Libraries
February 05, 2010
* Justice Department Submits Views on Amended Google Book Search Settlement

Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search, this news, Justice Department Submits Views on Amended Google Book Search Settlement - Department Says Despite Substantial Progress Made, Issues Remain

  • "The Department of Justice [February 4, 2010] advised the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that despite the substantial progress reflected in the proposed amended settlement agreement in The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc., class certification, copyright and antitrust issues remain. The department also said that the United States remains committed to working with the parties on issues concerning the scope and content of the settlement. In its statement of interest filed with the court today, the department stated, "Although the United States believes the parties have approached this effort in good faith and the amended settlement agreement is more circumscribed in its sweep than the original proposed settlement, the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation."
  • February 01, 2010
    * National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies Funded for Launch

    News release: "After more than a decade of nationwide effort, the Digital Promise Project has achieved an essential goal – the creation of the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. This year the Department of Education, as provided by their 2010 appropriations legislation, will make available the initial funding required to launch the National Center. In the words of the Center’s authorizing legislation, “The purpose of the Center shall be to support a comprehensive research and development program to harness the increasing capability of advanced information and digital technologies to improve all levels of learning and education, formal and informal, in order to provide Americans with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in the global economy.” Congress voted overwhelmingly to establish this Center, the first new national research center in many years, as an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Authorized in 2008 by amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965, the National Center will have a governing board of nine members, which will include outstanding representatives from the public and private sectors and from varied professions and disciplines."

  • "The National Center will be eligible to receive private as well as public funds. It will fill a critical gap by funding practical, advanced learning research that is unlikely to be undertaken entirely with private funds. To help the efficient launch and operation of the new Center, the Digital Promise team has developed a suggested management plan. In addition, a suggested learning research “road map” has been produced under the supervision of the Federation of American Scientists in workshops attended by distinguished educators, scientists, technology experts, and other stakeholders."
  • January 30, 2010
    * Columbia Journalism Review Reports on Decrease Numbers Among News Librarians

    Endangered Species - News librarians are a dying breed [Preface - I certainly hope not, having been one and respecting the profession immensely]: "According to data collected by Michelle Quigley, a researcher at the Palm Beach Post, over 250 news librarians (sometimes called news researchers) lost their jobs in the U.S. since 2007. Membership in the Special Libraries Association News Division, an organization for news librarians, has fallen to below 400 from over 1,000 in the 1990s. Entire news libraries have been shuttered and replaced by consultants or outside vendors."

    January 20, 2010
    * OCLC: Research Assessment and the Role of the Library

    News release: "This report was written as a companion report to "A Comparative Review of Research Assessment Regimes in Five Countries and the Role of Libraries in the Research Assessment Process," a report commissioned by OCLC Research and produced by Key Perspectives Ltd, a UK library and scholarly publishing consultancy. Published in December 2009, the Key Perspectives report was written after studying the role of research libraries in higher education research assessment regimes in five countries: the Republic of Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia. This companion report provides a summary of the key findings of the Key Perspectives study, with some context for the recent increase in library involvement in research assessment, as well as recommendations for research libraries.

    January 17, 2010
    * A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget Cuts Threaten Library Services at Time of Increased Demand

    A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget Cuts Threaten Library Services at Time of Increased Demand, January 2010.

  • "Today’s public libraries are vital community technology hubs that millions of Americans rely on for their first and often only choice for Internet access. Despite increased demand for library computers, however, libraries typically have not seen a corresponding increase in budgets and many are challenged to provide enough computers or fast-enough connection speeds to meet demand. The Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study is a multi-year project that builds on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries. The study assesses public access to computers, the Internet and Internet-related services in U.S. public libraries, as well as the impact of library funding changes on connectivity, technology deployment and sustainability in FY2007-2009. Built on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries, begun in 1994 by John Carlo Bertot and Charles R. McClure, this study provides information that can help library directors and library IT staff benchmark and advocate for technology resources in communities across the nation. The data are also of importance for policymakers at local, state, and federal levels, manufacturers of information and communication technologies, and the communities served. The project is made possible by a generous donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Library Association."
  • January 12, 2010
    * ALA - The Condition of U.S, Libraries: Trends, 1999-2009

    "According to a new report prepared by the American Library Association (ALA), libraries of all types are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn while managing sky-high use. Compiled from a broad range of available sources, The Condition of Libraries: 1999-2009 presents U.S. economic trends (2009), and summarizes trends in public, school and academic libraries across several library measures, including expenditures, staffing and services. The report also highlights trends in services provided to libraries by library cooperatives and consortia."

