Forged in War

R. David Lankes is a professor and the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science. Lankes has always been interested in combining theory and practice to create active research projects that make a difference. His work has been funded by organizations such as The MacArthur Foundation, The Institute for Library and Museum Services, NASA, The U.S. Department of Education, The U.S. Department of Defense, The National Science Foundation, The U.S. State Department, and The American Library Association.Lankes is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today’s society, earning him the American Library Association’s Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship in 2016. He also seeks to understand how information approaches and technologies can be used to transform industries. In this capacity he has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation including at the National Academies. He has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, The Harvard School of Education, and was the first fellow of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. His book The Atlas of New Librarianship won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature.

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: From Alert to a Promise to the ReaderDataChapter 1 Common Carriers: From Telegraphs to Internet Kill SwitchesChapter 2 Encryption: From Zimmerman to the Monetized SelfChapter 3 Massive Scale Computing: From Depth Bombs to Deep LearningChapter 4 The Internet: From Hydrogen Bombs to 5GChapter 5 The World Wide Web: From CERN to Facial RecognitionChapter 6 Dataism: From Reducing Noise to Reducing PeopleData Waypoint: The Span of the Knowledge InfrastructureMediaChapter 7 Propaganda: From Influencing Minds to Manipulating BrainsChapter 8 Memory Organizations: From Weaponized Librarianship to a Digital Dark AgeFrom Collecting Books to Collecting IntelligenceChapter 9 Media Consolidation: From Steamboat Willie to Disney +Chapter 10 Trust: From Walter Cronkite to Saul AlinskyMedia Waypoint: The Weaponized Knowledge InfrastructureSocietyChapter 11 Certainty: From Clockwork to ComplexityChapter 12 Pandemic: From the Spanish Flu to COVID-19Chapter 13 People: From Empty Campuses to Open ArmsChapter 14 Technology: From Zoom Bombs to the Shin BetChapter 15 Sources: From Swans in Venice to Floods in New OrleansChapter 16 Policy: From a Commodity to a Public GoodChapter 17 A Choice: From Chemical Warfare to Healing the WorldSociety Waypoint: From Chemical Warfare to Healing the WorldExcursus: On the Joys of Writing and How to Check My FactsAbout the Author

With this latest book, Lankes tells the history of several high-level technologies that are popular in the 21st century. He writes that data and media were supposed to bring communities together, yet they have often does the opposite. In this wide-ranging account, the author reexamines the histories of mobile phones, the internet, data (and its collection), web standards such as HTML, and more. He sheds light on the downsides of the information world we live in now, such as data monetization, attacks on privacy, and erosion of widespread public trust in information sources. In a manner similar to previous works on the subject, Lankes clearly argues that technology, data, and information sharing have human bias and are not objective. After detailing the rise of misinformation and disinformation, as well as the history of public libraries in the 20th century, Lankes concludes his multifaceted, intelligent work with the comment that his book is itself a context-based effort. This most recent book by Lankes is ideal for readers seeking a more comprehensive look at information dissemination technology, its context, and its impact on the way in which we now live.