The ACLU has a good Reform the PATRIOT Act page and blog to keep people aware of the continuing challenges that are occurring as the USAPA threatens to sunset and the Bush administration tries to make it permanent. [stuff]
Author: jessamyn
read it yet?
If someone could drop me a note and let me know who dies in the Harry Potter & Half-Blood Prince, I’d really appreciate it. We got the book on CD at the library last week and I had a brief pang where I wanted to say “Please let me take it home, I’ll listen to all 12 hours tonight and have it back by morning!” but then I remembered I hadn’t liked the last book very much, and I’m suspicious of any book that sets off this sort of shopping frenzy (less merch this year though), not to mention these sorts of lawsuits. I’m happy that we have a literary celebrity in our other books’ midst, but let’s remember to try to parlay this love of reading this one book to learning to love reading for its own sake, not because you’ve been sucked in to the latest tween supernatural soap opera sensation. [update: thanks for the plot-summary emails, I think I’ve got it now] [ update 2: want more spoilers? check out thebookspoiler.com]
do library schools need their own libraries?
When I went to library school, the school was actually IN the library, so there wasn’t much question about us having our own library. The Paul Wasserman Library — an independent library at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies — is having its collection and staff folded into the main library on campus. CIS students are predictably unhappy about what they see as a rather sudden and disdvantageous change. A few of them have started the Save Wasserman blog. If you’re curious who Paul Wasserman is, you can read his commencement speech (pdf) to the graduating class of 2005.
A critique of the new LJ website, and a hopeful note
Jenny has a post about the Library Journal redesign discussing the sort of online cachet they had built and how the redesign and the newly added fee-based barrier was squandering it. The good news seems to be that the situation will be changing real soon now which is good to hear. I wonder if the TechBloggers will still have to post to the blog via email? update: LJ techbloggers assure me they can log in and post now, great news all around.
The Time Traveler’s Wife coming to the big screen
If, like me, you loved The Time Traveler’s Wife and its central librarian character, you might be happy to know that Gus Van Sant is saying it will be the next movie that he does. Briefest of updates on IMDB. [m&c]