Home > News Archive > September 2004

September 30, 2004

ACLU v. Ashcroft

Major victory for the ACLU today, as the Federal Court "struck down an entire Patriot Act provision that gives the government unchecked authority to issue "National Security Letters" to obtain sensitive customer records from Internet Service Providers and other businesses without judicial oversight."

source: PLG-listserv

Open Access in library studies

It's great to promote Open Access, but do librarians also practice what they preach? Apparently so: Check out this list and more at DOAJ.

Pride Library

The University of Western Ontario houses a reading room for Gay and Lesbian Studies called the Pride Library, entirely run by volunteers. The library is part of the UWO Research Facility for Gay and Lesbian Studies, which serves to promote and advance interdisciplinary scholarship in this field. The library is also searchable from UWO's library OPAC.

September 27, 2004

Media Democracy day

The Vancouver Public Library is hosting Media Democracy Day 2004, with documentary screenings, workshops, and a showcase of Vancouver's independent media.

source: BCLA-listserv

September 21, 2004

Zines, zines, zines!

Canzine, October 17th, is a Canadian annual zine fair and festival of alternative culture featuring over 150 underground periodicals on display from across Canada. There will be radical films and reading events, a room of sin, and hands-on workshops. Canzine is a chance to explore independent Canadian culture at its best.

source: Thanks Chris!

February, 2003 - were you in the streets?

A Better World Inc. is working on a project, When The World Said No To War, which consists of a photographic exhibition, education forum and book based on the weekend of 14, 15 and 16th February 2003, the weekend the world demonstrated against war. The book, which will also include short essays from individuals from all walks of life about war, peace, or that day, is part of, but separate to, the international exhibition being organised around that weekend. They are seeking contact with individuals (professional or amateur)who may have taken photos of demonstrations that weekend and would be keen to have them shown internationally, in both an exhibition and an historical book documenting that weekend.

source: PLG-listserv

Information Commons explained

Back in June, the Free Expression Policy Project released The Information Commons. According to the Brennan Center, this is a report that links the vitality of 21st century democracy to the creation of online communities dedicated to producing and sharing information. Nancy Kranich, a former president of the American Library Association, is the report’s author.

source: PLG-listserv

September 15, 2004

Don't mess with Librarians!

Interview with Jessamyn in Wired.

source: everywhere!

Success at the Social Forum of Information

In a press release, the Social Forum of Information, Documentation and Libraries (SFIDL) was declared a success. "The main outcome was that it raised the need to continue a permanent forum that has its presence through commissions and working groups which will focus primarily on subjects like user formation, preservation of heritage documents, prison libraries, a School of Latin American Library Science Thought, the impact of OMC/ALCA [WTO/GATS?] on libraries, etc."

source: PLG-listserv

September 14, 2004

BCLA Information Policy Salon

The BCLA Information Policy Committee is holding its first Salon of the year on Friday September 24. They will discuss the the USA PATRIOT Act and privacy of library records.

Speaker:
Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, will give a presentation on the impact of the USA PATRIOT Act on confidential records held by American companies or to which American companies have access. This includes library-related vendors for subscription databases, integrated library systems, collection database vendors and consolidated library notification systems (e.g. LibraryElf), with U.S. ownership and/or servers and access to our library records. Thus the PATRIOT Act has huge implications for Canadian libraries.

The presentation will look at the Right-to-Privacy Campaign, the present controversy regarding Medical Service Plan and Pharmacare records and how this might impact Canadian libraries. Discussion will take place on various strategies to respond. The Salon will take place four days after the Information and Privacy Commissioner is scheduled to deliver his Assessment Report on the USA PATRIOT Act Implications for Privacy Compliance. Here you will find background information and many of the submissions (including BCLA's and VPL's).

R.S.V.P.: Jacqueline van Dyk by Tuesday September 21 (jvandyk AT infoserve DOT net)

source: BCLA-listserv

September 10, 2004

Open Source Summit

The Open Source Summit is an event being planned for Dec. 1-3, 2004, and it will explore the impact of the open source movement in education (and, by extension, in libraries?). There is also an interesting white paper available from the Summit web site: Open Source-Opens Learning: Why open source makes sense for education.

source: APLA-listserv

September 6, 2004

Cell moves to Open Access

Cell Press, an important publisher in biomedical literature, has announced that it will offer free access to journal content, one year after publication. The struggle for open access is slowly gaining ground.

USA PATRIOT Act Free Zone

The Anarchist Library at City College of San Francisco is a student run library whose mission is to provide students with radical books that can be checked out without ever having to worry about the FBI finding out what you've been reading.

source: A-librarians listserv

September 4, 2004

Open Source Software Resources

Wonderful article in Computers in Libraries for librarians considering open source software. Contains a good webliography of resources as well.

source: Marylaine Block's "Neat New Stuff", Sept 3, 2004

Commons database

"The Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) provides free access to an archive of international literature on the commons, common-pool resources and common property."

source: Marylaine Block's "Neat New Stuff", Sept 3, 2004

Coalition for Open Access

According to ALA's Open Access to Research website, the ALA and ACRL, along with AALL, ARL, MLA and SLA, have joined with a number of other organizations in a new coalition of taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions, called the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, to support open public access to taxpayer-funded research. The Open Access Working Group (OAWG) has also been working on this issue for the past year.

source: PLG-listserv

Alternative library seeking board members

The Millenial Light Library is seeking a new board member. If you have a passion for public access to information of critical, social, and planetary consequence, then find out how you can become a board member.

September 1, 2004

RNC: Wish you were there?

Check out radicalreference for updates on the RNC convention (ex. Jenna's blog) or visit Chuck0's infoshop updates.

Understanding corporate media

Media Democracy day is fast approaching. The Columbia Journalism Review's website "Who Owns What" is a good starting point in understanding how the media shapes our world.

source: BCLA-listserv and Chris

Banned books week

September 25-October 2 is ALA's Banned Books Week. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson, said, "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

source: NYLINE listserv

Celebrate school libraries

National School Library Day, to be celebrated on the 4th Monday in October, was proclaimed by Roch Carrier, National Librarian of Canada.

source: APLA-listserv

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