Someone writes \” Here\’s a neat little piece on
on a neat little piece of (library) art. \”
They say it took her two years and more than 700 hours of work to complete, they describe it as…
\”Sitting on the bench, DeFazio\’s lovely, 20-something female figure is shown perched comfortably with her legs crossed, feet bare, with a long dress and equally long flowing hair. On her lap, an open book seems to have captured her complete attention.\”
Jack Stephens writes \”A story in the New York Times (\”Qaeda Videos Seem to Show Chemical Tests\”; 8/19/02) describes a cache of videos recently recovered from Afghanistan by a CNN reporter as \”a library that was collected, cataloged and stored by unknown individuals, apparently to document the history of Al Qaeda.\”
So what I want to know is, Who does collection development and cataloging for Al Qaeda?!
\”
Steven sent over a link to This Column on the library closures in Seattle.
Paul Andrews says when Seattle public libraries close for a week next Monday, the closure will have far more chilling implications than a late-summer \”furlough\” might on the surface suggest.
\”If there is a potentially positive side to such draconian measures, it is this: Seattle will find out what it\’s like to live without libraries. For anyone who cares about free access to and exchange of information in a democratic system, the picture is not likely to be pretty.\”
The Friends of Cuban Libraries write: \”The Friends of Cuban Libraries are making available information on a recently
transcribed BBC broadcast focusing on Cuba\’s independent librarians, which
was aired on May 1, 2002.
Since the BBC broadcast was aired, two of the volunteer librarians
interviewed on the program have received international awards for their
pioneering work in defense of intellectual freedom. Gisela Delgado was
awarded the Swedish Liberal Party\’s Democracy Prize, and Human Rights Watch
named Victor Rolando Arroyo as a winner of the Hellman-Hammett Prize, an
annual award given to persecuted writers and other defenders of intellectual
freedom.
Here is the text of the broadcast:
The Friends of Cuban Libraries write: \”The Friends of Cuban Libraries are making available information on a recently
transcribed BBC broadcast focusing on Cuba\’s independent librarians, which
was aired on May 1, 2002.
Since the BBC broadcast was aired, two of the volunteer librarians
interviewed on the program have received international awards for their
pioneering work in defense of intellectual freedom. Gisela Delgado was
awarded the Swedish Liberal Party\’s Democracy Prize, and Human Rights Watch
named Victor Rolando Arroyo as a winner of the Hellman-Hammett Prize, an
annual award given to persecuted writers and other defenders of intellectual
freedom.
Here is the text of the broadcast:
[Introduction by a BBC correspondent]: \”A few years ago at a book fair in
Cuba President Fidel Castro protested that the narrow range of books in the
country\’s public libraries wasn\’t the result of censorship or banning, merely
a shortage of funds. Two of his fellow citizens [Ramon Colas and Berta
Mexidor] decided to put that statement to the test by making their private
book collection publicly available. The project was such a success that
across the island there are now more than sixty libraries run from private
homes, stocking everything from children\’s fiction to books on religion and
mysticism to works by Cuban writers in exile. The BBC\’s correspondent in
Havana, Daniel Schweimler, set off to discover how they work.
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”The Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman wrote that \’if
it\’s true that every Cuban knows how to read and write, it is likewise true
that every Cuban has nothing to read and must be very cautious about what he
writes.\’ Shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he sent
thousands of volunteers into the mountains and the inner cities to teach the
people to read and write. Cuba now has one of the best literacy rates in the
developing world. Most Cubans are unable to get access to words such as
these written by one of the best Cuban writers of recent years, Guillermo
Cabrera Infante, now living in exile in London:
[Voice of Cabrera Infante]: \” \’One third of the […inaudible], which is the
tragic story of my country, from island to garrison, from brothel to
barracks, from tropical paradise to hell on earth. It was in fact a sad
book, but everywhere readers complimented me on how funny it was.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”Four years ago President Castro said there were no
banned books in Cuba, just a shortage of money to buy them. So his words
were put to the test by a couple living in the East of the island, who opened
up an independent library in their own home. The seed was planted, and there
are now more than sixty libraries across Cuba. They are, for now at least,
tolerated by the authorities, but many of the owners have been detained or
had books taken from them. Ricardo Gonzalez has about two thousand books in
his home in the West of Havana.