  • ALA American Library Association - The Condition of U.S, Libraries: Trends, 1999-2009: "The following report highlights US economic trends (2009) and summarizes trends in public, school and academic libraries during the current decade for: Number of Libraries and Population Served, Expenditures, Staffing, and Services. The compilation was prepared in December 2009 for the staff and member leaders of the American Library Association to support its planning activities."
  • December 28, 2009
    * New York Review of Books - Google & the Future of Books: An Exchange

    Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search - Google & the Future of Books: An Exchange By Paul N. Courant, Laine Farley, Paula Kaufman, John Leslie King, Theodore Koditschek, Anthony Lewis et al.
    "To the Editors: In his recent article criticizing the Google settlement [Google and the New Digital Future, NYR, December 17, 2009], Robert Darnton fails to acknowledge the significant role that libraries have had in the creation of Google Book Search as well as the concrete steps they are taking to address the sorts of concerns he raises. Libraries are using Google-digitized volumes to create the "truly public library" that he seeks, and these same libraries are taking responsibility for the preservation of Google-digitized volumes. More than thirty research libraries have made agreements with Google to digitize their collections as part of their long-standing tradition of providing the highest level of access to scholarly materials. These libraries have worked successfully with Google to ensure the integrity of their physical collections and to digitize those collections in accordance with broadly held standards for digital capture."

  • See also on LLRX.com - A Guide for the Perplexed Part III: The Amended Settlement Agreement
  • December 27, 2009
    * Amazon Kindle is the Most Gifted Item Ever on Amazon.com

    News release: Amazon.com, Inc. today announced [December 26, 2009] that Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books. The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases."

  • See also this new LLRX.com article: Understanding the Limitations - and Maximizing the Value of eBooks: The holiday season is here, and many signs suggest that thousands of people are finding themselves new owners of electronic book ("eBook") readers. Whether it's an Amazon Kindle, a Barnes & Noble Nook, a Sony Reader, or any of the less heavily advertised devices currently on the market, electronic book readers are being trumpeted as a product that has finally hit the mainstream after years on the bleeding-edge. eBook readers, in fact, do have the potential to radically reshape how books are read. Equally important, according to Conrad J. Jacoby, they are already reshaping how books are bought and owned.
  • December 26, 2009
    * Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Historic Books Online

    News release: "Nearly 60,000 books prized by historians, writers and genealogists, many too old and fragile to be safely handled, have been digitally scanned as part of the first-ever mass book-digitization project [which is called Digitizing American Imprints] of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC), the world’s largest library. Anyone who wants to learn about the early history of the United States, or track the history of their own families, can read and download these books for free...digitized books can be accessed through the Library’s catalog Web site and the Internet Archive (IA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free online digital library."

    * Newsweek Interview with Jeff Bezos on E-Books and Success of Kindle

    The Customer Is Always Right - Since founding Amazon in 1994, he has revolutionized retailing. Now he's out to transform how we read. By Daniel Lyons | NEWSWEEK.

