LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

This week, Yahoo Music e-mailed customers who purchased music from their site and let them know that as of September 30, 2008, Yahoo Music will go dark.

And they will take the DRM key servers down with it.

That means that anyone who legally purchased tunes through Yahoo Music will lose the right to transfer that music to other devices or computers, even though they paid for that right.

Microsoft's MSN Music sent a similar notice out earlier this year, but acquiesced to leaving the DRM servers online until 2011.

Once again, this truly provides food for thought for libraries signing up for content services who cripple their wares with DRM. When they decide to leave, they can take their toys with them. Unfortunately, they can also take your toys with them too.

Why Newspapers Shouldn't Allow Comments: a newspaper is not a blog—not even its online version. Conversely, a blog is not a newspaper. Comments are thought to be an added value to a newspaper's site—providing another reason to read. You come for the article, and stay for the interesting discussion. The only problem is, there is no interesting discussion. Almost never. Not even from the mythical supersmart New York Times readers.

The mythical supersmart LISNews readers almost always carry on interesting discussions!

The Wall Street Journal Cheapskate recommends that readers actually go to the library! See the full story at The Wall St Journal. Also see Today's Followup: Readers do you find that sometimes the juggle prevents you from making the most budget-wise choices?

In the world of broadcast news, it's normally a given courtesy that, when a well known news personality dies, the station they worked for will be the first to break the news after the family has been notified. It's one of the unwritten rules of journalism.

In the case of beloved NBC newsman Tim Russert, Twitter scooped the massive network on the big story.

Turns out that a minor lackey at the station heard the news and, assuming it was public knowledge, edited Russert's Wikipedia page to reflect the death. Someone at the station caught it, which makes me wonder who they pay to watch Wikipedia, and changed it back some eleven minutes later.

Too late.

By the time they made the changes, the story was already out on Twitter.

Iowa Floods: Information and News
Adult Services Blog, Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque

Iowa Road Closures, Travel Advisories and Maps
Iowa 511 Traveler Information

Flood Safety
Iowa Department of Transportation

Flood-Related Disease Precautions and Information
Iowa Department of Health

Iowa State Agencies Assisting in Disaster Recovery
Iowa Governor's Office

Individual Disaster Assistance
Iowa Department of Human Services

June Severe Weather
Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management

National Weather Service
NOAA

In his New York Times column, Paul Krugman reflects on the the digitization of everything and how this will change the economics of publishing as we know it.

"Basically, the Kindle’s lightness and reflective display mean that it offers a reading experience almost comparable to that of reading a traditional book. This leaves the user free to appreciate the convenience factor: the Kindle can store the text of many books, and when you order a new book, it’s literally in your hands within a couple of minutes.

It’s a good enough package that my guess is that digital readers will soon become common, perhaps even the usual way we read books.

How will this affect the publishing business? Right now, publishers make as much from a Kindle download as they do from the sale of a physical book. But the experience of the music industry suggests that this won’t last: once digital downloads of books become standard, it will be hard for publishers to keep charging traditional prices. "

From The Enquirer in Cincinnati:

"In a case that has befuddled police officials, a Columbus man has been charged with crawling under a table at a library on University of Cincinnati’s campus, spraying a substance from a syringe on a woman’s shoes and then photographing them."

Article in Wired.com:

Ditching your gas guzzler is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, but if you really want to do something about global warming, get a used car. You'll be putting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

As Matt Power notes in this month's issue of Wired, hybrids get great gas mileage but it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius. Because there are about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom. Think of it as a carbon debt -- one you won't pay off until the Prius has turned over 46,000 miles or so.

There's an easy way to avoid that debt -- buy a used car. The debt has already been paid. But not just any used car will do.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/the-ultimate-pr.html

Three copies of the Gutenberg Bible — printed in 1455 — will be exhibited for four months at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

The Morgan's Gutenberg Bibles — two on paper and one on vellum — represent the largest number of copies in any single collection.

Full story here.

It has been a rough few weeks for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS.

Jim Lehrer said he expects to return to his nightly newscast toward the end of June after aortic valve replacement surgery.

In late April, Mr. Lehrer, who turns 74 on Monday, had aortic valve replacement surgery. He said he was recovering nicely and expects to be back on the air toward the end of June. But the nightly newscast’s funding situation could take longer to heal.

In its 25 years on the air, “NewsHour” has had fallow budget periods, but none that equal the current one, Mr. Lehrer acknowledged. The financial squeeze was precipitated last summer when Archer Daniels Midland ended its 14-year sponsorship of the program. That sponsorship provided nearly $4 million (and some years as much as $7 million) of the program’s yearly budget, which varies from $26 million to $28 million.

Full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/business/media/19newshour.html?em&ex=1211342400&en=f866e73...