Must Read Stories

A chance to participate!

reellis67 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:17:58 -0500

The Office for Intellectual Freedom is beginning to compile it's list of book challenges for his year, 2008. Please follow the link below if you would like to participate. I strongly encourage anyone who has access to these figures to take part in the list. Actions of this sort help sustain the neutrality of our libraries by ensuring that undue pressure to censor library materials does not compromise our free access to information.

Participate here!

Banned books list from 2007

Banned books list from 2006

Banned books list from 2005

When the law is not the law

reellis67 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:36:14 -0500

Libraries are involved with patron's personal information, we all know that. We know who has what book checked out, and in many system there is a record of who has read what, used which computer, etc. Even when there are no physical records, this information can still exist in the form of logs, computer related information that is carried over for a period of time (cookies, etc.), and when books are checked out of a State libraries the records may exist outside the library where the materials were accessed even if that library does not keep records itself once the materials have been returned. It's just a fact of life.

There are laws in place to protect us, the public, from abuse of those in power when it comes to these records. And, while they are certainly not perfect, from from so since 2001, they are still the law, and this is a land of law and order based on those laws - or so we are told. In certain circumstances, people in positions of authority know that if they use their influence to coerce members of the public to abandon their rights, they will often get compliance despite their request being illegal. It happens all the time.

This story explains how this situation came to pass in a library - a situation revolving around the USA PATRIOT act, or so the people in question were told. FBI agents came into the library, asked to see records without a court order (which is required, even under the so called PATRIOT act), and fortunately in this case, the librarian they were questioning knew something of his rights and refused them. According to this article, this sort of illegal action by the FBI has happened over 1000 times.

The article then reviews the court actions that culminated in the Supreme Court ruling that the entire security letter provision of the PATRIOT act was unconstitutional and therefore invalid. The Bush administration has appealed the decision and at the time of this writing there has been no further ruling on this case. The idea that people will forfeit their rights under pressure is something that we should all be concerned about - it affects us all. If enough people forfeit their rights enough times, it will be very easy to adjust the laws to compensate and we will all lose those rights without a fight. We must all be aware and on guard at all times for abuse.

Further reading:

The original article

The White Houses' USA PATRIOT act website

Wikipedia's page on the act, which may give an alternate point, or points, of view

The ACLU's page on the act

OCLC Claims Ownership of Data In OPACs

Great Western Dragon — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:59:28 -0500

OCLC may be trying to pull something sneaky with its new policy of claiming contractual rights over the subsequent use of data created by OCLC. In other words, the data in library catalogues couldn't be used to make anything which competes with OCLC in any way.

Needless to say, this would have a hash chilling effect on the creation of open databases of library content.

As you might expect, the library blogosphere is on fire with the news. The podcast presenter at LISNews gave a commentary in the matter during LISTen #47.

Story from Slashdot.

Google's growth makes privacy advocates wary

reellis67 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:33:34 -0500

Most people today appear to me to love Google, but how much do people really know about this 'indispensable' tool? I'm not going to post an extended rant about how evil Google is in some people's eyes, but I do think that this AP story is worthy of consideration, especially considering the integration that Google is developing with libraries.

Google's growth makes privacy advocates wary

Summary:

This article discusses how information that is collected by Google could be used in violation of current privacy statutes. Some Google tools, such as their Chrome web browser transmit your keystrokes before you press the Enter key. This information is then analyzed by their systems to predict your search terms and offer suggestions. There is an option to turn this feature off, but the activity still occurs, just without user notification, giving the sense that web activity is now 'private'. Along with the information typed into the web browser, your computers Internet address is also recorded, creating a history much like what is visible in your local web browser, but on their servers.

Key concepts from the article:

"It's about having a monopoly over our personal information, which, if it falls into the wrong hands, could be used in a very dangerous way against us,"

“Court says that with all its products, Google has more opportunities than its peers to capture personal information without users realizing it. “

What does this mean? Well, it depends on whether you consider the best possible use of a tool, or the worst. In the best case scenario, the one that Google is presenting to the interviewer of this article, they are using this information to better serve the user, customizing the content delivered to that user based on their usage history. In the worst case, you have a company that is monitoring everything that you type, even if you decide not to perform the search, using that information to develop a profile of each user, which could then be requested from the FBI to profile you, all of which happens without your knowledge.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Won't it help catch people doing wrong, breaking the law, researching terrorism? Again, it all depends on if you are a person who looks only at the positives or a person who looks only at the negatives, or rarer still, someone who considers all the possibilities and judges accordingly. Yes, this information could be used to do good, but it could also be used to market you, without your consent or ability to decline participation, used to develop a profile of you by skirting laws that protect you from just such an activity, and which could be used to build a monopoly on personal information. In the end, it is something that we each must consider for ourselves and act accordingly, but regardless of how you interpret this action, and these tools, you must consider how it impacts your rights, both civil and human...

Further Reading:

Center for Digital Democracy

Consumer Watchdog

The Election & Technology

StephenK — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:08:08 -0500

Declan McCullagh, CNET's chief political correspondent, recently wrote about the impact on technology of the win by the Obama-Biden ticket. Issues overlapping into the realm of library science include issues like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

video of an great ABC pop up book

Anonymous Patron — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:17:33 -0400

This is a video of a great pop up book in case you would like to see it.

It's called ABC3D, and it is an unbelievably witty and well-made pop-up ABC book, produced by Marion Bataille. It's one of those books that could only be a book -- there's no way this could be an ebook or a movie (though the little video above gives you an idea of the thing, it's a poor substitute) or an audiobook or whatever. This is the apotheosis of book, something you have to put between covers to really, really appreciate.

A personal library like no other.

Bibliofuture — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:29:14 -0400

Story at Wired.com about Jay Walker's library. You have to see the pictures of this.

Hangman, Spare That Word: The English Purge Their Language

Anonymous Patron — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:13:21 -0400

I saw a list of these endangered words on LIS News, but the article accompanying it is interesting: public figures are actually trying to promote these words to see if "throwing a pebble in the pond of language really can generate ripples."

Educating about Tejano music

StephenK — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:09:09 -0400

PegasusNews via Latina Lista brings us a story about one librarian in Dallas providing educational opportunities relative to Tejano music. Carolina Martinez is working on a community information to share what Tejano music has contributed to not only Texas but also the music industry.

Did he spray toes at library?

Anonymous Patron — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:32:39 -0400

From The Enquirer in Cincinnati:

"In a case that has befuddled police officials, a Columbus man has been charged with crawling under a table at a library on University of Cincinnati’s campus, spraying a substance from a syringe on a woman’s shoes and then photographing them."