  • "There are two ways that companies can extend what they're doing. One is they can take an inventory of their skills and competencies, and then they can say, "OK, with this set of skills and competencies, what else can we do?" And that's a very useful technique that all companies should use. But there's a second method, which takes a longer-term orientation. It is to say, rather than ask what are we good at and what else can we do with that skill, you ask, who are our customers? What do they need? And then you say we're going to give that to them regardless of whether we currently have the skills to do so, and we will learn those skills no matter how long it takes."
  • December 25, 2009
    * Digital Rosetta Stone - memory chip with a 1,000-year expiration date

    Forbes: "If people can read this story a millennium from now, they may have Tadahiro Kuroda to thank. Kuroda, an electrical engineering professor at Keio University in Japan, has invented what he calls a "Digital Rosetta Stone," a wireless memory chip sealed in silicon that he says can store data for 1,000 years. As technology changes, storage goes stale. Can your computer read your old 51/4-inch floppies? Data typically has to be put on new storage systems every 20 years or less for it to be accessible. The digital migration costs time and money. Storing and maintaining a digital master of a very high-resolution movie, for example, costs $12,500 a year; archiving a standard film costs $1,000 a year."

    December 23, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Understanding the Limitations - and Maximizing the Value - of eBooks

    LLRX.com: Understanding the Limitations - and Maximizing the Value- of eBooks: The holiday season is here, and many signs suggest that thousands of people are finding themselves new owners of electronic book ("eBook") readers. Whether it's an Amazon Kindle, a Barnes & Noble Nook, a Sony Reader, or any of the less heavily advertised devices currently on the market, electronic book readers are being trumpeted as a product that has finally hit the mainstream after years on the bleeding-edge. eBook readers, in fact, do have the potential to radically reshape how books are read. Equally important, according to Conrad J. Jacoby, they are already reshaping how books are bought and owned.

    December 22, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Project Management - A Law Librarian Survival Skill

    Project Management - A Law Librarian Survival Skill: Carol A. Watson discusses how effective project management requires considerable thought and preparation before actually initiating the work of the project. Although many of us are eager to jump into the tasks related to a project, it is important to remember that careful planning will provide the groundwork for a successful project outcome. Carol reminds us, "Remember, it takes time to save time," and she will be writing on this overall topic in forthcoming issues of LLRX.com

    December 20, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - A Guide for the Perplexed Part III: The Amended Settlement Agreement

    A Guide for the Perplexed Part III: The Amended Settlement Agreement - On Friday, November 13, 2009, Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers filed an Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) in the copyright infringement litigation concerning the Google Library Project. The amendments proposed by the parties are designed to address objections made by the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to the original proposed settlement agreement. This paper by Jonathan Band describes the ASA's major changes, with emphasis on those changes relevant to libraries.

  • Related postings on Google Book Search settlement
  • * Library Associations Ask DOJ for Active Supervision of Google Settlement

    Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book Search settlement,
    this letter to DOJ Antitrust Division: "The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries (the Library Associations) write to express our views concerning how the United States should respond to the Amended Settlement Agreement filed by the parties on November 13, 2009. In brief, we believe that active supervision of the settlement by the court and the United States will protect the public interest far more than any additional restructuring of the settlement."

    December 16, 2009
    * Census: Newspaper Publishers Revenues Decline in 2008

    News release: "Newspaper publishers experienced a single-year decline in total revenue of 8.3 percent — from $47.9 billion in 2007 to $43.9 billion in 2008. This followed a more modest decline of 2.7 percent in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. A major contributor to the overall loss in revenues for the industry was the decline in advertising space revenue for general newspapers, which dropped 10.2 percent — from $30.9 billion in 2007 to $27.8 billion in 2008. Revenue from newspaper subscriptions remained largely unchanged over the period, from $8.3 billion in 2007 to $8.2 billion in 2008. These estimates come from the 2008 Service Annual Survey: Information Sector Services. The survey provides national estimates of annual revenue and expenses for industries primarily engaged in producing, processing and distributing data, which range from motion picture production to libraries."

    December 07, 2009
    * New Smithsonian Collection Search

    The Collections Search Center provides easy "one-stop searching" of more than 2 million of the Smithsonian's museum, archives, library and research holdings and collections. The access to more Smithsonian collections via this Search Center is increasing over time. Collections currently available include: 265,900 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries."

    November 30, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Access to Social Websites in The Legal Environment - Fall 2009

    Access to Social Websites in The Legal Environment - Fall 2009 - Part 1: Survey of Law Librarians in Selected Firms, County/State Law Libraries and Law Schools.

