Civallero and Plaza
Don’t let the everyday name fool you, Edgardo Civallero and Sara Plaza’s blog, The Log of a Librarian, an English translation of their Spanish language blog from Argentina, is full … Read more Civallero and Plaza
Category: Public Sphere
Jean-Yves Mollier on Google Print and Europe’s response
French historian Jean-Yves Mollier is happy with neither Google nor with Europe’s plans to counter Google’s anglo-american hegemony with digitized libraries of its own. Here is a translation of the … Read more Jean-Yves Mollier on Google Print and Europe’s response
PLG Report from the U.S. Social Forum
The Progressive Librarians Guild had representatives at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta in March, in partnership with representatives from Radical Reference. Elaine Harger and Kathleen de la Peña McCook … Read more PLG Report from the U.S. Social Forum
Tracy Nectoux on Libraries versus Bookstores
Tracy Nectoux, a library student at UIUC, is taking a class whose students were assigned to visit a bookstore and compare the atmosphere to a library’s atmosphere. This is what … Read more Tracy Nectoux on Libraries versus Bookstores
Savanna River Ecology Laboratory closing, thanks to Bush Administration small-esse
Arch Conservative Bush advisor Grover Norquist has been pushing the “Starve the Beast” strategy for a long time. This is the strategy that says run up a huge budget debt … Read more Savanna River Ecology Laboratory closing, thanks to Bush Administration small-esse
Federal Libraries Wiki
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski shared this information with ALA Council today… The ALA Washington Office and ALA Council’s Committee on Legislation have started a wiki on federal libraries. The wiki says: … Read more Federal Libraries Wiki
Postal Rate Hike would hurt independent publishers
Media critic and theorist Robert McChesney is spearheading the campaign against the postal rate hike, which has Time Warner and other major magazine publishers’ money behind it. This is from … Read more Postal Rate Hike would hurt independent publishers
Chip Ward on homeless people and libraries
Tom Englehardt (Tomdispatch.com) has posted an article by Chip Ward about the homeless problem and libraries. Chip Ward is the retired director of the Salt Lake City Public Library. (Is … Read more Chip Ward on homeless people and libraries
9th Circuit rejects Kahle vs. Gonzales, AAP PR
Just briefly mentioning two important things that I have neglected to follow here. 1). The 9th Circuit Court’s rejection of Brewster Kahle’s constitutional challenge to copyright laws that prevent people … Read more 9th Circuit rejects Kahle vs. Gonzales, AAP PR
New from LJP: Library Juice Concentrate
Library Juice Concentrate Edited by Rory Litwin Preface by Kathleen de la Peña McCook Price: $25.00 ISBN-10: 0-9778617-3-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-9778617-3-6 6″ by 9″ Published: December 2006 Library Juice Concentrate is … Read more New from LJP: Library Juice Concentrate
New – ISC #24 – World Social Forum
The new issue of Information for Social Change is out. It’s issue 24, and its theme is “Libraries & Information in the World Social Forum Context. There hasn’t been much … Read more New – ISC #24 – World Social Forum
Craigslist meets the capitalists
The founder of Craigslist went to an internet media conference where most of the discussion was about “monetizing pageviews,” and made people scratch their heads because his super-successful website has … Read more Craigslist meets the capitalists
Reports disappearing from EPA library website
As you may have noticed throughout the EPA library closure situation, the government’s big justification for closing the libraries has been that it is a digital age, meaning that physical … Read more Reports disappearing from EPA library website
NYPL executive pay
In the past few years, the New York Public Library has sold off important assets in order to raise money to continue operations. In the same period, compensation for their … Read more NYPL executive pay
New from LJP: Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library
New from Library Juice Press: Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library: How Postmodern Consumer Capitalism Threatens Democracy, Civil Education and the Public Good By Ed D’Angelo November 2006. … Read more New from LJP: Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library
Circumscribing the “public” in public libraries
Thoughtul article in the new Marginal Librarian, McGill’s library school student e-zine: Public libraries: who or what is “public”? This article has to do with Montréal’s new anti-homeless policies (that’s … Read more Circumscribing the “public” in public libraries
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh distributing right wing voter guides
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh District Services has sent an email to branch heads offering to distribute to interested branches 50 copies of the 2006 Voter Guide from the Pennsylvania … Read more Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh distributing right wing voter guides
American Anthropological Association opposition to Open Access: a letter from the AnthroSource Steering Committee on FRPAA
The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (FRPAA), if passed, would mandate that research by Federal government agencies (publicly funded research) automatically go into publicly accessible open access repositories. … Read more American Anthropological Association opposition to Open Access: a letter from the AnthroSource Steering Committee on FRPAA
The Nation on the YouTube/Google deal – leading edge of corporate takeover of the web
Trenchant and insightful article in The Nation by Jeffrey Chester: The Google YouTube Tango. This article focuses on how corporate claims-staking such as Google’s buyout of YouTube and Rupert Murdoch’s … Read more The Nation on the YouTube/Google deal – leading edge of corporate takeover of the web
The IRS keeping audit statistics secret; covering up higher audit rates of the poor than the rich
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which provides data on Federal “enforcement, staffing, and spending,” reported in March of this year that IRS data obtained through FOIA requests showed that … Read more The IRS keeping audit statistics secret; covering up higher audit rates of the poor than the rich