February 2000

Maybe 13 is too young

Not everyone is happy about the video rental policy in MA, Story Here.

An Easthampton woman whose 13-year-old son recently came home from the library with several R-rated videos is mounting a campaign to give parents a say in what their children can check out from the library\’s collection.

Bennett, however, was not so happy. She and \”quite a few\” supporters plan to petition the library\’s executive board at its monthly meeting March 13 to set up a card system for library patrons under the age of 17 that will allow parents to indicate whether their children should be allowed to check out R-rated videos.


\”I\’m not (trying to) take away anybody\’s freedom,\” Bennett said yesterday, stressing that it should be up to parents to decide for their own children under age 17 whether they should have access to films that the movie industry has deemed suitable only for those aged 17 and above.

battlegrounds for Internet filter fights

The Citizen Times has a story on how filtering is become as issue in NC.

At issue is whether government-funded public library systems should install Internet \”filters\” designed to stop computer users from visiting sites deemed obscene or offensive, and if so, whether such filters unconstitutionally censor material.


For some library users, such as Art Joseph of Asheville, the question has a clear-cut answer. \”You need some type of filter. You can access anything on the Internet and I don\’t think the library is the place for that.\”

The Citizen Times has a story on how filtering is become as issue in NC.

At issue is whether government-funded public library systems should install Internet \”filters\” designed to stop computer users from visiting sites deemed obscene or offensive, and if so, whether such filters unconstitutionally censor material.


For some library users, such as Art Joseph of Asheville, the question has a clear-cut answer. \”You need some type of filter. You can access anything on the Internet and I don\’t think the library is the place for that.\”

For Joseph, who moved to Asheville from Grand Rapids, Mich., 18 months ago, the library\’s computers offer him the chance to pursue his interest in automobiles. But he thinks unfettered access to sites can spell only trouble.


Young people today are so computer savvy that \”if they can punch it up on the computer, they\’ll punch it up,\” Joseph said. \”But if you\’re of a certain age, you should have some type of supervision.\”


That\’s just the type of policy the Asheville-Buncombe Library System follows. With only four Internet-ready computers at Pack Library, and one in each of its branch libraries, the system requires children 12 and under to have a parent at their side while surfing. Children 13 to 17 years old can have a parent sign a permission slip that allows them to surf unchaperoned.

Clone the library cat

Texas-based Genetic Savings and Clone last week opened its doors to pet lovers who want to store the DNA of a cherished animal companion in the hopes that one day they will be cloned.

The research effort expects to successfully clone Missy, a mongrel adopted from a dog pound, within three months to a year.

At least two dozen surrogate canine mothers have been implanted with clone embryos and the researchers are waiting to see which, if any, develop into pregnancies.

E-Pubs gaining speed

Someone suggested these 2 stories on epubs.


This one from Salon.
In three years\’ time, electronic-book devices will weigh less than a pound, run eight hours and cost as little as $99. By 2009, expect e-books to outsell the traditional paper variety in many categories, and in 2020, Webster\’s dictionary will alter the definition of \”book\” to include titles read onscreen.
In typical Microsoft style, Hill figures that if Redmond puts its weight behind the idea, it can move mountains. \”It\’s one thing for a small device-manufacturer to go to a publisher and ask them to put titles in electronic form. It\’s quite another for Microsoft to do it,\” he says.


and this one from the gomez advisors

Visitors to Borders.com can click on links to three unrelated sites, each of which offer a selection of e-books and technologies to read them. In addition to giving customers variety, the plan will also allow Borders to learn more about which technologies and formats its customers prefer.


Borders has lagged behind its competitors in using the Web to help create customer loyalty. But now bibliophiles will have direct links to Peanut Press, which offers titles that can be read on a Palm Pilot; ION Systems, which provides technology to read books on personal computers; and SoftBook Press, which offers a dedicated hand-held device for electronic reading.

SCREEN OR PAGE?

This Story from Phillynews on UPenn going digital.

Aided by a $218,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Penn\’s library has begun publishing online every new history work that Oxford University Press produces over five years, roughly 1,500 titles.
Sixty-four complete digital replicas of printed books already are available for free to members of the Penn community through the library\’s digital books Web site. Penn librarians were briefed on the project last week. Those outside Penn can sample three books from the public portion of the site, HERE.
\”For a long time I have been interested in books online and how they might impact the future of publishing,\” Barry said.
Mosher recalled: \”We were talking about the fact that the world seems to be divided into people who believe that in 10 years all books will be digital, and people who say, \’Never during our lifetimes will that happen! Who wants to read a bloody digital book?\’
\”What we thought was that there was too much emotion and not enough empirical evidence about the behavior of people reading [digital] books.\”

This Story from Phillynews on UPenn going digital.

