infolibre

2002-04-21T16:10:00.000-04:00

infolibre is on indefinite hiatus - please check out Library & Information Science News and NewBreed Librarian, where I'll still be contributing links on a regular basis.

Thanks,
Ryan

One last one, though - don't miss Utopia Brittanica: British Utopian Experiments, 1325 - 1945 (thanks to Plep.)

2002-03-16T19:24:00.000-05:00

The L.A. Weekly profiles poet Ira Cohen:

Born in 1935 to deaf parents, raised on 92nd Street in New York, and higher-educated at Cornell and Columbia, Cohen went on to spend substantial creatively productive periods of his life in happening locations with adventurous people: the years in Morocco with Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and Paul Bowles; the mid- to late '60s in New York with the Living Theater, filmmakers Jack Smith and Alexandro Jodorowsky, and musicians like Tony Conrad and original Velvet Underground drummer Angus MacLise; and the '70s, when he spent two and a half years in India . . .

Also from L.A., a guerrilla drive-in.

2002-03-13T21:42:00.000-05:00

Remembering Nagasaki. Thanks to Nutlog.

2002-03-11T11:45:00.000-05:00

LISNews will be down for a while - Blake is wrestling with a spike in traffic stemming from interest in / outrage at a lame parody linked to late last week.

2002-03-10T10:12:00.000-05:00

Echoes of the Beat: More than a half-century after the young lions of the Beat generation converged on Denver; you still can hear echoes of their fledgling roars in the streets and buildings they once haunted, however briefly . . .

The Denver city government has put together an official Denver Beat Poetry Driving Tour.

2002-03-06T23:47:00.000-05:00

Freedom of Expression Links via the venerable wood s lot

2002-03-06T21:45:00.000-05:00

Kim Deitch, Charles Burns, and other cartoonists of note converged recently at the Philadelphia Free Library to discuss the state of the art:

To the question, "What is the future of independent publishing," the panel was surprisingly upbeat. "I think it will exist in one form or another," Charles Burns said. Though he didn't think the commercial prospects were very good, "people will keep on buying as long as you put stuff out there." [Art] Spiegelman likewise felt it was "relatively promising in its own weird way. As publishing itself becomes this totally marginalized activity, there's room for us marginal types in it."

2002-03-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

Your intrepid editor will be walking 8 miles to beat Multiple Sclerosis:

Possibly 10, and on a Saturday morning no less - I'll be walking with the D.C. Special Libraries Assocation team in the year's MS Walk, and am trying to raise between $200 - $300. If any of you out there could be so kind as to kick in a few bucks, I'll be both touched and in your debt (i.e. I'll buy you a beer if we ever run in to one another at a conference. Provided that I succeed in weaseling my way into the profession, that is.) If you'd like to contribute drop me a line. Thanks.

2002-03-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

The American Museum of Natural History Congo Expedition, May 1909 - November 1915

In 1909, a decade after Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness first depicted the mysteries and agonies of the area, Herbert Lang and James Chapin set sail for the Belgian Congo. They knew they were launching an extraordinary adventure, but they could not have imagined what those years would hold. By the time they sailed home five and one-half years later, they had collected tons of precious zoological and anthropological specimens representing one of the most comprehensive African collections of the day.

This is the first offering of the AMNH Research Library's Digital Library Project. Thanks to Fred Stoss for the heads up.

2002-03-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the D.C. Special Library Association's "Career Day," so I'm staying home and getting a good night's sleep in anticipation of the chance to implore various representatives of the Library of Congress to liberate me from retail. My obsession with the LOC was further cemented last night by an evening at the Mary Pickford Theatre. Matt and I took in a few Looney Tunes (shown in memory of Chuck Jones) and Gillo Pontecorvo's "Queimada!" (It's no "Battle of Algiers," but worth seeing for the hypnotic crowd scenes and Morricone soundtrack). I just need to get my foot in the door.

2002-03-01T20:07:00.000-05:00

New York City or Lisbon?

Although New York City, America's largest city, was originally known as "New Amsterdam" and not "Lisbon," it was erroneously portrayed as Lisbon in [a] late-seventeenth-century map . . . In 1672, the French publisher C. L. Jollain issued [a] bird's-eye view of New Amsterdam, which was renamed "New York" after the British took complete control of the Dutch colony in 1674. As if to attest to its geographical accuracy, this representation includes an inset showing the relative location of New Amsterdam within the New Holland colony and applies place names that are an indication of a North American location. However, this is a fictitious map! In fact, the street pattern and the buildings are those of late sixteenth-century Lisbon. These elements of the map were copied from a popular image of Lisbon that was originally published in Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cologne, 1572-1618) and republished several times in other atlases during the seventeenth century.

Only one of the many interesting facts included in the Library of Congress' impressive exhibit Celebrating the Portuguese Communities in America: A Cartographic Perspective.

2002-02-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

Victorian Secrets of Washington, D.C.

This site won't be much of a beauty pagent because we 'll concentrate on buildings that are vacant, abandoned, deteriorated, distressed, or just plain at risk because they are standing in the path of development. For many of them, we will be holding a wake while they are still on their deathbeds. However, if even one Victorian finds an angel because of our page, we'll consider it a thousand percent return on investment.

2002-02-26T12:36:00.000-05:00

The L.A. Weekly reports on the last days of Pirate Cat Radio:

Inside, Adam Ant’s “King of the Wild Frontier” is blasting onto the airwaves, and the house phone, which is also the number announced on-air, rings every five minutes. Ikea-like furniture has been pushed into the center of the living room, boxes and beat-up suitcases are everywhere. It feels like a well-off college senior’s last day on campus: candles burned down to their bases, dried flowers in empty wine bottles, framed movie posters, a lava lamp, a guitar leaning against one wall, volleyball and scuba equipment against another . . .

2002-02-23T21:20:00.000-05:00

A beautiful session from the Mountain Goats, originally broadcast on WFMU on 11/23/00 (begins a little over 1/2 way through the track).

