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
Another person in focus, this time because I’m trying to get his telegenic mug out of my brain. An hour or so ago I walked out of a TV presentation from the College of DuPage (in their “Soaring to Excellence” series) that our head of reference asked us to watch on the idea that it … Read more Rick Anderson
Two FBI agents visited a Venezuelan college professor (and US citizen) in his office at Pomona College and grilled him about his relationship to the Venezuelan community, stating suspicions of a connection between the Venzuelan community and terrorism. The professor, Miguel Tinker-Salas, is opposed to US policy in Venezuela and supports Hugo Chavez (who of … Read more FBI grill Venezuelan professor at Pomona College
I don’t read a lot of blogs or tech news, but last summer I couldn’t help noticing tons of commentary about the United Nations’ “threatened takeover of the internet,” which commentators described as though it would spell the end of freedom rather than a victory for fairness.?Ǭ† (I find it hard to imagine a rational … Read more Global governance is the internet’s hope
In the tradition of Library Juice’s Home Pages of the Week, I will occasionally feature librarians, scholars, and activists whom I find deserving of attention. Naomi S. Baron is Director of the TESOL program at American University and a scholar who researches the influence of electronic communication on language and literacy as the carrier of … Read more Naomi Baron
I have another bloggish project that I have kept somewhat under wraps, but which friends have been encouraging me to share more widely. Since mid-June of 2005 I’ve been writing a brief review of a reference book each day, taken from my library’s reference collection. I’ve done it primarily for my own benefit, as a … Read more Reference Book Reviews
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Miriam Braverman Memorial Award Presented by the Progressive Librarians Guild Seeks papers concerned with an aspect of the social responsibilities of librarians, libraries, or librarianship. GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION: Entrants must be Library/Information Science students attending a graduate level program in the United States or Canada. Entries must be the original, unpublished work … Read more Braverman Award – Call for Papers
It took a little longer than anticipated, but as I said I would do in my parting message in Library Juice, the e-zine, last September, I have revived the publication as a blog. The delay, for those who’ve been waiting eagerly, has had to do with other projects taking precedence, as well as a desire … Read more Library Juice is Back