Aided by a $218,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Penn\’s library has begun publishing online every new history work that Oxford University Press produces over five years, roughly 1,500 titles.
Sixty-four complete digital replicas of printed books already are available for free to members of the Penn community through the library\’s digital books Web site. Penn librarians were briefed on the project last week. Those outside Penn can sample three books from the public portion of the site, HERE.
\”For a long time I have been interested in books online and how they might impact the future of publishing,\” Barry said.
Mosher recalled: \”We were talking about the fact that the world seems to be divided into people who believe that in 10 years all books will be digital, and people who say, \’Never during our lifetimes will that happen! Who wants to read a bloody digital book?\’
\”What we thought was that there was too much emotion and not enough empirical evidence about the behavior of people reading [digital] books.\”He and Barry concluded that if they had a large number of digital books that were easily accessible, they could find out how faculty and students used them.

\”What is the impact of learning and teaching and research?\” Mosher wondered. \”And then, what is the impact on publishing and on book sales?\”

He said that when the National Academy Press, a scientific publisher, began experimenting with digital publishing, it found that sales of its printed versions increased by 20 percent.

\”Our hypothesis is that most people don\’t want to read long text on a backlit screen or a handheld screen,\” Mosher said. \”It just isn\’t much fun.\”

He also doubts that users will print entire digital books.
\”Nobody is going to sit and print out 300 pages and then carry it away,\” he said. \”It is cheaper and easier to buy the book.\”

He expects that scholars and students will use the hyperlink and full-text-search capabilities of digital books to find short passages for papers, and will skim digital books to find out what\’s in them. In the past, Mosher noted, if a Penn student wanted to find out whether he wanted to read a history book, he trooped to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center to look for the book. If it had not been checked out, he pulled it from the shelf and thumbed through it before deciding whether to check it out.

At the library — porno and porno seekers

This Editorial from Michigan Live provides another view from MI.

I\’m a First Amendment kind of guy and I
value the freedom of the press and
freedom of speech, but I think what is going on here
doesn\’t have anything to do with the freedom of anything
except the freedom to look at people involved in carnal
pleasures. The fact of the matter is that there is an
abundance of adults who are intrigued by pornography,
and they want to take a peek at it every so often.

This Editorial from Michigan Live provides another view from MI.

I\’m a First Amendment kind of guy and I
value the freedom of the press and
freedom of speech, but I think what is going on here
doesn\’t have anything to do with the freedom of anything
except the freedom to look at people involved in carnal
pleasures. The fact of the matter is that there is an
abundance of adults who are intrigued by pornography,
and they want to take a peek at it every so often.Of course, it is probably politically incorrect (and in
these days maybe even illegal) to generalize about
sections of the population, but I would say that most of
the porno peekers are men. It is my theory that they are
behind the anti-filter fight. The Internet provides easy
access to pornography and what\’s even better, it\’s free.
It\’s a porno paradise.

The naughty stuff on the computer does away with the
need to go into \”adult\” bookstores where they might be
seen by their minister or their friends entering or leaving.
And, of course, pornography magazines are real
expensive compared to other magazines. A good full
color porno mag can run around $20 or more. Since
they are all sealed, it\’s like buying a pig in a poke.

library restores Internet link

This Story from Hudsonville, MI.

The Gary Byker Memorial Library\’s Internet computers, which
had been unplugged since December, will fire up once again
after a city commission decision Wednesday to repeal an
Internet filter ordinance.

The city commission voted 6-1 in favor of an ordinance
submitted by about 80 Hudsonville residents asking that an
ordinance to filter all but one computer be repealed.

This Story from Hudsonville, MI.

The Gary Byker Memorial Library\’s Internet computers, which
had been unplugged since December, will fire up once again
after a city commission decision Wednesday to repeal an
Internet filter ordinance.

The city commission voted 6-1 in favor of an ordinance
submitted by about 80 Hudsonville residents asking that an
ordinance to filter all but one computer be repealed.
Wednesday\’s actions mark the latest chapter in an on-again,
off-again struggle over the use of the Internet at
Hudsonville\’s Gary Byker Memorial Library.

