Marcy

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks has a few interesting stories to tell about damaged equipment that they lend…

From the Sun Star, UAF’s campus paper…

“This girl had come in raging drunk with a group of friends,� Basham recalled, “They had just kind of abandoned the laptop at the desk.�

The student later returned to the library and told Basham that the laptop was like that when she checked it out.

The University has recently created a policy that requires patrons to pay the full replacement price for damaged equipment. Read the rest of the story here

In today’s Chronicle an article about the standards for publishing online journal articles that the National Library of Medicine has created. Will others publishers adopt this standard in hopes of making digital archiving easier? At least it’s a start.

“The National Library of Medicine has created a set of standards for publishing online journal articles in hopes of simplifying the process for publishing, transferring, and archiving scholarly information.

After months of waiting, a decision by the OMB has been made to allow Executive Branch agencies to choose who gets to print their documents.

The Government Printing Office, ALA, and Printing Industries of America, all support the decision.

In today’s Chronicle, an article about library groups who joined in a law suit supporting Verizon Communications in concealing the names of people who have used their telephone lines to download music off the net.

“Judge John D. Bates has said that Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act permits a copyright owner — in this case, represented by the recording-industry group — to send a subpoena ordering a communication-service provider to reveal information about a subscriber.

Verizon is challenging those rulings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the OCLC Online Computer Library Center a three-year, $9 million grant to build public access computing portal for public libraries and other information organizations.

\”The new portal will build on the foundation\’s five-year-old U.S. Library Program, which is providing computers with Internet access to more than 10,000 libraries across the United States.\”

The rest of the story is here

In the Scout Report this week there was a link to the new online Congo Exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History.

The site chronicles the five and a half year expedition of two museum explorers Herbert Lang and James Chapin.

The online exhibit is fabulously interactive allowing one to follow the expedition, look at beautiful maps, play around with the Geographic Information System, and even listen to music. Definately worth checking out!

The American Library Association has a short story on their website about the announcement yesterday by First Lady Laura Bush that the President\’s 2003 budget will contain a request for $10 million to assist in the recruitment and training of librarians.