  • To ascertain the current use of social websites/media in law firms, a survey was conducted among Law Librarians entitled Computer Use in Your Organization. In addition to the responses from law firm Law Librarians, several Law Librarians from law schools and county/state government law libraries also responded as did an independent Law Librarian. The opinions of Law Librarians was sought since they are typically among the first professionals in the legal environment to explore, use and recommend new computer innovations and trends useful to attorneys, judges and legal scholars regarding information gathering, information sharing, electronic legal research and current awareness. Part 1 of the Survey details the responses of fifty-six Law Librarians regarding computer use in their organizations. Part 2 will review the responses and take a close look at the implications of the responses and what, if any, patterns can be predicted for 2010."
  • November 25, 2009
    * New York Review of Books: Google and the New Digital Future

    Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search (GBS), Google and the New Digital Future, Robert Darnton is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard

  • "...The digitizing, open-access distribution, and preservation of orphan works could be done by a nonprofit organization such as the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that was built as a digital library of texts, images, and archived Web pages. In order to avoid conflict with interests in the current commercial market, the database would include only books in the public domain and orphan works. Its time span would increase as copyrights expired, and it could include an opt-in provision for rightsholders of books that are in copyright but out of print. The work need not be done in haste. At the rate of a million books a year, we would have a great library, free and accessible to everyone, within a decade. And the job would be done right, with none of the missing pages, botched images, faulty editions, omitted artwork, censoring, and misconceived cataloging that mar Google's enterprise. Bibliographers—who appear to play little or no part in Google's enterprise—would direct operations along with computer engineers. Librarians would cooperate with both in order to assure the preservation of the books, another weak point in GBS, because Google is not committed to maintaining its corpus, and digitized texts easily degrade or become inaccessible."
  • November 21, 2009
    * UT Libraries' Human Rights Documentation Initiative

    "The UT Libraries' Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) is committed to the long-term preservation of fragile and vulnerable records of human rights struggles worldwide, the promotion and secure usage of human rights archival materials, and the advancement of human rights research and advocacy around the world. The HRDI website highlights the following types of materials:

    1. UT Collections: Primary source, archival materials related to human rights
    2. Archived Web Resources: Websites, reports, audio, video, photographs on human rights struggles that are produced by individuals or small organizations who lack resources and opportunities for widespread distribution of their work
    3. Audiovisual documentation (limited access): Fragile, born-digital, audiovisual documentation of human rights violations acquired through partnerships with human rights organizations worldwide (see About the HRDI, access to these materials is currently limited due to the sensitive nature of the information)

    November 17, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Support for the Research Process - An Academic Library Manifesto

    Support for the Research Process - An Academic Library Manifesto: This document by Chris Bourg, Ross Coleman, and Ricky Erway can serve as a pathfinder for those professionals seeking to focuses on roles that academic, law and special librarians could undertake in order to better support the research process.

    November 14, 2009
    * Amended Settlement Filed in Authors Guild v. Google

    Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search, news from the Authors Guild that 14 minutes before before midnight on November 13, 2009, "the parties filed with the Court an Amended Settlement Agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the amended settlement. The parties' motion also seeks Court approval of a Supplemental Notice which, if approved, will be sent out in early December 2009." Here is a short FAQ.

  • "This is the settlement administration website for the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement. The purpose of this website is to inform you of a proposed Settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers, claiming that Google has violated their copyrights and those of other Rightsholders of Books and Inserts (click for definitions), by scanning their Books, creating an electronic database and displaying short excerpts without the permission of the copyright holders. Google denies the claims. The lawsuit is entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 05 CV 8136 (S.D.N.Y.)"
  • November 10, 2009
    * That All May Read . . . National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) The Library of Congress

    "Through a national network of cooperating libraries, NLS administers a free library program of braille and audio materials circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States by postage-free mail."

    November 01, 2009
    * Commentary on the Future of Reading

    As the book changes form, the library must champion its own power base—readers, By Tom Peters: "The future of reading is very much in doubt. In this century, reading could soar to new heights or crash and burn. Some educators and librarians fear that sustained reading for learning, for work, and for pleasure may be slowly dying out as a widespread social practice."

