Professional Views

9 posts

ACE Education Blockchain Initiative

The recently published ACE Education Blockchain Initiative study, Connected Impact: Unlocking Education and Workforce Opportunity Through Blockchain, resonates strongly with the results of an on-going investigation at the San Jose State University School of Information that was originally funded by IMLS.[1] The results of our project provided clear directives for a continued investigation to reach the next stage of maturity by developing and piloting blockchain models that […]

The theory behind the practice

On July 16, 2018, Felipe Vera posted a short but important paper, in which he showed how Blockchain would make the leap from the financial world to the rest of the world.  My translation of two key paragraphs follows: Value transfer is already a reality and has its intrinsic foundations in the first and most well-known cryptocurrency called Bitcoin.  This technology was conceived in the year […]

Blockchain – Chock full of problems for medical data privacy by Jessica Berger, MLIS, CIPM

Readers are invited to challenge my position.  This technology is in its nascence and more is yet to come…. Blockchain undermines The Fair Information Practices Principle of Participation                   Computer based patient records have already caused millions of innocent patients’ private medical details to be breached and exploited.  These records should by right have remained offline.  Currently, I believe that it is a serious mistake for […]

Blockchain & Libraries from Carnegie Mellon – Qatar by Jason Griffey

  March 22, 2018 Blockchainblockchain, CMU-Qatar, decentralization, qatargriffey This past month I traveled to a place I wasn’t sure I’d ever visit…Doha, Qatar. I was brought to Doha for an awesome reason, to deliver the Gloriana St. Clair Distinguished Lecture in 21st Century Librarianship. The topic that I was asked to prepare remarks on was Blockchain (which I chose to broadly construe as decentralized technologies) and how it (they) might […]

Blockchain: It Landed in My Library and It Could be Coming to Yours! by Megan Wong

I first learned that our community was interested in blockchain technology when the “Peninsula Digital Currency, Bitcoin, and Blockchain Meetup” – which regularly meets in our study rooms –  could no longer fit in the room, having unexpectedly overflowed with eager participants. Sensing a possible program idea, I reached out to the group’s leader, Aaron Wu (an attorney and digital assets entrepreneur) and asked if he’d […]

Blockchain and libraries at IFLA

This is definitely a topic of interest with the international library community. Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (trends.ifla.org/node/428; trends.ifla.org/node/429) have been identified and reported on as emerging issues in the IFLA Trend Report 2016. The IFLA Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters has also prepared a “Books in Blockchain” briefing on the topic in 2016 (goo.gl/nximQX).    The Manager, Policy and Advocacy at IFLA and I […]

Public Libraries and Blockchain by M Ryan Hess

Public Libraries and Blockchain by M Ryan Hess, Library Services Manager – Digital Initiatives, Palo Alto City Library There are some tantalizing possibilities for public libraries with regard to blockchain technologies. One promising technology in the library context is Ethereum, a programmable blockchain platform. Unlike other blockchain technologies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum was designed for multiple use-cases. At Ethereum’s heart, is the blockchain, which allows automated, […]

Law and the Blockchain by Debbie Ginsberg

Law and the Blockchain By Debbie Ginsberg Educational Technology Librarian, Chicago-Kent College of Law The blockchain explosion is affecting many sectors, not least of which is the law.  Already, this technology is affecting not only the practice of law, but the law itself. Practice of Law One of the major legal practices affected by blockchain is contracts.  Programmable blockchains are capable of creating “smart contracts” – […]

Blockchain in Law Libraries – Down the Road and Now by Dan Blackaby

I’ve worked in law libraries for the past twelve years, doing pretty much everything. I’ve been a corporate librarian, a map librarian, cataloger, an acquisitions librarian, a reference librarian, and now I’m Technology Services Librarian at Cornell Law Library. This week, along with Debbie Ginsberg of Chicago-Kent, I’m giving a webinar to the American Association of Law Libraries on Blockchain, and what it will mean for […]