The great Internet Slowdown: Join tomorrow’s protest against the FCC’s new net neutrality rules | ExtremeTech

Tomorrow,
September 10, will mark the first great Internet Slowdown — a protest
by some of the web’s largest companies over the FCC and US government’s
handling of net neutrality. All across the web, on sites such as Reddit,
Netflix, and WordPress, a spinning “loading…” icon will appear,
reminding everyone that internet slow lanes — where some websites load
more slowly than others if you don’t pay your ISP some extra money — are
a real possibility unless we write to our country’s lawmakers now. Let me state this clearly: The end of net neutrality would be bad for everyone on the internet except your ISP.



The Internet Slowdown
is being arranged by Battle for the Net, a fairly large concerted
effort of organizations and people who are trying their best to support
net neutrality. Battle for the Net appears to be an off-shoot of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit that popped up during the battle against SOPA and PIPA.
Some fairly big companies and organizations have joined the Battle for
the Net, including the EFF, ACLU, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Vimeo,
iFixit, and Reddit. On September 10, many of these companies — and some
other latecomers, such as Netflix — will be displaying a “spinning wheel
of death” to symbolize how the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules
would create internet fast lanes and slow lanes. Read more...

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6 Ways To Become a Power User of the Public Library - BOOK RIOT

You have a library card and you know the library is more than just a “Netflix for books.”
Maybe you know about your library’s ebook offerings and maybe you know
you can borrow audiobooks or DVDs. But how can you make the absolute
most out of your local library? Here are 6 tips for becoming a power
user of the public library.




Worth noting: not all public libraries offer the same
services, so not everything mentioned here will be available to all
users. Some libraries offer more and some may offer less. These
variations exist because of funding differences, library size, location,
and a host of other factors, most of which are out of control of the
library itself. The one common denominator among these tips, though, is
that they’re all things you can ask about at your library.




Likewise, this is geared toward the American public library system, so your mileage in other countries may vary.


1. Get to the top of the holds list for hot titles


Did you know many libraries order books well in advance of their
publication date? Librarians are knowledgable about what’s coming out,
and they often put in purchase orders for titles weeks, if not
months, before publication. This is especially true for books that are
garnering buzz or are new titles by popular authors.




Many times, those titles appear in the library catalog not long after
the order is placed. Even if the book isn’t on shelf, when the library
has ordered a title and it shows up in the catalog, chances are good you
can put a hold on it.




Say you’re reading our 5 To Watch For
feature and you see a title coming out at the end of the month that
looks great. Go to your library’s catalog and see if you can put a hold
on it. If you can’t do the hold from home, call the library and try
to do it over the phone. This’ll get you ahead of the game, and you’ll
be one of the first people to read the book, likely not long after it
releases.  Read more...

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Why the Public Library Beats Amazon—for Now - WSJ

As E-Book Subscription Services Grow Their Catalogs, the Age-Old Institution Trumps All

B y Geoffrey A. Fowler

A growing stack of companies would like you to pay a monthly fee to read e-books, just like you subscribe to Netflix NFLX +1.30% to binge on movies and TV shows.

Don't bother. Go sign up for a public library card instead.

Really, the public library? Amazon.com AMZN +3.03% recently launched Kindle Unlimited, a $10-per-month service offering loans of 600,000 e-books. Startups called Oyster and Scribd offer something similar. It isn't very often that a musty old institution can hold its own against tech disrupters.

But it turns out librarians haven't just been sitting around shushing people while the Internet drove them into irrelevance. More than 90% of American public libraries have amassed e-book collections you can read on your iPad, and often even on a Kindle. You don't have to walk into a branch or risk an overdue fine. And they're totally free.

Read more...

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One Way To Get Streaming Content from the Library: Ephrata PL Looks to Expand Roku Lending Program - The Digital Shift

One Way To Get Streaming Content from the Library: Ephrata PL Looks to Expand Roku Lending Program - The Digital Shift: One Way To Get Streaming Content from the Library: Ephrata PL Looks to Expand Roku Lending Program
By Matt Enis on February 20, 2013
From Library Journal

A Roku lending program launched last year by Ephrata Public Library (EPL) in Pennsylvania has proven so popular that the library is planning to invest in several more of the media streaming devices in the coming months.

“We’re adding our third and our fourth [soon], and I would say this year, we will probably add six to eight,” said EPL Executive Director Penny Talbert. “There are always holds on them, and they’re circulating for a week.”

EPL purchased two Rokus last Spring at the suggestion of the library’s technology manager. As Talbert noted, the units didn’t require a huge initial investment to try. The basic Roku LT units cost $50. For each unit, the library purchases dedicated subscriptions to Netflix and/or Hulu Plus, which currently cost $7.99 per month each, as well as other content from TED, Allrecipes.com, the BBC, and other sources. Subscriptions are set up so that patrons can’t use EPL’s account to make additional purchases while they have the units. Read more...

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How to Budget Megabytes Becomes More Urgent for Users - NYTimes.com

How to Budget Megabytes Becomes More Urgent for Users - NYTimes.com
Brian X. Chen

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