January 2010

Google, copyright, and our future: Lawrence Lessig

The deal constructs a world in which control can be exercised at the level of a page, and maybe even a quote. It is a world in which every bit, every published word, could be licensed. It is the opposite of the old slogan about nuclear power: every bit gets metered, because metering is so cheap. We begin to sell access to knowledge the way we sell access to a movie theater, or a candy store, or a baseball stadium. We create not digital libraries, but digital bookstores: a Barnes & Noble without the Starbucks.

All charges have been dropped against a former librarian who was charged in August for allegedly having sex with a student. The Prosecutor confirmed on Monday that charges were dropped Jan. 6 against the librarian after police heard a recorded phone call in which the student said that nothing ever happened with her and that he’d made it all up.

Let’s hope your patrons are not quite as unappreciative as this particular teen at the Cortez (CO) Public Library.

Resolution in the case of a Montezuma County teenager who used e-mail to threaten a local librarian is scheduled for next month.

Keith Mandelski, chief deputy 22nd Judicial District attorney, said the case against the juvenile is scheduled for sentencing at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 19 in district court. Citing state statute, he declined Thursday to comment on the severity of charges the 16-year-old boy faces.

District Attorney Jim Wilson said the youth was charged in the threat incident as a juvenile, not as an adult. In Colorado, court records involving juvenile cases are not available to the public.

The youth sent an e-mail from a Cortez Public Library computer to a staff member at the library on Oct. 15, 2009. The e-mail explained his plan to murder the library’s director, Joanie Howland, during the Nov. 7, 2009, Library Libations event held at the Cortez Journal.

13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology
This list has come out of a few different presentations I’ve given for public libraries recently, from Hawaii to Iowa. Take a look, see what you want to try, and let me know how it works. The list is not exhaustive, so I invite all of you to comment on this post and add your own favorite free web tools, software, and open source awesomeness.

Confessions of a Book Pirate
He lives in the Midwest, he’s in his mid-30s and is a computer programmer by trade. By some measures, he’s the publishing industry’s ideal customer, an avid reader who buys dozens of books a year and enthusiastically recommends his favorites to friends. But he’s also uploaded hundreds of books to file sharing sites and he’s downloaded thousands. We discussed his file sharing activity over the course of a weekend, via email, and in his answers lie a critical challenge facing the publishing industry: how to quash the emerging piracy threat without alienating their most enthusiastic customers.

Book fair draws an array of anarchists
Diverse ideologies were on display at the festival in Barnsdall Art Park. Some attendees said the event itself proved the need for revolution: ‘We don’t fight here. We hold book fairs.’

Retired librarian recovers stolen door from old jail
Few people get misty over the loss of a cellblock door, but Crossfield had a fondness for it. Her father, George C. Johnson, a Limestone County district attorney for decades, knew a lot people on both sides of the bars over the years. Crossfield believes the door came from the original downtown jail that preceded the Green Street jail in Athens. She had planned to use the door as a teaching prop at Dogwood Flats, where she and her husband, Roy, are restoring a schoolhouse opened in 1947 and closed for integration in 1967.

What does a silent Oakland sound like?

That’s what Oakland artist and composer Chris Kubick set to catalog, and what he’ll be sharing with the public this Sunday in the Oakland History Room at the downtown Oakland Main Library.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inoakland/detail?&entry_id=55807#ixzz0dk508FLe

Yale’s libraries don’t just shelve volumes; they also publish their own.

The first issue of the Yale Library Studies journal, a new annual publication put together by the University’s librarians, faculty, related experts and invited authors, was released this month. The journal replaces its biannual predecessor, The Yale University Library Gazette, which was in publication between 1926 and 2008, said Geoffrey Little, editor of the new journal.

To give coherence and consistency to the journal and attract readers who otherwise might not pay attention to the journal, former University Librarian Alice Prochaska decided to give each volume a theme: This year’s is the architecture of Yale’s libraries. “We’ve already heard from [The New Yorker architecture critic] Paul Goldberger ’72 with words of high praise,” Prochaska said.

Fifteen amazing gadget ideas that were way, way ahead of their time.

Here…is a prospect of real culture for the masses Forty thousand pages in a volume! A single volume the equivalent in printing space of two hundred paper-leaved books of two hundred pages each! What a library might be placed between two steel covers and sold for, perhaps, two dollars!