2002-02-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

The Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at the Middlebury College Music Library.

The Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College houses an archive of New England folk song and folklife materials. Begun in 1930 by Helen Hartness Flanders of Springfield, Vermont, it was given to Middlebury College in 1941.

The collection consists of field recordings on cylinder, disc and tape of traditional song and dance music recorded in all the New England States between 1930 and 1966. Other materials in the collection includes photographs, manuscripts, letters, broadsides, books and journals.

NPR's Lost & Found Sound also ran an interesting piece on Flanders.

2002-02-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

"The axis of people" (thanks to Nutlog.)

2002-02-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

Cinerama's great Peel session has been the soundtrack to an embarassing amount of library-job-search-related-self-pity this past week - is there no place in this city for a boy with a freshly minted M.L.S. and a willingness to start at the bottom? Apparently not, so as of next week it's back to selling books until something better comes along. A few other things easing the pain: Urban Odyssey, Cataloger-X, gansuke, the upcoming Messiaen marathon, Duke Ellington's Washington, and Approximately Infinite Universe.

There probably won't be much in the way of library links here for a bit, since I can no longer stand to try to wrap my brain around the nebulous world of LIS without some practical problems to apply the knowledge to (I'll be too busy taking advantage of my status as a marginally employed person to dust off the bird guide and get in some long walks ;)

2002-02-17T22:42:00.000-05:00

Shakamuni, a new comic by Ivan Brunetti.

Librarians in Robes: The Monks of Wat Muniransyarama:

Within [traditional Khmer] culture the monks are the spiritual leaders of their society, and as such they take on many roles. Storytelling is but one of the many responsibilities of these ochre-robed men. Others include teaching the Khmer writing system to the community's children and young adults, preserving manuscripts in their monasteries, and collecting Khmer language print materials.

And finally, a Buddhist prayer service for lost information.

2002-02-13T14:54:00.000-05:00

A second wind at Three Lives: a piece from The Next Big Thing on the passionate crew behind the survival of one of NYC's great independent bookshops, Three Lives & Company.

2002-02-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

The Free Radio Network looks at pirate radio advertising. Thanks to sharpeworld deluxe.

2002-02-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Ernest Ridding LLM GKN from the State Library of New South Wales' exhibit Sydney Eccentrics:

Renowned throughout Glebe for repairing and giving away old fridges to the genuinely needy, [Ridding] has now joined the computer age, recycling discarded computers. Taking advantage of todays throwaway society, he and his band of like-minded volunteers work tirelessly, reconditioning cast-off computers which he distributes free to charities and the disadvantaged . . . His soon to be published memoirs are entitled 'Self Portrait of a Nut'.

2002-02-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

New from the British Library: the automatic treasures machine.

2002-02-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

A new issue of First Monday is available.

2002-02-06T17:26:00.000-05:00

Turku, Finland is hosting this year's Nordic Mobile Library Festival:

Since 1990 the Nordic mobile library people have met every fourth year for a festival, arranged alternately in different Nordic countries. Previous festivals have taken place in Sweden 1990, Denmark 1994 and Norway 1998. Each time there have been at least 300 participants and dozens of book mobiles. The record was 505 participants from 14 countries and 68 mobiles gathering in Denmark! Now it is Finland's turn to host it for the first time. Turku is expecting around 300 guests from various European countries and at least 60 mobiles.

2002-02-04T22:59:00.000-05:00

Joseph Ishill and the Authors and Artists of the Oriole Press:

Joseph Ishill emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in New York City. Having been apprenticed in a print shop in Rumania, he found work as a typesetter in the city. An anarchist by the time he came to the U.S., Ishill soon began attending the lectures of Emma Goldman and other notable radicals. He was a frequent visitor to the Ferrer Center in New York, and when a Ferrer Colony was founded in Stelton, N.J. in 1915, Ishill was one of the original members. Ishill began helping print the Colony's magazine, The Modern School, and a year later he published Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol. From the publication of that book in 1916 until his death fifty years later, Ishill published more than 200 books and pamphlets, all of them typeset and printed by hand. In spite of toiling in relative obscurity he has been lauded both by radicals, who recognize him for his efforts in publishing radical materials, and by fine press enthusiasts, who consider him to be one of the finest American printers and typographers of the twentieth century.

One of several beautiful exhibits from the University of Michagan's Special Collections Library.

2002-02-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

[Somewhat Off-Topic]

"Wher' neath the cold damp earth lay, and sleep in quiet day by day, and have no more on earth to say, who'll weep for me?"

Two academics delve into the archives (and the ground) to uncover the story behind a potter's field being engulfed by suburbia . . .

On various visits to the field, the professors noticed dozens of evenly spaced depressions in the ground, the size and shape of coffins. After the thaw last spring, skulls, pelvic bones and jaws with teeth emerged from the earth. "I picked them up like you would seashells on a beach," [scholar Susan] Stessin- Cohn said. "There were just bones everywhere. It was pretty weird. I didn't know where to store them. I couldn't keep them in my car — what if someone stopped me? I put them in my laundry room, and it freaked me out all weekend."

Via the New York Times (registration required). In the same vein is this story, about a Scottish librarian who has uncovered the appalling history of a Victorian women's
hospital.

2002-02-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

The Letterpress Museum, via the mighty gmtPlus9.

2002-02-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

Pressure FM:

Turn it up, but keep quiet about it. A group of anonymous dance music DJs are here to inject the [San Francisco] scene with a desperately needed dose of renegade flavor – on FM radio, pirate style. The tech-savvy team recently launched Pressure FM – seven years in the making – on 88.1, where it pumps out top-notch styles of house, U.K. garage (2-step), and broken beat every Friday from 6 p.m. to midnight. We can't disclose the details of the operation, but like a map point for an old-school underground, the actual location will provide you with everything you need to know: that quality dance music is at the people's disposal . . .

