December 2002

Personal Privilege – Some thoughts on New Year’s Eve

Maurice J. (Mitch) Freedman writes: \”I just finished reading an article in today\’s New York Times about an Ohio State
University football player, a freshman, Maurice Clarett. There\’s
nothing per se about libraries in the article.

However, I was touched by the words of this 19-year old man, a couple of
days before he is to play for the NCAA football championship, and the
millions of dollars that will go to Ohio State University largely as a
result of his efforts this past season and tomorrow.


I urge you to read the whole article, but I will quote the last few
paragraphs, immediately below. These are important words as we go into
the New Year.

Maurice J. (Mitch) Freedman writes: \”I just finished reading an article in today\’s New York Times about an Ohio State
University football player, a freshman, Maurice Clarett. There\’s
nothing per se about libraries in the article.

However, I was touched by the words of this 19-year old man, a couple of
days before he is to play for the NCAA football championship, and the
millions of dollars that will go to Ohio State University largely as a
result of his efforts this past season and tomorrow.


I urge you to read the whole article, but I will quote the last few
paragraphs, immediately below. These are important words as we go into
the New Year.

Libraries are losing budget battles. Our political leaders are turning
their backs not just on libraries, but the entire social safety net,
which includes libraries, certainly, but also the homeless, the
battered, the unemployed, those without health care, and on and on.



Our focus is upon libraries, but this young man from Youngstown, Ohio,
is telling me that library funding cuts are part of a much larger
problem. Our job is to promote libraries and library workers. But as
we enter the New Year, I think it is important to take stock of what is
going on around us and see the larger context–what are our nation\’s,
our state\’s, our counties\’ and our cities\’ priorities? I don\’t believe
that we are going to solve our library and library worker funding
problems without some consideration of those priorities and the funding
allocations ensuing from them.



Here is the conclusion of the article, and Maurice Clarett\’s words.



\”Life\’s a whole lot more important than football, you know what I mean?\”
he said. \”We hold the national championship, but they won\’t talk about
the homeless and the poor. We\’re sitting here in this old grand hotel,
things like that, but we can\’t feed the homeless or poor. It\’s a game.\”



Clarett\’s mother, Michelle, said she knew her son was upset but was not
sure how his request was handled by Ohio State or the sequence of
events.



\”He\’s a 19-year-old young man with a lot going on right now,\” Michelle
Clarett, who is the chief deputy clerk for the municipal court in
Youngstown, said by telephone today. \”People deal with death differently
and this was one of his good friends.\”



Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel said Clarett had been emotionally roiled
since arriving here, but he repeated that no one prevented him from
returning home.



\”I know he\’s really distraught over losing a very, very close friend,\”
Tressel said. \”That\’s even harder when you\’re not around when you lose
someone that\’s very close to you. It\’s very difficult on you. I know
he\’d like to be there. The best thing for all involved is to say it
didn\’t work out.\”



Still, Clarett indicated that he learned a lesson from his anguish and
vowed to follow his compassion for the less fortunate with money should
he obtain it.



\”You go through downtown Columbus, you\’ve got people sleeping on
sidewalks,\” he said. \”You know what I mean? And they\’re giving us
scholarships, and they\’re selling 100,000 tickets every game. It\’s the
richest part of Columbus, downtown, but you\’re walking past bums and
homeless people. This is wintertime, it\’s like 19 degrees down there.
They\’re sleeping in boxes and little covers. It don\’t make any sense to
me.\”





mitch

Maurice J. (Mitch) Freedman, MLS, PhD

President of the American Library Association

Many Harry Potter Stories

Good News For Harry from Russia, where Prosecutors in Moscow have decided JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books do not incite religious hatred.

Also, good news for JK Rowling,

Rowling Is Britain\’s Highest-Earning Woman.

There\’s also a funny little story on what happens when Rumours that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was in Thailand when 18,000 scouts are in the country for the World Scout Jamboree.
And in Movie News, Raddled old luvvie Sir Michael Gambon is to replace the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore in the next Harry Potter movie.

Microsoft Reader format Cracked

pv_sapl writes \”Snooping around on Slashdot today and found this. The Orginal article is here.
Are ther eany good books published for Microsoft Reader? \”

They say the prorgram removes the security from Microsoft Reader ebooks. Once the security is removed, it then allows the book to be converted to html, text or any other format. You can learn more Here.

Counting on the Internet

Gary Deane passed along Latest PEW report, Counting on the Internet.

They found over 60% of Americans now having Internet access and 40% of Americans having been online for more than three years.
When they are thinking about health care information, services from government agencies, news, and commerce, about two-thirds of all Americans say that they expect to be able to find such information on the Web. Internet users are more likely than non-users to have high expectations of what will be available online, and yet even 40% of people who are not Internet users say they expect the Web to have information and services in these essential online arenas.

No mention of libraries in this one.

How Does the Future Happen?

Ender points us to This MSNBC Column by Michael Rogers, who takes a look into the future at some interesting new technologies that may impact libraries in the years to come.

He talks about a company called ePac who makes books, on demand, in a matter of seconds. They say they could use this on-demand print technology for all titles with small print runs; bookstores would just order one or a few copies printed at a time. The result: a major reduction in transportation, warehousing and inventory costs for publishers.

Libraries Feeling Budget Pinch

Here\’s an Associated Press story that\’s making the rounds on budget troubles we are facing across the country. It\’s way too short, but they do say Librarians say one of the most disturbing consequences of the budget cuts is that they\’re coming at a time when more people need libraries to help them find work.
They also add The American Library Association says funding problems stem from a lack of political clout. The group plans to launch a campaign to raise funds and awareness next month.

Here\’s Another with a few more details, and a good quote from Mitch:

“As the economic times get worse, library use has gone up,\’\’ said Maurice J. Freedman, president of the American Library Association. “The injustice of it is, here we are providing more service with the same staff, and we\’re asked to cut our budgets.\’\’

Mr Chips or Microchips?

Slashdot pointed the way to This BBC Story that says disturbing evidence is emerging that computers may harm, rather than help, educational progress. There is still much debate among even the most enthusiastic supporters of high technology about how computers can best be used.

The Text transcript is online.

What’s your copy right?

Tne CNET Year In Review takes a look at copyright in the year 2002.

They focus mainly on the battles between Hollywood and the PC industry, Antipiracy, Kazaa, and such. They say Quarrels over digital copyrights shift from courts to Congress, and Hollywood becomes chief antagonist to advocates of the rights of digital consumers–the PC industry among them.

Tolkien scholar shares thoughts on ‘Two Towers’

A funny little story from Chicago Tribune that takes a look at The Tolkien Society.
They interview Mike Foster, the 55-year-old scholar and Beatles fan about Tolkien minutia, metaphor and the second film \”The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.\”
His wife is a librarian, and he says:

\”An English professor and a librarian is a marriage made in heaven. When I endorsed the book as fully as I did, she tried it and liked it quite a bit.\”