An AP Story says the story saying eBay founder Pierre Omidyar created the site in 1995 so his fiancee could trade PEZ candy dispensers with other collectors is a bit of a lie.
EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove, who joined the company in 1999, said Omidyar did use eBay to buy and sell his wife\’s PEZ collectibles but acknowledged that the site wasn\’t born that way.
June 2002
Row Over Book On Gay Boy In Libraries
UK.Gay.com has a Report on plans to introduce a sexually explicit book about a 10-year-old boy\’s gay experiences in libraries in Scottish schools that has reignited the debate over section 28.
Not much new here, as we have run a similiar story recently, but The Rainbownetwork has a bit more.
Another Day, Another Late Book Story
Salon has an AP Story on A book that was checked out of a library in Williamsport, Pa., 60 years ago that has made it back to the library\’s bookshelves.
The library held a contest to find the longest overdue book last week during its 95th anniversary celebration.
Ancient manuscripts lifted from Polish castle
Charles Davis writes \”This was Reported by
.museum-security.org
from
The Times of India.
More than 300 ancient documents, including manuscripts penned
by royalty, have disappeared from the Wawel royal castle in Krakow,
the archives director said on Thursday. The disappearance of historic
documents, including manuscripts from Polish kings, Napoleon I, and
the French writer Georges Sand, was discovered after a detailed
inventory in early June, Daria Nalecz said. The archival inventory
was ordered following the arrest of two men, including the head
conservator, who were suspected of stealing an indefinite number of
ancient documents. Nalecz said it was difficult to know precisely how
many documents — all dating from the 16th to 19th centuries — were
stolen, given that the thief made off not only with the documents,
but also the cards noting their description. Nalecz said she had
called for an inventory in all branches of the national archives and
the implementation of a more rigorous archival system.
\”
The endurance of university presses
Some thoughts on the impact (or lack thereof) of the Web on university presses:
Many people in the publishing industry have fretted about the prospect of books going the way of music, freely pirated off the Web. The online world will no doubt offer many challenges, difficult to anticipate and even more vexing to navigate. The ultimate impact, for instance, of Amazon.com\’s decision to list used books on its site has yet to be determined. But whatever changes lie ahead, publishers, particularly university presses, are unlikely to find themselves endangered.
Whether heavily endowed or self-sustaining, public or private, large or small, regional or international, university presses straddle two very different cultures. And it is precisely that dual identity, that Janus-headed quality, that ensures their existence, now and in the future.
Full article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Also in the Chronicle, Malcolm Litchfield suggests academic libraries may have something to teach scholarly publishers:
While university presses have been experimenting with exploiting the marketplace, university libraries have been acquiring electronic information-management expertise. University presses have been perfecting the \”push\” technique of getting their product into as many hands as possible; university libraries have been perfecting the \”pull\” technique of facilitating easy searching across the many data stores in the modern library.
Gagged by Google
Thanks to Library Juice for this one:
It began when [Body Shop founder and Google advertiser Anita] Roddick posted a short comment on her site about actor John Malkovich\’s public threat to shoot Scottish Member of Parliament George Galloway and Independent reporter Robert Fisk. (Malkovich railed against critics of Israel at a high-profile speech at Cambridge University.)
\”John Malkovich often plays disturbed and dangerous men in his films,\” wrote Roddick, \”maybe he\’s not acting. His threat to shoot Robert Fisk for his honest reportage on Israel is but further evidence that Malkovich is a vomitous worm.\”
\”Vomitous worm\” didn\’t go down well with Google. Shortly after Roddick made the comment, she got word that the advertising staff at the search engine were suspending her ad campaign. \”They said that my ad violated their editorial policy against \’sites that advocate against groups or individuals,\’\” writes Roddick.
Full story from Alternet.
An interesting article, but I have to take issue with their characterization of the Body Shop as a \”notable socially-responsible\” buisness.
Oregon libraries react to CIPA appeal
Jim Faith writes \” The Oregonian has \”Library case heads to justices\”
\”I\’ll stand in line all night long outside of the Supreme Court if that\’s what I need to do to get a seat,\” said Ginnie Cooper, director of the Multnomah County Library system, which was the lead plaintiff in one of two suits challenging CIPA. \”
Sandy Berman News
\”>Steve Fesenmaier writes \”Lots of news about Sandy Berman this week. First off is the latest, and
finale,
edition of his ALTERNATIVE LIBRARY LITERATURE, co-edited by James P. Danky.
