LISNews: Librarian News

Although it might be sought by some, it must be noted that there is no special episode of LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast to be released for New Year's Eve let alone New Year's Day. With the new year ringing in so late in the week, we do not want to cannibalize available material for the next regular episode. The next episode will be released according to the normal schedule and should be released on or near 0400 UTC on January 4th.

In the meantime, you can still listen to the most recent episode.

This week's post is not an episode but rather a service message from the eastern engineer, Gloria Kellat.

This week's podcast looks forward into the past with a replay of archival audio of President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing the US Congress after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The dateline for this episode is the 78th anniversary of the event.

Also presented in the podcast was a brief discussion of the late-breaking story of Comcast's attempt to acquire a controlling interest in NBC Universal. There was originally going to be discussion of remarks by Rupert Murdoch concerning why news online should never have been free in the first place. The Comcast-NBC matter took precedence.

Related links:
FDR's speech at Archive.org
This installment of Profile America
MSNBC reporting on the Comcast-NBC matter
Greg Sandoval at CNET discussing the Comcast-NBC matter
One Reuters story on the Comcast-NBC matter
Another Reuters story in the matter
Discussion at the Erie Looking Productions blog of the recent coverage of remarks by Rupert Murdoch
MSNBC relaying an AP report on Google's new attempt to restrict how users can reach news sites
Linux Outlaws, a show produced by Sixgun Productions

Although it may seem silly, it is perhaps worth it to note that there is a small bit of fudge in episode numbering of LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast. By any stretch we are already past one hundred released episodes. The main reason that the numbering does not reflect that is that specials normally are not included in the numbered sequence and are either given date-related titles or simply bear descriptive titles. The one time a special podcast release received episode numbers was when coverage of BlogWorldExpo 2008 was released as three separate episodes in a single week.

With luck we will hit the ninety seventh episode of LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast soon with the hundredth episode coming in December.

It has been a long run. The podcast has outlasted everybody's nervous initial expectations. How long it may run into the future is a story not yet written, though. -- Read More