In praise of libraries

Anonymous Patron writes :

"Check Out Harry Eyres' take on the value of libraries. The idea that the library could be a great place of discovery, of serendipitous connection, is unfortunately not promoted by academic orthodoxy. It might reek of the days of aristocratic privilege, of the Sieur de Montaigne in his Gascon tower, reading for pleasure while war raged around below. War still rages, but one of the great advantages of our age over the 16th century is that so many people can, potentially, enjoy the privileges of mind-opening study once reserved for aristocrats. "

Issue put to rest: Libraries will get 'SI' swimsuit edition

posted by Blake

Important update from The Columbus Dispatch on one of the most important issues facing libraries today: Sports Illustrated's bikini-filled swimsuit issue soon might show up on central Ohio library shelves after magazine executives reversed a decision to withhold it from such institutions.
"It was a bad decision made within our organization to withhold the issue," said Rick McCabe, spokesman for the magazine. "We won't be withholding the swimsuit issue in the future."

The Harvard Crimson wins the "best headline" prize with "Sports Illustrated Stripped From Rack".

Public library was Source for Gallo Wine Recipe

posted by birdie

JET writes "Yesterday marked the death of Ernest Gallo, who along with his brother Julio started the first major California winery, based on what they had learned as descendants of the Piedmont region of Italy. According to this report, their first batch was formulated on a recipe in a book borrowed from the Modesto CA library. " Here's a tribute to the founder on the Gallo website.

Large, Undisclosed Contributions to Presidential Libraries Create Potential for Corruption

posted by Blake

In testimony on Capitol Hill, the director of the Center for Responsive Politics urges Congress to shine light on the financing of public-private complexes that honor presidents.

"The potential (for corruption) may be far greater than in the campaign finance system," Krumholz told the committee, chaired by California Democrat Henry Waxman. Libraries can accept multi-million-dollar donations and gifts from corporations and foreign governments. Political campaigns cannot accept those types of contributions.

Is your library's filter company quietly changing its agenda?

A letter to the LibraryLaw Blog:

Ms. Minow:

I’m only a recent, and now sure to be regular, reader of the LibraryLaw Blog (what an excellent resource) and am also a big fan of your article “Lawfully Surfing the Net…,” which I cited in many papers during library school.

I’m emailing because I would like to know your thoughts about a recent event. On February 26, 2007, ContentWatch purchased the popular filtering program Net Nanny (http://www.netnanny.com/netnanny). I know of several public libraries that use Net Nanny to comply with CIPA. Since I’ve been looking at Nancy Willard’s research on Internet filtering companies and religious affiliations (http://www.csriu.org/onlinedocs/documents/religious2.html), this change of hands is especially concerning.

On the ContentWatch page http://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/safe_sites_family, there is a link to “Keep Your Children Safe Online,” which links to http://www.child-internet-safety.com/. This page includes one quote from Tommera Press, co-publisher with Fires of Darkness of the book “Riding a Dead Horse: Carousel to Hell,” by Tom Buford. Buford’s web site, firesofdarkness.com, is devoted to overcoming porn addiction and features a link to an interview with Buford on the 700 Club. Another quote featured on child-internet-safety.com is attributed to the Christian Broadcasting Network.

ContentWatch also maintains a list of articles about pornography and child safety under the heading “LearningCenter.” Their list on pornography includes articles such as “Internet Porn Is a Drug and Pornographers Are Drug Dealers” and “It’s Not About the First Amendment,” both by Mark Kastleman (who has published a book called “The Drug of the New Millennium: The Science of How Internet Pornography Radically Alters the Human Brain and Body,” published by Granite Publishers, which is affiliated with the Latter Day Saints). Also archived is the article “DOJ busts Website for Obscenity,” by Jan LaRue, who is chief counsel for Concerned Women for America.

In the spirit of Willard’s research, it seems that public libraries should perhaps rethink their use of Net Nanny, especially if it infringes upon the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause. It will be interesting to see if Net Nanny users notice a difference in blocking activity or access in the coming weeks. Any thoughts about ContentWatch in public libraries?

Thank you for sharing so many thought-provoking ideas via the blog and your articles.

================

Readers, any thoughts?

