GOOGLE IS STALKING YOU
How much does Google know about you?
A lot apparently, as I discovered at Reference at the Metcalfe, the State Library's annual reference seminar.
Speaker Alison Macrina, founder of the Library Freedom Project in Boston, gave a presentation on how we are tracked online. She refers to Google and Facebook as 'advertising companies' and to use these websites is to freely give away your personal information. Our online habits and even physical location are fair game for governments, advertisers, hackers and anyone who knows how to access the information.
Feeling in need of a cyber detox? Start by trying one or all of these. Also recommend these tools to patrons and raise awareness of online privacy.
Please note: some of these websites may be blocked on council computers so use another device to view them or email the link to yourself to access at home.
If you use Internet Explorer and/or Chrome
Try...
Tor Browser
Doesn't store searches, nor does it track you across tabs and website. Masks your IP address, tells websites being visited that you're in a completely different location, even country, to the one you're in. The more people using Tor, the safer its users are.
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
Mozilla Firefox
Learn how to make browsing with Firefox more private here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/protect-your-privacy
If you use Google
Try...
Duck Duck Go
The search engine that doesn't track you. Duck Duck Go has advertisements, but not ones that follow you from website to website.
https://duckduckgo.com/
Onion Browser for iPhones and iPads
Tor-powered browser that conceals your IP address and browsing on Apple devices
itunes.apple.com/us/app/onion-browser/id519296448?mt=8
Some other tools to stay safer and more anonymous online:
Disconnect
Software to stop and identify scripts tracking you, blocks advertisements
Privacy Badger
Browser add-on that works with Firefox and Chrome
There are even more tools to help educate yourself and your patrons about online privacy here https://libraryfreedomproject.org/resources/onlineprivacybasics/
Kat
A lot apparently, as I discovered at Reference at the Metcalfe, the State Library's annual reference seminar.
Speaker Alison Macrina, founder of the Library Freedom Project in Boston, gave a presentation on how we are tracked online. She refers to Google and Facebook as 'advertising companies' and to use these websites is to freely give away your personal information. Our online habits and even physical location are fair game for governments, advertisers, hackers and anyone who knows how to access the information.
Feeling in need of a cyber detox? Start by trying one or all of these. Also recommend these tools to patrons and raise awareness of online privacy.
Please note: some of these websites may be blocked on council computers so use another device to view them or email the link to yourself to access at home.
If you use Internet Explorer and/or Chrome
Try...
Tor Browser
Doesn't store searches, nor does it track you across tabs and website. Masks your IP address, tells websites being visited that you're in a completely different location, even country, to the one you're in. The more people using Tor, the safer its users are.
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
Mozilla Firefox
Learn how to make browsing with Firefox more private here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/protect-your-privacy
If you use Google
Try...
Duck Duck Go
The search engine that doesn't track you. Duck Duck Go has advertisements, but not ones that follow you from website to website.
https://duckduckgo.com/
Onion Browser for iPhones and iPads
Tor-powered browser that conceals your IP address and browsing on Apple devices
itunes.apple.com/us/app/onion-browser/id519296448?mt=8
Some other tools to stay safer and more anonymous online:
Disconnect
Software to stop and identify scripts tracking you, blocks advertisements
Privacy Badger
Browser add-on that works with Firefox and Chrome
There are even more tools to help educate yourself and your patrons about online privacy here https://libraryfreedomproject.org/resources/onlineprivacybasics/
Kat
Yarn Bombing at Engadine!!!
| Yarn bombing is fun !!!! We have knitted our poles a wooly jumper for the cooler weather and added some beautiful adornments. Well done to our fabulous knitters!!!  |
| We have these beautiful knitted flowers to adorn our pole!! |
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| its a work of craft!! |
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| Joan and Margaret are two of our knitters at Engadine |
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| Photo bombing the yarn bombing!!! |
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| We love our knitted poles at Engadine. |
Gallipoli Gelibolu Symposium
Held at the Art Gallery of NSW, Friday 22 May 2015
by Stephanie Bailey.
Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in my company will be aware of my - let's call it what it is - obsession with military history, in particular Australia's involvement in the First World War.
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| Wine of victory, Will Dyson, 1918. |
And so, with the 100 year anniversary of this conflict well upon us, I, like many others in Australia, have watched and absorbed with interest, admiration and occasionally bewilderment and perplexity the abundance of means and formats through which the centenary has and is being commemorated and analysed. There has been no shortage of TV documentaries and dramas; exhibitions and information sessions; services and events; academic monographs and books for kids; each endeavouring to frame a new perspective and to make sense of the First World War, its outcomes and what, if anything, it means to us today - some with greater success and clarity than others.
 |
| Old trench, French battlefield, Evelyn Chapman, 1919. © Estate of the artist. |
The Art Gallery of NSW has thrown its hat into the ring with a restrained and yet compelling exhibition of Australian war art entitled, Mad through the darkness: Australian artists and the Great War. On display are works from the Gallery's collection featuring artists such as Will Dyson, George Lambert, Arthur Streeton, Sidney Nolan, Roy de Maistre, and the little-known (although she should be) Evelyn Chapman who was 'the first female Australian artist to visit Europe's First World War battlefields.' Curator, Andrew Yip, conceded that the Art Gallery does not have a great history of commemorating war. In fact, many of the Dyson prints have not been on public display since 1942!