(Thanks to Metafilter.)

Also, I can say enough good things about Iggy Scam's piece for This American Life on Miami's Tape Radio - it's the first act of their 100th episode, "Radio".

2002-02-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

The Grand Complication author Allen Kurzweil interviewed on KCRW's program Bookworm:

A genuinely odd discussion about the consequences of scholarly book-loving. That is, a conversation about manipulation, games-playing, sexual repression and sadism in the lives of Kurzweil's characters who continue their unwholesome adventures beyond the intrigues and enigmas of his first novel, A Case of Curiosities.

2002-01-31T20:33:00.000-05:00

Chilling Effects: Monitoring the Legal Climate for Internet Activity:

This website is the beginning of a project being developed by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society, Boalt Hall's Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, and clinics at law schools across the country.

The Chilling Effects clearinghouse will catalogue cease and desist letters and present analyses of their claims to help recipients resist the chilling of legitimate activities. The project's core, this database of letters and FAQ-style analyses, will be supplemented by legal backgrounders, news items, and pointers to statutes and caselaw. Periodic "weather reports" will sum up the legal climate for online activity . . .

Via another impressive issue of the Free Online Scholarship Newsletter.

2002-01-31T20:28:00.000-05:00

The Enduring Legacy of Paper Bindings
from New York University's Bobst Library

2002-01-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

Library Juice 5.4 is available.

2002-01-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

[Off-Topic]

Beautiful Quicktime movie of Tibetan Buddhist monks constructing and destroying a sand mandala at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in D.C. earlier this month.

WFMU's Brian Turner put together a tribute show to mark Don "Captain Beefheart" Van Vliet's 61st birthday.

Teching Hsieh has "used his life as a medium to produce art that tests the limits of human tolerance and behavior."

Ruin Japan

2002-01-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

Great Librarians in History - Ona Simaite:

A librarian [at] Vilnius University, [Simaite] took advantage of her freedom of movement into the Jewish ghetto, ostensibly to retrieve books loaned to Jews before the war, as a pretext to secure valuable literary works by Jewish authors. She also looked after Jews in hiding outside the ghetto. Arrested during an attempt to smuggle a Jewish girl outside the ghetto, she was tortured and sent to a concentration camp. She survived but suffered permanent damage to her health.

2002-01-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

Widely reported. but worth repeating: Marginal Librarian 9.2 is available, and features an article on mail art.

2002-01-27T20:37:00.000-05:00

Cultural Readings: Colonization & Print in the Americas - an exhibit from the University of Pennsylvania Library:

Most of the books, manuscripts, illustrations, and maps shown here were printed in Europe: produced by Europeans for Europeans. Europeans used the written and the printed word to call for colonization and promote its benefits; to depict native cultures in narrow ways familiar to European audiences; to proclaim the benefits of missionization; and to portray the lands of the New World as rich and ready for the taking. But the encounters between European and American populations changed both sides profoundly. These texts do not merely record the self-satisfied praise of the victors; they also betray the questions and doubts which victory brought with it . . .

2002-01-27T15:32:00.000-05:00

Art to the People

An exhibit of the work of four artists (Walter Crane, Albert Hahn, Frans Masereel, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, and Gerd Arntz) who embraced the popular print as a means of militating for social change at the turn-of-the-last-century (from the International Institute of Social History, with thanks to gmtPlus 9.) The IISH also has a beautiful collection of the illustrated covers of Soviet children's books from the 20's and 30's available online.

2002-01-25T14:07:00.000-05:00

Australia Ad Lib, an interactive guide to the wild, the weird and the vernacular in Australian music:

These pages feature a selection of the most iconoclastic, larrikin, do-it-yourself performers working in Australia today. The mind numbing mediocrity offered up by the global- music-mart can’t be avoided; but while using this archive it can temporarily be ignored. We’ve gone for the radical, the un-compromised and the often unheard music; the stuff that gets swept under the mainstream carpet.

2002-01-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

"People forget that radio really is the most ubiquitous, the most accessible of all media in the world. And it is the most democratic in its dissemination and in its access, in enabling people to have a voice." - Bill Siemering

Common Ground profiles the community radio projects NPR veteran Siemering has assisted in South Africa, Mongolia and Macedonia. Also interesting is this show, the second half of which details peace activism via radio in Burundi (both links should connect you directly to a Real Audio file.)

2002-01-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

An excerpt from the Battery Radio documentary "The Power of the Unemployed," which explores what records from the archives of the Ontario police reveal about the Canadian labor struggles of the 1930s and 1990s.

2002-01-22T10:48:00.000-05:00

A library comic from Benjamin Walker, creator of the entertaining Your Radio Nightlight.

2002-01-22T09:58:00.000-05:00

[First Monday]

Sleepless in Belgrade: A Virtual Community During War:

In this paper the results of research on the role of a virtual community during wartime are presented. A virtual community within the Belgrade-based online system, SezamPro, was explored in the periods before, during and after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. This research found that the community had gone through significant changes during the War, including a) number of participants increased; b) users spent much more time online; and, c) reason for communicating changed dramatically. During war, online efforts focused on information gathering, social interaction and the expression of political opinions. In a period of crisis strong interpersonal relationships were established within the studied online group. Furthermore, in such state of affairs the Internet became an important source of information.

2002-01-22T09:50:00.000-05:00

[In These Times]

Back on the Air at Pacifica:

A growing movement to make the American mass media more accountable to the public they are supposed to serve has won an enormous victory. At a three-day meeting on January 11 to 13, which drew hundreds of political activists and radio producers from throughout the nation, a newly installed interim board of directors of the five-station Pacifica Radio network ordered the reinstatement of nearly 40 producers who had been fired during a political struggle that consumed the network. The new board also immediately replaced several key executives who had sought to transform the 50-year-old progressive radio network into a mini-version of National Public Radio . . .

