Many Library Juice readers who are familiar with Sanford Berman’s work on LC subject heading reform have read or heard the name Barbara Tillett. Barbara Tillett has for many years been the chief of the Library of Congress Cataloging Policy and Support Office, and thus has figured into Berman’s career-long crusade to reform LC’s subject … Read more Interview with Barbara Tillett
RESOLVED, that the Progressive Librarians Guild support sister and fellow librarians in Indianapolis, Indiana in gaining union representation. Below is PLG’s position and letter of support: Progressive Librarians Guild Rider University Library 2083 Lawrenceville Rd. Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 August 8, 2006 Library Board Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library P.O. Box 211 Indianapolis, IN 46206-0211 Dear Indianapolis-Marion … Read more PLG supports Indianapolis librarians
The Committee on House Administration is taking up some of the controversial questions related to proposed changes in cataloging practice at the Library of Congress, and ALA has submitted testimony criticizing LC for announcing some of these changes without sufficient discussion with the library community. (Admittedly, the Calhoun report was merely a presentation of an … Read more ALA Congressional testimony against LC proposed changes
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication passed a resolution against the Bush Administration’s anti-press policies yesterday in San Francisco, at it’s annual conference. The resolution says, “The relationship between the presidency and press has always been uneasy. This tension is both unavoidable and generally salutary: When each side conducts its duties with … Read more AEJMC anti-Bush resolution
The University of Alberta’s Express News today features an article titled “Librarians are freedom fighters, says author,” about professor Toni Samek and her recent advocacy of school librarianship in Alberta. Samek has written extensively on librarians as activists for intellectual freedom and human rights. Dr. Samek has a book coming out soon on Chandos Press … Read more Dr. Toni Samek profiled in U. of Alberta article about teacher-librarian crisis
Urgent message from the ALA Washington Office: On Wednesday, July 28, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the amended H.R. 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), by a vote of 410-15. We believe the legislation will now go to the Senate, which may or may not have time to vote on this before their … Read more Contact your Senators about DOPA
The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) would deny E-Rate funds to libraries that do not block whatever social networking sites and chat services the FCC puts on a “bad” list. DOPA has just been passed by the house and is now in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. At ALA Annual in New … Read more DOPA Resolution
Prior to Wednesday, the muqata’a was a large government building in Nablus, Palestine, originally built by the British in the 1920s and used until this week for civil government functions. It contained the archives of civil documents of the region, containing “hundreds of thousands of file cases and documents — birth and death certificates, identification … Read more Israel targets Nablus administrative records for destruction
The International Committee of the Blue Shield has released a statement on threatened cultural property in the Middle East conflict. The statement simply states the group’s concern about the conflict and the threat it poses to cultural property (artifacts, documents, art), and calls upon governments to ratify the The Hague Convention for the Protection of … Read more International Committee of the Blue Shield statement on threatened cultural property in the Middle East conflict
The Library of Congress Professional Guild (AFSCME 2910) recently published a paper by LC librarian Thomas Mann entitled, “What’s going on at the Library of Congress?” (PDF) The paper addresses a number of controversial decisions and statments from LC in recent months and years, including The Calhoun Report, the decision to stop producing Series Authority … Read more What’s going on at the Library of Congress? (Thomas Mann)
A new FAIR Action Alert reports that FEMA security guards are blocking journalists from talking to Katrina victims in FEMA trailer parks. FAIR cites the original story from the Baton Rouge Advocate. The report says that FEMA guards told reporters that Katrina victims are “not allowed” to talk to the media, that they “do not … Read more Katrina victims muzzled
I found this on the Librarian 2 blog: New Orleans Public Library has set up a wish list through the online book vendor Alibris, to help channel people’s desire to help them rebuild in more productive ways than sending them all kinds of random, falling-apart, donated books that NOPL has no need for anyway. NOPL … Read more New Orleans Public Library Wish List at Alibris
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
It has seemed to me for quite some time that discussions about the American Library Association in the blogosphere and in the popular press often distort the nature of the association by focusing on one or two small activities as though they represent a major priority or budget item. I am part of the group … Read more What ALA is doing
Hymne ?ɬ† l’?ɬ©galit?ɬ© par Marie-Joseph CH?É‚Ä?NIER (1764-1811) ?É‚Ä?galit?ɬ© douce et touchante, Sur qui reposent nos destins, C’est aujourd’hui que l’on te chante, Parmi les jeux et les festins. Ce jour est saint pour la patrie ; Il est fameux par tes bienfaits C’est le jour o?ɬ? ta voix ch?ɬ©rie Vint rapprocher tous les Fran?ɬßais Tu … Read more Hymne ?ɬ† l’?ɬ©galit?ɬ©
The Dade County, FL, school board’s attempt to ban Vamos a Cuba, the children’s book that local Cuban expatriats complain paints too rosy a picture of life in the socialist country (blogged here on June 14th), is presently being held up as a result of the ACLU’s legal challenge. At the time of the ALA … Read more Vamos a Cuba update
In a blog post on if:Book titled the myth of universal knowledge 2: hyper-nodes and one-way flows, Ben Vershbow reports on a set of interesting discussions about international information flows, specifically the dominance of Western cultural products (including print and digital texts) in international markets, and what it means.
This month is the 40th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, which sets up the process by which the public can get access to unpublished government information. The National Security Archive at George Washington University has a page about the history of the FOIA since its signing by President Johnson in 1966. Also of … Read more 40th Anniversary of FOIA
Libraries in the UK have been in a state of crisis for the last decade or more far beyond the degree of troubles we’ve seen in the U.S. Library use is way down and so are budgets, and the cutbacks in hours and the closures of branches have been much worse than here. Part of … Read more The “Love Libraries” campaign (UK)
Washington State recently passed a law against internet gambling that contains a provision banning speech that “aids and abets” the gambling industry it defines as illegal. As it is explained in detail on this page, two major gaming industry magazines have cancelled their Washington State subscriptions, considering themselves banned by that law. This story did … Read more Censorship via Washington State Anti-Gambling Law