LibrarianActivist.org

(Thanks to Kerry M. for the tip!)

- JH

The Toronto Star’s latest piece in its series on medical secrecy today brought with it some good news for Ontarians.

The word is … no more secrets, no more lies. The stage has been set for Ontario to be the leaders in medical transparency in Canada.

Not only will mortality and morbidity records of hospitals be made public, but the health professions colleges will be required to make public findings against nurses, occupational therapists, dentists, acupuncturists, and physicians and the like. That’s findings, not complaints. Due process is still at work here. To boot, the records of physicians will not be wiped clean after six years, as they were previously.

The latest high profile case of cronyism and cover ups within the medical establishment led to wrongful convictions against innocent people due to the incompetent practice of Ontario pathologist Dr. Charles Smith. The CBC reported that ten years ago, Ontario’s Chief Coroner Dr. James Young attempted to block complaints against him. Evidence that eventually led to the release of one of Smith’s victims was found on his desk.

Here are the people who want to help you stay safe in the hospital and the medical establishment at large:
Ontario Hospital Association
Ontario Medical Association
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
(and the colleges of nurses, dentists, acupuncturists, PTs, OTs, social workers, etc.)

Please drop them a line to say ‘well done!’ or ‘you’ll be hearing from us!’ or rather, ‘it’s about time.’

-PC

May 7.07 - The Ombudsman of Ontario pressures government for oversight over hospitals here.

Here is a rad and inspiring interview with Hugh McGuire, founder and Head Rockstar of Librivox. What a good, good man.

At the end of the show, he talks about where the “Librivox model” can go, and brings up the need to make basic data available to the public for urban planning, environment, health, and political purposes. One group that’s working on making such data available in the public domain is CivicAccess. They’re currently trying to make electoral information freely available to everyone who wants to use it because, at present, the database that links postal codes to electoral information (e.g. based on your postal code, who’s your MP?) is a licensed one. And the license ain’t cheap — it starts at $2900 — fine for marketing companies but not so accessible for citizens’ and not-for-profit groups. CivicAcces want to do the same with the 2006 StatsCan Census information and other civic data. More good people!

-SIO

LoudLit.org offers free MP3 audio books of classic works that you can download or read long with onscreen. (via MetaFilter)

Edit: For anyone interested, my co-editor, PC, also linked to a similar site in an earlier post of hers - LibriVox - which also provides MP3 files of books in the public domain and allows people to contribute their own readings as well.

- JH

LibriVox is a volunteer project with the goal of making public domain works available as audio books.

There’s a plethora of goodies here for bibliophiles.

Not only is the availability of classic works a beautiful thing, but access to audio books is a boon to those who benefit from having access to books through alternative mediums … coming to mind:

If you’ve been meaning to contribute your voice (literally) to an information cause, sign up to volunteer and read a chapter or two …

via Boing, Boing, who cited the recent addition of Darwin’s “On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection” to the collection.

-PC