The USA PATRIOT Act is never far from my mind. An ALA Councilor has urged the ALA to sign on with a bipartisan group called Patriots to Resore Checks and Balances. Congressman Bernie Sanders is still working on his bill to repeal Section 215, and someone sent me this Newsweek article which, contrary to conventional wisdom and current “on the record” statements, has Ashcroft’s aids claiming that Section 215 was responsible for a terrorism-related arrest. Meanwhile, many provisions sunset in just eight months.
learn this term: DRM
About half the people at my second talk and very few at my first talk knew what Digital Rights Management (DRM) was. Since librarians will be dealing with more products with increasing amounts of DRM, it’s a good term to get cozy with, carry a few examples in your toolkit, etc. The DRM blog is a good place to start learning as is EFF’s DRM section. My favorite examples, phrased in the form of patron questions:
“This DVD won’t play on my computer without me having an Internet connection and installing special software. Why?”
“I paid for a song using the iTunes store but now I can’t move that song to a different computer. Why?”
“I can’t play music I’ve legally downloaded from the Internet in open source format on my iPod. Why?” [note: not strictly a DRM issue]
“Is it really illegal for me to use my screenreader software to listen to the ebook I’ve cheked out? Why? “
Gorman, two more
Two more quick Gorman sightings: Michael from TTW assures Mr Gorman he is not “thin skinned” and Jane’s post about leadership and how she thinks Michael Gorman possibly wasn’t exhibiting enough of it.
I go to Utah for all my porn, you?
The biggest laugh of my talk was probably when I was discussing classes I’d like to teach but can’t. I mentioned where to find the really good porn and people thoughtit was funny, something about a sort of frumpy library lady saying that made it double-plus-good, even though I really do know where it is… Thanks to Utah’s new censorware law, maybe we can just get the list of good porn sites from them.
tattooed librarians, and others, a book on skin
The Ineradicable Stain seems like a great art project for a librarian to be involved in.
Each participant must agree to have one word of the story tattooed upon his or her body. The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another.