LISNews: Librarian News

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) announces the completion of the sixth public library Internet study. Public Libraries and the Internet 2000: Summary Findings and Data Tables was prepared by Dr. John Carlo Bertot and Dr. Charles R. McClure for NCLIS. The summary findings of the 2000 study are available Here (It\'s a PDF)

A few results:

Internet connectivity in public libraries is 95.7%, up from 83.6% reported in the 1998 study. Ninety-four point five (94.5) percent of public libraries provide public access to the Internet. Suburban libraries saw the largest increase in connectivity, reporting a 20% increase in public Internet connectivity since 1998. Public library outlets have nearly doubled the number of public access workstations since 1998. Seventy-five (75) percent of public library outlets have eight or fewer workstations as compared to four or fewer in 1998.

Today it\'s all about legal stuff in the B Buzz
Highlights. There\'s a Slashdot discussion on UCITA on
whether or not it applies to printed books, and Amazon
takes its patent battle to an appeals court. Read on.. -- Read More

The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reports that its local libraries are doing unexpectedly well -- so well, in fact, that several libraries will have to build new facilities soon. The article credits the Internet explosion and also touts libraries as a meeting place.

When the library opened in 1992, some residents questioned the need for such a facility. It would go unused, some said.

Eight years later, city officials said they have been \"astounded\" by the thousands of people who have passed through the library\'s glass doors. The library, which officials once thought would last decades, is running out of space to accommodate its many users.

\"It\'s been a surprise for the city,\" said library director Michael Bryan.

(Full disclosure: yes, the libraries mentioned are members of my employer, and boy are we proud.)

Prudence Cendoma Writes:

At the beginning of August,
I posted to several library listservs requesting data for
my research on
Spanish subject access to information. Unfortunately, I
have not been able to collect enough data from the 36
responses I received. However, the information I have
gathered so far is leading me
into some interesting territory, and I would like to
continue my research. I
thought perhaps if I posted some preliminary findings
and brief background
information it would generate more interest in my
research project.

You can read on for more
details, or go directly to the online survey at:
www
.pitt.edu/~pacst50/spansurvey2.htm -- Read More

Mary Ann Meyers has written an excellent piece on
childrens privacy.

\"Last Thursday I posted a response to Rory
Litwin\'s \"Editor\'s Note\" in
the current issue of *Library Juice*.
In
writing about intellectual freedom Rory posed
questions about \"freedom
from information.\" His insights provoked a response
from me, in part,
about the question of the rights of children. In addition,
because of
recent PubLib discussions about visual sex in libraries
and about the
ALA wrestler poster, I have been thinking about the
library profession\'s
stance (if any) on the differences (if any) between
textual and
graphical information. So I was glad to see this posting
about PamForce\'s article on
*LISNews*.\"

She goes on to share her ideas on
children\'s privacy, and responds to the original article
by Pam Force. -- Read More

Tim Wojcik who manages the
librarians\' section of
About.com has
posted his recent interview with Janet
Swan Hill and GraceAnne DeCandido about the Core
Values task force.

\"For several years the library community has
asked itself to identify its core values. After the 1999
Congress on Professional Education recommended
that librarians core values be clarified, American Library
Association (ALA) president Sarah Long appointed a
task force to draft a core values statement for ALA
Council to review and ratify. The task force ultimately
produced five drafts of a core values statement. The fifth
draft was presented to ALA Council at the Annual
Conference in Chicago last July. It\'s a remarkable story
- this statement of core values in its journey to Chicago
and beyond. Beyond, because a statement of core
values has yet to be ratified by ALA Council. \"

Wired has a Story on Congressman Dick Armey,
and his views on filtering. Dick is in favor of filtering
software and other Net censorship measures. Bill Hart,
a retired Colorado professor, found that at least six
filtering programs blocked Armey\'s Freedom Works
site, probably because of the prolific use of the House
majority leader\'s shortened first name.

\"The
irony is that Armey is a big fan of censorware,\" said
Hart. \"I just wanted to show what a bad deal
censorware is. Not only is it wrong and ridiculous to try
to control what is seen on the Internet, censorware
doesn\'t even work properly.\"

For many years, most of the best American writers
found their way to Don Swaim\'s New York radio studio.
Listen in on these classic behind-the-scene
conversations here in RealAudio. They include:

Louis L\'Amour, playwrights Ed Bullins and Sherry
Kramer, Allen Ginsberg, Joseph Heller, Dave Smith,
Herbert Woodward Martin, and many others.

Check them out at Wired for
Books.

Here\'s a great article on the
debate between Censorship And Selection by Lester
Asheim. A very interesting read for those interested in
this area.

\"Our concern here, of course, is not with cases
where the librarian is merely carrying out an obligation
placed upon him by law. Where the decision is not his
to make, we can hardly hold him responsible for that de
cision. Thus, the library which does not stock a book
which may not be passed through customs or which is
punishable by law as pornographic, will not be
considered here. The real question of censorship
versus selection arises when the librarian, exercising
his own judgment, decides against a book which has
every legal right to representation on his shelves. In
other words, we should not have been concerned with
the librarian who refused to buy Ulysses for his library
before 1933 but we do have an interest in his re fusal
after the courts cleared it for general circulation in the
IJnited States\"

Beta test participants sought. LibraryCard.com, a
vertical Web portal, is
seeking libraries to test free software that allows the
library to make
available via the Web the library\'s holdings. The service
will be free to
the library community, enabling any library to have a
Web presence - or an
additional Web presence. All a library needs is a file of
the library\'s
MARC records. LibraryCard will provide, in consultation
with the library,
appropriate PR to alert the library\'s local community to
the service.
Interested? Call toll free to 877/595-9095 ext. 448 and
speak to Lee
Ireland or email Lee at lri@librarycard.com.
LibraryCard.com is a vertical
portal that provides a classified index to Web resources
and a large
bibliographic database free for searching. Its mission
is to support U. S.
and Canadian libraries and literacy.

