Weekly Reader

Pinterest and Copyright Concerns
"You have probably noticed that Pinterest is getting a lot of attention from teen librarians lately. If you have not seen this site for yourself, Pinterest is a social network/curation site based on the concept of a pinboard. Users share images by “pinning” them. Followers can see each other’s boards and “repin” images they like. It’s a great way to share programming ideas, with a clean, pleasant look and an easy-to-use interface. YALSA recently used Pinterest to share ideas for Teen Tech Week." -- Erin Daly, YALSA Blog, 3/29/12

Pinterest - Friend or Foe to Content Originators
"A few months back when I first started using Pinterest, I came across an amazing summer drink recipe on someone’s website. As a bartending enthusiast I was excited to share this content with my followers and try the drink out myself. Almost immediately I had a couple dozen people repin this post (a testament to the viral nature of the site) and a couple of comments. To my surprise, one of the comments was from the creator of the drink recipe asking me to please remove the pin." -- Alexia Holovatyk, Social Media Today, 3/27/12

Blackboard Buys 2 Leading Supporters of Open-Source Competitor Moodle
"For years, colleges looking for course-management software considered a choice between Blackboard’s dominant commercial product or an open-source alternative such as Moodle or Sakai. Now Blackboard essentially owns the open-source alternatives as well." -- Jeffrey Young, The Wired Campus, 3/26/12

Pinterest Listens to Users and Revises Terms and Conditions
"Pinterest can be a great way to increase the visibility of your brand or connect with other like-minded individuals in your industry (although it doesn’t help eliminate distractions for writers because it is so incredibly addicting, but I digress). For this reason, the social network has over 10.4 million registered uses, 9 million monthly Facebook connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users according to Inside Network’s AppData tracking service. However, even with all of these users, the site was in serious jeopardy just a few short days ago." -- Amanda DiSilvestro, The Blog Herald, 3/27/12

Does Your Conference Have a Harassment Code of Conduct? Wish Mine Did
"I will not forget that one of my professional groups turned its back on me when I complained about sexual harassment at our conferences. I've held all the roles that give one some standing: host of the meeting, speaker, moderator, program committee. The people in power of late have been women. None of that helped. The year after I complained in a way that must have seemed "enough," registrants were required to check a legal disclaimer that they would not sue the organization for any reason once they had registered to attend. Some impact I have" -- Denise Graveline, The Eloquent Woman, 3/26/12