November 2003

Nifty New Report based on information from the 2000 Academic Libraries Survey. The tables in this publication summarize library services, library staff, library collections and library expenditures for libraries in degree granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Report PDF. See also, Past Reports

AllAfrica.com Says For many libraries in Africa without access to foreign journals, the problem may be one of a lack of communication rather than a lack of resources, according to a seminar for librarians which took place on 8 November 2003. The event, held in conjunction with a meeting of the West African branch of the Standing Conference of African Universities in Accra, Ghana, found that although many university libraries were no longer able to afford any international journals at their standard rate, awareness of opportunities to acquire them at special discounts, or even free of charge, is limited.

Fang-Face writes “A commentary by Marjorie Heins at the Free Expression Policy Project examines an incident fairly typical of moral crusaders. Two media-violence-as-violent-influence proponents, Craig Anderson and L. Rowell Huesmann, have canceled out of a conference wherein they were to debate opponents to the movement to control violence in entertainment. The attempt to discredit the opponents, Dr. Joanne Savage, criminologist at American University, and Jonathan Freedman, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, is based on the specious argument that they are not “legitimate experts” on media violence. Actually, there is something to that; Doctor Freedman is not an expert on media violence so much as he is an expert on studies of media violence. All of which, he claims, are invalid. You can see my own opinion on the issue of media violence studies at my web site.”

Here’s News that AUTHOR JK Rowling’s dad has put his valuable collection of Harry Potter books up for sale fuelling rumours of a fall-out.

Peter Rowling hopes to make at least £120,000 after putting seven first editions his daughter gave him up for auction. Each has a handwritten dedications to him and his second wife, Janet.

Sotheby’s yesterday listed all seven books on their internet site.

Peter, whose daughter is worth around £310 million, has been spotted working in a burger van.

Nevada County law librarian Lu Mellado has announced his run for the U.S. presidency, saying the ace up his sleeve is the “disgruntled, jaded, discouraged” American voter.

Mellado said people who are fed up with government and want change will have the opportunity if he’s elected president in 2004. His singular campaign promise is to allow American people to pass national legislation, similar to what’s practiced on the state level with initiatives and referendums.
His site is tapfp.org or the

Full Story.

The war on copying takes a look at DRM from a rather different view point, those who produce content.

They say most companies mistakenly believe that content protection is about protecting content, but rather content protection is really about protecting the release window.

Futher, they add, that DRM is not for the benefit or protection of users, no matter what content owners or standards groups say. For DRM to succeed, content owners must take responsibility and bear the burden of its implementation. They must recognize that users already expect certain capabilities, such as the ability to use purchased content as and where they like. Owners must also recognize that people will accept a definition of “honest” only if it doesn’t unreasonably inconvenience them.

[Via /.]

A Short Pravda Piece says Five biggest Russian libraries are creating a virtual summary catalogue of their bibliographic descriptions and full-text electronic resources. The project was presented on Tuesday in the State Duma (the Lower House of the Russian Parliament).

The project, being coordinated by the British Council, which is financed by the British Foreign Office, is aimed at forming a consortium, which will include the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, the All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature, the Parliamentary Library and the Scientific Library of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The European Commission also takes part in the project.

The University of California’s digital library will make more than 1,400 books from UC Press available for free online, in XML format, according to this story from the UC-Santa Barbara Daily Nexus. Of this number, about 400 will be available to the general public. The remainder are available only to UC faculty and students, but will be released for the general public in about two years. You can peruse the titles, including the featured title, Refried Elvis right here

After a month of wrangling, the board of the Urbandale (IA) Public Library has decided that minors 14 years and older can check out R-rated movies without parental approval or knowledge. Responding to the controversial decision, board members simply said that it was not their job. Original lisnews story is here.

During the course of an investigation into charges that she used corporal punishment on students, a Staten Island (NY) public school librarian claimed that the investigator sexually assaulted her. A retired teacher claimed to have witnessed the assault, but later admitted that she lied, prompting her and the librarian’s arrests. More from NYNewsday.com.