December 2001

Sex Ed Book Challenged

Shaleen Culbert writes \”Patron objects to a second children\’s sex education book at Hudson Public Library in Hudson, Wisconsin. The board previous moved another book by the same author(It\’s Perfectly Normal) out of the children\’s library and into the young adult section and purchased an additional copy for the adult section. Read all about it online at the Hudson Star Observer\’s site. The board meets January 14, 2002.
This should be interesting.
\”

Harry Potter Hotter Than Ever

There\’s a CNN Story and one at ITV.com as well on the anti-Potter sermon at the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico.


Jack Brock, the Christ Community Church founder and pastor, said the books burned Sunday were \”a masterpiece of satanic deception.\”


Across the street, protesters chanting \”Stop burning books\” stretched in a line a quarter of a mile long.


CNN also points out inside the Alamogordo Public Library was a display highlighting the books.

See Also.

\”These books teach children how they can get into witchcraft and become a witch, wizard or warlock,\”

The Year in Internet Law

\”What happened in cyberlaw during the past year that was significant and enduring — or at least interesting? That\’s the question Cyber Law Journal put to several well-regarded law professors and legal practitioners.


Their answers ran the gamut from the government\’s legal response to the Sept. 11 attacks to Hollywood\’s impressive victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the DeCSS copyright case.
\”


Full Story from NY Times

Museum of Picture Book Art to Open

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art will be opening in Northampton, MA in 2002:

\”In this college town known for its young people, many of whom sport multiple body piercings and vacant stares, an elfin 72-year-old man with a Lincoln-style white beard has become a source of local pride. His name is Eric Carle and he wrote and illustrated such mega-bestsellers as \”The Very Hungry Caterpillar\” and \”The Very Quiet Cricket,\” picture books about usually unlovable creatures that overcome obstacles to find meaning in life.

Carle\’s studio is right on Main Street here. And five miles away, on the campus of Hampshire College, he is building a museum that promises not only to spread his own reputation beyond his fan base of preschoolers and their parents but also to enhance the reputation of a long-unrecognized art genre. Next fall the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a sprawling contemporary structure, will open in a former apple orchard . . .

More from the Washington Post.

Apple Library in the Works in Japan

Well, more of an apple special collection, really:

The municipal library in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, a city noted as a major apple-growing center, is planning to set up a special section featuring books on the fruit on Jan. 4.

The library has collected about 700 books, including 200 foreign books, and more than 1,200 pieces of research material all involving apples . . .

On the opening day of the special section, the library will present a lecture on the pollination of apples and show \”Soyokaze\” (Breeze), an old film featuring Michiko Namiki\’s famous song \”Ringo no Uta\” (Song of Apples).

More from the Daily Yomiuri.

A Tantrum Over Library Art

From the New York Times (registration required.):

The cold war may be over, but Marx and Engels have nevertheless managed to create a small political furor in this old river city.

At first, few noticed their five famous words — \”Workers of the world, unite!\” — inscribed among dozens of other quotations outside the gleaming new $70 million Memphis Central Library, which opened in November.

But then this phrase from the Communist Manifesto caught the eye of two county commissioners and a city councilman, and in these days of heightened patriotism a smoldering debate was ignited . . .

More.

Free Online GIS Tutorial

A free online tutorial for those of you interested in (or forced to wrangle with) geographic information systems:

Are you new to GIS and mapping? Would you like to learn what it is all about and learn how to create your own maps? Our online MapCruzinTM Map-Tutorial and Atlas is designed to give you a quick-start introduction to the basics of GIS and it won\’t cost you a dime . . .

Thanks to Fred Stoss.