To coincide with this exhibition, the Art Gallery of NSW assembled a group of Australian and Turkish academics for the Gallipoli Gelibolu Symposium with the aim to 'explore the impact of that event on Australian and Turkish art, architecture and material culture and to critically assess the role of visual culture in mediating the conflict's significance within both polities.' It was my very great honour to attend this significant, innovative and inspiring event at the AGNSW on Friday 22 May 2015 at which nine knowledgeable and passionate speakers presented their fascinating and stimulating papers. I would be happy to share the notes I collated from the symposium with anyone interested. But in brief the speakers were as follows:
- Andrew Yip (Art Gallery of NSW and the University of NSW) defined 'Anzac' as the avatar of Australian national identity for the past one hundred years and 'Gallipoli' as the point of departure for Australia's contribution to warfare. He examined the recent efforts to challenge and diversify the masculine record of war and queried whether these were corrections or re-enfranchisements. Yip then looked at ways we can re-examine the representation of the Gallipoli story during this centenary period.
- Gizem Tongo (Oxford University) is a Turkish academic who looked at the histiography of the First World War from her homeland's perspective and then compared and contrasted the manner in which both Turkey and Australia have presented the story of Gallipoli through art. Australia has embraced the romantic image of the bushman/digger and so too has Turkey welcomed the brave peasant fighting for his homeland as the nationalist ideal. In both cases the Gallipoli story is intrinsically linked with the legend of the respective 'births of a nation'.
- Esra Akcan (Cornell University), also from Turkey, spoke of the significance of memorials in society and questioned whether they are complicit with war memories or counter-memories and the constant return to the themes of perpetual war and perpetual peace. Akcan identified the shift from triumphalist to apologetic memorials following the genocide of Jews during World War II and the return to the triumphal in the wake of 9/11 (see Libeskind's 'Freedom Tower' in New York).
Australian artillery in action, Gallipoli, A.A. Evans - Helen Ennis (Australian National University) and Shaune Lakin (National Gallery of Australia) each presented papers on the importance of photography during the First World War. Ennis looked at the development of both aerial and snapshot photography during this period, whilst Lakin examined the mythological and allegorical connotations of A.A. Evans's famous photograph of the Australian artillery in action at Gallipoli and its role in immortalising the idea of the digger as the image of physical perfection and ingenuity.
- Ryan Johnson (Australian War Memorial) and Anne Brennan (Australian National University) examined the changing interpretations and functions of specific items within the collections at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. With Wallace Anderson's sculpture, 'Evacuation' as his subject (and one which received a strong critical response in both the Turkish and Australian media recently) Johnson queried how a collection can translate from the material to the online once removed from its physical context. Brennan reflected on the removal from the upgraded First World War Galleries of the large relief maps of the Gallipoli Peninsula and how this may affect our understanding of the terrain.
Rayner Hoff's Sacrifice, Anzac Memorial. Author's image. - Brad Manera (Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney) stated that Australian war art, notably Lambert's paintings of the landing and the Battle of the Nek, have informed our historic views of Gallipoli. How will the custodians of the Anzac Memorial inform future generations' understanding of the Australian wartime experience? Manera believes in making connections through the personal stories, documents and ephemera of individual soldiers. Without doubt the highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to hold a small card written by Lance Corporal Jack Harris to his mother, sending her love and best wishes. It was immensely painful to try to imagine the grief she would have felt when she received it. The card was found on the body of her son after he was killed in the Battle of Lone Pine. He was just 15 years old.
- The final speaker of the day was Steve Miller (Art Gallery of NSW) who enlightened us on the life and work of Ballarat-born sculptress, Dora Ohlfsen, who created one of the first iconographic works to commemorate the Anzacs.
As well as awarding a stage for these excellent speakers, the Gallipoli Gelibolu Symposium created the opportunity for audience members to engage with and question those presenting papers. This resulted in a lively, constructive and thought-provoking discussion - which carried on during the lunch which was provided! Being seated between the head of art at the Australian War Memorial and the senior historian of the Anzac Memorial was somewhat intimidating (I was internally telling myself to not say anything silly) but was ultimately great fun and a truly rewarding experience.
After lunch we were treated to a tour of the archival room with Steve Miller who had brought out several documents and artworks not included in the main exhibition for us to examine at close hand. Many of these items can be seen through the online exhibition, Hidden War. Later, Andrew Yip led us on an enthusiastic, joyful and candid piece-by-piece exploration of Mad through the darkness which he had obviously enjoyed curating.
The Gallipoli Gelibolu Symposium was one of those very special events I'm sure I will remember and draw from in the years to come. It highlighted the importance of discussion, consideration, collaboration and the need to continually endeavour to re-evaluate and look at things from a fresh perspective. Just brilliant.
ANZAC
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architecture
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art
,
Art Gallery of NSW
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centenary
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commemoration
,
First World War
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Gallipoli
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history
,
identity
,
memorials
,
symposium
,
Turkey
,
war
Makerspaces
Last week, Dasha, Steph D, Guy and myself attended a Course called "Makers, Craftivists and NSW Public Libraries" at the State Library.
Notes are in Drive but not entirely finished:
Makers, Craftivists and NSW Public Libraries
Once again, the Makerspace Revolution is a hot topic.
In 2014 it was number 7 on ALIA's Trend Library Report, and its popularity has continued to grow.
I thought I would shed some light for those of you who are curious...
Notes are in Drive but not entirely finished:
Makers, Craftivists and NSW Public Libraries
Once again, the Makerspace Revolution is a hot topic.
In 2014 it was number 7 on ALIA's Trend Library Report, and its popularity has continued to grow.
I thought I would shed some light for those of you who are curious...
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