6/6

and a colleague related:

"A number of libraries in my social groups have reported this as well. Some were asked to repeat titles such as, 'I’d like to change my provider.' "

yuck.

5/

Document the call by noting the caller's name, the time of the call, and the nature of their request.
If the conversation feels suspicious or out of the ordinary, it's important to keep the interaction brief. Do not share specific book titles or any internal information if the request seems unusual.
Even if the call feels like a prank, document it and report the details to your supervisor

4/

We ask that you remain vigilant and take the following steps when handling suspicious calls:

If a caller asks you to repeat unusual phrases or requests information that doesn't seem related to normal library services, politely ask for their name and their relationship to the library—whether they are a student, researcher, or another type of patron.

3/

Attackers may ask you to repeat phrases for several reasons, including recording your voice for fraudulent activities like voice authentication systems or testing whether they can extract information for future attacks. These tactics can subtly build rapport, lower suspicion, and gather useful details for more advanced schemes.

2/

For example, in one case, a caller asked a staff member to repeat phrases like "improve HR analytics," "by email," and "6-12 months." When asked for more details, the caller became evasive and requested additional information such as the staff member's name, library hours, address, and phone number—typical signs of a social engineering attempt.

More bad behavior towards libaries. This from a library partner: 1/

We've recently received several suspicious calls asking for book titles and specific information to be read aloud. These requests, which do not appear to be for real book titles, raise concerns about potential social engineering. Social engineering refers to malicious attempts to manipulate people into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.

The @internetarchive’s Wayback Machine resumed in a provisional, read-only manner.

Sorry, no Save Page Now yet.

Safe to resume but might need further maintenance, in which case it will be suspended again.

Please be gentle https://web.archive.org

More as it happens.

http://Archive.org sub services coming back up when they can, safely. e.g. Email working.

Now contract crawls for National Libraries (important to keep collections whole)

Thank you for the patience. More as it happens. @internetarchive

How MIT copes without Elsevier

MIT leaders describe their experience of not renewing the largest journal contract as “overwhelmingly positive”.

“For MIT to continue to pay millions of dollars to corporations that lock up the scholarship that comes out of our own campus was just inconsistent with MIT’s history of supporting open education and research,” said Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at MIT.

...MIT Libraries estimates annual savings at more than 80%....

Unbundling Profile: MIT Libraries - SPARC

SPARC (sparcopen.org)