October 2001

Georgian Books

Lee Hadden writes: \”Georgia\’s Center for the Book will release today a list of the 25
books that every Georgian should read. These are either books by Georgian
authors, or set in Georgia. Culled for 1,500 entries and over 200 titles
(an interesting bibliography in itself!), these books are promoted in
colleges, schools and public libraries around the state. Similar programs
in other states were very successful in promoting reading, especially among
adults. Read more about it at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
\”

AAP Funnies

Jason writes: \”I was looking for something over on the AAP site, and ran across a funny in the Press Archive.

The two latest stories they have posted are titled, DMCA Essential to the Future of E-commerce AND
New Threats to Your Freedom of Speech.

Someone at the AAP missed the irony.\”

Yes, it turns out the DMCA is essential to the future, but doesn\’t threaten free speech. . The full text of Mrs. Schroeder\’s remarks can be found here, she has some interesting thoughts on fair use.

As for the threats to your freedom of speech? They include libel, invasion of privacy, confidentiality of sources and the limits of First Amendment protection.


Funny how different my ideas for freedom of speech are from corporate ideas.

A Look at Questia The Online Library

Adam Wright writes \”
This story
is very interesting about the owner of Questia.com, an online library. I believe it is worth a read because it shows how persistance can really pay off. It is also interesting because of its library angle. \”

Williams says he will survive because he has a pure online product. He has no inventory to worry about.

Union Says Free Speech Threatened on College Campuses

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is worried that academicians are being forced to quell their opinions since the 9/11 terror attacks. According to the organization, \”numerous academics across the country have had their academic freedom jeopardized since the terror attacks.\” Another group agrees with the AAUP that that academic freedom has been jeopardized, but believes that those who express patriotic sentiments are the ones being targeted. more…

Government Responses to 9/11

Lee Hadden writes : \”The OMB Watch, which helps promote accountability in government, has
listed some of the actions different federal agencies have taken after the
terrorist incidents of September 11th.
For example, many digital maps have
been pulled from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and interactive
websites maintained by the International Nuclear Safety Regulatory Center
that showed the locations of nuclear reactors have been removed.

Read more about it.
\”

The Challenges of D.I.Y. Circulation

From today\’s New York Times:

On a recent weekday evening, scores of work-weary people waited to check out materials at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public Library while, a few yards away, two self-service checkout machines stood idle.

Michael Dong of the Bronx approached one, but his attempt at do- it-yourself library clerking ended in an error message. \”Of all the times I\’ve tried it, it\’s worked once,\” said Mr. Dong of the machine as he abandoned it in exasperation.

He is not alone. For the past eight years, many libraries in the United States have invited people to step out of line and check out materials themselves. But library patrons have been less than enthusiastic about the devices, which have yet to live up to their manufacturers\’ promise of becoming the book borrower\’s version of the automated teller.

More (registration required).

Librarian as Shh-er GIF

Robert writes \”The October 24th \”Free Animated GIF of the Day\” e-mailing from the Andover Update Newsletter (http://www.osdn.com/newsletters/) is a GIF of a librarian complete with hairbun and goggle-sized glasses hovering over a booktruck and throwing a shh at some unseen patrons. For a copy, go to the Animation Factory (http://www.animationfactory.com) and search \”librarian\”. Other versions are for sale. \”

A search at animationfactory turns up a few more as well.
WEB4LIB turned up a few more interesting librarian images around the web. A Fun One from the Camden County Library, an Inspiring One from Europe, and some funny ones from the Australian Library and Information Association Here, Here, and Here, and of course the classic librarianavengers.com.


Got More??

Glasgow University fire destroys Darwin manuscript

Charles Davis writes \”A fire at Glasgow University has destroyed first edition
works of Charles Darwin.

The fire caused £8m of damage, and university officials
describe the losses of original manuscripts as \’tragic\’.

It\’s thought the fire started in roof space used for storage in the 100-year-old Bower building.

Professor John Coggins has told The Daily Telegraph
about the lost documents.
\”Some of these would have included works by Darwin but
what is more irreplaceable is the loss of original
manuscripts, \” he said.
More at
The Telegraph


\”Although we may have duplicates of these in the university\’s library, it is tragic that we have lost the originals.\”

Library Juice Manifesto

I\’ve given Library
Juice
something it should have had years ago: a manifesto.
Actually it\’s an adaptation of the statement I gave New Breed
Librarian
when they interviewed me for their inaugural
issue. It expresses what I think are a large number of
librarians motivations for being librarians and expresses
what is known as the \”library spirit\” from a certain
angle. It is titled \”The Ideology of Librarianship: A
Libertarian Socialism of Information,\” and it is inside,
here:

I\’ve given Library
Juice
something it should have had years ago: a manifesto.
Actually it\’s an adaptation of the statement I gave New Breed
Librarian
when they interviewed me for their inaugural
issue. It expresses what I think are a large number of
librarians motivations for being librarians and expresses
what is known as the \”library spirit\” from a certain
angle. It is titled \”The Ideology of Librarianship: A
Libertarian Socialism of Information,\” and it is inside,
here:The Ideology of Librarianship: A Libertarian Socialism
of Information

Libraries are special because they are at once
communitarian, libertarian,
and models for sustainability.


They are communitarian in the economic sense because they
are built on
solidarity. A community pools its resources in order to
share them.


Libraries are libertarian in the social/intellectual sense
because of the
ethic of intellectual freedom, which says that all ideas
should be included
and nothing censored.


This combination of economic communitarianism and
social/intellectual
libertarianism creates the ideal support system for a
democratic society,
because the library provides everyone with access to ideas
and provides
access to every idea.


In addition, libraries are models for sustainable systems.
By following the
\”borrow, don\’t buy\” ethic, libraries provide an
alternative to consumerism,
an alternative to environmentally unsound overproduction
and spiritually
unsound overconsumption.


And libraries excite me further because they need to be
changed. They tend
to leave out alternative or street-level materials; there
is presently a
tendency toward privatization of services and functions
(with attendant
barriers to access); libraries and library organizations
need their
decision-making processes democratized; access to local
community
information in libraries needs to be improved; in general,
libraries tend
to depart routinely from their founding principles as they
struggle for a
handhold in the environment of an increasingly neoliberal
political economy
and an increasingly reactionary social climate. We need
to advance the
Library Paradigm of information organization, preservation
and access, to
freshly propagate the idea of the library in society in
terms of its
underlying principles.


Notwithstanding their imperfections, libraries serve as a
rare example of
beautiful ideals actually functioning successfully in the
world. This
means that libraries should serve as a model for other
institutions and
endeavors. We need to spread the Library Spirit across
society and teach
it, as a model for positive change beyond the walls of
libraries and
throughout all contexts of information, communication, and
learning. This
is the Ideology of Librarianship, and we can make it grow.

The instant book that wasn’t

Salon has an Interesting look at \”9/11 8:48\”, the first book published about the terrorist attacks it was a print-on-demand book. The book is a collection of writings on the 9/11 attacks, and was the first out of the gate, but ran into more than a few problems getting sold.

\”I don\’t want this book confused with instant history,\” Rosen said. \”It\’s not an attempt to provide the first rough draft of history — it\’s not summarizing the O.J. Simpson trial a week later. It\’s voices speaking in the moment.\”