September 2004

Rob Lopresti writes “Columbia Journalism Review has
an article about the media’s general failure to cover Homeland Security issues. Author Trudy Lieberman points out that government secrecy and laws such as the “critical infrastructure information” provision are making it harder for reporters to tell us what’s going on.

She compares the apathy of reporters with the activism of – guess who?

“Librarians participated in rallies, challenging Attorney General John Ashcroft when his road show promoting the Patriot Act came to some towns in the summer of 2003. They expect to collect one million signatures by the end of September to support amending the act.

This from LIBRARIANS. Where are the journalists?”
“

Wordy1 writes “Heard this news story on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning about writing workshops on military bases that support an initiative by the NEA to get military personnel, especially those stationed in Iraq & Afghanistan, to write about their war experiences. Writings will culminate in an anthology called Operation Homecoming

Other Link Right Here“

Blake writes “Sad Story? A bullfight, an act of bravado, a brush with death. A newly discovered story by the young Ernest Hemingway has all the elements to delight fans and scholars — but it can’t be published”

Durst writes “From the Office of Management and Budget to local state courts, XML and PDF seem to be going hand-in-hand when it comes to filling out and submitting electronic forms. Government Computer News has the details.”

The Curmudgeony Librarian writes “The gay and lesbian community in Kolkata India has a reason to celebrate, with the opening of a new library. The library, which caters to the literary and academic needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is the first of its kind in India. The library hopes to provide information on homosexuality, trans-sexuality and sexual diseases among other topics.”

The Curmudgeony Librarian writes “The citizens of South Dakota have a new state librarian this week as Dorothy Liegl replaces Suzanne Miller. Ms. Miller left the post to become the state librarian of Minnesota. Ms. Liegl has been with the South Dakota State Library since 1972.”

teaperson writes “The Christian Science Monitor‘s book editor, Ron Charles, reports on two new programs from Kirkus Reviews, which will let publishers buy placement in new publications. Self-published authors can get a review for $350.

Ron will NOT be selling his reviews.”

Story from the Western Front on efforts by the Whatcom County Rural Library District (in Bellingham, Washington) to quash a subpoena requiring the disclosure of the names and addresses of people who borrowed the book, “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.”

An unnamed library patron at the Deming Branch found a passage written in the margin of the book, and contacted an FBI agent with the information. The handwritten note read as follows:

“If the things I’m doing is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God.”

Agent James Powers contacted the library district after receiving this information, and requested further information on the book, which an unnamed library employee denied.

Central California was hit by a moderate to strong earthquake mid-morning today… story from Reuters News Service .

If you felt the earth moving at 10:15 am PDT, AND you’re in a library…please report in by adding a comment below.

Tell us if the earthquake had any effect on your library, and if so, what the effects were. Don’t forget to tell us the name and the location of your library.

Thanks LISNewsters.

John H. Ewing, executive director of the American Mathematical Society, presents an interesting viewpoint in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. He says that open access will not lower prices (and calls the idea ‘misdirection’), but rather librarians need to stop paying for expensive journals and select the cheaper, society-owned ones instead to have any impact on prices. Does he have a point, or does he not understand the realities of what we do?