Wired News has a “Don’t mess with librarians” article that I contributed heavily to that you might find interesting.
Author: jessamyn
some bad pending legislation
While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about some bad pending legislation that could affect libraries, privacy or access to information
- The INDUCE Act – criminalizing copyright violating software/hardware [bill/commentary]
- new FOIA exemptions [commentary]
- Family Movie Act – allowing software censoring of DVDs without copyright violations [news article]
- CAPPSII – profiling passengers [eff info]
- US v. Councilman – email privacy rehearing sought [news article]
- various SPY acts [commentary]
There is some good news, however, section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act will “sunset” a scant fifteen months from now along with many other parts of the USAPA.
hi – 13sep
Hi. I didn’t link the photos from my trip yet. There are a lot of nature shots but some good ones of the Haskell Library, the one that straddles the US-Canada border. You can see them here.
librarian writers, advice from someone who knows
Writing tires me out lately. In addition to my job at the library, I’ve been cranking out one or two articles a month for various publications. You saw the link to the WebJunction article a few days back. I also wrote a very basic “My First Library Web Site” article for the Vermont Library Association [not online] and a piece on the USA PATRIOT Act for Clamor Magazine [not on their site but my local copy is here]. Many librarians are librarian-writers. Marylaine Block who maintains Ex Libris has published a long essay by Steven Bell called What Works for Me: 10 Tips for Getting Published. Well worth a leisurely read.
a word about well-covered ideas, or what I might refer to as “done to death” or “jumping on the bandwagon” ideas. You know them – information literacy, blogging in the library, digitization projects, virtual reference. I don’t think these are off limits, but you need to bring a different perspective to any of these topics. nmrtwriter
maybe a guest spot from time to time
Eli and I may be posting a wee bit over at the commons-blog as Fred becomes a gibbering fool over his new family member.