This survey is very important. Librarians’ Index to the Internet is facing a 50% cut in their primary funding as of July 1st. They are looking for ideas on how to survive this drastic cut as well as soliciting ideas on the services they provide as usual. The LII survey is here, it’s short and sweet.
promiscuous library [data]
Seeking skunkworks and promiscuous library data is an article I should have linked to a few weeks ago. If you don’t know what a skunkworks is, the article has a helpful link (and now this one does too!). In short, the article posits that it would be easier to hammer out flexible user intercfaces if it were easier to get raw standardized data OUT of ILSes that do the hard work of circulation, patron, and money management, things that don’t need to look pretty, or as pretty. Very long, very well-linked and cited, very worth reading.
dollhouse library
How do you make sure that the people who live in your dollhouse are (or seem to be) as well read as you are? You buy them dollhouse book covers, naturally. Legal, Egyptian, Mystery, these dolls read it all. I just tripped over these at Etsy.com but apparently there is a burgeoning market for mini book covers.
USA PATRIOT Act update
A few things have happened with the USA PATRIOT Act in the last week or so. The act was reauthorized, most of it indefinitely. Notably, Section 215 was changed somewhat and authorized for another four years. Library Journal has a blurb on how this affects libraries which is worth reading. I noticed that ALA President Michael Gorman had issued a statement about the reauthorization which had cycled off the main page of ALA by the following morning. I posted a note about this to the Council list (excellent archiving software that breaks all hyperlinks, huh?) and his response is back on the main page. Nothing on the main page of the Washington Office. Nothing on the main page of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, though both have fought against the USA PATRIOT Act since the beginning and do have a lot of information buried in their sites.
I was asked for a statement about the renewal and had been spending so much time with a close eyeball on my local Senators (who both voted against it) that I wasn’t entirely on top of it. You can hear a quickie interview with me on Moby Lives Radio (MP3 file). Suffice to say that I’m not mollified by the changes to Section 215 and I’m still concerned about this Act’s implications for the privacy of all library users.
please take another survey
Surveys, we’ve got surveys. If you have a moment, please consider taking this Open Source Software in Libraries survey sponsored by Nylink.