This is the 10th edition – 2000-2001 – and includes some items from the
thriving alt library webzine world. It\’s half as long as the last edition,
but the pieces are all very well chosen. The book is dedicated to various
activist librarians including AFSCME members at the Library of Congress and
LAPL and HCL and SFPL librarians who led the boycott at last year\’s ALA
conference. Hopefully thousands of librarians will buy copies, ensuring that
librarians, directors, and board members know about it and even read it.
Secondly, you can read an interview in the current issue of Utne Reader done
by lead Sandynista Chris Dodge – it is not yet posted but here is the intro:
\”>Steve Fesenmaier writes \”Lots of news about Sandy Berman this week. First off is the latest, and
finale,
edition of his ALTERNATIVE LIBRARY LITERATURE, co-edited by James P. Danky.
This is the 10th edition – 2000-2001 – and includes some items from the
thriving alt library webzine world. It\’s half as long as the last edition,
but the pieces are all very well chosen. The book is dedicated to various
activist librarians including AFSCME members at the Library of Congress and
LAPL and HCL and SFPL librarians who led the boycott at last year\’s ALA
conference. Hopefully thousands of librarians will buy copies, ensuring that
librarians, directors, and board members know about it and even read it.
Secondly, you can read an interview in the current issue of Utne Reader done
by lead Sandynista Chris Dodge – it is not yet posted but here is the intro:
Wild in the Stacks
Radical librarian Sanford Berman advocates for alternative media, library
users rights, and information access
Utne Reader July-August 2002 p. 84
NOT POSTED I typed in.
Interview by Chris Dodge
Meet Sanford Berman, who since the late 1960s has written, spoken, and acted
on his belief that librarians have social responsibilities and that public
libraries can be liberating. In a profession sometimes known for
dispassionate wallflowers, Berman has outspokenly opposed injustices, both
in library practices and in the world at large.
Retired, but far from retiring, the 68-year-old Berman spent 26 years as
head cataloger at Hennepin County Library in suburban Minneapolis. There he
and his Sandynistas. helped make library materials more accessible by
change arcane and otherwise dysfunctional rules, terminology, and practices.
Nationally, Berman continues to argue for policy changes, seeking to make
libraries easier to use and for institutional engagement in addressing
social problems such as homelessness.
Thirdly, if readers know someone in the Twin City Area, they should get them
to send them the cartoon series running in Pulse weekly. \”Gondwanaland\” by
Ken Avidor. ( Check his website at roadkillbill.com the
cartoon is NOT on his website.) Avidor has modeled his character Otto
Berkman after Sandy and Chris Kreisler after Chris Dodge. The current strip
is about a trio of librarians looking for the magic of eye glasses that let
people see dinosaurs.
Fourly, Sandy is working on writing LC about two new needed subjects
headings – \”intelligent design\”, the new hot form of creationism, and
\”mountaintop removal.\” If anyone has information on subject headings for
either areas, they can contact me or Sandy.
Fifely, Sandy is reviewing a new film, \”Bad Girl\”, distributed by Cinema
Guild. It is a state-of-the-art documentary about women who make porno
and graphic art films like Catherine Briellat, director of
\”Romance\”(called the female answer to LAST TANGO IN PARIS) and the two
women who directed BAIS-MOI as well as women who direct female-oriented
porn in California and Denmark.
Lastly, Mitch Freedman, during his presidential speech last week at ALA
thanked Sandy for his lifelong dedication to helping patrons, poor people,
and everyone, calling him his \”conscience\” during his own lofty career. How
about making Sandy the next Librarian of Congress \”
FBI checking out Americans’ library reading habits
Here\’s One that says for the first time since the Cold War, the FBI is visiting public libraries to keep tabs on the reading habits of people the government considers dangerous.
The searches of some records kept by libraries and bookstores were authorized in an obscure provision of the USA Patriot Act, quietly approved by Congress six weeks after Sept. 11.
In a nationwide survey of 1,020 public libraries in January and February, the University of Illinois found that 85 – or 8.3 percent – had been asked by federal or local law enforcement officers for information about patrons related to Sept. 11
Ladies first Pioneering erotica writers club still at it after 26 years
Bob Cox sent over this SFGate Story on The Kensington Ladies\’ Erotica Society. They came together in the wild 1970s in Berkeley, when founder Sedgewick was librarian in charge of the erotic literature collection of Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. She met several of the \”ladies\” at a New Year\’s Eve party and suggested that they start a monthly reading group – for erotica. They\’ve since published a few books, and have a new one on the way.
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