« January 2004 | Main | March 2004 »
Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment
Thank you Scott Rosenberg for letting us know that COPA (The Child Online Protection Act) is back to threaten us again. The Justice Department is appealing the ruling that struck it down. It will be argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 2nd. Scott will be attending the argument and the press conference afterwards, so tune in to his blog that day for more info.
Portal to Asian Internet Resources (PAIR)
Collection of more than 6,000 cataloged and annotated online resources on Asia with an emphasis on humanities and social science. The resources are professionally selected by scholars and subject specialists.
Crochet instructions and tutorials, plus a directory of links to free patterns.
Information on this battle with battle maps, information on participants, official reports, articles, and exhibits.
Information Outlook: Libraries Need Relationship Marketing
I love finding articles that change the way I see things. There were a couple of eye-openers in this article for me. One of the most basic was that marketing is more than promotion. Another was that we need to market not just what we offer now, but what we could offer with more support. This is definitely one that I will print out for and discuss with my Board.
I have been forced to turn off comments on this blog due to the large number of spam that are being entered. I have always thought that comments are one of the best parts of a blog and have enjoyed all of the legitimate comments made here. I hope that when the new version of MovableType comes out that I will be able to open comments up again.
SearchEngineWatch writes that Yahoo rolled out their new search engine yesterday. This is the engine that they hope to use to dethrone Google from the top search engine position. Time to go try it out!
AlterNet: Personal Voices: A Hysterical Librarian
A must read! Get excited about librarianship all over again as you read this article. Kim Antieau's reasons for excitement are the same as mine: "the subversive nature of public libraries."
I also appreciate her pointing out that in the Library Bill of Rights says that ""libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas." This is something we need to trumpet to those librarians who would say that we need to work along with the Patriot Act and not make too many waves because we could become a target. I have sat through several meetings in the last year where the "expert" said exactly that. Where is the subversive nature, the guts, the honor in that? Librarianship may look like a slow, quiet job from those looking in, but if you do it right it can be one of the most fulfilling and exciting jobs out there. It's sad that many librarians just don't feel that excitement.
Coverage of the upcoming Wisconsin Democratic Primary on February 17th. The site is provided by Wisconsin Public Television, University of Wisconsin Extension, and Wisconsin Public Radio. It offers information on the candidates, TV and radio coverage, newsstand, voter registration, and educational materials
Censor 'Scooby-Doo'? Words fail
The U.S. Department of Education has declared 200 TV shows not worthy of closed captioning. This has all been done with no public input.
"The Department of Education is refusing to reveal the names of the panel members whose opinions determined the caption grants and also won't disclose the new guidelines. By every appearance, the government has changed its definition of what constitutes a caption-worthy program. But it's keeping the new rules secret.
"They apparently used a panel of five individuals and then made the censorship decisions based on the individuals' recommendations," Mr. Brick says. "We have found the identity of one of the panelists. This individual tells us that he never knew he was on such a panel and that his views would be used for censorship. No panel was convened. The five panelists were contacted individually and separately.""
Now I agree that Scooby Doo and some of the other shows mentioned in the article lacks educational value, but it is still censorship to deny it to people hard of hearing. I also detest the fact that all of this was done in secret so that no one could react to it until it was too late.
The Village Voice: The Abandoned Librarians by Nat Hentoff
This article concisely explains the plight of the Cuban librarians who have been jailed because they provided Cubans with banned documents like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sadly, it also tells of Karen Schneider's gutsy effort to get an amendment added to the final report on the proceedings of the mid-winter ALA meeting. She proposed that the ALA join with other human rights organizations in calling for the release of the imprisoned librarians. Makes sense right?
Not for the leadership of the ALA. They overwhelmingly refused to add the amendment.
One of the philosophies that drew me to librarianship was their emphasis on human rights and the basic right of the freedom to read. That must not have been a factor in why ALA leadership became librarians. What a sad day for librarians everywhere.
This site offers the latest recalls as well as past recalls listed by category. You can also opt to get recall and safety alerts by email. This is a site that most reference desks should find useful for people asking about safety of items like car seats and toys.
Ebert and Roeper Top Ten Lists
The top ten movie lists for the years 2000-2003. Definitely a list to look at for ideas of what to add to a video and DVD collection, and for which ones to take home and watch!
A lengthy piece on the potential ways in which CIPA oversteps when being applied.
From the abstract:
"When the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the ruling was limited to issues of whether the statute, as written, was an unconstitutional limitation of freedom of speech. In holding that the wording of the law did not present an unconstitutional limitation on the exercise of free speech, the Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of the application of the law. Two of the Justices who concurred that CIPA was legal on its face, in fact, suggested the possibility of future legal challenges to CIPA as it is applied in public libraries. This paper discusses potential problems related to the implementation of CIPA that could affect the exercise of free speech in public libraries. It also suggests possible legal challenges to the application of the law that could be made using established First Amendment jurisprudence. The legal issues that might be used to challenge the Court’s decision include least restrictive alternative, vagueness, overbreadth, request policies, prior restraints, public forum, and limitations on political speech. The discussion of each legal issue offers an approach that could be taken in formulating and raising a legal challenge to the application of CIPA."
Even if you don't have time to read the entire article, scroll partway down to the table in the article to quickly see the legal challenges, the legal basis of the challenge and the approach to the challenge.
Book Lovers' Mailing Lists: A Selection of Literary Email lists
A huge list of email lists for book lovers! Very cool, but not a place to browse if you are trying to limit your number of emails.
Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories
Another wonderful online collection from The Library of Congress American Memory site. This collection offers the opportunity to hear former slaves describe their lives.
FindSounds - Search the Web for Sounds
Search engine just for sound files. You can limit the search by file format (AIFF, AU and WAVE), mono or stereo, resolution, sample rate and file size.
Amazing how I can miss the largest sites on the Net for something. Here are the top two phone books sites online. I have been using the third most popular one, listed below the other two.
This is definitely something that librarians should be aware of. We are gatekeepers to information that the public has a right to know. We need to cheerfully hand over minutes of meetings, lists of board members, and then invite those asking to come in and chat about any concerns they have.
I have faced things like this in the past and handled them positively. It does remind me that I need to get the last few months worth of library board minutes into their binder. Unfortunately, it is one of those little duties that I continually procrastinate about.
IT Manager's Journal | Why the future of search may be open source
"With Google rumored to be on the eve of a $4 billion IPO, Web search technology is attracting a lot of attention from technologists and business people alike. Doug Cutting, president of open source search software project Nutch.org thinks he has the next big thing in search: open source."
"Such an engine would allow users to see if there was bias in commercial search engines by comparing results against a known and open standard. Searches that favored paid advertisers, or political influence would show up easily. "Clean" search engines would benefit from such a service, in Cutting's opinion. A January 2003 Wired article cited Harvard research that showed Google had begun self-censoring content deemed inflammatory by a number of governments. Google declined to comment on the Wired allegations.
Nutch, like Linux, would essentially be a clone of "the other guys" but would be open, and would hopefully offer the same incremental improvement seen in projects like Apache."
Louvre Museum Official Website
History of the museum as well as selected works from the collection.
Visitors guide and information as well as the ability to explore collections and exhibitions online.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The site for this museum offers sections on history, the museum, education, research, remembrance and conscience.
News, community, jobs, education, career management, student nurses, and international nursing.
Site for nurses with sections on journal articles, continuing education, clinical resources, jobs and careers, community, and conferences.
Nursing news, online discussions and a large collection of nursing websites.