Free Free Culture
Lawrence Lessig, who has written previous books on the destruction of the public domain of ideas, offers his new book, FREE CULTURE, free via the Internet. It is available in a variety of formats including pdf.
Via 30 Hours.
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Lawrence Lessig, who has written previous books on the destruction of the public domain of ideas, offers his new book, FREE CULTURE, free via the Internet. It is available in a variety of formats including pdf.
Via 30 Hours.
Extensive site on mathematics including algebra, applied mathematics, calculus, discrete mathematics, geometry, number theory, probability, and topology. The site also offers math news, animations, and 3D graphics.
Searchable directory of sites with sections on science, health and technology, arts and humanities, society and social science, and recreation and entertainment.
Wisconsin Office of the Governor - Governor Doyle�s Trade Mission to China
Governor Doyle has a travel blog following the daily events of his Mission to China that runs through March 31st.
The nominees for the James Beard Award for best cookbook of the year have been announced.
LISNews.com | ACLU alert on new Ashcroft plan
"Not satisfied with the new snooping powers granted by the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Justice is now asking the Federal communications Commission to allow law enforcement the power to regulate the design of Internet communications services to make them easy to wiretap.
If implemented, the new request by Attorney General John Ashcroft would dramatically increase the government's surveillance powers and set a precedent for opening the entire Internet to law enforcement. By forcing technology companies to build "backdoors" in their systems for wiretapping, the Ashcroft plan would also create weaknesses that hackers and thieves could use to invade your privacy and steal personal information like credit card numbers."
Via LISNews.com.
SouthBendTribune.com: Jelinek tries to upgrade libraries to Patriot Act
A Michigan state senator has introduced a bill to require public libraries in the state to maintain lists of patrons who use the Internet at the library, including name, address and time logged on.
Handouts from this year's PLA conference are now available online! Way cool!
Via ResourceShelf.
Yahoo! Maps and Driving Directions
Yahoo has just launched a new map service on its site. It offers the ability to choose to see food and dining, recreation, community services, shopping, travel and transportation, and banks and ATMs right on the map. Very nice for travel.
Selected by the audio editors of Publishers Weekly, the list of winners represent the finest audiobooks of the year. Awards are given in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, mystery, male and female narration, author reading, biography, religion and documentary.
Lesson plans and selected websites for the science teacher from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics presents this site covering preschool through high school. The site offers lesson plans, web sites and interactive math tools.
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers this site with lesson plans and websites for teachers in the areas of art and culture, literature and language arts, foreign language, and history and social studies.
This site from the National Council of Economic Education offers information on curriculum for economics classes and economic principles.
Marylaine's latest column should not be missed. She says that the role of information place should not be held onto if it is not working for public libraries. Instead, we should be looking for roles that are being overlooked in the community as well as roles that we already do, but do not promote. This is certainly well timed, since I am once again doing long range planning with my Board.
Library Journal - PLA Report: First-year Blues
A short piece on how first-year librarians are finding it very tough.
I remember those days vividly. I was a brand new librarian who moved to a completely different part of the country for a job, and I arrived there full of ideas and a vision of library service. Little did I know that I was going to be in a library where all professionals left in under five years. Eventually, I left too. I was not being listened to, not being respected, not being accepted.
But as we all know, we learn from those situations to choose our next position more carefully. We learn what questions to ask in interviews, how to see libraries where professionals are embraced and supported. Where ideas can be tried and where failure is an accepted part of taking risks.
Even better, we learn how to manage libraries and people from those who were unable or unwilling to do it properly.
So my solution is not to be angry about the lack of education in the nuts and bolts of libraries. Instead, take the visions, the ideals, the soul of libraries that you are taught in graduate school and create your own marvelous service dynamic, and know that no matter where you work, you will have that education to lean on. Graduate school certainly does not by default make you into a good librarian, but it does give you a head start in understanding the underlying philosophies and values. I promise you, it will serve you well, if you let it.
Canton woman wins Web free speech case
A victory for free speech! After setting up a site warning others about problems she had with a local nursery, Michelle Grosse was sued for violating the company's rights. She won, meaning that all of us have retained the right to put up websites critical of businesses. Critics of the judgement say that it weakens corporate rights of trademark and names.
Via Blogcritics.org.
Information on drugs that have been approved and tentatively approved, the database includes both prescription and over-the-counter drugs, plus discontinued drugs.
Information on classic novels, including character list, major themes, essay questions, summaries, analysis, related links, and a quiz.
1700 guides to both current and classic shows with sections on shows in development, reviews, ratings for last night's shows, and what is new tonight.
This is a very cool idea. Instead of throwing away unwanted items, post about them on a list of people in your community and see if someone wants them. I live in a tiny town of 1000 people in Wisconsin, and there is at least one community nearby doing this.
The main Freecycle page lists the Freecycle groups by community. When you click on that link, you get an email mailing list on Yahoo that you can subscribe to and join in the free trading.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics - More and better math for all students.
This site offers information for teachers at different levels from elementary school through high school.
USATODAY.com - Library officials grilled on plan to put trackers in books
San Francisco public library had a forum last night focusing on their plans to use RFID chips in their materials. Both the ACLU and the EFF spoke on the potential dangers to personal privacy if RFID is used.
Yahoo! News - Race for Texas Governor Gets Kinky
Bestselling author Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas in 2006 as an independent.
"I want to fight the wussification of the state of Texas. I want to rise and shine and bring back the glory of Texas," Friedman said. "I am a writer of fiction who tells the truth."
"Friedman, whose first name is Richard but is known by Kinky and a few other names that are not publishable, does not have a campaign platform -- mostly out of fear there may be a trapdoor somewhere underneath that will spring open and leave him swinging."
A handy site for information on the Patriot Act and how it affects businesses, booksellers, librarians, writers, religious groups and schools. It has an easy way for people to contact their members of Congress using a web form.
Library Journal - Rural Internet Gap Persists
This is important for those of us serving rural populations. I understand first hand that people are not using the Internet at the same rate, since we get novice users on a daily basis. Rural people are very worried about being scammed online or about getting their credit card data stolen. I am regularly asked if it is safe to use Amazon and when I assure them that it is, they often don't believe me. Thank goodness for other sites that allow people to phone in to purchase books. All of these factors make public libraries in rural areas vital resources for people to learn about the Internet and access it.
AskJeeves denounces paid inclusion | CNET News.com
There is an interesting debate beginning about paid inclusion of advertisers in search engine databases. AskJeeves is marking themselves as different from Yahoo and Google, by ending their acceptance of advertiser dollars. As a searcher, I find that very appealing and could see it definitely affecting the choice I make when selecting a search engine.
This site has two sections. One, the Presidency in History, offers information on all of the presidents. The second, the Presidency in Action, shows the duties and responsibilities of the president.
"KidsHealth is the largest and most visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, the award-winning KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date, and jargon-free health information they can use."
Yahoo! News - Study: Blogging Still Infrequent
"The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a study released Sunday, found that somewhere between 2 percent and 7 percent of adult Internet users in the United States actually keep their own blogs.
Of those, only about 10 percent update them daily, the majority doing so only once a week or less often."
I have seen this article mentioned on several blogs. I don't think that those not involved in the blogging community understand the power of direct communication with others that this medium allows. They also in most cases don't see how visible they can be within their specific community by having an active blog.
I try to do my part to inspire others to blog. I gave a speech last year about blogging and have been asked to do a second one in May. I hope to use some of the new tools like Bloglines to inspire people to at least start reading blogs, if not starting their own.
FDA information on cardiovascular disease with sections on various diseases and conditions, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, and healthy lifestyles.