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Reed Elsevier Organizing Arms Fairs?

Published April 18th, 2007 in other, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

Reed Elsevier isn’t just charging high prices for journals, no, they’ve also got some rather nasty side projects going on:

From the British Medical Journal: “While promoting world health through its publications, including The Lancet, Reed Elsevier also organises international trade fairs for the arms industry.”

From The Independent: “New allegations on Reed Elsevier’s links to the most controversial parts of the arms trade have emerged, as peace protesters descend today on the AGM in London of the conference and publishing company.”

And a Petition: “Please consider signing the petition below so that Reed Elsevier know that the academic & medical communities disapprove of their supporting the arms trade.”

Petition and boycott: “We consider Reed-Elsevier’s involvement in the global arms trade to be reckless and morally wrong, and we urge Reed-Elsevier to stop organising arms fairs. Until they do, we will not submit our papers to Reed-Elsevier journals.”

More general info from Wikipedia: “He suggested that if academics began to disengage with Reed Elsevier, the company would be likely to end their arms fairs, as arms fairs only comprise a small proportion of their business.”

With thanks to Paul.

-SIO

Taking information into your own hands.

Published April 8th, 2007 in Community, advocacy, alternative media, freedom of expression, information commons, public libraries, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

Chip Ward’s illuminating article on how the library has become a de facto ’shelter’ in place of the state’s shrunken safety net provides an excellent opportunity to look at how ppl who are often perceived as non-citizens, non-persons, non-existant nuisances in the collective conscience are reclaiming their power and identities.

Here are some props to ‘information’ efforts that seek to give voiceless groups space to speak for themselves by putting the media in their own hands.

First is Homeless Nation, a Canada wide non-profit organization that provides an online community and forum for homeless people to express their point of view, and an opportunity for the public to interact with and learn some things about being homeless in Canada. Launched in [June] no, April of 2006, membership has grown to over 2000 participants.

Mentions of Homeless Nation in the media can be found here and here and in Rabble podcasts here.

Second is an archives that is documenting the history and cultural heritage of people who’ve been in contact with the psychiatric system.

Librarians, carve out a wee moment in your hectic schedules check out the Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto. It’s a forum and space that aims to preserve the history of psychiatric survivors for current and future generations. PSAT seeks to create an opportunity to restore a sense of agency and personhood to psychiatric survivors, to value their lived experience, history and culture, and to engage a voiceless and stigmatized population in the democratic process of self expression.

Articles here and here published recently in the Toronto Star speak to MAD pride, a movement akin to the ‘queering’ of gay/lesbian culture.

- PC

“Don’t Mind Me, I’m Dead” - The Library and Homelessness

Published April 7th, 2007 in advocacy, information commons, public domain, public libraries, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

An article about the shift in the role of public library from “library” to “homeless shelter”. (via MetaFilter which, as always, has lots of good discussion around all aspects of this issue.)

- JH

Free the hospital records!

Published March 26th, 2007 in advocacy, information commons, open government, other, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

An editorial in the Toronto Star today speaks to lifting secrecy from the medical realm. (To me) this is a call to arms … especially within a publicly funded health care system. (Duh).

Here are some of the highlights:

    1. 23 000+ ppl per year die in Canadian hospitals due to adverse events

    2. access to information is dependent on jurisdiction and the POV of hospital administrators, not the Access to Information Act.

    3. the dismal surgical record of an Ontario surgeon - not available to the public - led to more than a dozen women suffering physical and emotional harm under his care

Link.

Ontario legislators are debating health accountability legislation this week. How about siding with public safety on this one.

This article is the third in a series in the Star about coming clean about medical errors.

Check the first two out here and here.

-PC

Myths About The Developing World

Published March 11th, 2007 in advocacy, alternative media, conference, international trade agreements, open access, public domain, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks a few myths about the “developing” world. Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:35) - More TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com

(via Citadel of the Blogs)

- JH

Working Together Project Web Site Goes Live

Published February 15th, 2007 in Community, progressive librarians, public libraries, social justice | No Comments »

Working Together is an innovative project attempting to overcome social barriers for marginalized people in Canada’s libraries. Right now, Working Together exists as a pilot project in four Canadian cities - Vancouver, Regina, Toronto and Halifax as well as a CLA interest group “Libraries in Communities”. The new Working Together web site has lots of information, an overview of best practices in this area as well as a discussion board.

Here’s the official announcement:

Hello all,

We are pleased to announce that the Working Together National
Demonstration Project website is now live at
http://www.librariesincommunities.ca/

We will be adding content as we create it and look forward to
participating in discussions about community development in a library
context.

