The new issue of Information for Social Change is out. It’s issue 24, and its theme is “Libraries & Information in the World Social Forum Context. There hasn’t been much participation in the World Social Forum by U.S. librarians, including the progressives and socialists, though there has certainly been awareness and enthusiasm about the WSF … Read more New – ISC #24 – World Social Forum
Lawrence Lessig has an editorial in last month’s Wired Magazine about how money distorts the political process, with a specific tie-in to the recent legislation concerning network neutrality: A Costly Addiction.
This post is a compilation of web resources having to do with alternative literature and libraries. It replaces an out-of-date page on my personal site. By “alternative literature” I mean books, magazines, and other written media coming from any of a myriad Left perspectives (socialist, anarchist, green, feminist, queer, or specific-issue-based) and published independently of … Read more Alternative Lit and Libraries
ALA’s Don Wood has a blog that he uses as a channel for his communications on libraries and intellectual freedom. Today he has a post about the ALA Washington Office and their response to statements by the director of the FBI that they say reveals the Bureau’s continued lack of understanding of libraries and the … Read more Privacy, Libraries, ALA and FBI
This is a cute visual argument for the value of printed books. A friend at work sent it to me….
Whatever you think about Christopher Hitchens, I think you’ve got to appreciate his iconoclasm. His review of David Nasaw’s book about Andrew Carnegie gives me the slight feeling that he wishes he had written it himself, or at any rate that he appreciates it very much for the many-sided story that it tells. It is … Read more Christopher Hitchens reviews David Nasaw’s book on Andrew Carnegie
Southern Methodist University is the front runner to be the site for the Bush Presidential Library, and is favored by President Bush because of his United Methodist religious affiliation. The administration at SMU has been pushing to win the project. Faculty at SMU are starting to protest, and United Methodist leaders are also questioning the … Read more Southern Methodist University faculty uneasy about a Bush Presidential Library
The founder of Craigslist went to an internet media conference where most of the discussion was about “monetizing pageviews,” and made people scratch their heads because his super-successful website has never been about making money and he has no plans to move it in that direction. These wall street types had trouble grasping the concept … Read more Craigslist meets the capitalists
Morgan Wilson of explodedlibrary.info has a nice summary of the blog traffic and library-world discussions about the UCLA library taser incident.
PALIAct is the Progressive African Library & Information Activists Group. It has ties to CILIP (the UK library association) and the UK’s Information for Social Change, and publishes an online journal, Information Equality, Africa, the second issue of which is just out and available from the group’s website.
Library Juice Concentrate and Library Daylight are in the final phases of publication and will be available for purchase in about a month. Review copies will be available sooner to anyone who wants to review one of these books for a publication – just contact me if you’re interested: rory at libraryjuicepress.com. I thought I … Read more Library Juice Concentrate teaser
Posted with permission December 13, 2006 Dr. Norman Abrams Acting Chancellor University of California at Los Angeles University Chancellor’s Office Box 951405 2147 Murphy Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405 Dear Acting Chancellor Abrams: I was shocked, as were many of the 66,000 members of the American Library Association, to read about and watch the November 14, … Read more ALA President Leslie Burger’s letter to UCLA regarding the taser incident
The new issue of the SRRT Newsletter, which is combined issue 156/157, January 2007, is finished and now online. Paper copies will be mailed to SRRT members and other subscribers soon. Erik Estep has put together a nice issue, with articles by some new voices in SRRT. Carol Gulyas, chair of the Alternatives in Publications … Read more SRRT Newsletter 156/157
As you may have noticed throughout the EPA library closure situation, the government’s big justification for closing the libraries has been that it is a digital age, meaning that physical libraries have lost their relevance. We know that that is hardly true, but aside from that, shouldn’t this argument mean that we will see EPA … Read more Reports disappearing from EPA library website
Today is Human Rights Day. Two sites I will recommend: OHCHR Human Rights Day page Human Rights Education Association Human Rights Day page Also note Toni Samek’s upcoming book: Librarianship and Human Rights, coming out very soon on from Chandos Publishing. Also… Kathleen de la Peña McCook and Kathryn Phenix are working on a book … Read more Human Rights Day
The website of The Progressive magazine has a running feature called McCarthyism Watch, a series of brief articles about present-day attacks on freedom of expression in the United States. A galvanizing collection of information.