2002-01-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

[Online Journalism Review]

Modern Day Muckrakers: The Rise of the Independent Media Center Movement:

This is not your average newsroom. For one thing, it's been set up in a church basement. On one desk, a top-of-the line G4 Mac hums along; on another, a salvaged computer tossed in the trash by a college student is being brought back to life by the tech department.

Like any media operation, it's busy. Deadline pressure permeates the air. Editors and writers call back and forth to each other, sweating the details of story length and content. Someone gets up to make a coffee run . . .

Welcome to the Independent Media Center, in this case, the Philly operation-headquartered for the moment at the Calvary Church in West Philadelphia.

Thanks to wood s lot.

2002-01-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

Windows on Our Past: History of the Chicago Public Library

A 1998 exhibit celebrating the CPL's 125th anniversary.

2002-01-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

Riot-grrrl makes the O.E.D (via The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk.)

Also, the January 2002 D-Lib is available.

2002-01-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

[The Nation]

What's Wrong With This Picture?

For all their economic clout and cultural sway, the ten great multinationals profiled in our latest chart--AOL Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann, AT&T and Liberty Media--rule the cosmos only at the moment. The media cartel that keeps us fully entertained and permanently half-informed is always growing here and shriveling there, with certain of its members bulking up while others slowly fall apart or get digested whole. But while the players tend to come and go--always with a few exceptions--the overall Leviathan itself keeps getting bigger, louder, brighter, forever taking up more time and space, in every street, in countless homes, in every other head . . .

2002-01-15T09:46:00.000-05:00

[allAfrica.com]

The Kenya National Library Service appears to be failing in its effort to popularize reading among the nation's youth, despite employing innovative tools such as the Camel Mobile Library Service:

The Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) has failed in its objective to enhance literacy and popularise the reading culture among Kenyans, youths at a workshop said at the weekend.

The organisation was also blamed for not reaching out to rural communities. Its mobile units have been crippled and the few in operation were obsolete in content, they argued. The youths mainly in secondary and colleges were speaking at a pre-school opening gathering at Isebania town in Kuria District . . .

More.

2002-01-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

The British government is considering adopting a policy requiring more extensive use of open source software by government agencies - the public comment period ends 3/12/02. Thanks to the Free Online Scholarship Newsletter.

2002-01-14T20:35:00.000-05:00

The week of March 11th - 17th is Bedtime Reading Week in the UK:

Whether you're reading poetry to a loved one, a thirty-something sharing the latest hip novel with a friend, or a couple reading a literary classic together, this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the power of the spoken word. 2002's campaign will be even bigger and better than the last. Join the growing number of adults and children who all agree that reading aloud at bedtime is well worth an early night.

2002-01-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

[L.A. Times via Slashdot]

Freedom Fighters of the Digital World:

A profile of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

We're bombing Afghanistan, anthrax is in the mail, and all across America it looks like Stars and Stripes forever. It is the evening of Oct. 11, one month into the war on terrorism, and Congress is cooking up something that will be called the USA Patriot Act. This sweeping law includes a dramatic expansion of Internet surveillance, unprecedented sharing of information between government agencies, stiffer penalties for computer crimes and greater power to detain noncitizens.

For many of us, that's just fine. If personal freedoms are to be sacrificed, polls show that a majority of Americans aren't just willing, they're gung-ho. Urgent times, urgent measures. Judged against the horror of Sept. 11 and now our daily dread--those invisible spores, the occasional drive across a bridge--what's a little electronic eavesdropping among patriotic Americans anyway?

But inside a half-empty auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library, four civil liberties attorneys have come together on a panel to challenge the new conventional wisdom . . .

2002-01-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

[The Arizona Daily Star via Yahoo]

U.S. Orders Libraries to Destroy Key CD-ROM::

The U.S. government ordered libraries including the UA's to destroy a CD-ROM on the nation's water supply because of fears of a chemical or biological attack after Sept. 11. The data on the computer disc had been open to the public nearly two years.

About the same time, federal agencies pulled information including nuclear plant sites, pipeline maps and aviation records from their Web sites. Some cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a reason for cutting off access.

"To have government information withdrawn at this rate has not happened before, to my knowledge," said Karen Williams, team leader of the University of Arizona's Digital Library Initiatives and Special Collections . . .

2002-01-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

Library Juice issue 5:2 is available, featuring The Promise of Software Libre (Open Source).

Also . . .

Last Caller Ring Back: A BBC documentary on UK pirate radio.

2002-01-07T09:31:00.000-05:00

The new issue of Innovation focuses on progressive librarianship and features articles by Al Kagan and Mark Rosenzweig - abstracts are available.

2002-01-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

Literature in Line: Lianhuanhua Picture Stories From China

The term lianhuanhua, literally "linked pictures," was coined in Shanghai in the 1920s to describe a form of illustrated story that had been developing in urban China since the introduction of Western printing technology in the late nineteenth century. Lianhuanhua books are usually only about three by five inches in size, with one picture to a page, and serve a market similar to that for cartoons and comics in the West. Although different in format and theme from most Western comic books, lianhuanhua may be described as the Chinese response to new forms of publishing imported from the West . . .

Am exhibit from the Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art. Thanks to gmtPlus9.

2002-01-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

Three miscellaneous finds:

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Your Books, courtesy of wood s lot, D.C. public radio station WAMU's ongoing series on the history of D.C. music, and Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine - Real Audio transcriptions of early 20th century popular music 78s, by way of Jessamyn.

A while back, I griped to Rory about the preponderance of soft news at LISnews, and now I find myself filling up this site with lots of fun links . . . post-graduation relief has made me temporarily incapable of digesting professional literature - it's on my list of resolutions, though, I swear.

2002-01-05T23:01:00.000-05:00

Another library song has come to light - this one from the Finnish "literature related resource site" Pegasos - with sheet music, and yet another cute Casio backing track for you to sing along with.