Posted by Mary in CIPA and DOPA

Libraries' future ``lies in media convergence''

Presentation by Rafael Ball from Central Library Research Centre, Germany

CHENNAI : Imagine sitting in a roomy, well-lit reading room, browsing both print and e-journals while sipping coffee. The future of libraries, according to Rafael Ball from Central Library Research Centre in Germany, is in providing more value-added services to customers.

Convergence of media is the key, Mr. Ball told a group of academics and students of information science at Madras University on Monday.

A library should be able to provide a mix of both print and electronic media information. The processing should be flexible and access decentralised, he said in his presentation, `Innovative Services of a Special Library.'

Need for convergence arose from the fact that while the quantity of scientific journals went up, library budgets stagnated. In order to arrest the loss of quality of library holdings, there is need to subscribe to the increasingly available e-media, he said.

Mr. Ball presented the Central Library Research Centre in Julich as a case study.

A majority of the centre's holdings consist of information in the electronic format. The transition to `E-only' was a slow process, said Mr. Ball. It involved convincing the staff of advantages, and informing heads of educational institutions about lists of titles and the transition road map.

The impact of having more electronic content means a bigger infrastructure budget, higher subscription charges, holding extensive training programmes for employees and setting in place pucca license agreements.

According to Mr. Ball, funding by universities was necessary to have a modern, innovative library, which takes into account the needs of customers.

FBI Agrees to Investigate Charge That Howell School Books Are Porn

by Blake

Up in Michigan The Livingston Organization for Values in Education (Guess what their acronym is!) are living by Blake's Golden Rules. The group wanted the books out of the school curriculum, The Board of Education disagreed, so they did what any sane person who knows what's best for everyone would do, they told state prosecutors teachers were, in effect, providing pornography for their students. Oddly enough, the U.S. Attorlney for the Eastern District of Michigan decided to get the FBI involved, who are now "reviewing it."

I'm not so sure this title is exactly accurate, since in the story they say the FBI has only "received the complaint" and is only reviewing it, not actually investigating. But hey, let's go with it, if they're not concerned with facts then I won't be either, this is, after all, for the children!

*

"We're talking about material that's not appropriate for minor children," Vicki Fyke said.

So Fyke and the Livingston Organization for Values in Education want some books like Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" out of the classrooms at Howell High School.

The book about an 11-year-old girl's search for identity contains a scene in which she is raped by her father.

"It describes in great detail how he does it," Fyke said.

The group is also looking to keep Richard Wright's "Black Boy," Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "The Freedom Writers Diary" out of the curriculum. Fyke says the group has no problem keeping the books in the school library.

But after the Howell Board of Education sided against the group in its push to remove the books from the classroom, Fyke forwarded her complaints to prosecutors, alleging the teachers were, in effect, providing pornography for their students.

"If anybody else gave them this material, it's against the law," she said.

Now Fyke has received a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit saying he's forwarded the case to the FBI for investigation.

"I received it Tuesday," she said.

A spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit told us the office has received the complaint.

"We are reviewing it," the spokeswoman said.

But the whole process surrounding the book is perplexing to at least one educational expert.

"I still can't believe this is happening," Fred Barton said.

Barton heads the Michigan Council of Teachers of English.

"For one thing, the book was written in 1970. It's been taught in schools for many, many years. So I would assume that, if it was a problem, we would have known it about it by now," he said.

Barton taught high school English for 10 years. He says the classroom is the appropriate place to discuss the difficult topics books like "The Bluest Eye" discuss. It can put them in context, he says.

And Barton says the book is appropriate for 10th graders. For example, he says, violence in the book isn't rewarded.

"One of the characters who is most often singled out in these types of situations is actually destroyed by the violence and the kind of things he does."

If parents don't like it, Barton says they can pull their students from the classroom during discussion of the book under the "opt out" program in Howell Public Schools.

Fyke says those kids risk being singled out -- so she want the books out entirely.

"I'm not about to give up. I'm not," Fyke said.

Library passes resolution on porn issue

2/28/07

By Brett Davidsen

The library board of trustees responded Wednesday to a threat from the county to change its Internet porn policy or risk losing millions of dollars in funding. The board met Wednesday morning to take up the issue, which was prompted by an I-Team 10 investigation.

"Let me say at the outset that neither the Monroe County Library System nor any member library condones the viewing of age inappropriate materials by children," said Library System Board President George Wolf.

Last week, an I-Team 10 hidden camera investigation showed you images of people on the Web, viewing graphic sexual material at the library. The library's policy allows adults 17 and older in areas of the Central Branch to view unfiltered Internet.

