librarian.net

a few new interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights

While I wish, as per usual, that the URL and the web page were friendlier and that I could see what changes were made, ALA has released a few more council-approved interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, two new, two revised, one new from Midwinter. I’ll link to the new stuff individually as well.

Minors and Internet Interactivity (new)
Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom (new)
Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks (revised)
Labeling and Rating Systems (revised)
Services to People with Disabilities (new from Midwinter)

Some discussion in the comments over at LISNews.

links to things that you will like

Posted on 27Jul0927Jul09 by jessamyn

http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntie/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A few open tabs that I think may interest librarian.net readers.

Ask MetaFilter: Proposing to a book lover. Ideas?
Books mentioned in other books, a nifty article in the NYTimes
Unusual Books and Book Sculptures (including the one above)
Maine is looking for a new State Librarian

a day in the life of a library/librarian

Posted on 27Jul09 by jessamyn

http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I didn’t work in a library today, so I didn’t think I’d be good for the Day in the Life project that many librarians were doing today. However, I did enjoy reading people’s tweets and now I’m going back and checking out some blog posts and Flickr photos.

Library Accessibility – What You Need to Know

Posted on 26Jul0926Jul09 by jessamyn

The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies has created a series of tipsheets to assist librarians in different sorts of libraries in dealing with and understanding accessibility issues. They’re short, easy to understand, come with references and cover a wide range of topics.

book burning threat makes headlines in WI challenge dispute

Posted on 22Jul0922Jul09 by jessamyn

I read this CNN article about a group in Wisconsin who has been fighting with the West Bend Community Memorial Library over the group’s desire to have a long list of YA books moved to the adult section of the library. Their challenge failed, but there’s a lawsuit pending.

The news article has the predictable all-over-the-place approach to the issue but it seems that this is one of those fights that has everything including outraged parents, a beleaguered library board whose members don’t have their terms renewed, assertion of First Amendment rights, threats of book burning, and a lot of homophobic-sounding nastiness. The article, though on the web, also doesn’t seem to understand the usefulness of hyperlinks to telling a story that is playing out on the web so I have added them here

the library’s materials selection policy (pdf) which appears to have been updated just a few weeks ago
West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries
blog post “there’s no such thing as a ‘safe library’” from the National Coalition Against Censorship’s blog
Wissup blog with lots of commentary about the library
West Bend Parents for Free Speech blog (interview with Maria Hanrahan, the blog’s founder)
City of West Bend’s website
Information from American Libraries about the lawsuit against the city of West Bend for the books in the library being, among other things â€œexplicitly vulgar, racial, and anti-Christianâ€ The plaintiffs want the book Baby Be-Bop to be burned or similarly destroyed.

I really wish the library or the city had more accessible public statements about this whole ongoing mess.