I also stumbled on this Italian collection of lyrics and interview excerpts in which various rock stars mention libraries. Malcolm McClaren declares, ""Le biblioteche [inglesi] sono parte della nostra tradizione di dissenso. La mia carriera ha preso avvio alla Stoke Newington Church Street Library."

2002-01-05T22:38:00.000-05:00

[Canada Newswire]

Canadian National Institute for the Blind Wins 2001 RBC Award for Canadian Achievement:

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) . . . is the only national voluntary organization providing rehabilitation and library services for Canadians to whom loss of vision is a central problem in personal and social adjustment. Today, the CNIB's 1,200 staff and 20,000 volunteers, working out of 57 centres, provide services to more than 100,000 clients in hundreds of communities across Canada.

The CNIB Library for the Blind, a division of the CNIB, offers free library and information services to approximately 3,000,000 Canadians who are blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled. A recognized leader among libraries for the blind, the CNIB Library is one of the largest producers of materials in accessible formats in the world and circulates 1.3 million items each year. Its ever-growing collection includes braille books, talking books, and a wide array of electronic and digital materials . . .

2002-01-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

[Searcher]

The Scholars Rebellion Against Scholarly Publishing Practices:

In the decades-long arguments over STM (scientific/technical/medical) journal publishing, mainly about subscription price increases and intellectual property and accessibility issues, one thing has changed in the last few years. Scholars have become involved. Everyone in STM journal publishing, no matter whether they work on the publishing (producer and seller) side or on the library (customer and collector) side, agrees that scholars (authors and readers) are involved now. The question is, what will come of their involvement?

In a range of telephone conversations I had recently with a focus-group-size number of veteran STM publishers — at commercial houses, university presses, and societies — all of whom said they spoke only for themselves, not their employer, and not all of whom wished to be quoted by name (so I won't quote any by name), I asked provocatively what they thought of the term "scholar rebellion" . . .

Thanks to Library News Daily.

2002-01-04T21:27:00.000-05:00

Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886 - 1887, a relatively new exhibit from the Library of Congress:

This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants.

2002-01-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

Our Library Could Be Your Life:

This may be old news to everyone else, but I hadn't run across Linda Kay's library songs site before today. "Libraries Change Lives" (should I ever get up the courage to sing along with the charming, lo-fi Casio backing track Linda has helpfully provided) will be going on the library songs mix tape I've been compiling in my head over the last three years (along with NRBQ's "Encyclopedia" and Joy Rutherford's "The Bold Librarian".)

2002-01-04T19:21:00.000-05:00

Geekbait (soon to become Libronaut) jazzed up a slow afternoon. There should definitely, as Abigail suggests, be a "ex-cool-indie-rocker librarian support group" (although I suspect there may be more ex-hopelessly shy emo kids than hipsters among us.)

Thanks again to NewBreed, where Juanita is turning up all kinds of interesting links while I get overly excited about the 1901 British Census.

Don't miss Abigail's IPL Pathfinder on this history of Detroit rock, 1965 - 1980, by the way.

2001-12-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

"Living the Dream: The Cannanes Special":

El Monte, CA's independent radio station KFJC 89.7 FM will Webcast a tribute to Australian indie pop legends The Cannanes on December 31, 2001 from 2-7 PM!

2001-12-27T09:54:00.000-05:00

Photo report: Literacy and Computer Literacy in Cuba

One of a number of interesting articles by Kate Williams, available from her site. Thanks to Library Juice (issue 4:47 available now.)

2001-12-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

[New Scientist]

"Secret" sound archive revealed:

For some innocent online fun this Christmas, try eavesdropping on the semi-secret pages of the UK's National Sound Archive web site. They are part of a largely unpublicised trial, hidden from casual prying eyes by the lack of signposts on the British Library's host site.

Paper publishers automatically deposit a copy of each new book with the BL, but the sound archive relies on voluntary donations. Even so, the vaults hold 2.5 million CDs, vinyl LPs, shellac 78s, wax cylinders and tapes, with the largest collection of wildlife recordings in the world.

Anyone can use the NSA's site to search for a recording and make an appointment to go to London and listen to it. The trial is testing technology which could make NSA recordings available over the internet . . .

2001-12-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

Some interesting segments broadcast on NPR over the last few years, turned up during a search of their archives: prison libraries, urban libraries, public libraries to the rescue, updating school libraries, library fines, a library donation, Library of Congress collection development, a flood damaged library, collecting Kosovo telephone books and rebuilding Sarajevo libraries.

There's also a great piece on Washington D.C.'s pirate radio station, Radio Libre Mount Pleasant.

2001-12-24T11:41:00.000-05:00

A Junky's Christmas:

A tale for the holidays by William Burroughs:

It was Christmas Day and Danny the Car Wiper hit the street junksick and broke after seventy-two hours in the precinct jail. It was a clear bright day, but there was warmth in the sun. Danny shivered with an inner cold. He turned up the collar of his worn, greasy black overcoat.

This beat benny wouldn’t pawn for a deuce, he thought.

He was in the West Nineties. A long block of brownstone rooming houses. Here and there a holy wreath in a clean black window. Danny’s senses registered everything sharp and clear, with the painful intensity of junk sickness. The light hurt his dilated eyes . . .

Thanks to Memepool.

2001-12-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

Ford loses suit against 2600:

On December 20, a ruling was issued denying Ford's complaint against 2600. Last April Ford Motor Company sued 2600 Enterprises for pointing to fuckgeneralmotors.com at their website. The judge's decision reaffirms the right of domain name holders to point their websites where they choose. While the court avoided ruling on important First Amendment issues, it flatly rejected all of Ford's trademark infringement claims. "This is a decisive victory and we are absolutely delighted," said attorney Eric Grimm who argued the case for 2600. "The court ruled consistently with the law and all precedent."

Thanks to LISnews.