"I think it's unfortunate that we have pornography in the public library. I didn't know it, it seems to be a surprise to a lot of people," said Jean Gloss of Irondequoit, who came to the public meeting.

Reverend Carley Touchstone was also there. He's the president of the Greater Rochester Association of Evangelicals.

"I was shocked to hear that there was public viewing of pornography here locally and it was taxpayer supported dollars doing it," said Touchstone.

Touchstone said he was leaving pleased by the board's action Wednesday. That action came in the way of a resolution appointing a task force to break down the issue and report back in 60 days. The panel will hire experts and look at, among other things, placement of computer terminals, consideration of rights of adults to access lawful materials, and analysis of filtering software.

"What we have to do is find those kinds of facts. Make certain that there is a basis for the decisions that we make and that's the course we've tried to follow always and the course will continue with," said board Member Bernadette Poole-Tracy.

Hanging over the board's head, a threat from County Executive Maggie Brooks, who, after seeing our investigation, wrote a letter to the library director threatening to halt 6.6.million dollars in funding if the Internet policy isn't changed.

"It's not a simple issue. It’s a complex issue and I don't know how you write a letter like that on a complicated issue without first understanding or having some awareness of what the issues are," said John Lovenheim, president of the Rochester Public Library Board of Trustees.

Brooks responded by showing off stacks of cards and emails supporting her decision.

"What was going on at the library was inappropriate and needed to be addressed immediately and that was the fastest path that I could find to getting a response from the library," Brooks said.

Brooks said she was happy with the result Thursday and called the process fair. However, she warned that she doesn't see any compromise that includes the ability by anyone to access porn at the library.

Committee did not approve pornography

Published: 02.27.2007

On Feb. 20, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to accept the recommendations of the Pima County Library Internet Policy Committee. From public reaction to the recommendations, one might think that the committee protected a right to watch pornography on library computers. I served on the committee, and nothing could be further from the truth.

The challenge for the Pima County Public Library was to find a filtering system that denied access to obscenity and child pornography, but not to other speech protected by the First Amendment. If such a filter existed, the committee would have unanimously endorsed its use.

But, and this is the important point, such a filtering system does not exist.

The committee learned a great deal about computer filtering systems. They are not set up for public libraries to deal with access questions, but for private businesses to determine what sites employees may access on company computers. For example, a company, such as Raytheon, may decide that it does not want employees to visit Web sites such as eBay, Amazon.com or YouTube.

It presents a serious constitutional problem for public libraries to adopt such an approach. Filters block material that might be obscenity or child pornography, but also material protected by the First Amendment.

As the head librarian for the city of Phoenix, Toni Garvey, told the committee, "filters block things that are perfectly legal and useful, and you don't know what you've blocked." That's because the decision to filter is made by the filtering software company, not by our librarians. No one knows what sites such software filters.

A second misconception is that people seek unfiltered access to the Internet to see pornography. Adult patrons who choose unfiltered access have many other objectives, such as seeking health information about breast cancer, erectile dysfunction or sexually transmitted diseases. In the end, some software excludes much material that is protected by the First Amendment.

Perhaps one could argue that this is a small price to pay if we prevent people from accessing obscenity and child pornography over public library computers. But the use of public library computers for such purposes is a small, almost nonexistent, problem.

To determine the extent of the problem of pornography in public libraries, the committee surveyed librarians. Twenty-six of 29 branch managers responded that pornography was never a problem or a problem relatively few times. Only three branch managers responded that it was sometimes a problem and none responded that it was often a problem.

By accepting the committee's recommendations, the Board of Supervisors has decided that all computers will be filtered but adults may obtain unfiltered access to the Internet if they agree to abide by the library's code of conduct. And adults would be notified that viewing obscenity or child pornography is illegal and that Arizona law prohibits displaying content that is harmful to minors.

In our civic life, public libraries play a critical role by facilitating citizens' access to material that challenges the mind, engages the imagination and encourages a well-informed citizenry able to exercise its enormous responsibilities in our republican form of government. The board's decision preserves this important function of our public libraries by rejecting unnecessary and unwise censorship.

Write to Robert Glennon at glennon@law.arizona.edu.

