From the March/April 2006 edition of FAIR‘s Extra!, “Fear & Favor 2005?¢‚Ǩ‚ÄùFAIR’s Sixth Annual Report” gives an informative run-down on how the news media was compromised by money last year. Important reading for an understanding of the latest developments in media monopoly and for getting a good reminder of how our “free press” is constrained … Read more Fear & Favor 2005?¢‚Ǩ‚ÄùFAIR’s Sixth Annual Report
Here are two letters to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations about the proposed cuts in the EPA Libraries’ budget: one dated February 24th, from ALA, ARL, AALL, and SLA, and the other, dated March 1st, from Michael Gorman as ALA President. It is good to see these letters.
An article in The Scientist from March 10th describes the situation faced by EPA’s library system. The article has a number of links at the end.
ALA’s advocacy folks have created a web page designed to make it easy to tell your Congress members of your opposition to the proposed budget cuts to EPA libraries. The page gives some useful background information and “talking points” about the situation, but leaves out the important fact that the proposed cuts are so severe … Read more Support EPA Libraries! Oppose FY 2007 Budget Cuts
The December, 2005 SRRT Newsletter (the latest one) is on the web. It’s recommended reading for those who wonder what SRRT as a group mainly does. Occasionally the SRRT Newsletter features an article that comes from outside the group, which the editor wants to share with SRRT members. This issue has an interesting article about … Read more SRRT Newsletter
Interested in using a phrase like “Feel Free,” “General Knowledge,” “Freedom to do what you want” or “That’s a great idea” but can’t because it would be trademark violation? Well, fear no more, Rentamark.com is here, with thousands of words and phrases in stock, ready for you to license for business purposes. “Thank God”?¢‚Äû¬¢ for … Read more Okay, who will say they still haven’t gone too far Now?
Some readers will be happy about this: I’ve changed the settings so you don’t need to register in order to comment. We’ll see how it goes.
Now that I’ve officially had my blog for almost month, I can reflect a little bit. Things might still change, but I have to confess that at the moment I feel somewhat outside the mainstream of library blogging culture. My blog entries aren’t getting a lot of links to them and I don’t feel much … Read more Questioning the Techie Mission
AMERICAN FEDERATION of GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO COUNCIL 238 (EPA) CHARLES ORZEHOSKIE, PRESIDENT P.O. Box 1127 Chicago, Illinois 60690 March 16, 2006 Ruben Moreno, Director Labor and Employee Relations USEPA Headquarters Ariel Rios Building Mail Code:3631M 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. Washington, DC 20460 Dear Mr. Moreno, This constitutes the American Federation of Government Employees National … Read more EPA Librarians’ Union Demands to Bargain Over Proposed Closings
Last month the Annenberg Center for Communication at USC, an industry-centered think tank that focuses on the networked society, convened a group of scholars and industry insiders to discuss the hot issue of net neutrality, and recently released a statement that they say is intended to balance public and industry interests. Their statement, in my … Read more Annenberg Center’s (Compromised) Principles for Net Neutrality
ALA Online has a rather ironic story about a far-right political group that is suing public libraries in Missouri after finding that its website was blocked by their filters (Bess) as hate speech. The group is a racist grass-roots org called The Council of Conservative Citizens, among whose stated principles is that the United States … Read more Filtering Irony in Missouri
I still haven’t received my ALA ballot, so I may be a little late in sharing this information. But if you haven’t voted yet and you’re interested in knowing how I plan to vote, read on. I’m happy to have the opportunity to vote for Loriene Roy for President, and I hope you will also. … Read more ALA Election Endorsements
Ten years ago, in the Spring of 1996, I was learning of my acceptance to library school and introducing myself to the world-expanding wonders of the internet. (I intend that sentence to be read without irony, as I can recall clearly what a revelation it was when I first browsed the web, sent and read … Read more Information Literacy versus “The Librarian’s Stamp of Approval”
“Two principal computers at the Brecht Forum were removed last night in what appears to be a politically targeted theft. The Brecht Forum is a 30- year old community-based center that offers seminars, lectures and classes in political organizing and progressive analysis to local activists, organizers, students and the public. The computers taken contain the … Read more Political Data-Theft at the Brecht Forum
Resolution Condemning the Actions of President George W. Bush and Calling for Impeachment Proceedings WHEREAS, democracy is a core value that defines, informs, and guides our professional practice; WHEREAS, the American Library Association affirms the responsibility of the political leaders of the United States to protect and preserve the freedoms that are the foundation of … Read more PLG calls for Bush’s impeachment
I said earlier that I would comment further on Rick Anderson’s provocative recommendation that we not “teach a man to fish” at the reference desk. What he was saying was that it is a waste of patrons’ and students’ time to teach them how to use our abstruse database interfaces when their time would be … Read more Not teaching a man to fish
From March 16th (yesterday) through midnight tonight (European time) there is a global electronic political action in support of French students, who are presently on strike in protest of their government’s new labor rules, which support precarious employment conditions that French students view as a threat to their futures. The strike and the demonstrations, which … Read more Web action in solidarity with French students
We generally have a pretty good idea of the type of person who becomes a librarian and the values that we share. I am wondering, just wondering, what kind of person enters the leadership circle of the world of information destruction. What values and traits lead a person into that particular profession? I’m not going … Read more The Information Destruction Leadership Circle
Resolution Against Anti-Immigrant Legislation 2006 Whereas, the Progressive Librarians Guild supports immigrants’ rights, Whereas, anti-immigrant measures deleteriously affect the immigrant community, regardless of legal status or citizenship status, Whereas, the Sensenbrenner Bill – H.R. 4437 is totally punitive in trying to make felons out of undocumented immigrants, denying them any human, civil, working, or due … Read more PLG Resolution Against Anti-Immigrant Legislation 2006
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the tireless media watchdog organization, celebrated its 20th birthday in the last issue of Extra!, their bimonthly magazine of media criticism, in an article by Robert McChesney that shows his great appreciation for their work. FAIR and their magazine have given me some of my strongest inspirations as a librarian … Read more FAIR is 20