    October 17, 2009
    * Book Review: Who's in Big Brother's Database?

    Who's in Big Brother's Database? By James Bamford - A review of The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency by Matthew M. Aid.

  • "On a remote edge of Utah's dry and arid high desert, where temperatures often zoom past 100 degrees, hard-hatted construction workers with top-secret clearances are preparing to build what may become America's equivalent of Jorge Luis Borges's "Library of Babel," a place where the collection of information is both infinite and at the same time monstrous, where the entire world's knowledge is stored, but not a single word is understood. At a million square feet, the mammoth $2 billion structure will be one-third larger than the US Capitol and will use the same amount of energy as every house in Salt Lake City combined."
  • October 12, 2009
    * Google Book Search Settlement Still In Progress As Parties Seek Equity

    Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search, this insightful commentary from The American Lawyer - Scanning the Future, by Ben Hallman: "Lawyers familiar with the talks say the book publishing industry had watched in horror as the music business waged a scorched-earth campaign against file-sharing sites like Napster, only to see their profits plunge and antipathy to their tactics grow. They didn't want to follow the same path. In the spring of 2006, executives and lawyers began e-mailing various proposals about how a comprehensive settlement might work, say lawyers familiar with the negotiations. The authors were most interested in getting paid for their out-of-print works. The publishers, meanwhile, wanted to ensure nothing could be done with in-print books without their permission. Google wanted a deal that would incorporate the most troublesome class of books: in-copyright, out-of-print books, for which the rights holders cannot be determined."

    October 09, 2009
    * NYT Op Ed - A Library to Last Forever

    Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book Settlement, this New York Times Op-Ed today: A Library to Last Forever, by Sergey Brin/Google: "Because books are such an important part of the world’s collective knowledge and cultural heritage, Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, first proposed that we digitize all books a decade ago, when we were a fledgling startup. At the time, it was viewed as so ambitious and challenging a project that we were unable to attract anyone to work on it. But five years later, in 2004, Google Books (then called Google Print) was born, allowing users to search hundreds of thousands of books. Today, they number over 10 million and counting. The next year we were sued by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over the project. While we have had disagreements, we have a common goal — to unlock the wisdom held in the enormous number of out-of-print books, while fairly compensating the rights holders. As a result, we were able to work together to devise a settlement that accomplishes our shared vision. While this settlement is a win-win for authors, publishers and Google, the real winners are the readers who will now have access to a greatly expanded world of books.

    October 02, 2009
    * White House: National Arts and Humanities Month 2009

    White House Proclamation: "Every American deserves an opportunity to study, understand, and contribute to the arts and humanities. This must begin in our schools, where children may have their first and most important exposure to these disciplines. Working on their own masterpieces and finding inspiration in the work of others, young people are opened to new means of expression that sharpen their creative faculties. An education in music, dance, drama, design, and fine art reinforces skills in fields like math and science, and it can help students reach their full potential. In an ever-changing world, we must prepare our students with the knowledge, creative skills, and an ability to innovate so they can compete and succeed on a global stage."

    September 21, 2009
    * DOJ Filing on Google Book Setttlement - Digital Library Delayed

    Follow up to previous postings on what is becoming the saga of the Google Book Settlement, the following articles, legal documents and commentary today:

    * In down economy, libraries are on frontline of connecting Americans with online government, job resources

    News release: "With national unemployment topping 9 percent and many Americans seeking online information and new technology skills that can help keep them and their families afloat in hard times, U.S. public libraries are first responders in a time of economic uncertainty. Libraries Connect Communities 3: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2008-2009, a new report released by the American Library Association (ALA), says libraries are serving as crucial technology hubs for people in need of free Web access, computer training, and assistance finding and using E-Government and job resources. The study finds that more than 71 percent of all libraries (and 79 percent of rural libraries) report they are the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their communities. Sixty-six percent of public libraries rank job-seeking services, including resume writing and Internet job searches, among the most crucial online services they offer – up from 44 percent two years ago. In a separate survey, 80 percent of New York libraries indicated they helped someone search for a job in late 2008."

