We’ve put up a page linking to all of the Prefaces, Forewords, Introductions, and Chapters that we have made freely available from our books here at Library Juice Press. The goal of course is to inspire people to buy our books, but these items are good reads in themselves, too. So check out our free … Read more Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Chapters online at the LJP site
We have posted the Introduction to Mark Abendroth’s Rebel Literacy: Cuba’s National Literacy Campaign and Critical Global Citizenship to the web. It’s a good read, a little lengthy for the web. Of interest to anyone who follows Cuba-related issues or radical pedagogy.
My friend Ramona Islam shared with me an interesting blog post by chemist Jean-Claude Bradley, discussing the reliability (or non-reliability) of scientific reference sources that are considered trusted within the discipline. I find it especially interesting in terms of implications for projects like Wolfram Alpha and other attempts to build automated reasoning systems around inconsistently-defined … Read more A chemist on “trusted sources”
Colonel Morris Davis was fired from his job at the Congressional Research Service for opinion pieces he wrote about the military commissions system (he is the former chief prosecutor for the Guantánamo military commissions). The ACLU is suing the Library of Congress on his behalf in this free-speech case. This is the second time recently … Read more ACLU sues Library of Congress in workplace speech case
At Litwin Books and Library Juice Press we are in need of some helpers to do book layout. We will provide instruction. Pay is negotiable, but we regard it primarily as an internship. Please contact rory at litwinbooks.com if you’re interested. Thanks!
This is an interesting tidbit coming from Vancouver, BC, site of history’s largest librarian’s strike in 2007. Library management has sent branches a list of “do’s and don’t’s” concerning the upcoming Olympics. Branches must not allow Olympic-related library events to be sponsored by sponsors other than those with official relations with VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee). … Read more Vancouver Public Library to enforce brand loyalty in sponsorships
San Francisco Public Library has added a professional social worker to the staff to manage issues relating to library users who are homeless or in poverty. They’re paying her a lot more than they pay the librarians, which is annoying. However, it looks to me like they are addressing the needs of poor people in … Read more SFPL adds a social worker to the staff
For those of you who in the Edmonton, Alberta area, I will be giving the keynote speech at the Forum for Information Professionals at the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies next month. I will be speaking in the morning on Friday, February 5th.
The Preface and Introduction to André Cossette’s Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of Librarianship are now online. The Preface is my explanation of why I chose to publish the book and what makes it valuable, and the Introduction is by the author.