make. They could, she suggested, create a “My Library Cloud” area into which materials could be deposited for patron use. Young recognized that the exact mechanisms of how this should work aren’t certain, acknowledging, for example that “ebooks are still shaking out,” but maintained that patrons “are used to using these services personally, and why wouldn’t they use them at the library?”
Next was a call to arms: “Siri is what we do,” she said, noting that what Apple calls iPhone’s “intelligent personal assistant” is “virtual reference embedded into a device that people are very attached to.” While it isn’t very effective right now, Young asserted, it can only improve, and librarians need to position themselves as the alternatives to the service before they find themselves replaced."
BY ZAKARIYYA ADARAMOLA, US Advises Librarians, Scientists On IT - AllAfrica.com "The United States of America has advised scientists in library and information management sector in Nigeria to embrace cloud computing technology to make their work easier and attractive."
"St. Paul, Minn. — Millions of Americans now own Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers. And libraries are taking notice, expanding their collections of e-books they can loan to patrons. That trend has 3M's attention. The company has a long history of serving libraries. And 3M sees a big business opportunity in helping libraries build, manage and lend their collections of electronic books. The St. Paul Public Library next month will begin a formal trial of 3M's "Cloud Library" system, along with ten other major public libraries around the country."
"Cloud applications, platforms, and services are being embraced by libraries and librarians around the world. If you’re just getting started or want to learn more about this increasingly popular trend in computing, here is a collection of 21 articles, blog posts, and conference presentations to get you started"
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With computers growing smaller and lifestyles going mobile, less and less devices offer sufficient space for internal optical drives. Option 1: USB Stick Option 2: SD(HC) Card Option 3: External Hard Drive (HDD) Option 4: External Solid State Drive (SSD) Option 5: Cloud Storage "Many alternatives for optical drives exist, but few can compete with the price and theoretical lifetime of Blu-ray discs. On the other hand, many make for better long term investments. In the long run, you should always have your data stored in at least two future-proof locations. But for the moment, Blu-ray discs and DVDs are a viable storage method. Just make sure you move your data before your last way to access them disappears.
Do you still use optical discs to store or transfer data?"
Via liblivadia
Carl Grant: "At the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, I gave the keynote talk at the NISO Update Session. My goal was to give attendees some thoughts about how important it is that they participate actively in the shaping of the new cloud-computing platforms which are are emerging from a number of organizations, including OCLC, Ex Libris, Serials Solution, Innovative and Kuali. I stated that the main reason for our participation as librarians is simply this: So we can ensure the value of librarianship is contained within and amplified by these new technological foundations. There were three key points I talked about us doing in order to accomplish this. They were: 1. The mission and value of librarianship have to be embedded in the software you’re using. 2. Defining our future is a task of participation, NOT representation. 3. For our services to have value they must offer differentiation."
Marshall Breeding: "Cloud computing helps libraries shift away from owning and operating local servers to Web-based services. This book equips you with the information and practical advice needed to evaluate the many opportunities to take advantage of cloud computing. It features applications that empower you to use technology without the constraints of a locally supported infrastructure, and more in-depth information and examples of how to plunge directly into suitable projects by taking advantage of free services offered by the top cloud services providers. Examples include using cloud-based supplemental storage, Google’s suite of apps, Amazon’s S3 and EC2 services to power your library website, and DuraCloud to host an online library media collection."
Via Lia Sant
RT @librarythingtim: How to Prepare for the End of Optical Media http://t.co/vYQAKBQs ; Although written from a personal digitization viewpoint, it is also valid information for librarians and archivists. - Audio discs - DVDs - Software - Backups (including cloud)
Lessons from overseas suggest there is more to digital libraries than e-books, writes Gill Hitchcock (RT @MultiMediaIT: Libraries face a digital future - article in the Guardian Professional's Government Computing section "Weiner urged libraries to adopt open standards rather than cater for any one type of reader. "The iPad is the world according to Apple, it is not an open standard," he said. "If you think of the democracy a library represents, it should be built on open standards." He maintained that cloud computing offers great opportunities for libraries. "For example, Amazon today offers Kindle clouds where the books are not in your Kindle, they are up the cloud… The library cloud could be the place where libraries store all kinds of content, not only books but videos, or content that is created in the library." He claimed to be a big fan of "hyper-local journalism", which he defined as a group of people within a community getting together and writing about that area. Weiner believes that a library is a perfect place for them to meet, write or start their own blog."
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The future of libraries!