Home > News Archive > July/August 2004

August 25, 2004

Join the protest at the RNC!

Library workers of Radical Reference and Librarians Against Bush will meet at 9am Sunday morning in front of the Humanities & Social Sciences library of NYPL at 42nd St. and 5th Avenue. They'll rally together there for a bit and then make their way to the United for Peace "The World Says No to the Bush Agenda" protest. Radical reference will be offering all kinds of services. In the street, radical reference librarians will be wearing baseball caps (tan with a blue bill) with an "I" on it, and giving out legal info, subway directions, bathroom locations, etc...

source: A-librarians listserv

IFLA condemns OFAC

IFLA and the International Publisher's Association have published a declaration deploring the regulations by the US Department of the Treasury´s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that seek to limit the ability of US persons to process and publish informational materials from selected countries. According to IFLA/IPA: "these trade restrictions on information and informational materials violate important provisions of international law, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"

source: A-librarians listserv

Conservative librarians speak out

Librarians who believe that the USA PATRIOT Act is not a danger to our freedom of privacy have created Librarians for Bush, in response to the website Librarians Against Bush. They believe that "A person’s right to read does not outweigh the responsibility of their actions." Placing the blame and finding guilt before the act: the new American Way?.

Andrew Jackson: Library activist

Andrew Jackson, President of the Black Caucus of the ALA, was featured in an article about his work as a library activist. "Activist librarians get out into the community they serve, using whatever platform they can find to expose more people to the joy of the written word"

August 4, 2004

Open Access encouraged by UK government

In December 2003, the UK's House of Commons Science & Technology Committee launched an inquiry into scientific publications to investigate pricing, access and availability issues. Their findings were published in a report entitled: "Scientific Publications: Free for All?" (here's the PDF version). BioMed Central has culled together a resource page on the subject and Managing Information has posted some responses to the report from different organisations.

Here are some of the findings:

This Report recommends that all UK higher education institutions establish institutional repositories on which their published output can be stored and from which it can be read, free of charge, online.

Institutional repositories will help to improve access to journals but a more radical solution may be required in the long term. Early indications suggest that the author–pays publishing model could be viable. We remain unconvinced by many of the arguments mounted against it.

The market for scientific publications is international. The UK cannot act alone. For this reason we recommended that the UK Government act as a proponent for change on the international stage and lead by example. This will ultimately benefit researchers across the globe.

In the meantime, BioMed Central is consulting with librarians and funding bodies about future mechanisms for funding Open Access publishing.

Call for submissions!

Freedom to Read and the coordinators of the 2005 Freedom to Read kit, are seeking thoughtful fiction, non-fiction and artwork -- short articles, questions for their experts, snippets or quotations, experiences, poetry, prose, comic strips, and political cartoons -- related to the following:

* freedom to read
* freedom of expression
* intellectual freedom
* censorship
* what these terms mean or don't mean to you
* where your boundaries lie

Content with a Canadian angle is of particular interest. Send submissions pasted in the body of the email to editor AT freedomtoread DOT ca by September 15, 2004.

source: BCLA-listserv

August 2, 2004

ZNET and Cuban libraries

An article on ZNET is debunking the myth of the "independent libraries" in Cuba.

9/11 and libraries

Library Journal reports that Chapter 12 of the 9-11 Commission calls on libraries as part of the solution to peace in the Middle East. This will be achieved by rebuilding "the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope."

July 30, 2004

Calling all radical library workers!

A new website: www.radicalreference.info is being launched by library workers in support of the demonstrations surrounding the Republican National Convention in New York City August 29-September 2, 2004. They will offer blog, chat, street, and news reference, responding to questions from demonstrators. Check out how you can help.

A-librarians listserv

RFIDs: right or wrong?

More on the use of RFIDs in libraries in this Salon.com article.

Thanks Chris!

Jessamyn at the DNC

Check out "radical librarian" Jessamyn West's coverage of the DNC Convention.

Alternative libraries

Alternatives Library at ECO Bell: "a grassroots organization dedicated to providing open access to materials expressing viewpoints and information not readily available through mainstream publications and mass-media sources".

Library of the E.F. Schumacher Society: "The collection is highly regarded for its focus on bioregional and community-based economic development and has been praised as 'the single most important US information source for anyone researching community economics'". It covers the following topics: appropriate technology, development of renewable sources of energy, land reform, peace and nonviolent resistance, democratic governance, worker ownership, alternative agriculture, and environmental sustainability.

Black Panther librarian

The Globe and Mail has reported that a man working at the Toronto Public Library was arrested this week for a crime he commited as part of the Black Panthers over 30 years ago.

Alibrarians-listserv

Peace author

Doing some collection development? Iowa peace, justice, and protest author Mike Palecek has set up a website with information on his books.

July 23, 2004

Interview with a librarian activist

Check out this interview with radical librarian Jenna Freedman on anarchist and zine librarians.

