May 2001

Public Libraries have until 2002

From Excite. Public libraries now have until July of 2002 to certify that they have filters. ALA and the ACLU were at the forefront.


\”Public libraries will have until July 2002 to certify that they
have adopted Internet filtering technologies required by a new federal law, under terms
of an agreement reached in U.S. district court.

The agreement came during a hearing on the twin lawsuits filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union and the American Library Association challenging portions of the
Children\’s Internet Protection Act.\”.

Read the brief story here

May 17, 2001 by American Library Association Internet Legal Issues Libraries

It’s true: They are copyrighting the law

The bad news about the copyright grab just keeps on coming. It really looks like we are losing something important, and we have to act. Here is a story in the San Diego Union Tribune about how actual laws are being copyrighted – and the copyright found to be valid in court cases, including a Federal appeals court. In other words, governments are not free to distribute the whole of the law – in some cases you have to buy it from a private party in order to read it, or your library has to buy it (as long as that is still allowed – publishers are working on that now). This is so bad you\’d think it is a hoax, but it seems to be real. Slashdot has a discussion on this article from a few days ago.

May 16, 2001 by Legal Issues Libraries

Academic Libraries a Key Target and a Tough Sell

Today\’s Chronicle has a very good Look At the dicey relationship between academic libraries and all the new for-profit cybraries.


Professors are afraid they make it too easy for students to plagiarize and the sparten collections and impending dot-doom that hovers over them leaves academic librarians uneasy about using them.

This is the best look at this topic I\’ve read to date, check it out if this area is of interest.

\”Library users, he says, like being able to look online to see what an e-book offers. But many apparently looked only long enough to decide if it was worth walking to the library to do what students and professors have traditionally done — check out a good, old-fashioned book\”

May 16, 2001 by EBooks Internet Libraries

Raising Money For Libraries

Lee Hadden writes: \”Well, I guess I didn\’t know the proper way to go about rasing money
for my library. The article in today\’s (May 16, 2001) Washington Times by
Kevin Chafee, \”Male guests stand out at Athens library benefit\” shows how
to use diplomats to raise 30K for the Gennadius Library in Athens, Greece.


\”There was a direct link between costume and cause, of course, which
Mrs. Nitze was sure to explain before guests took their seats in the
drawing room for a pre-dinner concert of Greek Sephardic music played by
Hesperus on traditional instruments. The library, which houses books,
archives and art documenting the post-antiquity Hellenic world, also
includes many treasures from the eastern Mediterranean, including Turkey.\”
\”About $30,000 was raised at the dinner (mostly from \”Americans who
love Greece,\” library president Catherine Vanderpool reported).\”

May 16, 2001 by Libraries Music

Looting the Library

TechReview has This Amazing Story by Seth Shulman on what he calls \”Looting the Library\” by publishers.


He says publishers new greedy \”pay-per-use model\” for information content that will largely shut libraries out. No kind words for Pat Schroeder who he quotes as saying that publishers have to \”learn to push back\” against libraries.

He points out Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of Rupert Murdoch\’s News Corporation is calling for legislation that \”guarantees publishers\’ control of not only the integrity of an original work, but of the extent and duration of users\’ access to that work, the availability of data about the work and restrictions on forwarding the work to others\”. You can see what that would do.

I agree with him when he says:
\”Too much is at stake to let the publishing industry undo the careful copyright balance we have all come to rely upon.\”

Where is the outrage on this that I see everyday over filters??

May 16, 2001 by Librarians Libraries

Internet access in Rwanda

Margaret writes:

\”Can Rwanda use new technology to escape poverty? Ben Hewitt looks at the challenges ahead.\” This article gives an interesting perspective on Internet access in Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world. The Government\’s plans are detailed and useful statistics are supplied. Those who are concerned with siiues souuronding the \’digital divide\’ will find it of particular interest. \”

May 16, 2001 by Internet

Information access policy

Someone writes \”
A recent article from the Bulletin of the American Society
for Information Science and Technology, \”Information
policy: from the local to the global\” is worth a read. The
article reviews information access policies at various
geopolitical levels including international, regional,
national and local. The impact of copyright, the \’global
information economy\’, the difficulties of administering
information policy, telecentres etc are all outlined. \”


Full Story

May 16, 2001 by Uncategorized

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