  • Related postings on financial system
  • September 17, 2009
    * Google and On Demand Books Partner to Publish Out of Copyright Books on Demand

    eWeek.com: "Google agrees to provide 2 million non-copyrighted book titles for On Demand Books printing and cutting using its high-speed Espresso Book Machine. Google Books titles offered via the Espresso Machine will have a recommended sales price of $8 per copy, though the price is subject to change by retailers. On Demand may have access to sell more works if Google's Book Search deal with authors and publishers passes muster with the New York District Court in October." Wired also has the story.

  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • September 16, 2009
    * Hearing on Competition and Commerce in Digital Books: The Proposed Google Book Settlement

    Statement of Marybeth Peters, The Register of Copyrights before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives 111th Congress 1st Session, September 10, 2009

  • "In the view of the Copyright Office, the settlement proposed by the parties would encroach on responsibility for copyright policy that traditionally has been the domain of Congress. The settlement is not merely a compromise of existing claims, or an agreement to compensate past copying and snippet display. Rather, it could affect the exclusive rights of millions of copyright owners, in the United States and abroad, with respect to their abilities to control new products and new markets, for years and years to come. We are greatly concerned by the parties’ end run around legislative process and prerogatives, and we submit that this Committee should be equally concerned."
  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • * Google Buys reCAPTCHA - free anti-bot service that helps digitize books.

    "reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows...A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. You've probably seen them — colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of Web registration forms. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from "bots," or automated programs usually written to generate spam. No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs."

  • Official Google Blog - Teaching computers to read: Google acquires reCAPTCHA
  • September 12, 2009
    * The relationship between public libraries and Google: Too much information

    The relationship between public libraries and Google: Too much information, by Vivienne Waller. First Monday, Volume 14, Number 9 - 7 September 2009

  • "This article explores the implications of a shift from public to private provision of information through focusing on the relationship between Google and public libraries. This relationship has sparked controversy, with concerns expressed about the integrity of search results, the Google Book project, and Google the company. In this paper, these concerns are treated as symptoms of a deeper divide, the fundamentally different conceptions of information that underpin the stated aim of Google and libraries to provide access to information. The paper concludes with some principles necessary for the survival of public libraries and their contribution to a robust democracy in a rapidly expanding Googleverse."
  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • September 11, 2009
    * Summary of opposition and support for Google Books Project

    Via Out of the Jungle, insightful commentary and content from a fee based Chronicle of Higher Education article, Choosing Up Sides to Hate or Love the Google Books Deal: "...And—this is what intrigues me the most—how will Judge Chin decide what role the federal courts can and should play in the creation and oversight of what almost everyone agrees will be a digital library the likes of which we have never seen before? Will he agree with Marybeth Peters, the U.S. Register of Copyrights, who told a late-to-the-game House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday that the settlement "inappropriately creates something similar to a compulsory license for works, unfairly alters the property interests of millions of rights holders of out-of-print works without any Congressional oversight, and has the capacity to create diplomatic stress for the United States" because of other countries' objections? (I wonder what the judge will make of the suggestion that Congress has a role to play here.)"

  • An I-School conference explores the pros and cons of letting Google control every aspect of 'the last library'
  • Keeping Google’s tanks off the library lawn
  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • September 07, 2009
    * CDT Urges Privacy Requirements Be Included in Google Books Settlement

    "CDT filed a "friend of the court" brief in the Southern District of New York [September 4, 2009] requesting that key privacy requirements be included in the Court's approval of the class-action settlement that would dramatically expand Google Book Search. CDT previously released a report in July analyzing the privacy implications of this settlement and is urging the judge to guarantee strong privacy safeguards for the exciting new services Google will be able to offer. The brief asks that the court approve the proposed settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuit between Google and authors and publishers, but to retain oversight in order to monitor implementation of a privacy plan."

