From the CBC:
University libraries say entire collections are being knocked offline by persistent streams of unruly bots trying to access their archives, which include academic, historical and government documents.
“They’re just out there on the internet, just bombarding us with trying to grab up as much material as possible,” Jill Strykowski, cataloguing and government documents lead at San Jose State University, told CBC News.
Eric Hellman, executive director of Project Gutenberg — a U.S.-based volunteer organization that digitizes and archives cultural works and distributes eBooks — wrote in a blog last year that these bots, which he characterizes as poorly programmed “monstrosities,” are “destroying open access” on the internet.
He tells CBC News that “everything’s gotten worse” since he wrote that.
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Some libraries have set up CAPTCHA challenges or other verification systems to weed out bots.
The problem is, those measures can also weed out the good bots, says Michael Weinberg, co-director of GLAM-E, a collaborative academic initiative at NYU Law School and the University of Warwick focused on open-access policies for cultural institutions.
Some libraries have also begun to require login credentials, a controversial move that those who spoke to CBC News say they want to avoid because it puts barriers on human access.
Learn More, Read the Complete Article (about 1150 words)
The post CBC Report: University Libraries are Being Swarmed by AI Bots, Putting Public Access at Risk appeared first on Library Journal infoDOCKET.
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