Eileen writes:
This is a commentary from a fellow writer at the Arizona Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He also is working for the University of Arizona Library System as a shelver and shelving coordinator during Summer 2003. It gives a snapshot of what it is like during the hot summer months at the Main Library.
The piece seems very honest and genuine, and comes off as perhaps a bit insensitive becasue of this, but it worth the read.
In yesterday’s New York Times there’s a small [but reg. req.] op ed about the oft beloved Harry books. Rather than bashing them from the “right-wing anti-wizard” perspective, this analysis (and perhaps dismissal) comes from the “I’m an intellectual, anti-bad writing” perspective:
Ms. Rowling’s magic world has no place for the numinous. It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip. Its values, and everything in it, are, as Gatsby said of his own world when the light had gone out of his dream, “only personal.” Nobody is trying to save or destroy anything beyond Harry Potter and his friends and family.
Read the full piece.
Jenny posted an interesting story on The Shifted Librarian today.
Evidently Ed Felton proposed that librarians create an open source and non-restrictive filter to comply with CIPA.
Aaron Swartz has created a filter that only blocks all URLs starting with http://www.microsoft.com
Is this an idea we should be taking seriously?
Michael Nellis writes \”Cross connect CIPA with the USA [un]PATRIOT Act and what do you get? Saudi censorship. As demonstrated by an article at ArabNews.com about the most recent move by the S.A. government to tighten controls on Internet access.
The article also contains some information about the progress of censorship in Saudi Arabia. The scope of the repression is quite depressing, but highly recommended to give you an idea of how sweeping censorship can be.
All of you ALA internal bickering junkies, you’ll want to catch the thread going on regarding CIPA…
Start at this post from the official ALA Council List.
An excerpt:
The CIPA battle was lost in the Court of Public Opinion and in Congress long before it reached
the Supreme Court. Let’s face it! Our resolution condemning the use of filters was too extreme and was a very “tough sell” in Congress.
Charles Davis writes
If anyone ever doubted Malcolm Forbes\’ maxim
\”retirement kills more people than hard work ever
did\”, they should meet…71-year-old [John Druce].
Since officially retiring, he has run Historic
Newspapers for the past 15 years in Newton Stewart,
Dumfries and Galloway, which he claims is now the
world\’s largest archive newspaper business and the
largest archive of English language newspapers
outside of the British Museum.
Read the full story.
A little research found a photo of John Druce [.pdf] who won a \”Britsh Small Business Champion\” award in 2002.
See also, the Historic Newspaper\’s website which is largely tailored to selling clipping from old newspapers. Hmmm…
We’ve all been bamboozled with WiFi hype. Many people gave their vitriolic responses to a story I posted in March. Now here’s an article advocating WiFi as a solution to the worlds problems!
“It is precisely in places where no infrastructure exists that Wi-Fi can be particularly effective, helping countries to leapfrog generations of telecommunications technology and infrastructure and empower their people,” Kofi Annan said.
Does he have a point? Is this just U.S. corporations trying to get into a new market?
Here’s the full story
Former president Lee Teng-hui(§õµn½÷)[sic]has agreed to a plan to build a special library to house the books and documents he amassed during his 12-year presidency, a TSU legislator said.
How valuable do you think presidential libraries are?
Read the full story.
You saw it first in The Onion, now see it on Microsoft’s website: the iLoo.
In time for the summer festival season, MSN is in the process of converting a portable loo to create a unique experience for surfers looking for an alternative to the bog-standard festival loo experience. Users will be able to sit down, undock a wireless keyboard and conveniently access the first ever WWW.C.
Tracy Blacher, Marketing Manager at MSN said: “The internet’s so much a part of everyday life now that surfing on the loo was the next natural step. People used to reach for a book or mag when they were on the loo but now they’ll be logging on! It’s exciting to think that the smallest room can now be the gateway to the massive virtual world.’
See also the Internet Toilet Roll Browser
[via MeFi]
Okay, I realize that I\’m going to link here to The Sun Online but I think it is the best source for this story.
…the 40-year-old dad-of-two stumbled across the copies yesterday morning while walking on common land in the market town of Bungay. He immediately called The Sun and we sent our man Mike Darvill to collect the books from him.
The books were kept under lock and key at the Sun HQ, so don\’t hold your breath for spoliers.
BUT!
The Sun refuses to give away any of the blockbuster book’s secrets.
But we can reveal that a THIRD copy of the new book is in circulation.
Our news team received a call yesterday offering us the first three chapters of the book for £25,000.
A shifty-sounding man told us: “I want the money in a suitcase and I will give you the first three chapters.”
The Sun turned down his offer — keeping alive the excitement of legions of youngsters across the globe.
What would you have done with the books? I\’ve got one word: eBay!
Read the whole story.
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