Bill Lucey runs the R&D: Research Developments (In the News) web log. News summaries, accompanied with hyperlinks on the following topics:
1.) Inauguration Web site-Library of Congress
2.) Public Record Databases
3.) Seattle Newspaper Strike
4.) Toy Safety-Consumer News
5.) Digital Reference Service
6.) Preservation of Historic Papers-British Library
7.) Gutenberg Bible
8.) “Resources Worth Noting\’\’
Andy Breeding writes \”This morning\’s NPR talk show \”The Connection\” did an hour-long segment on Digital Libraries. Speakers include Anne Wolpert, Director of MIT Libraries and Brewster Kahle, President and Founder of the Internet Archive.
Information on the show is available at: theconnection.org
A RealAudio recording of the broadcast is available at:
The Web Site \”
Jen Fritz writes:
\”Yesterday, PC World posted an Article titled \”Does Shopping Online Cheat
Your Library\”. While the only appearance of the word \”library\” occurs in
the title, the article is smattered with the concept of public services
being slashed based on the lack of revenues achieved by taxation.
\”New figures showing roaring online retail sales spell trouble ahead for
the sales tax revenues that help fund vital local services like police,
firefighters, and school teachers, advocates for U.S. state and local
governments say.\”
\”He said only five states without any sales tax are unaffected by the
explosion in Internet commerce.\”
\”Shafroth cites a study showing states would sacrifice a total $13 billion
in sales taxes by the year 2004.\”
\”\’That\’s a lot of policemen and firemen and teachers and classrooms,\’
Shafroth adds.\”
…and librarians.
USA Today had this story on the copyright wars. Reduced to its roots, we have been dealing with this for a very long time, and it may never end. How many of us have seen someone make a photocopy of an entire book, thus breaking copyright, but never say anything.
\” Internet sites want users to be able to swap songs and discuss content online the same way they share compact discs and books. But record companies and publishers say widespread dissemination of works they own would cut into the $40 billion a year music business and $7 billion in annual movie ticket sales, and would discourage artists from creating new works.\”
USA Today had this story on the copyright wars. Reduced to its roots, we have been dealing with this for a very long time, and it may never end. How many of us have seen someone make a photocopy of an entire book, thus breaking copyright, but never say anything.
\” Internet sites want users to be able to swap songs and discuss content online the same way they share compact discs and books. But record companies and publishers say widespread dissemination of works they own would cut into the $40 billion a year music business and $7 billion in annual movie ticket sales, and would discourage artists from creating new works.\”
\”What we have today is a nuclear bomb,\’\’ said Bernard Sorkin, senior counsel at Time Warner. Content owners fear \’\’the ability to distribute those works through the world at the click of a mouse.\”
\”The agencies aim to identify legislation or new rules needed to adapt copyright law, which covers duplication and distribution of creative works, to new technology.\”
\”Specifically, officials are examining whether to apply existing practices to all digital works and whether to let customers make an archival copy, said Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights.\”
For instance, when a woman buys a book, under the so-called first-sale doctrine, she can keep it, sell it, or give it away.\”
\”Advocates want similar rights to apply to a digital book sent over the Internet and fear publishers will restrict the book to one user or even a single online reading using encryption or contract.\”
\’\’The record company has no right to limit a consumer\’s resale or reuse,\’\’ said Jonathan Potter, chief executive of the Digital Media Association, which represents companies such as Real Networks, Amazon.com and Launch Media.\”
\”Potter\’s group argues that when Web sites play music, the temporary copy of the songs in the computer\’s memory buffer should not be counted as a recording. Moreover, consumers should be able to make archival copies of songs in case their hard drive crashes.\”
Here is an interesting article from IDG.net about the effect of e-commerce on tax supported entities, such as the public library and the schools.
\”New figures showing roaring online retail sales spell trouble ahead for the sales tax revenues that help fund vital local services like police, firefighters, and school teachers, advocates for U.S. state and local governments say.\”
Here is an interesting article from IDG.net about the effect of e-commerce on tax supported entities, such as the public library and the schools.