Senator Matt Murphy of Illinois Set to Ban His Own Blog from Libraries?

from: http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com

Senator Matt Murphy from Illinois, the legislator who has introduced the most restrictive ban on social networking sites in the nation, held a very interesting "live chat" online tonight. It took place at 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the comments on his blog at http://senmattmurphy.blogspot.com/, which is an interesting use of blogging I haven't seen before. There are 69 comments that constitute the discussion, a back-and-forth between Murphy and the commenters.

In the blog post itself, Murphy sounds fairly reasonable and balanced, saying he filed the bill "to raise awareness of the threat predators on these sites pose to our kids" and "to advance a dialogue on how we can minimize this threat." Neither of these reasons really explains why he chose to introduce a full ban on a class of sites he can't even define (nowhere does the legislation explain what is meant by the term), but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt as I read his responses anyway.

Unfortunately, I got as far as the 12th comment, in which Detective Bob Riordan, who is working with Murphy on this legislation, notes that Blogger is in the list of "top 10 social networking sites."

What site is Murphy's blog on? Blogger. So apparently, Murphy's current bill would ban his own site - where he hosted the "live chat" to discuss banning social networking sites in libraries - from being accessed in libraries, even by adults.

In addition, I got *really* scared by the following statement from the police detective:

"A possible solution to alleviate the problem would be to issue library users a screen name or a PIN number when they initially apply for a library card and monitor the internet content through the predetermined PIN or screen name."

I hope he was failing to articulate a position of filtering based on access level (child versus adult), but that still doesn't justify singling out social networking sites like this and outright banning all children from using them. In fact, I find Murphy's excuse of starting at such a restrictive point in order to "advance a dialogue" troublesome and even irresponsible of an elected official.

Murphy doesn't respond much in the comments, probably because this was a poor format for a chat and it must have been difficult to keep up with the flow. I look forward to hearing how he more clearly and directly responds to the many concerns expressed in the thread. I am particularly anxious to see how he amends his legislation in light of them, especially given that if his current bill is passed, any similar chats he holds in the future would discriminate against school and library users.

Computers replace books

posted by blake

"Computers replace books" Wor-Wic Community College sophomore Christy Lohnas doesn't have to search through stacks of books anymore to find the resources she needs. When Lohnas has a paper to complete, the library's online database provides the answers.

Wor-Wic's Library, better known as the Media Center, has gone completely electronic, replacing books with desktop computers. The collection of full-text online databases covers a wide range of genres and includes a variety of both print and online sources such as articles from reference books, academic journals, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets and statistical tables.

Wireless Users More Engaged With Cyberspace

posted by birdie

Are you a wireless user? If so, The Pew Internet and American Life Project experts say that you "show deeper engagement with cyberspace" than your wired comrades.

The BBC reports that while 54% of internet users check e-mail "on the typical day," 72% of wireless users check daily. Just under half of wireless users get news online every day, compared to 31% of internet users at large.

Not sure if this is a positive trend, as life doesn't really revolve around cyberspace...or does it?

NYTimes Article on Video Search Engine

Paul Lewis writes "Articles discusses video site Blinkx.com blinkx.com which employs speech recognition technology to posted videos to enhance keyword searching capabilities for video content. They Say Blinkx's speech-recognition technology employs neural networks and machine learning using "hidden Markov models," a method of statistical analysis in which the hidden characteristics of a thing are guessed from what is known."

More crazy legislation - library staff as sexual offender check-in officers

One of the craziest library bills of all time was reintroduced in the Florida Legislature yesterday.

S1804 GENERAL BILL by Posey
Sexual Offenders/Public Libraries; prohibits certain specified sexual offenders whose victim was under age of 18 from entering public library without immediately notifying employee of public library of sex offender's presence & intent to use resources of library; prohibits sex offender from entering library until employee acknowledges presence of offender; provides that offender who violates act commits felony of third degree; provides criminal penalties, etc. Amends 947.1405, 948.30.
EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007
02/21/07 SENATE Filed

Minow take: I worked in public libraries for ten years. We all want to protect the children, but putting library staff in this role is untenable. As I asked last year, does this mean library staff must then keep an eye on the patron? Is there funding for extra staff to do this? What kind of relationship does this really entail, and does it put the library employee at some risk? Will there be an expectation that the librarian will keep the offender away from the children... and if so, what if she fails?

Giving libraries money for security guards is a much better idea.

