August 2005

Newspapers saved from extinction

The Scotsman reports more than 600 Scottish newspaper titles have been successfully preserved as part of an ambitious archiving campaign by the National Library of Scotland.
Newsplan Scotland set forth in 2000 to preserve approximately four million pages of the nation’s endangered historic newspapers, from 1700 to 1950. The campaign was one of 10 participating in the UK to save some 1,326 of the most endangered UK local newspapers.

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can’t Index

The Onion “reports” Google announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index. The new project, dubbed Google Purge, will destroy all copyrighted materials that cannot be searched by Google.

“Book burning is just the beginning,” said Google co-founder Larry Page. “This fall, we’ll unveil Google Sound, which will record and index all the noise on Earth. Is your baby sleeping soundly? Does your high-school sweetheart still talk about you? Google will have the answers.”

UK Sees Ban on Violent Porn on Internet

There is proposed legislation in the UK that would make it illegal to view or download violent porn on the web.

“The fact that it is available over the Internet should in no way legitimize it. These forms of violent and abusive pornography go far beyond what we allow to be shown in films or even sold in licensed sex shops in the UK, so they should not be available online either.”

said Home Office Minister Paul Goggins. More here from CNN.

An IPod Cellphone Said to Be Imminent

If you’re like me you just don’t care about The Rumors that Apple Computer and Motorola plan to unveil a long-awaited mobile phone and music player next week that will incorporate Apple’s iTunes software. Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said he had been told by an industry executive that the new phone, to be made by Motorola, would be marketed by Cingular Wireless. Mr. Entner said it would include iTunes software, which helps power the iPod.
I’ll get excited when a phone takes good pictures, plays 20 gigs of music, has all my PDA stuff in it, takes great videos, and shoots laser beams.
Thanks again to search-engines-web.com

A Simple Book Repair Manual

A Simple Book Repair Manual: The web version of the Simple Book Repair Manual was created by members of Preservation Services, Dartmouth College Library. General Collections conservation is a necessary and key activity of an effective preservation program. This manual has been written to provide background on standard commercial book production, give guidelines for selecting appropriate candidates for in-house book repair, and introduce staff to the elements of book repair.

Judge rejects author’s claim of censorship

Can you believe a guy who served two years in federal prison for credit-card fraud in the early 1990s and was sued by the Illinois attorney general over an alleged pyramid marketing scheme would try to sell a book on late night TV that is “misleading”? The Albany Times Union says the Consumer Protection Board, a NY state agency that guards against consumer fraud, threatened to ask television stations not to air the program, or to broadcast a warning before and after the infomercial.
Crying censorship, Trudeau sued.

In a short hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Albany, Judge Gary Sharpe declined to issue an order restraining the state from mailing such letters. Sharpe said the state already had complied with the plaintiff’s earlier request to give three days’ notice before mailing the letters, making a restraining order moot.

Law School Podcasting

*Lurker writes “The American University Washington College of Law has started its own podcast for its students, faculty and others to subscribe to. Billie Jo Kaufman and her colleagues are the brains behind it. The University states that it began the cast primarily for its students, so that they can find out about all sorts of issues going on at their school. The administration points out that students could not possibly attend all the events going on, you simply can’t be in more than one place at a time. So with the podcast, students will be able to hear about other programs and events that they were unable to attend.

On a more interesting note, they will even be able to stream classes they miss, this could be a slippery slope, though. Being a student myself I know how tempting this option could be. The University is quick to point out that it will have to be an “excusable absence� in order to take advantage of this option.

For further information you can contact : Kathy Thompson, AU WCL Public Relations, 202-274-4279; Cell Phone: 703-855-5556.
And the feed is here.
To find out more on how to podcast please visit
here