putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999
The House voted to make 14 out of 16 USAPA provisions permanent yesterday. The bill — HR 3199 –that they approved also proposed 10 year extensions to our favorite section, Section 215, with an interesting change.
One amendment, passed by a 402-26 vote, requires the FBI director to personally approve any request for library or bookstore records.
I read a mailing list called Secrecy News via RSS. One of the things they frequently link to are Congressional Research Service reports. These produce some of the best research out there on various important topics. They are public domain content and are free as in beer. However it’s often easier to find these documents via fee-based services than out on the open web despite web sites like Open CRS. There is a newish report that should be required reading for all librarians: Libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act, originally published in February 2003 now updated for July 2005.
I don’t care if Tommy Thompson is going to chip himself, I’m still not sold on RFID technology for libraries as it’s being marketed and implemented currently. Let’s get real here. There’s a difference between voluntarily tagging yourself and having tagging being a prerequisite for your school or library. Would TT’s tag have his social security number on it? What about his library reading record? This article looks to be nothing more than a cheap stunt hyping VeriChip’s system of linking information on your chip to a database that could contain your health information. Like many nifty technology tools, this one only becomes useful when it becomes ubiquitous which seems to me to be a long ways off. Getting this sort of coverage would [or should] mean open standards to lower prices, encourage innovation, reduce vendor lock-in and encourage growth generally.
And, speaking of RFID, Laura Smart’s URL to her excellent Library RFID site has changed. You can find all her content here: http://libraryrfid.net/wordpress
It’s very hard for me to believe that D-Lib Magazine is now ten because I was already in library school when it started. Be sure to check out Clifford Lynch’s article on the future of ditial libraries. I generally don’t enjoy futuristic talk about library things because I have a hard time seeing the “how do we get there from here?” part, but the path with digital libraries seems more clear cut, even if it involves the same sort of paradigm changes that we are seeing in the brick/mortar/print world.
I’m assuming this post means that Michelle Malkin didn’t like the Resolution on the Connection between the Iraq War and Libraries. This from someone who thinks my job involves “stacking books.” Good tip on the AALL conference blog though.