2001-12-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

[SF Gate]

James Wishard Robertson, R.I.P.:

James Wishard Robertson, a noted book designer and publisher who was one of California's best-known fine printers, has died at 66.

In 1974, he and his wife, Carolyn, founded the Yolla Bolly Press in the Mendocino County town of Covelo, where they produced a wide range of books, including children's books, large-format pictorial books, and limited editions of fiction and poetry . . .

2001-12-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

Massachusetts health-care consultant Mark Anderson will loan you any book from his private library via mail free of charge:

If you're interested in reading any of the books in my library, e-mail me and I'll send it to you (I'll need a mailing address). Read it at your leisure. No hurry whatsoever. Who wants to be rushed when they're reading? We're not in high school anymore (unless you're in high school - but I'm not going to treat you like you're in high school) . . .

You have questions? You're saying, "This is ridiculous. He will lose all his books. He will spend a fortune in postage." These are legitimate concerns. But I trust you to return the books when you're ready. And postage? Work will take care of that. (That's a joke. Don't fire me. I'll put the postage meter down.)

Thanks to Memepool.

2001-12-21T14:02:00.000-05:00

[Salon]

The DMCA vs. College and Community Radio:

Under the terms of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), radio stations around the country are supposed to pay thousands of dollars in annual fees to broadcast streaming audio over the Web. Managers of college and community stations say while their commercial counterparts may be able to pay the fees, their stations don't have the cash and will shut down their webcasts.

The 1998 law came up on Capitol Hill Thursday, as members of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held an oversight hearing on how temporary copies stored on computers should be counted when calculating copyright fees . . .

Thanks to NewPages.

2001-12-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

For those of you in the D.C. area, the University of Maryland College of Information Studies presents:

Who Wants Yesterday's Papers? A Symposium on the Research Value of Printed Materials in the Digital Age

The daylong symposium will bring together scholars, information professionals and the general public in an exploration of changing perceptions regarding paper-based information resources. Leading experts will discuss why they use and preserve information in various formats, from files that are "born digital" to more traditional books and archival collections on paper.

The program will begin by addressing human anxieties about the fragility of information and how society has responded to those anxieties. The latter half of the morning session will focus on the information format needs of scholars: Are digital files sufficient replacements for book and paper materials? With so much emphasis on digital information, has society become sentimental about its books and paper documents? And should sentiment drive libraries to preserve every book within their walls in its original form? The afternoon program will focus on the challenges involved in preserving information from the decision-making process to issues unique among different formats . . .

2001-12-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

[Chicago Tribune]

Taking stock at the Gerber/Hart Library:

Karen Sendziak leafs through a file folder containing press releases, handbills, photographs and even a T-shirt from the 1978 state representative campaign of Gary Nepon -- the first openly gay person to run for public office in Illinois . . .

In the now-yellowing photos, inside a Fotomat envelope, Nepon smiles broadly, a dapper candidate with his thick mustache and his brushed-leather jacket. He went on to lose his run for the Democratic nomination in the 13th District, which included the epicenter of gay Chicago, the Lake View neighborhood. Thirteen years later, he was dead of AIDS . . .

The Gerber/Hart Library, in a modest storefront at 1127 W. Granville Ave. in the Edgewater neighborhood, is filled with tens of thousands of similar relics that trace the evolution of the gay and lesbian communities in and around Chicago over a period of more than four decades .

In addition to safeguarding such materials in its archives, Gerber/Hart has also served as a lending and research library -- with its 18,000 volumes and some 12,000 issues of 700 periodicals -- and as a community center where reading groups gather, art is exhibited and clubs, such as the Windy City BackGaymmon Club, have their monthly meetings.

But, after a financial scare late last summer, the organization now finds itself at a crossroads, as leaders re-evaluate its role and function . . .

2001-12-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Juanita and Colleen for their invitiation to be a co-editor over at NewBreed Librarian! I'll be splitting my time between here and there (and still posting to LISnews)from here on in.

2001-12-15T20:39:00.000-05:00

A Walk in Predawn L.A.

Off-topic, but worth a look:

The sleepers vanish at Hollywood High School at Highland Avenue, where Sunset noticeably changes atmosphere -- the shadowy lighting seems borrowed from a Jacques Tourneur film, and a large black cat guards a walkway to the school. Now the air becomes heavy with moisture, and that nutmeggy, peculiarly Southern California fragrance hits the senses, a smell of imported vegetation and watered lawns. Suddenly we remember why we fell in love with Los Angeles: That scent, that perfume of parties and botanical gardens, of campus grounds and well-tended palisades parks, is what hooked us so many years ago. And now we smell it again and once more feel ennobled, encouraged, patted on the back, made aware of possibilities that have been hidden from us . . .

[L.A. Weekly via Arts & Letters Daily]

2001-12-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

Another staggeringly comprehensive issue of the Free Online Scholarship Newsletter is available.

2001-12-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Don't miss gmtPlus9, Andrew Abb's collection of links to, and commentary about, some fascinating art-related sites.

Thanks to Ecologues for the tip.

2001-12-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

A new issue of Learned Publishing is available:

Archiving of electronic publications - some thoughts on cost
Peter Fox

The rapid evolution of scholarly communication
Andrew Odlyzko

Instant linking - delayed use: setting provider expectations
David Pullinger

New practices for electronic publishing 2: New forms of the scientific paper
Joost G. Kircz

Getting it! The added value of helping users find information
Richard T. Kaser

A year without print at Princeton, and what we plan next
David Goodman

African Journals Online: improving awareness and access
Diana Rosenberg

Journal of Zhejiang University (SCIENCE): a new journal for the 21st century
Zhang Yuehong

Authors and e-delivery
Jane Dorner

And more.

2001-12-13T12:36:00.000-05:00

Ladies and gentleman, a new low (courtesy of The Progressive.)