Senate Bill sb1804

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.

    Florida Senate - 2007                                  SB 1804

  By Senator Posey

--more @link--

Child porn printed at library

JET writes "patriotledger.com Reports A high-risk sex offender from Norwell will be charged with possession of child pornography after he was caught printing photos of naked children off the Internet at the Hingham Public Library.

The second to last paragraph was interesting. We do not have pictures of are sex offenders posted in the library where I work at. However, it is a university library. I was wondering how many people here have those pictures of sex offenders displayed where you work at."

posted by Blake

Library porn policy stuns clueless exec

News From Rochester, NY where the County Executive has apparently been asleep for the past decade.

In a strongly worded letter to Paula Smith, director of the county library system, Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks said she was "stunned" and "mortified" that the library would allow people, upon request, to obtain access to pornographic sites. Brooks is threatening to halt about $7.5 million in county funding for the downtown library if it doesn't tighten restrictions. The loss of the money, about 70 percent of the library's budget, would essentially put the library out of business and cripple the library system in Monroe County.

Don't worry, she's doing it, for the children... "As a mother I was horrified to see our community's children put in a position of being exposed to matters beyond their comprehension in some cases, in a place designed for learning," Brooks said.

You Say Scrotum, I Say Hoo-Ha

By Susie Bright, SusieBright.com. Posted February 21, 2007.

Squeamish school librarians, screaming at a single word they deemed "offensive," have put the screws to an award-winning children's book.

Squeamish school librarians, screaming at a single word they deemed "offensive," have put the screws to a scrumptious award-winning children's book called, of all things, The Higher Power of Lucky.

Have our public-knowledge custodians lost their scruples?

With One Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar

by Julie Bosman

The word "scrotum" does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children's literature, for that matter ...

Yet there it is on the first page of The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, this year's winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children's literature. The book's heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

"'Scrotum' sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much," the book continues. "It sounded medical and secret, but also important."

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children's books ...

"This book included what I call a Howard-Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn't have the children in mind," Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. "How very sad."...

Andrea Koch, the librarian at French Road Elementary School in Brighton, N.Y., said she anticipated angry calls from parents if she ordered it. "I don't think our teachers, or myself, want to do that vocabulary lesson," she said in an interview ...

Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo., said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her stance. "I don't want to start an issue about censorship," she said. "But you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature."

Let's uncover the anatomy of a literary sex panic, shall we?

A couple dozen prudes got squicked-out, starting with the strangely un-investigated Ms. Nilsson, who is leading the tiny parade of shocked citizens. Reporter Bosman and the Times kicked up the rest of the shocking-pink dust, without diligent reporting.

Ms. Nilsson isn't just a "teacher," she's a leader from the Durango Christian Science Church. When the media reports on issues of language or sexual attitudes and customs, it's incumbent on them to inquire about their informant's religious background and how it affects their decision-making. Who cares what Dana Nilsson thinks about librarianship, if her first priority is her Scriptural views of morality?

This story has pushed the Flying Spaghetti Monster envelope. Ever since Kansas ruled against evolution, and our current President encouraged a world-view that was created in seven days, there is a sense among scientific and empirically-minded Americans that our educational system has lost its marbles. These people, including myself, are the majority, not the Sunday School of the Week Club. We're easily alarmed by any evidence that we've have been swallowed into a Jonah's Whale of a fairy tale that never stops spouting off.

The Times' sample of quotes reveal a group of obvious religious conservatives who betray more about their own ignorance, phobias, and lack of library professionalism than they do about the state of the English vocabulary -- in literature or social life.

Anyone who says that "male genitalia are not in quality literature" needs to have their resumé examined. What's more, this is hardly the first time that the word "scrotum" has appeared in children's books. Think again, Ms. Bosman!

Children's libraries, librarians, and authors are being smeared in stories like these. Children's Lit is a field that includes the greatest writers of all time, speaking on every topic, with every nuance of language. I'm sure E.B. White is turning over in his grave to contemplate this canard, one that Templeton the Rat wouldn't scratch his testes with.