Someone suggested this story.Amy Hollingsworth has written a very interesting Story at Christianity.com. She says Harry ain\'t so bad after all, and she\'s glad she read the book, after all she heard.

\"Evil is real. It exploits those who give their lives to it and then leaves them for dead (which is what happened to poor Professor Quirrell). That’s what Voldemort represents. What conquers that kind of evil is not a magic wand, but the goodness and bravery Harry is best known for. I’m not really sure why Harry Potter has been singled out. I have a hard time believing that the masses cried foul when C.S. Lewis wrote about a White Witch exploiting a young boy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or when the Queen of the Night took center stage in Mozart’s The Magic Flute or when L. Frank Baum unveiled the Wizard of Oz. Maybe they did. But if I had to answer the question, “Who’s afraid of Harry Potter?,” my guess would be: Mostly those who haven’t bothered to get to know him yet.\" -- Read More

I was most supirised by This Letter on The CBC. Maybe things are different in Canada? I can literally see it from here, and it doesn\'t look any different, eh?

\"Librarians have come to believe any fact can be found on the Internet. But, like a piece of Swiss cheese, the Internet is riddled with holes. Library budgets have been slashed and the Internet is offered as the low-cost saviour. Stories abound about finding mountains of information on any topic within minutes of logging on. However, the Internet is also clogged with dated info, misleading info, false info, and downright off the wall info. And Jeeves couldn\'t help you separate the wheat from the chafe even if you asked him. -- Read More

The Venice Public Library, in FL, has barred a 17-year-old boy for repeatedly using library computers to access pornographic Internet sites and sexually oriented chat. They gave him a few warnings, but the punk wouldn\'t listen. Police issued him a trespassing warning and the library barred him for a year.

\"\"This is a good library and a good part of the community, Fortunately, he (the teen barred from the library) is the exception, not the rule.\"
-said Mary Waddell, the head of Venice Public Library

OK. The friday updates for this week include .KIDS, wall damage, library of the future, the battle of the books, another library strike, finding the childrens book, Shhhh, cafes, Net as a study tool, etc, etc, etc. -- Read More

Mark Rosenzweig, always in the minority on ALA Council, wrote this email to the Council listserv recently, lambasting the conservative atmosphere around the filtering debate. I\'ll be frank: I think Mark is right.

Here is a short excerpt from his email:

I am seemingly (and, in my opinion, most unfortunately) in a minority when I would assert to public and press alike that the real problems of youth in America have NOTHING to do with their exposure, if such there is of any significant magnitude, to porn on the internet terminals in libraries, even the most graphic images of naked people doing whatever it is that naked people can do.Or for that matter their being glutted with the sex-and-violence decadence of Hollywood films (not to mention all \"foreign\" films!) and TV (network and otherwise).

From a psychological/developmental point of view, the stagerring HYPOCRISY about sex in this country is, in my opinion,more deleterious than all that combined. Much more destructive. But rationality and the evidentiary are thrown to the winds as irrelevant in a debate in which \"higher powers\" are being invoked left and right.

Interested? Read on... -- Read More

The Digital Freedom Network has Winners of the Foil the Filters Contest posted.

Grand Prize -- Joe J. reports being prevented from accessing his own high school’s Web site from his own high school’s library. Carroll High School adopted filtering software which blocked \"all questionable material.\" This included the word \"high.\"

Runner-Up --You wouldn\'t think someone named Hillary Anne would have censorware problems, but all attempts to register hillaryanne@hotmail.com were rejected because censorware spotted the hidden word \"aryan.\" Hillary says \"I had to email and fight the system like crazy to actually be able to use my registered nickname again.\"

Brian writes \"In a Column about the DMCA and related issues, Paul Somerson of Ziff Davis Smart Business says:
\"If Hollywood could ban public libraries, you know they would.\"

This is a very interesting piece indeed, every time I read something about the DMCA I just want to cry.

\"Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), an evil legislative bludgeon rammed through Congress by the Clinton administration, that prevents access to anything that\'s copyrighted unless you have the explicit permission of the owner. This essentially guts \"fair use\" of the material, and outlaws any attempt to break copy protection or encryption, or even reverse engineer anything.\" -- Read More

In this episode, Michelle Rafter looks at e-book advances and eMarketer projects the sales possibilities for e-books. -- Read More

The Village Voice has an interesting Story on several literary magazines that have optimistically expanded into a new arena: book publishing. The alternative presses continue to grow.

\"The literary magazine presses seem like nothing so much as a return to Epstein\'s cottage industry; in both their structure and their sense of responsibility to the writer, there is something profoundly nostalgic about these publishing projects, while their attempts to draw around them a creative community seem haunted by memories of other, now extinct New York bohemias.\"

Bob Cox pointed to this NYTimes Story on the \"loss\" of books.
This
one is worth the read, it is VERY well written.

\"For as long as many of us can remember — if
we\'re serious about reading, that is — we\'ve sat with
paper in hand, staring at symbols to which we, more
frequently than not, credit far more than mere abiding
pleasure. We owe these pages whatever ability we
have to see the world with clarity. We credit them, and
justly so, with whatever ability we have to see ourselves
with generosity and empathy. To imagine these as
gone, or truly obscure, to imagine that otherwise
intelligent, eager, inquisitive people around us might
well feel in 10 or 20 years that picking up a book is
something quaint is to imagine a postmodern hell. . . .
\"