\”New figures showing roaring online retail sales spell trouble ahead for the sales tax revenues that help fund vital local services like police, firefighters, and school teachers, advocates for U.S. state and local governments say.\”
\”The U.S. Commerce Department says electronic commerce sales grew 15.3 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter to $6.373 billion, while total retail sales fell by 0.4 percent. The Internet sales figures exclude online travel, financial, and ticket sales services.\”
\”Legal loopholes and the nation\’s complicated patchwork of sales tax jurisdictions mean state and local governments find it difficult to collect taxes on so-called \”remote sales\” from catalogs and Web sites. (See \”Is Tax-Free Shopping Doomed?\”
\”During the third quarter, overall sales were actually down, so these sales were coming at the expense of mainstream vendors, and they\’re coming at the expense of important public programs,\” says Frank Shafroth, director of state and federal relations at the National Governors\’ Association.\”
\”Shafroth cites a study showing states would sacrifice a total $13 billion in sales taxes by the year 2004.\”
\”That\’s a lot of policemen and firemen and teachers and classrooms,\” Shafroth adds.\”
\”E-tailer Yahoo reports business doubled the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, from year-ago volume.\”
\”Overall online holiday sales are expected to double to $19.5 billion worldwide this year from a year ago, according to one report. Some analysts estimate that 10 million people will shop online for toys alone during the month of December.\”
\”The concern grows as each year passes and the volume of sales over the Internet increases,\” said Larry Naake, head of the National Association of Counties.\”
\”Naake said sales tax receipts made up 14 percent of his members\’ revenues. He said only five states without any sales tax are unaffected by the explosion in Internet commerce. (See \”California Makes a Taxing Proposition.\”
Feminist Thinking and Librarianship in the 1990s: Issues and Challenges is an article by Sarah Pritchard, head librarian at UC Santa Barbara. Here is something from the intro:
Have we really progressed to a post-feminist era? Who is \”we\” and what is \”progress?\” Is there a feminist analysis of librarianship, and how can the profession be sexist when it is female-dominated? Are these merely \”social issues\” that distract from proper library service? I\’d like to sketch some frameworks for thinking about these questions; I can\’t give you all the answers, but I hope we can enlarge our understanding and our willingness to work together for change.
Hope Olson, a professor at the University of Alberta, has a neat web page summarizing the History of a Female Profession. It contains internal links to numerous (of her own) summaries of important works in the area of women in librarianship. She introduces the issue as follows:
Hope Olson, a professor at the University of Alberta, has a neat web page summarizing the History of a Female Profession. It contains internal links to numerous (of her own) summaries of important works in the area of women in librarianship. She introduces the issue as follows:
Three themes mark the history of librarianship as a female-intensive profession:
Lee Hadden writes:
There are several articles of interest in the Marketplace or \”B
Section\” of today\’s Wall Street Journal (11/29/00). An article on page
B1 by Erin White is \”Election Drama Prompts and Passel of Instant Books.\”
It discusses the number of books to come out soon about the presidential
election mess, and also discusses the \”quickie books\” market that
flourished with the O.J. Simpson trial and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
A second article beginning on page B3 by Elena Cherney, \”Planned
Takeover Would Give Investors up to 50% of Canada\’s Book Trade\” discusses
Canadian takeover artists Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman and their
plans that could give them control of 30-50% of Canada\’s retail book trade
if they are successful. Their bookstore chain, Indigo Books Music and More,
have launched an unsolicited offer for Canada\’s largest bookseller,
Chapters Inc.
And finally, on page B11, an article \”Coke Plans to Donate 50 Years of
TV Spots to Library of Congress\” discusses the plan to donate 20,000 world
wide TV advertisements by the Coca-Cola Company. These ads date from over
the last fifty years. These include the famous \”Mean Joe Green\” commercial,
as well as the popular \”Hilltop\” commercial where a young chorus sings \”I\’d
Like to Buy the World a Coke…\” The ads will be catalogued, digitized and
turned over to the Library of Congress during the next three to five years.
Drink it all in at the library!
Beth Ten Have writes \”Don\’t miss
This Story at CNN \”
There seem to be two main types of stories in the major press, this is one of the good kinds.
It says that librarians, and libraries will be just fine, and people are finding them more important than ever with the internet being so overwhelming for so many folks.
One very interesting stat, 2,634 reference librarians were employed by public libraries in 1995 now the number is 4,100. It includes a little \”Library Trivia\” are that is pretty cool as well. Of the 1053 stories I have posted, this is probably the nicest.
CNET and Wired both have stories on todays mandatory hearings on the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). James G. Neal and Rodney Peterson reps for the American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries Association have a Summary of Intended Testimony posted, it is a PDF, so you\’ll need acrobat. They say the DMCA undermines libraries abilities to provide access to materials for people and the law gives too much control to publishers.
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