Felipe Meneses of Mexico City has written a brief review of David Bade’s Responsible Librarianship: Library Policies for Unreliable Systems. It’s in Spanish, so you may or may not be able to read it without a friend to help. Thanks, Felipe!
I should have mentioned this conference when I first learned about it. Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies. It’s coming up next month at the Center for Information Policy Research at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I’m planning to be there, so if you’re there and … Read more Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies
Eric Alterman, who writes on the news media regularly in The Nation magazine, has an interesting article in the current issue of The New Yorker on the decline of the newspaper: Out of Print: the Death and Life of the American Newspaper. I thought I knew a bit about what was happening to American newspapers, … Read more Alterman on Journalism in the New Yorker
This is from today’s New York Times. Adam Liptak reports that the Treasury Department is shutting down websites that have to do with travel to Cuba, even if the websites belong to foreign travel agencies who are not offering services to U.S. citizens, but only to people in other countries who can travel to Cuba … Read more Treasury Dept.’s outrageous web censorship
Remember the National Endowment for the Arts study on reading in 2004, the one that noted a sharp decline in literary reading? One of the implicit causes was that computer use has distracted people from reading, so a natural response in the blogosphere was that the study was flawed for only looking at literary reading … Read more NEA study: all types of reading in decline
In many European countries, libraries pay a fee to copyright owners based on circulation statistics, in addition to buying the books outright. (And many European countries don’t do this.) This is called the “remuneration principle.” The new policies that come with the European Union are pressuring member states that don’t have this system to start … Read more Italian Library Association and the Public Lending Right
Restoring Order: The Ecole des Chartes and the Organization of Archives and Libraries in France, 1820-1870 Author: Lara Moore Expected: Spring 2008 Printed on acid-free paper Between 1789 and 1793, the revolutionary French state nationalized thousands of libraries and archival depositories, thus becoming the proprietor of many millions of books and documents, ranging from Montesquieu’s … Read more Restoring Order: The Ecole des Chartes and the Organization of Archives and Libraries in France, 1820-1870 (forthcoming)
From ALA’s Don Wood: Fostering Media Diversity in Libraries: Strategies and Actions (PDF) This guideline is designed to provide libraries, library consortia, and library networks with a centralized list of strategies and actions to help them fulfill one of their key responsibilities: to provide access to a diverse collection of resources and services. Special attention … Read more Media Diversity in Libraries
Elaine Harger, outgoing coordinator of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table, compiled a list of resolutions by ALA Council on the War on Terror, for distribution to congressional offices on Tuesday, which was a day of lobbying during the ALA Conference in Washington, DC. The list is online in PDF form, and also here: American … Read more American Library Association statements re: the “War on Terror”
Media critic and theorist Robert McChesney is spearheading the campaign against the postal rate hike, which has Time Warner and other major magazine publishers’ money behind it. This is from the campaign website: Postal regulators have accepted a proposal from media giant Time Warner that would stifle small and independent publishers in America. The plan … Read more Postal Rate Hike would hurt independent publishers
For several years I hosted Joel Kahn’s “Frankentoons,” a fun fair-use protest site, on Libr.org, and took it down due to a change in my hosting situation. I just received the following from Joel: Yes, the Frankentoon project is back online! http://www.geocities.com/frankentoons Some things should be noted about this current incarnation: I played no part … Read more Frankentoons back online
I am going to take another stab at outlining my views on “library and non-library issues.” Last time I did it I was sloppy in the way that I stated my views, and I surprised and disappointed some people who I think would not have been so surprised and disappointed if I had been clearer … Read more Library and non-library issues
At the ALA Midwinter in Seattle, two SRRT task forces were combined into one. The Alternatives In Print Task Force was one of SRRT’s original task forces, and has consistently advocated for the collection of materials from alternative publishers as a necessary part of living up to the Library Bill of Rights in collection development. … Read more Alternative Media Task Force
Just a link to a handy website, brought to you by Public Citizen, guiding you through all the ins and outs of one of the Bush Administration’s clearest and strongest changes to government policy: drastically increased government secrecy and public disinformation. The website is Bushsecrecy.org, and it is divided into a few simple sections: Regulatory … Read more Bushsecrecy.org
Just briefly mentioning two important things that I have neglected to follow here. 1). The 9th Circuit Court’s rejection of Brewster Kahle’s constitutional challenge to copyright laws that prevent people from using orphan works. That link is to the Cyberlaw project at Stanford and will be updated with commentary and future developments. This couirt decision … Read more 9th Circuit rejects Kahle vs. Gonzales, AAP PR
After his last address on Iraq, President Bush broke with precedent and refused to be photographed at the podium by journalists, instead distributing an official, government produced photo which he expected the media to publish. Some media outlets did publish the official photo, and some published still video captures from the address. Put it on … Read more Bush refuses to be photographed
Library Juice Concentrate Edited by Rory Litwin Preface by Kathleen de la Peña McCook Price: $25.00 ISBN-10: 0-9778617-3-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-9778617-3-6 6″ by 9″ Published: December 2006 Library Juice Concentrate is a compilation of the best of Library Juice, an e-zine published by Rory Litwin between 1998 and 2005 that dealt with foundational questions of librarianship … Read more New from LJP: Library Juice Concentrate
I’ve been tardy in blogging this… The Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service has issued a report on the EPA library closures. That link goes to a PDF of the document hosted by the Federation of American Scientists. Thanks to ALA’s Don Wood for distributing this info.
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.