Cyberpunk Librarian: Why You Need to Remove Your Google Search History

I love working the front desk and my boss is kind enough to put me on the front desk at least three to four hours per day. Today, I’ll be on-desk for five hours. Like you, when I hit the desk, I need certain programmes and apps to do my job. I need the ILS, the cash management and POS system, email is a good thing to have open, and I need Chrome.

There’s never a desk hour that I don’t use Chrome to answer a question, get data, and generally help people. Like millions of librarians, I tend to help people through the use of Google.

Now then, props to Google for making everyone aware that there will be some serious changes to their privacy policies and that these changes are coming very soon. They went out of their way to tell you, right down to a forced log off, to force you to log in, and then presenting you with an information screen about the changes. That’s pretty cool. If Facebook forced you to log off for a privacy change or update, you’d get kicked off every other day.

Yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation posted a how to on removing your search data from Google and why you should. I’m not going to reiterate their work, as it’s good work and you should just go read it. What I’m going to do is build on that for a second and tell you why you as a librarian need to remove that data.

I use Google all day, every day. I’m sure you do too. I don’t know about you, but I’m also signed into Google while I’m doing it. I check my Gmail, I’m dealing with Google+, setting up appointments using Google Calendar, and so on.

And I’m also searching for information regarding patron queries while I’m signed in. What that means is that there is data within my own data set that has nothing to do with me. There are laws, ethics, and all kinds of reasons why patron information is confidential and, until March 1, 2012, that information on Google is confidential. After March 1st, Google will use that data to build a better Google which means offering you better ads, recommending videos, and that kind of thing.

But that data isn’t mine, or at least part of it isn’t mine. It’s data that was generated helping a library patron. I propose to you that such data, for all intents and purposes, belongs to the patron. That data wouldn’t have been generated if not for the patron, just like a library card wouldn’t have been generated if a patron hadn’t applied for one. Since we, as librarians, are tasked with protecting patron information, we need to protect that information too.

So, unless you never, ever log into Google and then search Google for patron queries, I really think you need to head over to the EFF and follow their very simple instructions for deleting and locking your Google search history. It takes less than five minutes to do this and, at the end, you’re not only protecting your data, but those of your patrons as well.

Penguin Pilfers Public, Prefers Pointless Practices

OverDrive recently sent an email to their library subscribers detailing some of the changes coming due to Penguin Publishing deciding to walk away from libraries, you know, some of the biggest book buyers in America. Now, if you’ve been following the absurdity of Penguin deciding that libraries are the enemy and that we will, I guess, plunder and pirate eBooks to our patrons; then this email comes as no surprise. What did surprise me was one of Penguins new rules when it comes to Kindle books loaned through OverDrive. Here’s what they said:

Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer, then transferred to the device over USB. For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.

I added the emphasis there.

If you need to see a clue that big publishers like Penguin don’t “get” eBooks and don’t even understand their own markets, then those bolded words are the equivalent of Velma turning to Shaggy and Scooby and saying “Jinkies!”

Let me take this from a tech standpoint, indeed, from the standpoint of a guy who not only knows what eBooks are, but how they work.

The standard model of putting something on a Kindle is to do so wirelessly. You hook up to a wireless network, sync it, it downloads all your new stuff, and you’re ready to go. Indeed, Amazon depends on this methodology so much that the Kindle Fire doesn’t even ship with a USB cable. Sure, you can get a USB cable for the Kindle Fire, but the fact that it doesn’t come with one says a lot about how Amazon expects you to use the device.

So, as things go, normally I would check out an eBook from an OverDrive library, Then I do the little dance through a couple of webpages to authorize it for, and send it to, my Kindle device. And then I sync my Kindle to the cloud and get my book. Once it’s on my Kindle I can do two things with it. I can.

Read it.
Delete it.

That’s it. In the end, that’s all a Kindle is good for. Sure, you can make notes and what not but you’re making notes while doing number one.

The USB cable: Not doing a damn thing about piracy since 2001.

