LISNews: Librarian News

While LISTen continues to be on hiatus, an update is offered as to the behind-the-scenes matters in bringing the program back.

Hiatus Update For 5 August 2009 by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

When I first conceived the idea for Hyperlinked History and the whole Faceless Historian thing, I wanted it to be an online television show. At the very least I wanted to make an online documentary series with video, music, and the whole bit. So I shot a couple of test things and edited them together. Then I deleted that crap because it was terrible.

A year later, I have skills and equipment I didn't originally possess. So I'm excited to announce that Hyperlinked History will be moving into the realm of online video!

The opening of the show is available online as a sort of teaser/trailer and you'll be able to keep up with the programme both here on LISNews and on the Hyperlinked History site. Episodes should start going online around the end of August, so stay tuned!

Welcome to the finale for the first series of LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast. This episode kicks off with a look at the zeitgeist on LISNews over the past week. Profile America makes its final appearance in this series of LISTen. After that there is an interview with Jean-Baptiste Kempf, chairman of the non-profit behind the VideoLAN project. Following that is a chat with Dan Messer about "@alasecrets" and "@alasecrets2009" on Twitter. Over the course of that chat it was announced that Messer is now Interim Coordinator of the LISNews Netcast Network as of the posting of this episode.

After the first two interviews, the podcast then turns to talking to Robert Spencer. Although originally slated to speak at ALA Annual 2009 on Sunday at a panel, entitled "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping", Spencer found his invitation yanked. We spoke to him about what he was going to say and also his take on what happened with the now-cancelled panel.

The episode wraps up with a valedictory address by the presenter.

Related links:
VideoLAN Project
Post by Dan Messer about "@alasecrets"
The "@alasecrets2009" Twitter Account
Initial opposition raised to the appearance at ALA Annual 2009 by Robert Spencer
Message by a librarian supporting Robert Spencer speaking at ALA Annual 2009
The Open Letter Opposing Robert Spencer Appearing At ALA Annual 2009
Response by Robert Spencer to the Open Letter
Library Journal article on the invitation being yanked
Robert Spencer's website, Jihad Watch
The feed address to plug into your podcatcher to receive Profile America

This is a small tool I am working on:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Snatch -- Script to take a show post URL and derive PDF, PS, TXT,
# and sanitized HTML versions for deposit at Internet Archive. The script
# also downloads the related MP3 podcast file and creates an Ogg version.
#
# This script assumes that Enscript dumps its output to standard out
# instead of the default printer. Lynx and Ghostscript must also be
# installed for this to work as well as sox and aria2c.
#
# 7 July 2009 -- Stephen Michael Kellat
#
# This script is released under a BSD license variant. To review it,
# visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BSD/
#
# Usage:
#
# snatch.sh [Text URL to download] [common file name for derivative formats] [Podcast URL for download]
#

lynx -dump $1 | enscript --margins=50:50:50:50 --word-wrap -G --color --media=letter -o - | ps2pdf - $2.pdf
lynx -dump $1 | enscript --margins=50:50:50:50 --word-wrap -G --color --media=letter -o - > $2.ps
lynx -dump $1 | enscript --margins=50:50:50:50 --word-wrap -G -whtml --color --media=letter -o - > $2.html
lynx -dump $1 > $2.txt
aria2c --split=16 -o $2.mp3 $3
sox $2.mp3 -C8 $2.ogg

Inch by inch, row by row the need to archive the run so far of LISTen grows. The likely depository besides LISNews itself would be Internet Archive.

Yes, the script is a wee bit messy. It is a work in progress. While I hope I will not have to use it, I am not holding my breath either while waiting for Godot.