Very impressive piece of work by Mother Jones Magazine – a continually growing database/timeline documenting the lies that led up to the current war in Iraq. The creators of this database cast a wide net, including not only George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whose lies were gross and direct, but also Hans Blix and … Read more Lie by Lie – the Bush War Timeline
I’ve recently gotten into Wikipedia as a contributor, as Jessamyn West noted recently. She encouraged me to start editing articles during the ALA Midwinter Meeting back in January, but I didn’t start doing it until the head of reference where I work assigned me to learn about it so that I could teach the other … Read more Wikipedia and Why Librarians Make Good Wikipedia Contributors
Susan Maret has an article in the latest issue of Progressive Librarian titled Formats are a Tool for the Quest for Truth: HURIDOCS Human Rights Materials for Library and Human Rights Workers. It is an interesting overview of the well-developed documentation system for human rights abuses.
Students of media consolidation and market censorship are well aware of the importance of small, independent and alternative publishers in providing balanced viewpoints in libraries. In our practice as librarians we know that there is an array of institutional challenges to learning about, acquiring and making available literature from these hidden corners of the publishing … Read more Resources for the Alternative Press
Issue 154/155 of the SRRT Newsletter is just published. It has a report from the Midwinter meeting, a message from the Coordinator, updates on Task Force and member activities, and a feature article by Fred Stoss on the situation facing the EPA Library Network.
The Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force of ALA/SRRT has a new web page collecting resources for libraries in providing service to poor people. We could all do a better job serving poor people, couldn’t we?
The person behind the LibrarianActivist.org blog (whom I have communicated with by email but who blogs anonymously) has stopped blogging and is looking for someone to take over the project. I would say that that blog has been somewhat unique among progressive library blogs for its Canadian perspective and somewhat anarchist sensibility. (If the blogger … Read more Librarian Activist blog looking for a new blogger
Ten years ago, in the Spring of 1996, I was learning of my acceptance to library school and introducing myself to the world-expanding wonders of the internet. (I intend that sentence to be read without irony, as I can recall clearly what a revelation it was when I first browsed the web, sent and read … Read more Information Literacy versus “The Librarian’s Stamp of Approval”
I have another bloggish project that I have kept somewhat under wraps, but which friends have been encouraging me to share more widely. Since mid-June of 2005 I’ve been writing a brief review of a reference book each day, taken from my library’s reference collection. I’ve done it primarily for my own benefit, as a … Read more Reference Book Reviews