Thanks,

Sandra Singh
National Director, WTP

Annette DeFaveri
National Coordinator, WTP

(via CLA mailing list)

- JH

Story of the Zyprexa documents

Published February 8th, 2007 in censorship, social justice | No Comments »

Can documents in reference to an ongoing lawsuit be published and distributed online? Judge Cogan and subsequently Judge Weinstein of Brooklyn thought not, according to the injunctions they issued to lawyer Jim Gottstein for the recall of all Eli Lilly documents he had distributed related to the inappropriate usage and marketing of Zyprexa, documents that Gottstein reportedly obtained through a subpoena in support of another lawsuit.

Out in the blogosphere, this injunction has been coined ‘Judge Tries to Unring Bell Hanging Around Neck of Horse Already Out of Barn Being Carried on Ship That Has Sailed’ source: TortsProfBlog

Aside from the “this is absurd” interpretation so aptly described by the TortsProf, is it even legally tenable? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has lent its support to the distribution of the documents, which according to the NYT contained evidence that Eli Lilly suppressed information about side effects and marketed the drug against FDA approval for ‘off label’ uses.

Mind Freedom also supports Gottstein’s position that the documents are not eligible to be sealed due to the public’s right to safety and the fact that the documents do not in fact contain proprietary or trade secret information. Mind Freedom and the Alliance for Human Research Protection have defended what they consider to be the right to free speech in court hearings on Jan 16 and 17, 2007 and now await Judge Weinstein’s decision, expected soon.

The website most implicated for the distribution of the documents was a wiki at zyprexa.pbwiki.com. At the moment, this and all other sites are complying with the injunction.

Can you say “[down with] censorship” and “public safety” and “whistleblower protection”?

Good, altogether now!

-PC

Feb. 18.07 update…
Evelyn Pringle reports in Counterpunch on Judge Weinstein’s Feb 13.07 decision to enforce a permanant injunction to prevent circulation of the documents.

Mar.1.07 update …
Mind Freedom reports a mixed decision - Judge Weinstein recognizes importance of upholding free speech, permitting websites to post the documents. But Weinstein enacts a permanent injunction against the original ‘conspirators’. Link.

PLG Statement on Powell Library Tasering Incident

Published November 29th, 2006 in advocacy, information commons, social justice | No Comments »

A follow-up to a recent post about a very disturbing incident…

PRESS RELEASE

November 27, 2006

The Progressive Librarians Guild today issued the following statement:

The Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG) condemns the violent treatment of
Iranian-American student Mostafa Tabatabainejad at the Powell Library of
the University of California (UCLA) on November 14, 2006.

Caught on video, and viewed by witnesses, the police assault on
Mr.Tabatabainejad is a violation of Mr. Tabatabainejad’s constitutional
rights under U.S. law, and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

PLG believes there are no circumstances under which such police behavior
can be sanctioned or rationalized given eyewitness accounts, video
documentation, and the statements of parties to the event. No university
security policy can legitimately sanction or condone this type of police
assault with a potentially deadly weapon.

PLG, a group of librarians and library workers, is particularly appalled
that this incident occurred during a random security check of ID cards at
the Powell Library. The abusive and violent intimidation that occurred
against Mr.Tabatabainejad compromises the security that libraries
traditionally have offered their users.

We condemn the violent actions against Mr. Tabatabainejad. We call for the
UCLA and Powell Library administration to immediately convene a
nonpartisan, public investigation into campus security policies.

For further information contact: Mark Rosenzweig – iskra@earthlink.com
Elaine Harger – eharger@agoron.net

Information about PLG is available at http://libr.org/plg

- JH

Librarian Wanted

Published September 22nd, 2006 in advocacy, alternative libraries, cuban libraries, social justice | No Comments »

“Are you interested in putting your library science education and experience to work in one of today’s most challenging, interesting and rewarding environments? Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is recruiting for a Chief Librarian to manage the Detainee Library, under the direction of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” (via MetaFilter)

- JH (Note: I originally posted this as a FFL but that didn’t feel right. Also, I’ve never been happier to use the “Cuban Libraries” tag.)

Librarians Without Borders - Call For Board Members

Published August 14th, 2006 in advocacy, progressive librarians, social justice | No Comments »

Get Involved: Join the Librarians Without Borders’ Board!

Since our inception in February 2005, Librarians Without Borders (LWB) has made significant progress towards building a sustainable and successful organization. Our members now hail from such countries as Canada, Australia, Egypt, Germany, USA, Greece, Denmark, Angola, Botswana, Peru, Brazil, Congo, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. In just over one year, an idea that took root in a conversation between two people now fuses together hundreds from diverse nationalities who are unified in their belief in the importance of libraries and librarians in building strong global communities.

Our founding members, all students in Library and Information Science at the University of Western Ontario (Canada), are now graduating and, as we anticipated, we have quickly evolved beyond our student origin. We are now at an exciting point in our development: we are inviting you, our supporters, to join the LWB Board of Directors.

If you share LWB’s values and would like to offer your passion or expertise to the benefit of the organization, please contact the LWB Nominating Committee at exec@lwb-online.org for more information or an application package.

- JH

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