Samantha

The indubitable Christian Science Monitor has an article analyzing the issue of fines. A very thorough but quick examination of the issue, nicely written. Where does your library stand?

Carl Monday, an investigative journalist from a TV station in Cleveland, turns his attention to porn on the library computers in two video segments here and here. The segments contain all the hallmarks of Geraldo Rivera style reportage, including shoving microphones in people’s faces, dramatic family confrontations, and lots of cursing. The reporter also has a blog entry on his segments with 49 comments so far.

Anonymous Patron writes “The NY Times Takes A Look @ Google & China. Google’s conduct in China has in recent months seemed considerably less than idealistic. In January, a few months after Lee opened the Beijing office, the company announced it would be introducing a new version of its search engine for the Chinese market. To obey China’s censorship laws, Google’s representatives explained, the company had agreed to purge its search results of any Web sites disapproved of by the Chinese government, including Web sites promoting Falun Gong, a government-banned spiritual movement; sites promoting free speech in China; or any mention of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.”

“New FGI Discussions” has been hiatus since April 8th, but both our guest blogger Shane Mackey and the Free Government Information volunteers have been busy these past few weeks:

Shane’s entries:

• Germany agrees to open Holocaust records for use by historians, survivors

Volunteers’ entries:

• Spring 2006 DLC: Joseph Janes and call for more info – Daniel
• Spring 2006 DLC: Biennial Survey Update – hundreds of libraries still waiting – Daniel
• Official Spring 2006 Depository Library ConferenceProceedings now Available – Daniel
• Spring 2006 DLC: A mostly electronic FDLP Collection – NOT! – Daniel
• Blog highlighting file format issues – Daniel
• Secret Agreement Reveals Covert Program to Hide Reclassification from Public – James R.
• Maine Seeks to Opt Out of GATS Library Agreement – James R.
• The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and the state of the OPAC – James A.
• Censorship at the Department of Education? – James R.
• Statistics Canada e-pubs free as of April 24, 2006 – James R.

The GPO folks running the Future Digital System project have been active as well. While the FDSys Blog has been inactive since January 24, 2006, the main FDSys site has posted an amendement to their RFP and posted an updated requirements document.

If you use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) or some other RSS reader, consider subscribing to the FGI Feed at
http://freegovinfo.info/blog/feed to get FGI stories as they are posted.

With this issue, “New FGI Discussions” resumes it’s regular weekly schedule. Come and join the discussions!

“New FGI Discussions” has been hiatus since April 8th, but both our guest blogger Shane Mackey and the Free Government Information volunteers have been busy these past few weeks:

Shane’s entries:

• Germany agrees to open Holocaust records for use by historians, survivors

Volunteers’ entries:

• Spring 2006 DLC: Joseph Janes and call for more info – Daniel
• Spring 2006 DLC: Biennial Survey Update – hundreds of libraries still waiting – Daniel
• Official Spring 2006 Depository Library ConferenceProceedings now Available – Daniel
• Spring 2006 DLC: A mostly electronic FDLP Collection – NOT! – Daniel
• Blog highlighting file format issues – Daniel
• Secret Agreement Reveals Covert Program to Hide Reclassification from Public – James R.
• Maine Seeks to Opt Out of GATS Library Agreement – James R.
• The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and the state of the OPAC – James A.
• Censorship at the Department of Education? – James R.
• Statistics Canada e-pubs free as of April 24, 2006 – James R.

The GPO folks running the Future Digital System project have been active as well. While the FDSys Blog has been inactive since January 24, 2006, the main FDSys site has posted an amendement to their RFP and posted an updated requirements document.

If you use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) or some other RSS reader, consider subscribing to the FGI Feed at
http://freegovinfo.info/blog/feed to get FGI stories as they are posted.

With this issue, “New FGI Discussions” resumes it’s regular weekly schedule. Come and join the discussions!

For those of you going to New Orleans, the New Members Round Table (NMRT) Mentoring Committee is once again seeking participants for their Conference Mentoring Program at the ALA Annual Conference in June!

For those of you going to New Orleans, the New Members Round Table (NMRT) Mentoring Committee is once again seeking participants for their Conference Mentoring Program at the ALA Annual Conference in June!

The Conference Mentoring Program is a great way to network with individuals who are new to the profession. It is open to all ALA members and is designed to connect a first time conference attendee with a ‘Seasoned Professional’ who can help them navigate the ALA Annual Conference.

Do you remember being overwhelmed at your first ALA Conference?

Do you consider yourself a Conference Pro now?

This is your opportunity to help a new professional learn the ropes….

Sign up today to be a Conference Mentor!

Is this your first ALA conference? Sign up to have someone help you get the most out of it!

What better way to give back to the profession, build leadership skills, and reminisce on those early days than to be a mentor – plus it looks great on a resume or a tenure dossier!

Interested in participating? Please complete an online application form at www.ala.org/ala/nmrt/comm/conferenceMentorApp.htm.

Additional information about the Conference Mentoring Program is also available on the NMRT web site at www.ala.org/NMRT. The application deadline is May 5th, 2006.

If you have questions, please contact the NMRT Mentoring Committee at [email protected]. Please feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues.

Anonymous Patron sends us a collection of links about the new Yahoo! Answers service. Ask any question, and your fellow internet users will answer it (or not) for free.

“Yahoo! Answers Beta: new system:
http://answers.yahoo.com/
Tour:
http://answers.yahoo.com/info/product_tour
Comments and comparisons from Search Engine Watch:
The Birth of Yahoo Answers:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051207-2201 18
Other Q&A Services, Most Free!
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051207-2204 51
(Compares Yahoo! Answers to http://www.wondir.com/
briefly mentions library systems}”

And, to tie in with the podcast story I just posted, since I don’t see it mentioned here, OCLC released a report on users’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. A long (200+ pages!) read but full of interesting facts. There’s been a bit of blogosphere discussion on it (just a sampling of links).

Check out this online interview from Talking with Talis on the new OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report, with George Needham, VP of OCLC. Lots of interesting tidbits about the report and the 2003 Environmental Scan.

search-engines-web.com writes “Who is ZoomInfo?
ZoomInfo is a summarization search engine that finds useful information about people on the Web. This information is gathered from the same publicly available Web sources that are searched by other major search engines like Yahoo and Google, and accessible to any person surfing the Web. ZoomInfo continually scans millions of corporate Web sites, press releases, electronic news services, SEC filings and other public online sources. From these Websites ZoomInfo automatically compiles a person’s Web Summary, which focuses on their professional achievements and background — the stuff they are proud of.”

As seen on Librarian.net: Margaret Osmond’s obituary is a great story about a librarian who lived life to the fullest. Definitely a role model!