July 2004

Fang-Face writes “There is
a very brief follow up at American Libraries Online about that DOJ order to destroy five pamphlets dealing with asset forfeiture. In a nut shell: the order has been rescinded.“

Via PUBLIB, here’s a cool mp3 song by Jonathan Rundman, “I’m a Librarian” from Salt Lady records. Listen to this acoustic demo while you work…

Should you be inspired to hear more from this artist, visit the website .

Anonymous Patron writes “Camera.org Has This one that was orignally in the Jerusalem Post on LJ an their books reviews. The author, Andrea Levin, says a look at Middle East-related commentary produced by Library Journal suggests a striking pattern of laudatory, uncritical endorsement of patently one-sided books written by extreme critics of Israel.

robg writes “This article on “CareerPro News” highlights Special Librarianship and its contribution to organizations today:

“Where there’s information to be stored, retrieved, analyzed or distributed, there’s a need for special librarians. That’s because they do way more than simply rhyme off the Dewey Decimal system. They locate accurate and reliable information for organizations and help bridge the gap between employees and technology.

“…special librarians are known by many different names: corporate librarians, knowledge officers, decision support managers, corporate memory managers and business intelligence officers.

“‘Regardless of what they’re called, they’re all vital to an organization’s ability to know what it knows, and discover what it doesn’t.'”

“

The Search Guy asks “Will MSN eventually replace Google as the choice among Librarians?”

news.com.au covers MSN who they say is investing $US5 billion ($7 billion) to create a search revolution where users will be able to pose questions and receive real answers – all without leaving the comfort of the MSN web site and, of course, the reach of its advertisers. InfoWorld has a bit more as well.

Now if there was only a place where people could pose questions and receive real answers outside the reach of advertisers…

I’ve been posting bits and pieces of this story in my journal, but since it’s officially a copyright issue, thought I’d share it with the larger LISNews crowd. The Bloomington Pantagraph is asking filmmaker Michael Moore for $1.00 in damages and an apology after a letter-to-the-editor they published was used in Fahrenheit 9/11.

In a letter drafted Thursday and sent to Moore and the movie’s Santa Monica, Calif.-based distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment, the newspaper admonished him for his “unauthorized … misleading” use of The Pantagraph in the film. He also was cited for copyright infringement.

The misleading part is that a letter to the editor with the headline “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election” was altered to look like a news story and shown briefly in the film along with similar headlines. The puzzling thing, to me anyway, is the sloppy work done by Moore’s film crew. Not only was the letter reformatted and presented in a mock-up of the paper, but the date was different than the original.

I wish I knew more about documentary technique and copyright. Gut instinct tells me that this crosses the line.

You Know Who sent over a NYTimes Article on “Shadowmancer” the Christian alternative to “Harry Potter.”

The author, G. P. Taylor has just sold the rights to Universal for $6.2 million, and hopes to have Mel Gibson direct the film.

” `Shadowmancer’ isn’t an alternative to `Harry Potter,’ ” he says, adding that he was simply writing “as a Christian.”

An Anonymous Patron writes “Book Sense celebrates their five-year anniversary in 2004, and they’ve put together The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years.

The list is the result of voting by independent booksellers across the country, who cast ballots for the titles they most enjoyed hand-selling over the past five years.”

search-engines-web.com sends “this anouncement from ManagingInformation.com

The Association of College and Research Librarians (ACRL) in America is seeking nominations for 2005 awards recognizing outstanding achievement in academic librarianship.

 
ACRL urges members to nominate colleagues whose work has influenced their thinking and growth as an academic librarian and whose contributions merit recognition by the profession. Member nominations will ensure that the pool of candidates for each award remains both competitive and distinguished.

 
Nominations and supporting materials for most awards must be submitted by December 3, 2004. More information, including submission procedures, past winners, criteria and contact information, is available in the awards section of the ACRL Web site at www.ala.org/acrl

Charles Davis writes “Authors and publishers face credit card barrier to anonymously puffing their books.
The world’s biggest online bookseller, Amazon, is to clamp down on anonymous reviews of titles on its website in an attempt to curb excesses of back-stabbing in the competitive world of publishing.
After mounting concern about abuse of its open door policy regarding feedback, Amazon has begun a new system, Real Names, which requires reviewers to provide their credit card details before posting a comment.

The change, which was quietly introduced earlier this month, is intended to put an end to authors and publishers anonymously showering their own books with praise while trashing the work of their rivals. An Amazon spokeswoman said: “This is the latest step in an ongoing effort to continually improve the content of the site.”
More at
Guardian “