August 2004

emckechnie writes “A very nice article from Haaretz about how illuminated manuscripts were created in the Middle Ages. Did you know that St. Lawrence, the patron saint of librarians, was grilled to death?”

An Anonymous Patron sends “this link to newspaper-sponsored ghostcam in the Evansville (IN) Courier Press. The cam keeps an eye on various parts of the allegedly haunted Willard Library.”

Chuck Munson, a librarian who runs the website infoshop.org does a Q & A with the New York Times about anarchism. Munson, who lives in Kansas City, is in NYC for protests at the Republic National Convention.

Even though the Arizona state legislature is looking at legislation that would mandate filtering, the Phoenix is looking to make it illegal for patrons to request filter disabling at the city level. While there are tons of “libraries looking at filtering options” stories this one about Phoenix’s library system is interesting for this statement from the Arizona Republic:

Other cities, such as San Francisco and Salt Lake City, have opted to forgo federal funding to keep computers filter-free. Officials in Des Plaines, Ill., recently enacted what some say is a very creative solution: Their filters stay on all the time, but block only pornographic images, not text.

It’s my understanding that CIPA requires that ONLY graphic images be blocked in the first place, but that such filtering technology is not widely available or on the market. Anyone have any clues about this, or is it a misrepresentation? If there is such a filter, I’d like to buy stock.

Also, the way this story, and many are written, the average reader would believe that it’s perfectly okay to access obscene materials in libraries and elsewhere. Obscenity and child porn are illegal. Period.

Andrea Koch writes “The Rochester, New York, daily newspaper’s front page includes a story about the dire need for qualified school media specialists. It is a positive article about the professionalism required and decent salaries paid locally. Here’s the whole story at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.”

stevenj writes “If you thought that college students never take notice of anything that has to do with the campus library, think again. The San Jose State University paper, Spartan Daily, published a great article on the Library Journal 2004 Library of the Year award won by the SJSU King Library (jointly with the SJ Public Library). Find this story at:
the Spartan Daily.”

Fang-Face writes “There is
a notice about the IFLA conference at American Libraries Online, focusing primarily on the financial difficulties plaguing the event. The IFLA web site doesn’t seem to have anything about the event yet; the update indicator was still set at 18 Aug as of my writing this.“

http://search-engines-web.com sends “news of a new ordinance in Huntington Beach, CA where folks who violate the sanctity of the library with a “What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor” or “Fur Elise” ring tone, or any other cell phone use risk a fine. First time violators will get a warning. Keep it up, buster, and you’ll be shelling out a thousand bucks. From Mercury News. “

Allen Searls writes “My name is Allen Searls, VP of Community at Wondir.org (also Wondir.com), which has recently grown into the leading free Q&A site on the web, although we’re still really in our infancy.

Although we get thousands of questions on all topics every day at Wondir.com, we really want to improve the quality of answers provided. Given their academic and reference experience, would like to invite librarians, especially library bloggers, to jump in, answer questions and test their knowledge. We’re perfectly fine with librarians promoting their blogs in their answers as well.

I hope you’ll consider checking out Wondir, registering (although it’s optional) answering a few questions and blogging about it. It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Allen

Allen Searls
VP Community
Wondir Inc.
www.Wondir.com

Wondir Land Weblog: http://wondir.blogspot.com“

The Justice Department announced Thursday that more than 150 people had been arrested, charged or convicted in the last three months in a wide-ranging sweep of criminal activity on the Internet.

The cases, involving credit card fraud, corporate espionage and other offenses, are part of what the department called Operation Web Snare. The sweep was conducted by 37 offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 13 divisions of the Postal Inspection Service and other federal and local agencies. Investigators have identified more than 150,000 victims with losses in excess of $215 million. Read all about it. [registration required]