Interesting post in if:Book, about the new book coming out in France, Quand Google d?ɬ©fie l’Europe : plaidoyer pour un sursaut, by Jean-No?ɬ´l Jeanneney. Jeanneny, who is the director of the French National Library, is one of the most prominent critics of the Google Book project, and is worried about the project leading to an … Read more if:Book – Google and the myth of universal knowledge: a view from Europe
The school board in Miami, Florida just voted to remove a book from the school’s library – “Vamos a Cuba / A Visit to Cuba” – because they consider it ideologically incorrect. This story has been developing for a while, but today’s news is about the actual vote of the school board. One school board … Read more Ironic Dade County
I would like to turn your attention to a thoughtful post by Argentinian librarian Edgardo Civallero on Cuba and the debate surrounding the “independent library movement.” Edgardo blogs mostly in Spanish, but also in English, for our benefit. Though he is a self-identified anarchist and anti-authoritarian he’s sympathetic toward Cuba and sees that society from … Read more Argentinian library blogger on Cuba
I always loved doing that “quote for the week” and I miss it. Here’s a link to a nice collection of politically-related quotations. A lot of them relate to media and culture, but aside from that they’re rather far-afield. I am hereby giving myself, and by extension, you, my readers, permission to indulge in non-library … Read more Non-library quotations
From March 16th (yesterday) through midnight tonight (European time) there is a global electronic political action in support of French students, who are presently on strike in protest of their government’s new labor rules, which support precarious employment conditions that French students view as a threat to their futures. The strike and the demonstrations, which … Read more Web action in solidarity with French students
Two FBI agents visited a Venezuelan college professor (and US citizen) in his office at Pomona College and grilled him about his relationship to the Venezuelan community, stating suspicions of a connection between the Venzuelan community and terrorism. The professor, Miguel Tinker-Salas, is opposed to US policy in Venezuela and supports Hugo Chavez (who of … Read more FBI grill Venezuelan professor at Pomona College
I don’t read a lot of blogs or tech news, but last summer I couldn’t help noticing tons of commentary about the United Nations’ “threatened takeover of the internet,” which commentators described as though it would spell the end of freedom rather than a victory for fairness.?Ǭ† (I find it hard to imagine a rational … Read more Global governance is the internet’s hope