December 2006

The Muskegon (MI)Chronicle reports that “A technical problem on the Lakeland Library Cooperative Web site made available personal information of more than 15,000 patrons, including minors, across West Michigan on the Internet.

Information that was displayed included names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, street addresses and library card numbers of library patrons registered on the site.

Update: 12/21 13:30 GMT by B :I ran across “3 Things the Litigator Says You Should Know” “Edward McNicholas, a litigator for law firm Sidley Austin, says that litigators’ traditional tongue-in-cheek slogan is, “God bless the person who sues my client.” Data breaches are a likely source of such blessings going into 2007. Here are three bits of privacy-related legalese that McNicholas says every business should understand.”

GSO writes “On leaving school, “the broader public is more than happy to be finished with their schooling and be in a place where they can earn their own pay and learn at their own pace”, and hence the argument for a library e-learning policy — “That’s ‘E’ for ‘Everyone'”: The Future of E-Learning in Public Libraries.”

Somebody writes “BostonHerald.com — Technology: Google’s book-scanning efforts trigger philosophical debate“From the article: ” The latest tensions revolve around Google’s insistence on chaining the digital content to its Internet-leading search engine and the nine major libraries that have aligned themselves with the Mountain View-based company.
A splinter group called the Open Content Alliance favors a less restrictive approach to prevent mankind’s accumulated knowledge from being controlled by a commercial entity, even if it is a company like Google that has embraced “Don’t Be Evil” as its creed.”

Turkish journalist Ipek Calislar was acquitted for allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, considered the founder of modern Turkey.
The BBC reported that prosecutors claimed Ms. Calislar had insulted Ataturk in a biography of Ataturk’s wife Latife, in which Calislar reportedly wrote that Ataturk had once fled disguised as a woman.

Calislar faced up to four years in prison for violating Turkey’s law against denigrating “Turkishness.” Photo and story here.

A YOUNG Wirral (Liverpool area) woman has been convicted of kicking a retired librarian to death. Rebecca Welch, 19, was cleared of murdering George Holleseter, 60, but had admitted killing him and the jury consequently convicted her of manslaughter. Story here.

After 34 years, it’s curtains for Mystery Ink here in New York City. The New York Times has the story.

Coutts Information Services writes “Ingram enters academic library supply field acquiring Coutts Information Services and MyiLibraryTM:

Read more:
http://www.couttsinfo.com/en/news/Ingram.htm“

Bookfinder.com for the last couple of years has been putting out a list of most sought after “out of print books”. They just released the Top 10 US out of print books of 2006

10) One Way Up (1964) by John F. Straubel
Chronicles the history of helicopter development

9) Once a Runner: A Novel (1978) by John L. Parker, Jr.
Cult classic about the sport of running; the sequel, Again to Carthage, is expected soon

To see 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 go to the Bookfinder Blog. Link above.

It’s still early in the season, but communities around the country are attempting to prepare for what they call “super flu”, an influenza pandemic. According to this AP story, “In Dallas, city librarians may replace sick 911 operators.”

The Associated Press took a closer look at those preparations and found wide differences in how far along states are – and little consensus on the best policies, even among neighboring states, on such basic issues as who decides whether to close schools.

Almost half the states haven’t spent any of their own money yet to gird against a super-flu, relying instead on grants from the federal government.

From the AP, publisher, now ex-publisher Judith Regan, who was fired from heading up her own imprint at HarperCollins (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) due to the intended publication of O.J. Simpson’s book “If I Did It”, has complained of a “Jewish cabal” against her in the book industry.

Hollywood attorney Bert Fields, whose celebrity clientele has included Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and Kevin Costner, had called earlier reports of anti-Semitic remarks “completely untrue”, and added that the publisher “didn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in her body.”