Alibrarians-listserv

Creative Commons coming to Canada

The iCommons Canada project is an effort by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) to facilitate the availability of open-source licenses. CIPPIC is translating the popular Creative Commons license (CCL) for use under Canadian law. Once complete, the Canadian Creative Commons license (CCCL) will enable Canadian digital creators to independently construct and attach copyright licenses to their works.

APLA-listserv

Petition to save historic press

"Coach House Press is a cornerstone of Canadian cultural history and the Canadian literary community." But it is being threatened by demolition. Sign their petition to save the Press.

APLA-listserv

Anarchy in the Archives

Going to the Society of American Archivists' annual conference (Aug. 2-8)? Make sure to attend the following conference:

"Collecting Anarchy: Continuing the Legacy of the Joseph Labadie Collection" by Julie Herrada, Curator of the Labadie Collection
Wednesday, August 4th, 7 pm
Lucy Parsons Bookstore, 549 Columbus Ave.,
617-267-6272

"The Labadie Collection, part of the University of Michigan Library, is one of the world's largest archives of social protest literature. This slide presentation and talk begins with the life and activities of its founder in the 19th century, through the 20th century to the present."

Alibrarians-listserv

Webcast on the impacts of the PATRIOT Act

Marilu Goodyear, Vice Provost for Information Services, and Jenny Mehmedovic, Coordinator, IT Policy and Planning, both at the U. of Kansas, will look look at the real-life impact of the USA PATRIOT Act on higher education institutions and libraries, two years now after the Act's passage.

"Find out how other universities have been affected and have responded to date and how new policies that have been implemented are affecting campus IT units and libraries. Goodyear and Mehmedovic will also discuss how the USA PATRIOT Act interacts with other federal and state laws, as well as future policy implications. "

Registration for this webcast is free.

Thanks Chris!

July 14, 2004

Update on Iraqi libraries

Radio Free Europe reports on Iraq's National Library and Archive devastation and their struggles to overcome the war's destruction.

GATS Bibliography

The South African Council on Higher Education has put together an impressive (word document) bibliography on GATS and its effect on Education.

source: GATSCrit-listserv

July 13, 2004

Press-invented library panic

Interesting blurb in current issue of Prospect

"In April, they were predicting the end of public libraries by 2020. A small Islington-based charity called Libri produced a report suggesting imminent meltdown in the library system - visitor numbers halved, borrowing down 35 per cent, plummeting spend on book. The feel-bad story ran on the Today programme, the BBC website, the Independent, the Observer and the Guardian (which published a stern leader about a public service in terminal decline). It was a bit odd, then, at the start of June to read a tiny article on page 11 of the Guardian's "Society" section revealling that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the professional accountancy body for public services, had published its own libraries report. This found that visits had increased by 5m over the past year, that more libraries were opening for longer and that spending on books was up by 6 per cent. So is it curtains in 2020 or not? It seems that the happy (but not newsworthy) Cipfa findings were based on figures from 99 per cent of the UK's local authorities (yes, boringly reliable). But the Libri report, which so excercised the national media, was based on an investigation into, um, Hampshire county council.

source: Prospect. July 2004, p.9

July 7, 2004

Librarians concerned about Bush

A group of librarians have gotten together in an effort to defeat Bush this November. Librarians Against Bush feel that we:

"have a responsibility to defend our profession from the Bush administration's attack on intellectual freedom. As citizens, we all have a responsibility to defend and actively use our rights of free speech, free thought, and free assembly in order to protect these very rights from being diminished by the current administration.

They will be selling t-shirts, stickers, and buttons through the site, with all profits going to organizations such as MoveOn.org.

Turning libraries over to the private sector?

An editor of the Visalia Times-Delta, a San Joaquin Valley (CA) newspaper, suggests that the only way for public libraries to survive are to hand them over to the public sector:

"One way or another, the private sector will have to become an even stronger partner in keeping libraries going. The public library system in America was initially funded by the private sector, and it will have to be again.

Libraries themselves will also have to move to a more highly automated, almost self-service kind of operation with heavy emphasis on digital technology."

Letters to the editor can be sent here.

July 2, 2004

USA Patriot Act in Canada?

Canadian patron data stored with American companies or accessible by American companies can be subject to a USA PATRIOT ACT information request by the US government. The CLA has passed a resolution to address this issue.

Providence Public Library needs your help

While administrators are getting pay increases, the Providence Public Library is threatened with layoffs, pay-cuts, and restricted access to materials by patrons. The Providence Public Library Defense team is looking for your support through petitions or letter writing campaigns.

source: Thanks Chris!

Radical Bibliography for Parents

Informing Tomorrow's Revolution is a nice bibliography, put together by Adam Davis, for parents who want to present alternative and progressive ideas to their children about feminism, labour issues, multiculturalism, etc...

source: A-librarians

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