[Ricardo Gonzales, in translated voiceover]: \” \’You can see that in this
library we are in the roof is broken, the shelves are made from bits of old
wood. But nevertheless people come, because that signifies freedom. But the
freedom is limited by the repressive organs of the Cuban state.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”The state-run libraries and bookshops are full of works
about the Cuban Revolution, books by and about President Castro and the
Argentine revolutionary Ernesto \”Che\” Guevara, great Cuban writers of the
past such as Alejo Carpentier and Nicolas Guillen, and classic Spanish
literature. But they contain nothing the Communist authorities might regard
as counterrevolutionary or subversive. George Orwell\’s 1984 and Animal Farm,
for instance. Ricardo Gonzalez again:
[Ricardo Gonzalez, in translated voiceover]: \” \’The readers are returning to
the library. But we have always had a few readers at this library, the Jorge
Manach [Library], who kept coming even during the worst times of repression
to borrow books and then circulate them to a wider audience.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”The books are given by foreign tourists, embassies and
aid organizations abroad. Cubans who leave the country often donate their
collections. The service is free, the standard security measures taken to
ensure that the books are returned. The biggest problem, according to Gisela
Delgado, who runs a library in the center of Havana, is for borrowers to
overcome their fear.
[Gisela Delgado, in translated voiceover]: \” \’We\’re doing an enormous amount
of work here to try and make available uncensored literature to the Cuban
people. At the same time we are seeing a cultural revolution, since a lot of
people are losing their fear. They are reading these famous books, which
they\’ve been told were banned. Then they are writing their own testimonies,
free from the terrible censorship they have suffered these past 43 years.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”She says that in four years she has not lost a single
book, and all, including the children\’s books, are looked after and returned
in good condition. Customers borrow works on a whole range of subjects, but
she says by far the most popular are those which talk about modern-day Cuba
from a perspective other than that put forward by the government. Andres
Oppenheimer\’s \’Castro\’s Final Hour\’ is one example.
[Unidentified reader of a selection from Oppenheimer\’s book]: \” \’Only fear
of the unknown prevented a popular rebellion. Only the failure of U.S.
policymakers and Cuban exile leaders to allay these fears, and perhaps even
to recognize some of the early social gains of the Revolution, kept the Cuban
people from turning their discontent into active defiance.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”Victor Rolando Arroyo, director of a library in the
western city of Pinar del Rio, says repression in the provinces is tougher.
[Victor Roland Arroyo, in translated voiceover]: \” \’Some of our libraries
have been attacked during the night. Individuals have gone to the libraries
and taken books away. These are people we recognize. We know who they are
and have reported them, but the authorities have taken no action against
these thugs.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”Public transport is poor, and many readers live in
isolated communities. So Victor has formed a team to solve the problem.
[Victor Rolando Arroyo, in translated voiceover]: \” \’We have a group of
volunteers, some on foot and others with bicycles, who cover the region
making contacts, offering books. What they do is explain which books they
have and what they are about. What all this does is encourage people to read
more.\’
[Daniel Schweimler]: \”The Cuban authorities view all those who oppose them as
counterrevolutionaries, often in the pay of the government\’s enemies in the
United States. The librarians say they are the peaceful vanguard of a force
working for democratic change in Cuba. The authorities distrustfully,
cautiously, are allowing the libraries to operate, having themselves created
a reading public with an appetite that is not easily satisfied.\”
[End of radio segment]
Wanda Coleman, of, LA Weekly, says in her column, Hunt and Peck Reactions to her critical rip of Maya Angelou\’s \”A Song Flung Up to Heaven\” caused an immediate furor in the African-American community, yet none of the many letters reportedly sent to the L.A. Times was ever published, for who-knows-what reasons.
She says Critically reviewing the creative efforts of present-day African-American writers, no matter their origin, is a minefield of a task complicated by the social residuals of slavery and the shifting currents in American publishing.
The EastSideJournal says a Kent police detective acted with the best of intentions when he seized two library computers he believed contained evidence of child pornography. What is more troubling, however, is the uncooperative attitude of King County library officials in this case. From their statements, and in the lawsuit they filed against Kent police, library officials appear to be hampering a criminal investigation under the guise of protecting the privacy of library patrons.
See also: Library system abhors pornography, and Library needs to report felonies, all from the same site.
SomeOne sent along This One that says a paedophile downloaded pornographic images of girls and babies from a computer in a public library. He was caught when the computer, owned by Notts County Council library service, was taken away for repair.
SomeOne writes \”A Story says we, in the UK, are now in the era of the \’football autobiography\’ – and it\’s not pleasant.
The worst thing about all these books is that the advance publicity assures them of massive sales.
The formula is thus: Say something controversial, add the threat of legal action, make sure the papers get hold of it, make no comment in defence of your claims whatsoever – then sit back and wait for the cash to roll in.
\”
Good News from TN, where they say they guy
who would enter libraries and check out first edition
books and would then replace them with paperback
books turned himself into Murfreesboro police last
week and when he did he surrendered 52 of 63
first-edition books missing from the library since
January.
Here\’s One from Reading
is considered an indulgence in the emirates. The high
price of books dissuades many residents from making
a habit of reading, and it is often the cost factor which
discourages parents from urging their children to read
more. Still, importers and retailers claim the price of
books has come down considerably in the past four
years.
They say the importance attached to reading in
Islam is such that the very first verse of the Holy Quran
revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was about
reading, but, many people say they are dissuaded by
the high cost of books.
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