    September 06, 2009
    * Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

    "Banned Books Week (BBW): Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where the freedom to express oneself and the freedom to choose what opinions and viewpoints to consume are both met. As the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:

    Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.

    September 04, 2009
    * Google Publishes Books Privacy Policy

    Google Books Privacy Policy, September 3, 2009

  • "The main Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including Google Books. This additional Policy for Google Books does three things: (1) it highlights key provisions of the main Google Privacy Policy in the context of the Google Books service, (2) it describes privacy practices specific to the Google Books service, and (3) it describes planned privacy practices for services proposed in the Google Books legal settlement, which is currently awaiting court approval...All of the provisions of the Google Privacy Policy apply to the Google Books service..."

  • September 02, 2009
    * Amazon Files Brief in Federal Court Against Google Book Settlement

    bizjounrals: "Amazon.com Inc. this week joined the groups filing objections in court against Google Inc.'s settlement with authors and publishers. Amazon said in its 41-page brief filed in federal court that Google will stifle competition if the settlement is approved."

    August 30, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Crowd Competition and Community Standards at the #AALL2009 Conference

    Re-Hashing the Hash Tag - Crowd Competition and Community Standards at the #AALL2009 Conference: Roger V. Skalbeck and Meg Kribble describe how the majority of social media activity during the 2009 AALL conference took place on Twitter, and how this technology impacts the profession and the free exchange of information, moving forward.

    August 21, 2009
    * Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo Form United Front Against Google Books

    Follow up to previous postings on Google Book settlement, BBB News reports - Tech giants unite against Google - "Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library. Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works."

    August 07, 2009
    * Retiring Justice Souter's New More Commodious Home to House Extensive Book Collection

    As reported in the Concorde Monitor (New Hampshire), Justice Souter's longtime neighbor said "Souter told him one of the reasons he decided to move was because his Weare house wasn't structurally sound enough to hold the thousands of books that make up his library."

    August 05, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Law Practice Technology Information Sources and Tools

    Law Practice Technology Information Sources and Tools - Ken Strutin identifies core sources to learn about new technologies that apply to legal research and law practice. In addition, he has identified specific tools that will contribute to managing research, communication and information-based tasks.

    July 06, 2009
    * Codex Sinaiticus website now features complete version of earliest known copy of New Testament

    "Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's outstanding manuscripts. Together with Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest extant Bibles, containing the oldest complete New Testament. This treasured codex is indispensable for understanding the earliest text of the Greek Bible, the transmission of its text, the establishment of the Christian canon, and the history of the book. Over 400 leaves survive and are held across four institutions: the British Library, Leipzig University Library, St Catherine's Monastery and the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg. To celebrate the virtual re-unification of all extant leaves of Codex Sinaiticus, on 6-7 July 2009, the British Library is hosting an academic conference on topics relating to Codex Sinaiticus. A number of leading experts have been approached to give presentations on the history, text, conservation, paleography and codicology, among other topics, of Codex Sinaiticus. Selected conference papers will be edited and published as a collection of articles."

    July 05, 2009
    * EFF Demands Public Release of FBI Surveillance Rules

    News release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice [on June 24, 2009], demanding the public release of the surveillance guidelines that govern investigations of Americans by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI's Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines went into effect in December of 2008 and detail the Bureau's procedures and standards for implementing the Attorney General's Guidelines on approved surveillance strategies...The FBI's general counsel has acknowledged that "the expansion of techniques available [to the Bureau] has raised privacy and civil liberties concerns." Investigations can include the electronic collection of information from online sources and computer databases, as well as the use of grand jury subpoenas to obtain telephone and email subscriber information. Other recent policy changes allow the FBI to engage in free-ranging investigation of Internet sites, libraries, and religious institutions." [Darlene Fichter]

    June 30, 2009
    * Best Practices for Government Libraries - 2009

    Best Practices for Government Libraries - 2009 - Change: Managing It, Surviving It, and Thriving On It - "The 2009 edition includes 60 articles and other submissions provided by more than 50 contributors from librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, LexisNexis Consultants, and more." Compiled by Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis.

