Bernie Sloan has put together E-resource Pricing Models and Consortial Issues A Bibliography he put together for a presentation to a reference class at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
These items were intended to provide an overview of issues dealing with e-resource negotiations (both terms and conditions, and pricing), as well as issues centering on consortial brokering of e-resources.
October 2001
Filter Plan Leaks Like a Sieve
Wired Says that new filter thing touted by Microsoft, AOL Time Warner and Yahoo as a way to protect children may be far less useful than its backers have claimed.
Check Out what they (the big 3) said at the big announcement. Wired Says a closer look at the company\’s media properties illustrates the perils of trying to glue the Internet Content Rating Association\’s [ICA]tags on all of the domains owned by a corporate organism as complex as AOL Time Warner. They provide and interesting example:
AOL.com\’s bland homepage is rated as innocuous, reasonably enough, but HBO.com — which uses the meta tag \”g-string divas\” in its Web page description and touts the racy Sex and the City series — lacks any ICRA tags. WarnerBros.com highlights violent horror movies that children are barred from viewing in theaters, but has zero ICRA ratings that could ward off wayward youths.\”
Tech Heavyweights Condemn SSSCA
The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act\’s prospects just got a bit dimmer:
After weeks of conference calls and quiet rallying of the troops, technology companies including Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Compaq Computer held a coming-out press conference Monday to oppose a broad copyright protection proposal being backed by Walt Disney and Sen. Ernest Hollings.
The plan has yet to be introduced as a bill, but it has been the source of intense debate since August, when drafts first began reaching the public. The technology companies\’ event appeared to be aimed at pre-empting a Senate hearing on the issue scheduled for later this week.
\”This legislation would be an unwarranted intrusion by the government into the commercial marketplace,\” said Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project, a trade group that includes IBM, Intel, Dell Computer, Motorola and others as members. \”This would freeze technology…(and) force government to pick winners and losers.\”
The Library as Cornerstone of a National Identity
. . . in this case the new library at Addis Ababa University\’s Institute of Ethiopian Studies:
Ethiopian studies today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, faces one of its greatest challenges, and one in which we appeal for help from all readers. Since its establishment in 1963, the Institute has made itself central to the study of Ethiopia, in all areas of scholarship. Ethiopia has an age-old tradition of indigenous learning, in which its people can feel proud.
However, as far as the modern study of the country is concerned, most scholars of Ethiopia, prior to the founding of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, lived outside the country; virtually all works on Ethiopia, including scholarly periodicals, were published abroad; academic gatherings on the country were held almost exclusively in other countries, indeed continents . . .
The major problem – and challenge – for today relates to the Institute Library, which, as far as possible, collects all works produced inside or outside Ethiopia . . . The [present] building . . . was planned for State Receptions, not for the storage of millions of books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and newspapers, and is, we believe, groaning under the weight of so much scholarly material. (It groans, but it wants more).
The Society, and the Institute, is appealing to all individuals and institutions of good-will to assist in the noble endeavour of building the New Library: we appeal to Ethiopian intellectuals, and to the media, to help with creating awareness of the importance of the Library and Museum project; to the Ethiopian business community at home and abroad . . . to Ethiopian and foreign corporations and foundations; to the diplomatic community . . . and to the ordinary man, woman or child in the street.
Trinidad & Tobago National Library Named for Naipaul
From the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Herald:
Who said a prophet is not honoured in his own country, even if he has has lived away from home for nearly 40 years?
The Trinidad and Tobago Government has announced plans to name the soon-to-be-opened National Library Complex in the capital after its famous son Sir Vidia S (VS) Naipaul, who recently won the Nobel prize for literature.
The complex which is nearing completion will be named the \” Sir Vidia S Naipaul National Library Complex of Trinidad and Tobago,\” the Sunday Guardian quoted Education Minister Ganga Singh as saying. \”There is no better way to encourage our children to read, and our scholars to excel, with this icon of achievement held up before them,\” Singh said.
More via World News.
Internet archive, the world’s largest library
From the San Francisco Business Times comes this interview with Brewster Kahle, co-founder of San Francisco-based Internet Archive. The project, described as the world\’s largest library, goes live tomorrow.
\”Users will be able to type in the http://www.archive.org url into their browser and access 10 billion web pages dating back to 1996 when project leaders began their mission of preserving digerati.\”
Kahle admits, though, that the first thing people will probably search for will be their own corporate or personal web pages since \”people are always interested in themselves.\”
Freedom Forum International News Libraries
Find out more about the life of a librarian at Freedom Forum International News Library in Budapest, Hungary in this interesting article. There are other articles about Freedom Forum Libraries in other countries.
The Freedom Forum is a \”nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people\”. It\’s sad to note, then, that they will be closing all international operations at the end of 2001 and discontinuing all international programs. I don\’t know the reasons, but it seems a shame.
AOL, MSN, Yahoo Adopt Voluntary Web-Rating System
The Big-3 in Internet Land are going to allow voluntary ratings in order to give users the option to screen out objectionable content. Web site owners can submit information about their site\’s content and the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) will embed tags into the HTML code to ensure rating accuracy…that is, so long as the site owner is honest. more…
Kids Wait Two Days Before Reporting Dead Body to Library Staff
After finding a dead body in the bushes outside the front doors of a public library in Shoreline, WA, kids weren\’t sure if it was real or a hoax, so they pondered the idea for two days. After having made several trips, bringing along friends to stare at the remains, they finally reported the body to library staff. A 13-year-old boy has been arrested for the shooting death of the teenager. more… from CNN.com
Library Giving Away House
Here\’s one library that\’s giving away a house for free to the first person who can move it off their newly acquired property. more…
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