December 2005

Constitution in Crisis Includes Disinformation

kathleen writes “United States. Congress. The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War.

December 2005.

This Minority Report has been produced at the request of Representative John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. He made this request in the wake of the President’s failure to respond to a letter submitted by 122
Members of Congress and more than 500,000 Americans in July of this year asking him whether the assertions set forth in the Downing Street Minutes were accurate. Mr. Conyers asked staff, by year end 2005, to review the available information concerning
possible misconduct by the Bush Administration in the run up to the Iraq War and post-invasion statements and actions, and to develop legal conclusions and make legislative and other recommendations to him.

The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War.

In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war with Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for
such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and other legal violations in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration….it is incumbent on individual Members of Congress as well as the American public to act to protect our constitutional form of government. (Executivev Summary).

“

December 31, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Scirus Expands its Repository Search Service with DiVA

Jay writes “The WebWire reported earlier that Scirus, Elsevier’s science search engine, is expanding its repository search service with the First European Partner, DiVA – Academic Archive On-line.

Repositories worldwide are beginning to respond to the growing need to increase the visibility of their content and implement improved search functionality. DiVA , the Academic Archive Online (Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet in Swedish) is a collaborative effort of a number of universities in Scandinavia, which offers both publishing services and technical solutions for local repositories. Scirus is the most comprehensive science-focused search engine available on the Internet, supporting over one million researchers, scientists and students worldwide. Read the full article at Scirus Expands its Repository Search Service with the First European Partner, DiVA – Academic Archive On-line
.”

December 31, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Ten Stories that Shaped 2005

It’s that time again when the media looks at the year in ideas and we review the top stories of 2005. Below are some of the highlights of this year’s library news. For some background, see the 2004 and 2003 recaps, as many of those stories are alive and well.

This year we look back at stories that cover Google, a good looking librarian, a curmudgeonly president, Wikis, Rootkits and more. The LIS world continues to be shaped by the stories you read here.

Update: 12/30 13:12 GMT by J :Added some late entries. Make sure you add your own memorable stories in the comments below!

It’s that time again when the media looks at the year in ideas and we review the top stories of 2005. Below are some of the highlights of this year’s library news. For some background, see the 2004 and 2003 recaps, as many of those stories are alive and well.

This year we look back at stories that cover Google, a good looking librarian, a curmudgeonly president, Wikis, Rootkits and more. The LIS world continues to be shaped by the stories you read here.

Update: 12/30 13:12 GMT by J :Added some late entries. Make sure you add your own memorable stories in the comments below!

Honorable mention: LISNews server upgrade

Kudos to Blake Carver, the LISNews operator, for upgrading the server and software driving this site. Plus, he still found the time to post the bulk of LISNews stories—and pen several quality features to boot.

10. The “Pretty Librarian” Lawsuit

In April, Desiree Goodwin lost her case against Harvard University for discrimination. A library assistant with two masters degrees and over ten years of library experience, Ms. Goodwin was repeatedly denied promotion. She claimed it was because she is black and was viewed as a “pretty girl” who dressed too provocatively. LISNews later ran an interview with her. Harvard has since counter-sued for legal fees.

9. Oprah’s Book Club Re-launches

To the delight of publishers, in September, Oprah Winfrey started picking modern authors again for her Book Club selections. As expected, this had a positive effect on the industry in general.

8. Katrina Disaster Response

Hurricane Katrina destroyed a lot more than libraries in August. The ALA and other library organizations pitched in with recovery efforts, which are well underway. In a debatable decision, the ALA announced in October that the 2006 Annual Conference would go ahead in New Orleans as planned.

7. USA PATRIOT Act Sunset?

The Patriot Act stayed in the news this year with more confusion than ever about how it was and wasn’t being used or could be used in relation to library patron records. News of library searches continued, including one high-profile case in Connecticut. Despite efforts by many congressmen to let some of the act’s provisions expire, it looks doubtful that those “radical militant librarians” will strike a blow for privacy and liberties. However, it looks like the expiration of Section 215 and other provisions is going to be pushed back only to February 3rd, so look for more Patriot Act news in early 2006.

A suspicious claim about the government monitoring ILL requests, later revealed as a hoax, also made headlines in December.

6. Librarian Employment Outlook

Will it never end? After perennial “just around the corner” forecasts for a rosier library job market, a new story predicted a potential balance of job-seekers and jobs… by 2027. So those abysmal salaries seem to be here to stay.

On a related note, a post by Jenny Levine about being charged to attend a library conference she was invited to speak at yielded a lot of c–h–a–t–t–e–r amongst those pesky librarian bloggers.

5. Sony’s “Rootkit” CDs

In what was probably the most under-reported library story of the year (as the president of Sony BMG’s global digital business division so aptly said, “most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”), Sony BMG was busted for selling pseudo-CDs to unknowing customers. The music discs had anti-piracy software, which essentially acted like a computer virus, hidden in them. Consumer complaints, lawsuits, and a public relations nightmare for the company followed this discovery in October. But the scariest thing is probably how tame this will likely sound after a few more years of DRM advances.

