Department Spotlight: Info Commons
Do you miss having access to amazing software resources here at the library? We’ve got you covered! Prior to the pandemic, software at BPL branches helped Brooklynites be productive and supported their creativity. At the Central Library’s Info Commons, additional software was available, including Adobe Creative Cloud design applications, as well as other audio and video production software–not to mention a recording studio. Since the start of the pandemic, how the Info Commons provides service has been altered dramatically. Reference services and programs have moved entirely online. These…
Reading for the Technoskeptic
We who work at the library spend a lot of time thinking about technology – not just because we have public computers and thereby get a lot of questions about navigating them, but also since we watch the everyday life of library users as well as our own become transformed by digital environments. Big data? Online surveillance? Platform monopolies? Predictive policing? Algorithmic bias? Attention hacking? Just reading the headlines of the day makes it clear how society is grappling with how policy, law, and social norms are keeping up with (or not) the digital tools that we’ve become so…