Okay, now then, let’s take a look at Penguin’s idea. First off, since Penguin is worried about libraries using eBooks, then I’m going to have to assume that they see Amazon’s over-the-air distribution of books as a security risk of some sort. I’m not sure how that’s a security risk, but let’s play along. So, instead of downloading an eBook directly to my Kindle where I can only do the things listed above, I now need to download it to my computer and copy it to my Kindle using a cable.

Fine. Using our numerical model above let’s see what we can do. You download the eBook to your computer where you can.

Read it.
Delete it.
Use several different software applications to hack the eBook file and remove the DRM.
Copy the newly liberated eBook file to your Kindle, forgoing the USB cable because now you can just email it to your Kindle and pick it up over wifi.
Copy the newly liberated eBook file to your friend’s Kindle, your wife’s Kindle, your wife’s friend’s Kindle, and to the Kindle of the guy sleeping with your wife’s friend.
Oh wait, your wife’s friend’s boyfriend (see above) doesn’t have a Kindle, he has a Nook. Let’s convert that Kindle file to ePub.
Hey, now you have a Kindle version and an ePub version! And wow, this book is really good. Maybe I’ll share it with some other friends and set it up as a torrent because, after all the Internet is your friend.
Crap, you don’t want to lose that eBook, do you? Better back it up to your external hard drive. In fact, make a couple of copies and send one to your Dropbox account or something. That way, if there’s a hard drive crash, you can get that book again.

So, as you can see, forcing you to download a Kindle book to a computer is much safer than just sending it directly to a device that can only do two things with it.

Gabe Newell, the Valve guy, is often quoted as saying that “Piracy is almost always a service problem…” and that’s true. However, there’s a piece left out of his comments that he said a little later, and that’s the piece that should really resonate with publishers who turn their backs on libraries. He goes on to say “Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.”

As I’ve said before, if people can’t readily get an eBook at a library, and if they can’t download a copy for a reasonable price, they’ll go elsewhere and not only get a copy of the book, but get a copy of the book with which they can do anything they like. (By the way, selling an eBook at more than half of the hardcover price is not a reasonable price.) After all, if a reader can’t get it at the library, there’s always another way.

Dan the Download Guy – My Kindle Library Book Didn’t Download!

Introduction

I’m going to fire up a new series here on Not All Bits that kinda/sorta/but-not-really coincides with my Cyberpunk Librarian series. While it will be technical, it will deal specifically with some of the eReader and eBook questions I get from our Ask a Librarian queue, in person, and on the phone.

Word got around the Library District pretty fast that I’m an eBook geek and that I know my way around most of the eReaders. So I guess I’m functioning as a sort of upper tier tech support. I have no problems with that, indeed, it keeps me sharp and, besides, it helps our patrons read eBooks! Anyway, I thought it might be fun to occasionally post some of the questions I get here, along with the answers of course, so others can get the help they need!

So here we go, the first article featuring Dan the Download Guy!

Dear Download Guy,

I went to check out a Kindle book from the library’s OverDrive website but, for some reason, it didn’t get to my Kindle. My online account shows that the book is checked out to me, but I can’t read it! What do I do?

Signed,
Confused Kindler

Well, CK, it’s like this. The Internet is a strange and wonderful place, but sometimes, things don’t always go according to plan. The good news is, there’s usually another way to get the job done. So if your account does indeed show that the Kindle book is checked out to you, here’s what you need to do.

First thing, hop on your PC or Mac and head over to Amazon’s Kindle site. Log in if you need to and you’ll be taken to your Kindle account page which tells you all kinds of not-really-useful stuff. However, what you’re going to need there is a link near the top of the page that says Your Books.

Click on Your Books

Now from there, you’ll get a list of all the books you’ve read on your Kindle, or at least all the books you’ve had for you Kindle. The list is in alphabetical order, but your library book should be somewhere on the list. Find it, and click the title. You’ll be whisked off to a page about the book, but you’re not quite home free yet. What you want to do is click on the link that says “See this book on Amazon.com.”

