News.com Has A Story on a paper from computer scientist Ross Anderson that used an analysis equating finding software bugs to testing programs for the mean time before failure, a measure of quality frequently used by manufacturers. Under the analysis, Anderson found that his ideal \”open-source\” programs were as secure as the \”closed-source\” programs.
Not 100% library related, but it goes well with Ben\’s Great Story.
June 2002
Overdue Featured On Library Stuff
Little Stevie over @ Library Stuff has teamed up with Overdue to provide access to this hilarious comic strip by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum directly from the Library Stuff web site. For those who haven\’t had a chance to check out Overdue in the past few months, take a look at the archives and you will see why librarians all over the world are raving about it (well, Stevie raves about it all the time).
Before you know it, you will have your favorite Overdue strip hanging by your reference desk (here is Stevie\’s) for all to see.
You can learn more about the cartoonists behind Overdue, their thoughts on libraries, and yes, there is a blog as well.
Bush Presses Supremes on Filters
zanne writes \”Here it is, kids. What you\’ve all been waiting for! What a really stupidly-written article, by the way, courtesy of AP.\”
Wired Has A Better story that says the Bush administration renewed its legal fight against Internet pornography on Thursday, asking the Supreme Court to permit Congress to pressure public libraries to block sexually explicit websites. The Justice Department, acting on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, formally notified the Supreme Court on Thursday it will appeal last month\’s ruling.
NYT: The Librarian’s Web Dilemma
Seth Finkelstein writes \”The New York Times has a story today on the
state of libraries and censorware,
Full Story
It gives an overview of how various libraries are
implementing restrictions or not, and the legal
implications.
\”
Old news is big news at National Library
Good News from Canada, where National Librarian Roch Carrier will announce at a news conference in Halifax today that the National Library has purchased the March 23, 1752 edition of the Halifax Gazette — and more than 60 other 18th-century Nova Scotia newspapers –from the Massachusetts Historical Society. The purchase price was $30,000 U.S.
Of course, this is the same library That\’s Had 72 floods in 10 Years.
Publishers, Librarians Share Vital Role
SomeOne passed along This release from The AAP on a speach Pat Schroeder, President and CEO of the AAP gave Australian Learning and Information Association in Sydney back in May. We covered the speech when it happened, and we covered Schroeder when she said the AAP \”have a very serious issue with librarians.\”
A comparable replacement for a trained school librarian
Diane writes \”High school honor students and part-time aides would staff Lordstown (Ohio) schools two libraries next year under a plan to make up for the elimination of the district\’s only librarian. I guess since they are *honor* students, this is a comparable replacement.
Full Story
\”
Here\’s the, uh, job description from the story:
\’\’More or less, (they\’ll be) mentoring and reading to the younger students,\’\’ Koch said. \’\’In order to keep the doors open and keep books from walking away.\’\’
Open access to the scientific journal literature
Peter Suber, curator of the Free Online Scholarship Blog weighs in on this much-debated issue:
None of the advantages of traditional scientific journals need be sacrificed in order to provide free online access to scientific journal articles. Objections that open access to scientific journal literature requires the sacrifice of peer-review, revenue, copyright protection, or
other strengths of traditional journals, are based on misunderstandings.
Full Article from BioMed Central\’s new Journal of Biology, which \”aims to publish outstanding research articles from all areas of biology and make them immediately accessible to all, free of charge.\”
Woman wants book taken from school libraries
Diane S. writes \”Denese Shellnutt (no kidding!) has waged a one-woman campaign to get the collection of poems and stories written by and for teenage boys entitled \”You Hear Me?\” off the shelves of school libraries across the nation. She objects to curse words, explicit sexual language and tales about suicide and violence included in the book. Shellnutt said the book is filled with writings by children who don\’t know how to handle their problems. [As opposed to teenage boys in schools who would be shocked by all this???]
Full Story
\”
Battle Over Access to Online Books
There\’s a nice Piece At The NYTimes on Librarians squaring off with publishers who fear that free remote access costs them book sales.
They say Web sites of more than 7,300 libraries provide patrons 24-hour remote access to the texts of a few hundred to several thousand electronic books, occasionally even in languages like Chinese and Russian.
But of course, locking everything up is the response from the largest publishers. They say the major trade publishers are refusing to cooperate.
\”Lending over their Web sites — I think that is a problem,\” said Laurence Kirshbaum, chairman of the books division of AOL Time Warner. \”There is an inherent danger that would worry me — you are opening yourself up to being copied wildly without any control.\”
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