2001-12-12T09:14:00.000-05:00

Disability History Museum Library

Disability, like race and gender, is a central part of the human experience. Our goal is to create a theme-based, searchable collection of primary source materials that will help expand knowledge and understanding about the historical experience of people with disabilities in the United States . . .

Materials in the Library date back to the 18th century and represent all disability categories across the life span. These records illuminate daily life, work, charity, popular culture, local and national political milestones, shifts in visual representation and medical knowledge, and the rise and fall of a variety of social movements. We will soon be adding to our collections at a rate of about 100 artifacts monthly.

2001-12-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

Accounting for outcomes -- demonstrating the impact of public libraries:

The roles of the researcher and marketer are different but both benefit from the qualitative assessment of the outcomes of public library services. The paper describes how qualitative research data provide images that can be used to demonstrate the value and impact of providing library services. Research at the University of Sheffield suggests that libraries have an import role to play in terms of personal development; social cohesion; community empowerment; local culture and identity; imagination and creativity; health and well being. These are important messages to be communicated to policy makers and other stakeholders.

From the proceedings of this year's conference of the Australian Library and Information Association. Thanks again to Library Juice.

2001-12-10T17:43:00.000-05:00

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Women's Voices - A Video Initiative

[BBC News]

Poor women living in slums of Nairobi have been able to tell the world about their appalling living conditions by filming their lives on borrowed video cameras . . .

"We wanted to give tools to the poor to help them communicate their concerns to policy makers," said Catherine Njuguna of ITDG, a non-governmental organisation which helps poor communities use appropriate technology. It came up with an unexpected use of technology. Rather than looking to the latest gadgets or the internet, they found the solution in outdated technology - Betamax video cameras . . .

The women are now looking to build on what they have achieved, presenting a proposal for funding to the UK Government to develop an information resource centre with a computer with e-mail and internet access.

More information on the project can be found at its homepage.

2001-12-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

Today is International Human Rights Day 2001

As the world marks Human Rights Day, amidst global turmoil, world leaders beating the drum of war, and human rights abuses, Amnesty International is calling on the global human rights movement to stand up for justice and human dignity.

"The world does not need a war against 'terrorism', it needs a culture of peace based on human rights and justice for all," said the organization's Secretary General, Irene Khan . . .

Thanks to wood s lot.

2001-12-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

The December issue of First Monday is available.

2001-12-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

[Seattle Times]

Another fine article on Kenya's Camel Mobile Library Service:

The load is heavy and, beneath it, the bookmobile groans. Then it sighs. Then it twitches in a manner that startles the librarian. "Look out," he says. "It might kick back. That sometimes happens with the back leg."

This time, however, the Garissa Mobile Library remains a docile dromedary, neither kicking nor spitting as it climbs laboriously to its great padded feet and starts across the wastes of northeast Kenya . . .

2001-12-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project:

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project 2001. Making its debut on July 21st 2001, the projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE projectis a traveling exhibition of artist' book works, zines, and independent publications. Traveling by way of a vintage Airstream, the BOOKMOBILE aims to make its way to community centers, schools, festivals, artist run centers, libraries, prisons, and remote regions where independent publications are hard to come by. A group of coordinators, traveling with the exhibition, facilitate a series of workshops, artist talks, and educational forums. Thus far, the BOOKMOBILE has visited several venues in Eastern Canada and North Eastern and Midwestern United States. The project has exposed over 1000 visitors to a unique collection of independently produced book works. We are excited to continue our efforts and are looking forward to the 2002 tour!

Via Bookmouth, which features an interview with MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE driver Ginger Brooks Takahashi.

2001-12-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

Autodafe, the Censored Library:

Autodafe's vocation is to reactivate exchange - nowadays injured not only by censorship but also by the hegemony of the media - between writers of the five continents. This journal unites world-renowned writers with those who are being silenced by censorship, imprisonment or threats. Beyond individuals, Autodafe intends to give a voice to peoples and experiences struck mute, to vanishing cultures, to endangered languages. Autodafe is published twice a year and simultaneously in eight languages . . .

A project of the International Parliament of Writers. Also worth checking out is Margaret Drabble's article on Autodafe and the IPW in today's Guardian.

2001-12-07T22:13:00.000-05:00

The Reader Revealed

an exhibit from the Folger Shakespeare Library

2001-12-07T21:25:00.000-05:00

[The Scotsman]

Not much in the way of library news today, and I can't bring myself to dwell on this week's spate of dispiriting assaults on civil liberties, so I give you instead this entertaining story of sin-soaked mayhem and renegade publishing featuring Norman Mailer, Alexander Trocchi, and a cast of hundreds . . .

Norman Mailer has vivid memories of Edinburgh in 1962. "If towns had spirits, they would probably have good spirits and evil spirits," he says. "Edinburgh had very many evil spirits loose for those few days. It was somethin’."

The something that it was centred on was the Writers’ Conference, which took place in Edinburgh University’s McEwan Hall - "the big beer belly hall" Mailer calls it . . .

The writer Mary McCarthy described the event in a letter to her friend Hannah Arendt: "People jumping up and down to confess they were homosexuals or heterosexuals; a registered heroin addict leading the young Scottish opposition to the literary tyranny of the Communist Hugh MacDiarmid ... an English woman describing her communications with her dead daughter, a Dutch homosexual, former male nurse, now a Catholic convert, seeking someone to baptise him; a bearded Sikh with his hair down to his waist, declaring on the platform that homosexuals were incapable of love, just as (he said) hermaphrodites were incapable of orgasm (Stephen Spender, in the chair, murmured that he should have thought they could have two) . . . "

2001-12-07T09:33:00.000-05:00

Revolting Librarians Redux:

This book is intended as a follow-up to Celeste West and Elizabeth Katz's Revolting Librarians (San Francisco: Booklegger Press, 1972). We want library workers to write insightful critiques of any aspect of librarianship. A special section on the 1972 book's impact is also planned. In the spirit of the original book, all contributions should be as readable and interesting as possible.

