LibrarianActivist.org

A colleague has informed me that Robert McChesney’s new book “Communication Revolution - Critical Junctures and the Future of Media” has been reviewed in Countercurrents. On Net Neutrality, the reviewer states:

Central to [media reform] is an emerging “classic struggle” very much in play but with no certain outcome over the most important issue of all - the future of the Internet and battle for Net Neutrality. That fight must be won, doing it is daunting, and the opposition is powerful media and other monied interests with friends in high places matched against others supporting the public. McChesney calls Net Neutrality “a defining issue for this critical juncture (and) the First Amendment for the Internet.” Media reform activists have drawn a line in the sand. This corporate-free and open space must be defended at all costs. The stakes are that high.

- DD

Thanks to a colleague who sent me this post from TechCrunch “Google To Become Open Source Science Repository“:

Google is said to be preparing to launch a massive repository of science data at research.google.com. The project, known internally as “Palimpsest” will become a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets (…). [T]he storage will be free to all scientists, access to the data will be free for all (…). Two planned datasets are 120 terabytes of data from the Hubble Space Telescope and images from the Archimedes Palimpsest.

Some of the comments on this post are interesting, including some that question just how much information Google knows and owns. How much is too much? In the field of publicly funded research, shouldn’t libraries and government be providing these types of data repositories to make sure that they stay free of advertisements or other private interests? More comments at Digging Digitally.

- DD

Saturday May 17th, come check out Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair with over 100 vendors (book sellers and independent presses) that promote “values of mutual aid, direct democracy, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity.” If you feel like setting up a workshop, presentation or panel discussion, send in your proposal by March 3rd.

- DD

After a series of controversial library closures (see this history at SLA website), a new bill has been approved in Washington that will allocate $1 million to restore EPA’s network of libraries.

The amended bill includes $1,000,000 above the request to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration. (…) The Agency is directed to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act. (more info)

This is great news for the EPA, but north of the border, Environment Canada is still struggling to get appropriate funding, both for its libraries and its research activities. I wrote an article about it last year, and an article and video by the CBC was posted last Fall. It would be great if CASLIS or the SLA (its Canadian Chapters), could drum up an advocacy campaign, the likes of which happened in the US over the EPA library closures.

- DD