Click on See this book on Amazon.com

Now we’re cookin’ with gas! Okay, off to the far right, you’ll see a green box and in that green box is a drop down list of Kindle devices registered to your account. Select the Kindle device and Amazon will send it along.

Finally, grab your Kindle and sync it. It should go snag the eBook from Amazon and download it to your device!

Oh The Things I Learn

When was the last time you learned some, quite frankly, useless stuff?

Seriously, we all know things that we’ll probably never make use of, but when was the last time you went out and looked for something stupid that you wanted to learn about just because? I do this occasionally, and I wanted to share a couple of stories with you about it because, hey, one of the reasons many of us became librarians is the whole “guardians of knowledge” thing, even the stupid, useless knowledge.

Apparently, living in Antarctica means living in a robotic turtle.

So recently I got off on a kick and I don’t even remember why. Given my love of James Burke’s Connections series and how it basically made me a historian, my mind has a tendency to take strange routes from one subject to another and it’s often impossible to get back to square one. Anyway, as far back as I can go in this little train of thought — I wanted to see what it was like to live in Antarctica, which led me to “how does one get to Antarctica?”, which led me to flying to Antarctica, and on to flying in Antarctica, which ended up at the bottom of the rabbit hole I wanted to talk about here.

Exactly how does one fire up the engines of a single or twin engine plane?

No joke, no exaggeration – I must have spent three hours watching YouTube videos of pilots demonstrating how they start various aircraft. While I don’t wish to be put in the situation, I’m reasonably sure that I could now start a single engine Cessna from cold and dark given the proper checklist.

See that? I used a term there, cold and dark. That means the aircraft has been completely powered down and has been for some time. You’re starting from putting a key in something and turning it to “On.” This was a term I didn’t even know about until a few days ago. And now I do, and my life is somewhat richer because of it.

Still, I really don’t want to have to start up an aircraft, especially in a hurry. Such things would mean my life had taken a sudden turn that I probably wouldn’t be cool with.

YouTube is great for that kind of thing. Think of it. Ten years ago, how in the heck would you have seen something like that? If you wanted to watch someone start a plane, you’d probably have to arrange something with a pilot to watch them start a plane. Meanwhile, in two or three hours, I watched all kinds of planes start up.

Are you bored? I mean, like, are you bored right now? You are, after all, reading my blog so you can’t be super excited or you’d be doing something other than reading blogs. But here’s a game that everyone should play now and then. Go to Wikipedia and search for something. Have a look at the article. Now, pick out the strangest offshoot of that article, and click the link.

Continue doing that until you totally forgot what you originally searched for. You’ll learn all kinds of useful and useless stuff. Sometimes, it’s just entertaining to learn something without knowing they’ll be some kind of test later; whether it be an academic test or a real life “OH MY GOD, DAN! THEY’RE RIGHT BEHIND US! START THE PLANE!” kind of test.

See this guy? Let's never piss him off.

For instance, I just Wikipediaed (if something can be Googled, then I propose that it can be Wikipediaed too) “shotgun.” Perusing it, I find that there’s an awesome picture of a Gurkha patrol officer with his trademark hat and that takes me to the different rankings of police officers and…

Yeah you get the picture. So go on, find yourself something stupid and useless to learn. It’s a heck of a lot of fun.

Pictures from the Arizona Libraries Snapshot Day

Yesterday, many libraries in Arizona took part in a Snapshot Day, capturing one day in the life of Arizona libraries. My library took part and we kept track of the kinds of things we did with and for our patrons, stuff like questions answered, items found, job assistance, computer help, and so on.

Needless to say, with a name like “Snapshot Day” we also took some pictures. So I snagged my camera and went around the library just shooting whatever caught my eye. When photographing people, I tried to remain a bit removed from them — not only to respect their privacy but also to get a candid shot of someone just using our library.

Anyway, I uploaded the images to my Flickr account into a set called Arizona Library Snapshot Day. Go check ‘em out if you have the interest!

PS: All the images in that set are copyright under a Creative Commons By-NC-SA License. See something you like? Feel free to use it.