4. Social Software Rising

If you haven’t heard of Facebook, you obviously don’t deal with teenagers. This year saw the continued rise of web-based social networks, as well as the use folksonomies for tagging. And speaking of Flickr, have you framed your LISNews Trading Card yet?

3. Gorman Mouths Off

Poor misunderstood Michael Gorman. He loves to lob disparaging quips about blogs, Google Books, Google Scholar, Google, and, it seems, digitization in general. But he can’t understand why people think he’s speaking as the ALA President and a representative of our profession and not just some random librarian The Wall Street Journal happens to interview.

2. Year of the Wiki

Wikipedia seemed to be everywhere this year, from conferences, to a disastrous experiment with Wikitorials, to media darling Jimmy Wales, to countless nitpicks, to, finally this month, a validation of sorts. With the success of the ALA Conference Wiki, the wiki software also found itself being used by LISWiki and a growing number of library-themed wikis.

1. Google Book Search and Copyright Conundrums

Google Print (now called Google Book Search) seemed to rile up everyone this year, including publishers, presses, authors, the French, and hospitals. It’s an exciting and ambitious project, but how it will impact the future role of libraries and digital copyright laws makes it the top story to watch.

Please post your comments, list critiques, and additional memorable or significant stories below!

December 30, 2005 by Stories Of The Year Uncategorized 1

Charges upheld in comic book case

News Out Of Georgia where A Floyd County judge has upheld charges pending against Gordon Lee, the owner of a Broad Street comic book shop who is accused of giving a sexually explicit comic to a minor in October 2004.

Defense attorneys for Lee — who were successful earlier this month in having four of the seven charges against him dropped — had asked Superior Court Judge Larry Salmon to consider dismissing the remaining charges, which they argued are based on an unconstitutional statute and represented “needlessly duplicative” prosecution of their client.

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Can Sony Make E-Books Succeed?

Wade Roush Wonders if the new U.S. version of the Librie may well succeed where the previous generation of e-book devices failed. Indeed, if an authentic book-reading experience is what consumers are looking for, the new Sony e-reader — which BW’s sources said is based on an earlier device marketed in Japan called the Librie — won’t have a much better shot at success than the previous generation of e-book devices. While the Librie is based on an innovative “electronic paper” technology from E Ink, it is cut from the same mold as the Rocket E-Book, with a flat, inflexible, monochrome screen, operated by push-buttons.
Sony has plans to launch the new e-book reader at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

Indiana Library Missing 4 Paintings

IndyStar.com Reports The city’s library has raised nearly $450,000 in the sale of its art collection, even though four original watercolors it once owned can’t be found.

The Michigan City Public Library acquired the paintings by Julius Moessel in 1945. Two have been missing since at least 1990 and the others since before 2001, but the library staff does not know what happened to them, Director Don Glossinger said.

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Book publisher, Hershey settle

From Associated Press The Hershey Co. has settled a trademark-violation lawsuit against Simon & Schuster Inc. over a new book with a dust jacket that includes the familiar image of a Hershey chocolate bar.

Under the settlement, the New York-based publisher agreed to add an image in the upper left corner of the dust jacket’s front cover stating that the book — “Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams” — is “neither authorized nor sponsored by The Hershey Company.”

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

A Writer’s Escape From Cuba

Anonymous Patron writes “Tom Nolan in today’s Wall Street Journal recounts Jose Latour’s escape from Cuba. You might say Mr. Latour wrote his way to freedom. His vehicle was crime fiction, a genre he fell in love with as a youngster in pre-revolutionary 1950s Havana, reading PocketBook paperbacks left behind by American tourists patronizing the barbershop and beauty parlor run by his aunt in the Hotel Nacional. “That’s how I discovered Erle Stanley Gardner . . . Shell Scott. . . the Ellery Queen pair of authors,” Mr. Latour said. “And the absolute master of crime-noir . . . Raymond Chandler.””

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Oh, Has Uncle Sam Got Mail

The Wall Street Journal Reports The rapid adoption of electronic communications technology in the last decade has created a major crisis for the Archives. For one thing, the amount of data to be preserved has exploded in recent years, thanks to the proliferation of high-tech tools such as personal computers and wireless email devices such as BlackBerries. At the same time, technology is becoming obsolete so fast that electronic documents created today may not be legible on tomorrow’s devices, the equivalent of trying to play an eight-track tape on an iPod.

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 0

Harvard’s “sexy librarian” Loses Bid for Union Seat

A Harvard librarian who lost a lawsuit against the school claiming she was bypassed for promotion because she dressed too provocatively has been trounced in her bid to become an officer of the Harvard employees’ union.

Desiree Goodwin, who became known as the “sexy librarian” when she unsuccessfully sued Harvard in federal court for race and sex discrimination, ran for a seat on the 17-member executive board of the Harvard University Clerical and Technical Workers union, calling for more diversity among the university’s administrative staff and a clearer process for advancement. Goodwin claims she was passed over for promotion 16 times because of her provocative dress, among other reasons. Boston Magazine Has More.

December 30, 2005 by Uncategorized 6

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