Politics

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) today met with Conservative Members of Parliament to educate them on Canada Post's Library Book Rate and to ask for their support to make the Rate more sustainable.
The Library Book Rate is one of CLA's major advocacy files, and the Association lobbies diligently for its continuation and expansion.

From CBS News, here are details of how a librarian discovered the 'global gag rule' removing the word abortion from the Popline ("population information online" ) database.

Gloria Won, a librarian at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, was one of those who sent e-mails to POPLINE administrators after having trouble with searches.

Won got this response from POPLINE administrator Debra L. Dickson: "Yes, we did make a change to POPLINE. We recently made all abortion words stop words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now."

A "stop word" is a word that a search engine ignores; typically they are common words such as "a," "the" and "is."

Loriene Roy, president of the American Library Association, applauded the actions of Dr. Michael J. Klag, the dean of the Bloomberg school, who ordered the word abortion restored to the db, saying the restriction denied "researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the issue access to accurate scientific information."

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to reopen five closed libraries to the public by this fall, the agency said in a report last Thursday.

Three of the EPA's 10 regional libraries and two libraries at the agency's Washington headquarters were closed because of limited public use and resources being available online, EPA officials had said. The closings prompted criticism from lawmakers. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he welcomed the EPA promise to again make all its libraries available to the public, but he cautioned that "important questions about how these libraries will be staffed remain unanswered."

Gary Price pointed the way to This One on a recently drafted bill in NY that would require Web advertising companies, such as AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, to get a Web surfer's permission before tracking Web movements and displaying ads based on those movements.

Ralph Jaffe asked the trustees of the Baltimore County library system this week to allow recruiters inside libraries, but the board refused, reflecting a no-solicitation rule found in all Baltimore-area libraries and elsewhere. James Fish, Baltimore County library director, said the no-solicitation policy doesn’t single out recruiters, but also targets salespeople, campaign workers and activists seeking petition signatures.

“We had 5.6 million visitors to the system last year, Just imagine what it would be like to have salespeople or people pushing a political cause. Once we allow one group, you can’t stop anybody from doing it.”

Hillary Clinton just released 11,000 pages of her schedule as First Lady. The papers were released as a result of a lawsuit by the conservative legal group, Judicial Watch and they give a glimpse into her priorities as First Lady. She frequently refers to her work as First Lady as a credential for her White House bid, but until now the Clinton Library has not released her day-to-day schedules. WNYC’s political director Andrea Bernstein invites listeners to pour through the pages. Story from WNYC.org, an NPR affiliate.

And here's the link from the Clinton Library; some pages apparently have portions blacked out (to protect the innocent?)

A power struggle to control Windsor's library system is being waged at the expense of the system's users and employees, the vice-chairman of the library board said Thursday. Jimmy Stuart, a retired St. Clair College instructor who joined the board in November, said he is disheartened at the confrontations involving Mayor Eddie Francis, city council and the library board. Here's The Scoop.

Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.
That archivists' decision, based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests.

Archives to Clear Clinton Logs in March: The National Archives said Monday it expects to release Hillary Rodham Clinton's schedules as first lady later this month, but has asked a judge to delay the release of thousands of her telephone logs for one to two years.

As early as January 2004 the National Archives and Records Administration warned the White House that its e-mail archival method was operating at risk, and the Bush administration has yet to address those concerns, according to a report released by Democratic lawmakers today.

The document released at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee provides the most detailed public account to date of the White House’s decisions regarding its e-mail archive system — the subject of ongoing litigation and congressional inquiry.

The city's library board is refusing to cut $800,000 from its budget and will leave it up to city council to close branches or reduce hours.

Coun. Alan Halberstadt, board chairman of the library, told a news conference Friday that the city's demand that the library cut 10 per cent of its budget is unreasonable.

Council, which begins final deliberations on its 2008 budget Tuesday, wants the library board to achieve the cuts without closing branches or reducing hours.

If this city is known for both intellectual heft and political blood sport, the Boston Public Library, one of its proudest institutions, aligns itself strictly with the former. But in recent months, the august library has been at the center of some nasty political tussles. “Given the scope and depth of the problems with which the mayor has to deal,” Ms. Spiro said, “he should not be focusing his attentions on this institution.”

Under Drescher's leadership, the Memphis library had thrived, recently winning a 2007 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Drescher's replacement, former Public Services and Neighborhoods director Keenon McCloy, does not have a background in library science but is a longtime administration official. memphisflyer.com Says Politics was the only thing that made sense. Last week, that theory gained more credence after it was reported that Herenton was appointing several new deputy directors, including a former mayoral bodyguard and retired Public Services deputy director, to be the library's new deputy director under McCloy.

"This removes any doubt that this was not intentional," says Perre M. Magness.

Free speech issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have come to the Greenwich Library. A group critical of Israel and U.S. media coverage of the Middle East is defying a library ban on lectures by the group. The organization, If Americans Knew, criticizes Israeli actions toward Palestinians and says the U.S. media misinforms Americans about the conflict.

The Associated Press Reports The National Archives wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking quick access to records about a health care task force Hillary Rodham Clinton headed as first lady, or delay the release for about a year.

Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group, has complained in a lawsuit that the National Archives isn't moving fast enough on its April 2006 request to see the documents. The archives says Judicial Watch is trying to jump ahead of those who made earlier requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Images from the New York Times of conceptual artist Marta Minujin's temporary installation piece installed in a Buenos Aires park in 1983 (first two slides). The artist and a group of helpers spent 17 days building a full-scale model of the Parthenon made almost entirely out of banned books.

Senator Patrick Leahy Says funds for the Office of Government Information Services, a component of the National Archives and Records Administration, authorized under the newly enacted OPEN Government Act will be shifted to the Department of Justice, according to White House aides. The move is contrary to the intent of Congress when it passed the OPEN Government Act -- bipartisan legislation championed by Leahy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). The legislation unanimously passed the Senate and House in December. Leahy this week outlined an agenda for the new year to continue to press for more openness and transparency in government.