Prangstgrüp is several students from Columbia University whose activities lie somewhere between highly sophisticated pranks and performance art. One of there more recent happenings was the staging of a musical number during a busy study time in the library.
Courtesy of today\’s memepool
Xuening writes “The technology revolution has changed the way librarians work. Today, they’re hired as high-tech wizards to navigate the Internet, establish Intranets, search databases and classify information. As information becomes more accessible to employees, the need for computer-savvy special librarians with stellar research skills is growing rapidly, say recruiters.
Maurice J. Freedman and Anne M. Turner have a Nice One in the Sacramento Bee, where they say they hope to make some history by focusing on raising our salaries.
\”Californians cannot continue to claim they value libraries while underpaying the staff. Today, we serve more people than ever for less than the cost of one hardcover novel per capita — divide the state\’s library budgets by the number of people served and the answer is $25. In a state with some of the nation\’s highest housing costs, California\’s library workers cannot continue to live on love alone — just ask our landlords.\”
Steve Fesenmaier writes \”Mitch Freedman, ALA prez, has posted a touching website dedicated to recently deceased library activist Miriam Braverman. You may want to visit it. – mjfreedman.org\”
jen writes \”Type in a few ingredients, select a cuisine type, and volia!
You\’re Cookin\’ WIth Google \”
Here’s A Nice One on letter-writing campaign organized by the Florida Library Association. Library users and supporters are urged to write Governor Bush to urge his support for providing state funds for libraries. Good Stuff!
Denise writes \”The story and a
Discusion on slashdot on a library home page blocked by a filter, in the library.
Too scary–especially their reaction to it. \”
Rather than fix the filter, they decided to change the URL of the library site.
xuening writes \”For corporate librarians, the job market has worsened in the past six months, recruiters say. Many are being laid off, and fewer library jobs are being created due to tightening budgets… The full story is at
CareerJournal.com \”
This may have gone around already, but the New York Times has an interesting story detailing a novel use of the DMCA. According to the NY Times, information about post-Thanksgiving sales was detailed on various online coupon Web sites prior to the date of intended release. This made the retailers (Wal-Mart, Target and others)angry, so they threatened the websites using the DMCA as the muscle behind their argument. However,
Legal experts said invoking a copyright law in this context was unusual, because the information appeared to be a set of facts rather than the kind of original or expressive work that is typically covered by copyright law. The Supreme Court has ruled that telephone white pages directories, for instance, do not fall within copyright law.
Please see these related Web sites:
Anti-DMCA.org
DMCA U.S. Copyright Office Summary [.pdf]
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