LibrarianActivist.org

As though the American government didn’t learn from the EPA library closure fiasco and outrage, according to Library Journal, the National Agricultural Library FY09 budget proposal includes a $3 million reduction. An excellent letter of concern was sent by the United States Agricultural Information Network to Washington. Here is a portion of the letter:

The President’s FY 2009 Budget Estimate includes $18 million for the USDA National Agricultural Library, a $4 million reduction from the FY 2008 Budget estimate, and $6 million less than the FY 2007 actual budget for the Library.

Significant changes proposed by ARS include redirecting $993,000 in AWIC funds to support NAL participation in a new digital portal for veterinary medicine; eliminating funding for the National Agricultural Law Center, the nation’s leading source for agricultural and food law research and information, which complements and works with NAL, which does not cover these areas; and most importantly, reducing funding for non-digital content/document delivery/Special Collections by $3,000,000.

As a national library, the print collection is core to researchers and the agricultural history of the nation. It is this reduction of $3,000,000 for the print collections that is of immediate concern. In FY 2007, NAL document delivery services filled 29,000 requests from the NAL collection for materials which were available in print-only–not available electronically. In FY 20009, such requests for print-only materials would not be filled.

The ramifications of the proposed reductions or redirections of NAL funding include not only the inability for NAL to fill requests for materials available only in print, but the complete cessation of book and journal purchases, and the inability to catalog and make available print materials already acquired. In addition, cancellation of the receipt of free publications from the U.S. and other countries would have a major impact. In recent years the USDA required all USDA-authored publications to be delivered to the NAL; but what good is this if there no money to catalog them and make them findable?

The Briarpatch is an alternative news magazine based in Regina (circa 1973) making creative use of folkosomies and participatory metadata.

Their latest free monthly newsletter the B-List posted this effort to collect progressive/political news and links from their readers.

Are you an online news hound? Do you use del.icio.us to tag your favourite articles? Then you’ve got what it takes to become a B-List stringer! All you have to do is tag the best articles you can find (radical, insightful analyses of current events and important trends) with the tag briarpatchb-list. We’ll do the rest! If you want more info, just drop us a line.

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Library Journal interviews student advocate (and new contributor to Open Access News) Gavin Baker about SPARC’s student engagement Right to Research campaign.

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Greyson over at Social Justice Librarian has blogged about the impending shut down of the CHN. For discussion on why this is a bad, bad idea check out the posts here and here.

The Globe and Mail is on this story as well, and this info was posted in the comments section:

Catherine Bryant from Toronto, Canada writes: Speak out against the closure - join Friends of CHN

Friends of CHN is an ad hoc group whose objective is to focus attention on the closure and its impact, and to try to turn this decision around.

Here’s what you can right now:

1. Join Friends of CHN – send an e-mail to friendsofchn@click4hp.ca. We will occasionally send out updates to everyone who has joined the group to let you know what progress we’ve made and how you can help.

2. Voice your opposition by writing to the Federal Government – for messages and addresses in English see: http://www.blogs.opc.on.ca/?p=204

3. Join the Facebook group (English only so far) to share your support and ideas: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6400982981

4. Sign the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/saveCHN

5. Tell your friends and colleagues about Friends of CHN

6. Volunteer your talent – let us know what you can do (write letters, talk to the media, connect with government officials, create a website, take notes on a teleconference, etc.) by writing to us at friendsofchn@click4hp.ca or join the Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6400982981 or both.

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(from avaaz.org via Siue Moffat)

ahem: ‘ludricrous’ as in, well said. not ‘as if’. ludicrous, deifinitely.

Right now, a major UN summit in Bali has just a few days left to hammer out an agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of helping out, Canada is actually sabotaging the talks! On Saturday, experts gave us the global “fossil” award for being the worst country in the world on climate change.

There’s still a few days left to save Canada’s reputation — and the climate — but we need a massive democratic roar to remind our Prime Minister what Canada is all about, and stop him from blocking the world at Bali. Click below to sign the petition, which will be advertized with the number of signatures in an ad campaign across Canada this week. The goal is to get 25,000 people to sign in the next 3 days — before the ads run. After you sign, forward this email to all your friends and family right away: Link

Prime Minister Harper’s short-sighted, undemocratic and big oil-driven policy on climate change is damaging the world and destroying our image as a good country. We’re supposed to be the nice guys, who try to do the right thing in the world.

The vast majority of Canadians are hopping mad on this issue — we can win this. We just need to show Harper how serious we are that he change course. Sign up now and forward this email to everyone you know - we’ve got just 3 days to hit 25,000 signatures!

Thanks for you help!

PS - Here are links to some more info on this:

David Suzuki (the Nature of Things) calls the government’s spin on climate change “humiliating” and “ludicrous”:
Toronto Star article

The former editor-in-chief of CBC news discusses the damage done by Canada’s climate policy to our international reputation: CBC article

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