2001-12-06T22:59:00.000-05:00

First Stockhausen, now Boulez:

Pierre Boulez was sleeping in his five star Swiss hotel when police dragged him from bed and informed him he was on their national list of terrorist suspects.

In the revolutionary 1960s, it seems that Boulez said that opera houses should be blown up, comments which the Swiss felt made him a potential security threat.

Any votes on who the next cantankerous modern music genius to be swept up in the post-9/11 dragnet will be?

2001-12-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

Michael Moore's New Book Scrapped as "Offensive":

Michael Moore was the keynote speaker at the convention of NJ Citizen Action which I attended this past Saturday. He told the assembled audience of 100+ people that his publisher HarperCollins had informed him that they will not be selling/distributing his new book "Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation" --already printed -- because the content is offensive. He reported that the publisher also told him that he (Moore) is being "intellectually dishonest" not to state that GW Bush has done a good job in the last few months. Moore said that he has been told that the book will NOT be distributed as is, will be destroyed, and that if he will rewrite AND pay for the repinting of the book Harpercollins will publish the new version . . .

More from the latest Library Juice.

2001-12-04T17:52:00.000-05:00

Fluxus collaborator Ken Friedman's work "52 Events" has been published after a 34 year delay:

Ken Friedman's events are a classic example of the subtle, multivalent art form known as intermedia.

This edition documents Ken Friedman's contribution to the early days of intermedia and conceptual art. The original Fluxus edition of Friedman's Events was planned in 1966 for publication in the spring of 1967. Edited and designed by George Maciunas, the 1967 Fluxus edition waited on a large-scale printing order that never materialized. While waiting for the Fluxus edition, Friedman began exhibiting his event scores and circulating them in small editions of various kinds.

In 1973, the University of California at Davis organized an exhibition exclusively composed of Friedman's events. This exhibition marked the first time that a Fluxus artist presented an exhibition comprised solely of text-based events. The exhibition toured the world in the 1970s, with editions of scores appearing in English and in translation. When the premature death of George Maciunas ended the Fluxus publishing program, Friedman continued to work with the event structure, adding to the corpus of events in a continuing series. . .

It can be also be downloaded for free (Acrobat required).

2001-12-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

[Salon]

"No one commands the respect of young people like middle-aged academics!":

Tom Tomorrow spoofs Lynne Cheney and company's criticism of left academics.

2001-12-03T16:44:00.000-05:00

[Statewatch]

E.U. to Create Databases of "Suspected" Protestors:

The Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments) are discussing plans to create two new dedicated databases on the Schengen Information System (SIS). The first database would cover public order and protests and lead to:

"Barring potentially dangerous persons from participating in certain events [where the person is] notoriously known by the police forces for having committed recognised facts of public order disturbance"

"Targeted" suspects would be tagged with an "alert" on the SIS and barred from entry the country where the protest or event was taking place.

Thanks to Politech.

2001-12-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

FM1 New Definitions: Value, Community, Space:

The impact on society of the technologies of "digitisation" is universal and ubiquitous, affecting everything. But how does this digitisation change our basic concepts about society?

FM 1 New Definitions will bring together some of the world's leading thinkers and doers in various fields-from anthropology to law, economics to information technology-to ask: What, if anything, is new about the way we redefine our understanding of these concepts? Topics covered include: notions of value, non-monetary economic activity; measurement without prices, free software;
the meaning of money, electronic currencies; communities, social networks; reputation, trust and identity; formal and informal law, dissappearing borders and Internet jurisdiction; space, information and navigation; political space, government, new media and freedom; and, geographical space, access, impact and inequality.

Organized by First Monday and the International Institute of Infonomics.

2001-12-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

Library, London, circa 1950

One of thousands of images available via the UK's Visual Arts Data Service.

2001-12-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

[allAfrica.com]

Geekcorps Makes Donation to U.S Embassy Library in Ghana:

The Martin Luther King Jr. Library of the US Embassy has received a donation of computer programming books from the Geekcorps, a non-profit organisation committed to expanding the Internet revolution internationally by pairing skilled volunteers from the high-tech world with small businesses in the developing world.

The books, worth over $6,000 cover a wide range of computer programming topics such as Java, Perl/TK, Networks, Web Navigation, Oracle Database Administration, Visual Basic and Internet Firewalls . . .

A bit more on Geekcorps' work in Ghana can be found at InfoWorld.

2001-12-02T21:01:00.000-05:00

[Sunday Times]

A UK "library revival":

Around the same time that futurologists were predicting the paperless office and the death of the cinema, things were looking bad for that ancient institution, the library. A building full of books? Surely such a thing would be swept away by the rush of new technology? And now, here we are in 2001. Last year, a new public library in Peckham won the Stirling Prize for Architecture. Last month, Norfolk’s mighty new county library opened in The Forum in Norwich, a return-to-form building by Sir Michael Hopkins. Hackney is building a new central library and museum. Brighton, Bournemouth and Swindon are making plans. Birmingham has just launched an architectural competition for what could be the first big state-of-the-art public library of the 21st century — replacing its vast, crumbling 1970s version. It is likely to cost at least £50m, and more likely £65m . . .

2001-11-30T17:42:00.000-05:00

[Bookweb]

Colorado Supreme Court to Hear Tattered Cover Case:

On December 5 at 8:30 a.m., the Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Tattered Cover Book Store's appeal to protect the privacy rights of bookstore customers.

On October 20, 2000, Denver District Court Judge J. Stephen Phillips ordered Tattered Cover to reveal the contents of one of its shipping envelopes that police had removed from the trash of a suspected drug dealer. Law enforcement authorities seeking the records asserted that they would assist in a case involving the manufacture of methamphetamines. The books were found at the site of an illegal methamphetamine laboratory.

The Denver bookstore has argued that protecting the privacy of customers' book purchase records was a crucial First Amendment fight . . .

More info on the case from the Tattered Cover site.