October 2004

If you’re a terrorist in search of current information on US Nuclear holdings and locations, you may just be out of luck.

The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has suspended its on-line library for several weeks to remove potentially sensitive information from its Web site due to security concerns. They do however point out that no classified material is now or ever has been on its Web site.

Spokesman Scott Burnell said, “We have to balance two competing interests — national security (versus) the public right to know if radioactive materials are being used. We need to find the balancing point to allow the public to know these activities are going on but not allow that information to be used by our adversaries.” Reuters article here.

Anonymous Patron writes “From Colorado where Shawn Mitchell & Curt Williams are battling for the Colorado Senate District 23 seat.

Williams serves as operations manager of Oliver Lester Math/ Physics library at the University of Colorado. He said he wants to try to preserve funding for higher education, which could be the target of budget cuts this year.

Denver Post covers the race as well as the Rocky Mountain News.”

Lindsey writes “”The Turner Diaries didn’t just inspire a lot of extremist violence — it also inspired a lot of extremely violent novels.” Read the article by Camille Jackson on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article .jsp?aid=490
As librarians, should we include these books in our collections? If we do, can we defend our choice to potentially outraged patrons? If we don’t, are we censoring? Would we purchase them if we live in a community with diversity problems? Are they indefensible in a library collection?”

madcow writes “The Beastie Boys sound off in Wired about samples, file sharing and libraries.

Ch-ch-check it out!“

Rachel writes “Info Career Trends, a free, bi-monthly, electronic publication on career development issues for information professionals, is seeking contributors to write short, practical articles for upcoming issues. ICT is distributed via e-mail to over 3300 subscribers, and finds an additional audience on the web and via RSS. For more information or to subscribe, see http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/.

Upcoming themes include:

March 2005: Alternative Careers

How can we extend our skills as librarians into other environments? What kind of unusual, interesting, or unthought-of careers are open to information professionals? How do we convince those in related fields to give us a chance?

Rachel writes “Info Career Trends, a free, bi-monthly, electronic publication on career development issues for information professionals, is seeking contributors to write short, practical articles for upcoming issues. ICT is distributed via e-mail to over 3300 subscribers, and finds an additional audience on the web and via RSS. For more information or to subscribe, see http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/.

Upcoming themes include:

March 2005: Alternative Careers

How can we extend our skills as librarians into other environments? What kind of unusual, interesting, or unthought-of careers are open to information professionals? How do we convince those in related fields to give us a chance?

May 2005: Charting Our Path

Some of us tend to float from one job to another, depending on factors as varied geographical convenience, salary, or luck of the draw. Others chart a more intentional career path, deliberately moving up the ladder or gaining experience in a variety of settings. How do we move our careers forward; where do we go from here?

July 2005: Getting What You’re Worth

Topics here range from advocating for better salaries and pay equity, to earning your own tenure or promotion, to successfully arguing for a raise, to moving to another institution to secure better salary, benefits, or work/life balance.

The deadline for articles is generally the first Friday of the month before an issue appears, but please do query now so I can ensure that your proposed topic fits the theme and with the other articles in that issue. Send queries (outlining what you intend to write about and why you’re a good person to do so) via e-mail to: [email protected].

Contributor guidelines are available online at http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/theme.htm#contri b. Please take a look at some back issues at http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives.htm before querying, to get a sense of the tone and style of the newsletter.

I look forward to seeing your ideas! New writers, new grads, library school students, and all library workers are welcome. E-mail Rachel at [email protected].”

Members of the board of the Ocean Pines and Pocomoke Libraries (MD) have called a halt to the fourth and final showing of Robert Greenwald’s film, “Uncovered: The War On Iraq”, described here.

Board members say that the showing of the film violates their meeting room policy (even though they’ve already shown it three times out of four). Library patron and Ocean City resident George Benton disagreed with the board that the film was not a documentary. He described it as “non-partisan” and that library officials “made a political issue out of it because (the film) did not agree with their political beliefs.”

Benton said discussion before and after the film was encouraged and that he wanted to present the film to give “people a chance to finally talk about this (war) thing together.” Delmarva Now .

Anonymous Patron writes “As PCWorld.com Reports, it’s your fault I am getting so much SPAM. A survey conducted by Internet service provider America Online found that 20 percent of home computers were infected by a virus or worm, and that various forms of snooping programs such as spyware and adware are on a whopping 80 percent of systems. Despite that, more than two thirds of home users think they are safe from online threats.

More than 70 percent of those who participated in the survey falsely believed they were safe from viruses and online threats, even though almost 20 percent of those were currently infected by a virus and two-thirds (63 percent) acknowledged being infected in the past, the survey found.”

Anonymous Patron writes “The Guardian Reports Gazetteers, the age-old precursor to the blogger, have finally found their place on the internet. A new website, launched today, brings together their accounts of Britain through the ages with more than 10m census entries and reproductions of ancient maps.
It has taken a team of historical geographers at Portsmouth University 10 years and a £1.5m lottery grant to put together the website.”

An Anonymous Patron writes “Strong, sexy women save the day, get their man: Readers of 21st-century romance novels aren’t just looking for alpha males to save the day, then marry the helpless damsel. Strong, sexy heroines who save the day and then pick their own man are seducing the romance genre.”

The West Chicago (IL) Library receives boxes of books quite often, but nothing like the enormous Fed-Ex shipping container delivered last month. Inside was “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom,” about the small country nestled between China and India.

At 133 pounds, 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide when opened, and containing enough paper to cover a football field, “Bhutan” is the world’s largest published book, according to the “Guinness Book of World Records.”

The volume has been locked in a storage room since its arrival. Library officials say it will be for display only. They declined to show the book or allow it to be photographed ahead of the dedication ceremony, which is this upcoming Sunday.

Only 500 copies of the book will be printed, and profits will benefit Friendly Planet, a charity that raises money for poor schools in underdeveloped countries. Story from the Daily Herald .