Last December, a group of residents — with help from the
American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss. — submitted a
petition asking that all but one of the library\’s computers
be filtered to eliminate sites they said were inappropriate
for children.

The single computer left unfiltered would have required a
sign — printed in letters at least a half-inch in size —
stating that it provides \”unrestricted access to the
Internet, including materials that are obscene.\”

Under the city charter, the city commission had the option
of either enacting the ordinance requested in the petition
or putting the question on a ballot for the city\’s voters to
decide.

City commissioners reluctantly approved the ordinance but
then immediately pulled the plug on the Internet, saying the
ordinance was likely unconstitutional because the sign over
the unfiltered computer would \”label\” users. City officials
said they feared a lawsuit

AFA may try again for filters at library

This story leads me to believe the battle is not over in MI.

The American Family Association could return with another proposal to install Internet filters at Herrick District if local officials fail to address the organization\’s concerns, members say.
\”If working with the mayor, City Council and the Library Board don\’t produce satisfactory results, it remains an option to Holland citizens to place it on the ballot again,\” Gary Glenn, the state AFA director, said Wednesday.


Glenn, who predicts a different outcome in a second vote, said enough signatures could be gathered by an Aug. 15 deadline to put the issue back before voters in November.


\”Obviously, a win would have been a greater help, but our resolve to take this to communities across the state is not deterred,\” Glenn said.

His comments did not sit well with filter foes.

This story leads me to believe the battle is not over in MI.

The American Family Association could return with another proposal to install Internet filters at Herrick District if local officials fail to address the organization\’s concerns, members say.
\”If working with the mayor, City Council and the Library Board don\’t produce satisfactory results, it remains an option to Holland citizens to place it on the ballot again,\” Gary Glenn, the state AFA director, said Wednesday.


Glenn, who predicts a different outcome in a second vote, said enough signatures could be gathered by an Aug. 15 deadline to put the issue back before voters in November.


\”Obviously, a win would have been a greater help, but our resolve to take this to communities across the state is not deterred,\” Glenn said.

His comments did not sit well with filter foes.

I certainly hope they would establish a constructive dialogue before delivering ultimatums,\” said Ann Arbor attorney Eric Grimm, a filter critic involved in Internet issues.

He paid $1,300 for a full-page ad in the Holland Sentinel.

\”I thought it was a very important bellwether vote,\” Grimm said. \”It shows exactly what the perception is of the American Family Association\’s effort nationwide to install secret censorship software in America\’s library.\”

Glenn took the loss in stride.



\”We may be saying in two weeks that while we lost the battle in Holland, just having the battle in Holland led to winning the war in the state Legislature.\”

Library System Sued for Banning Bible

A story from the Conservative news on bible trouble in GA.

A public library system in Georgia faces a lawsuit for banning the display and distribution of small paperback Bibles in designated \”free literature\” areas.

Stuart J. Roth, an attorney with the ACLJ.

\”The law is very clear about this issue: if a library permits the display and distribution of other materials, it cannot legally exclude the Bible because the material is religious in nature.\”

The complaint said library officials allow other materials to be distributed in that area, including newspapers such as The South Georgia Business Journal and religious publications including the National Jewish Voice and The Testimony of Truth.

enterprise application integration with XML and LDAP

Someone suggested this rather technical article from IEMagazine on some new uses for XML and LDAP.

The slogan for enterprise application integration (EAI) projects ought to be: “The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.”
The need for enterprise application integration is greater than ever. A lot of application integration is still done the old-fashioned way, with batch file transfers under manual control.
However, the last few years have brought several important technologies adapted for EAI: object orientation, application servers, and now lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) and extensible markup language (XML).

Someone suggested this rather technical article from IEMagazine on some new uses for XML and LDAP.

The slogan for enterprise application integration (EAI) projects ought to be: “The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.”
The need for enterprise application integration is greater than ever. A lot of application integration is still done the old-fashioned way, with batch file transfers under manual control.
However, the last few years have brought several important technologies adapted for EAI: object orientation, application servers, and now lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) and extensible markup language (XML).There’s nothing the computer industry likes to do more than tout a new technology. It’s a “latest and greatest” world. However, experience (sometimes painful) suggests that not all technologies are worthwhile. It’s tempting to wait on anything new, and let the pioneers suffer the hardships. The problem is, these days the pioneers are just as likely to annex your business. This adage may be especially true for EAI because the goal is (usually) to improve business and become more competitive.