The story ran on the Times front page. At my last view, about 500 people had written into the paper's web site to protest the stink of pre-emptive censorship:

... Most school librarians do not possess a Master of Library Studies -- most are teachers who wound up working in the school library. And doubtless the "librarians" quoted in this article are of a certain political persuasion. Extremely few bona fide (MLS) librarians (e.g. those in public libraries) would ever consider banning this book. -- Posted by Larry McCallum

Librarian Frederick Muller's comment is an example of the selfishness of the opposition: "If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn't want to have to explain that." If there is one teacher out there who cannot put this book in context for a third-grader because of their own squeamishness over the word "scrotum", then our entire education system has been left behind. What is the right grade for Mr. Muller to teach this book to so he won't be embarrassed of his own human condition? -- Posted by Tom

Back in the 70's when my daughter was in second grade she raised her hand for permission to go to the bathroom. The young first-year teacher asked her if she needed to go "number one or number two."
My daughter replied, "Neither, my vagina itches and I need to scratch it, then wash my hands."
I received a call from the teacher to discuss my daughter's language in class. I, of course, imagined the worst, as I had often heard some pretty foul language in the schoolyard when I dropped her at school in the mornings.
When the teacher told me what my daughter had said I almost laughed out loud; but I very politely asked her what the problem was, as my daughter had answered her question honestly and with the correct anatomical word.
She informed me that a lot of parents didn't want their children knowing words like these, and didn't I have some "cute little family name for it."
I told her, no, we didn't, and that I thought the whole thing ridiculous. She was not happy with me, and apparently spoke to the school principal who called me the next day to apologize. It was silly then and it is silly now.
-- Posted by Constance Ledlow

Most librarians are not tight-lipped prudes, they're courageous front-liners on First Amendment issues. Most families are nonchalant about the daily-observed behavior of their dogs and cats. Parents- who are not in the grips of fundamentalist fever- believe it's helpful for young people to know the correct terms for their own body parts, be they a nose, elbow, vulva, or scrotum.

Yes, some parents are shy. My own mother was too timid to say "vagina" out loud, but she was even more disgusted with the damage done to her as a young girl- "the devil makes you bleed down there because you've sinned," etc.

So she went to the LIBRARY, and got a children's book for me about "how babies are born," one that used perfect English anatomical vocabulary. That was 1968- I wonder if you could find that book at Sunnyside Elementary today.

It's difficult to discuss bodies, sex, and reproduction with anyone, if you fear your own - or believe that an almighty power will strike you down with a word. If Howard Stern is Ms. Nilsson's only exposure to public sexual discussion, she might indeed be distorted. A book like Lucky, that would quietly and kindly inform a young person's point of view, is a nothing less than a Godsend! ...If you'll excuse my French.

The religious right needs to stop breaking everyone's balls -- but the fact that they have, so impressively, in every school system and public forum in the country, has made reasonable thinkers everywhere shake in their boots. Lucky's snakebite is nothing to worry about -- but it is one more venomous nail in the coffin of enlightenment.

REMOTE ACCESS: Distant Libraries of the World

Paul writes "Welcome to Remote Access.ca Camels and donkeys are used in Kenya to bring literature, education and information to people who otherwise would not have access to them. Children walk more than a mile through the Amazon jungle to reach the only library in the area and farmers in the province of Cajamarca, Peru use their homes to provide space for books and to hold "reading circles" See it all in the fascinating documentary REMOTE ACCESS: Distant Libraries of the World."

posted by Blake

New legislation to make libraries and schools block MySpace - House bill introduced Feb. 16th

In case you thought DOPA was too outrageous to get traction, think again. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced a DOPA companion bill in the House HR 1120 that already has 12 cosponsors.

Yes, we all want to Delete Online Predators (DOP-A).

But why stop at blocking social networking websites? While we're at it, let's not allow kids use their email accounts at the library. Or adults, since they could be the bad guys. Yeah - no email. And people shouldn't really look up information on the web, either. They could be up to no good. Let's watch what they're looking at, to find out. That would sure cut down on demand for library terminals, a win-win! No more lines.

A double-first at the Bodleian library as US woman takes over

One of Europe's oldest libraries, the Bodleian has gotten its first woman director in its 400+ year existence, according to the Independent Online. Not only their first woman director, but their first non-Brit. Dr. Sarah Thomas has

worked at the Library of Congress in Washington DC as acting head of its Public Service Collections before moving on to oversee the 20 libraries at America's Cornell University. Now, as executive head of the Oxford University Library Services, with its more than 11 million printed volumes in 40 different library sites, her task is to ensure the university's fantastic collection survives the move to the new digital era unscathed.