    June 21, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Vendor Pitfalls in Negotiating Large Multi-Year Contracts - or How to Lose a Million Dollar Contract

    Vendor Pitfalls in Negotiating Large Multi-Year Contracts - or How to Lose a Million Dollar Contract: A veteran of several decades of vendor negotiations for law firm online and print contracts, law librarian Elaine Billingslea Dockens' thoughtful, detailed and illustrative pathfinder is an asset to all engaged parties whose goal is to obtain a contract that is appropriately balanced, in cost and content, to meet the specific organizational requirements.

    * Google Book Search Settlement Continues to Generate Controversy

    TIME: "In a complex settlement agreement, which took three years to hammer out and spans 135 pages excluding attachments, Google will be allowed to show up to 20% of the books' text online at no charge to Web surfers. But the part of the settlement that deals with so-called orphan books — which refers to out-of-print books whose authors and publishers are unknown — is what's ruffling the most feathers in the literary henhouse. The deal gives Google an exclusive license to publish and profit from these orphans, which means it won't face legal action if an author or owner comes forward later. This, critics contend, gives it a competitive edge over any rival that wants to set up a competing digital library. And without competition, opponents fear Google will start charging exorbitant fees to academic libraries and others who want full access to its digital library. "It will make Google virtually invulnerable to competition," says Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard University library system."

    June 16, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - The End of Institutional Repositories & the Beginning of Social Academic Research Service

    The End of Institutional Repositories & the Beginning of Social Academic Research Service: An Enhanced Role For Libraries - Stuart Basefsky advocates broadening the concept of institutional repositories (IRs) to serve as full-fledged electronic libraries and documents how they can then serve the greater purpose of collecting, disseminating, analyzing and exchanging useful digital information for academic purposes.

    June 13, 2009
    * Special Library Association Annual Conference 2009 Handouts

    There are a number of session handouts available in advance of the sessions.

    June 11, 2009
    * Trustworthiness of Case Reports in the Digital Age

    The Decline and Fall of the Dominant Paradigm: Trustworthiness of Case Reports in the Digital Age, by William R. Mills, New York Law School Law Review, volume 53, 2008/2009.

  • "It is axiomatic that our American common law, based in the principle of precedent and the rule of stare decisis, relies on accurate case reports published in authentic sources. But when citing American court opinions as legal authority, authors, for
    the past century or more, have given little thought to the accuracy of the case reports or the authenticity of the sources wherein the reports were found. This remains true in the digital age, when authors doing research are increasingly likely to have relied
    on the Internet as their primary or sole source of case law."
  • May 27, 2009
    * Commentary on Future of Google Book Search Settlement

    Follow-up to previous postings on Google Book Search, Deal or No Deal: What if the Google Settlement Fails? by Andrew Richard Albanese, Publishers Weekly.

  • "Notably, despite a litany of concerns and obvious unease, the library community did not oppose the deal. That's partly out of an underlying belief that the benefit of a massive database of book content helps them fulfill their mission, and partly, no doubt, because of risk. Should this deal fail, libraries could face legal exposure for their own digital library initiatives, and possibly for their contributory role in Google's book-scanning efforts."
  • May 20, 2009
    * U-M first to sign new digitization agreement with Google

    Follow up to previous articles on Google Book Search: "The University of Michigan today announced that it has expanded its historic agreement with Google Inc. to create digital copies of millions of U-M library books and journals. The amended agreement, which strengthens library preservation efforts and increases the public's access to books, is possible because of Google's pending settlement with a broad class of authors and publishers. The U-M library is the first in the nation to expand its partnership with Google."

    May 16, 2009
    May 12, 2009
    * LLRX.com: Can Collaboration Solve Copyright Status Questions? The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry

    Can Collaboration Solve Copyright Status Questions? The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry - As Roger V. Skalbeck documents, one of the underlying obstacles to reproducing older books is a central place to look for information about what is protected by copyright and what may have passed into the public domain is lacking. Responding to this need, OCLC recently introduced a beta service, the WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry (CER). It could be a very valuable resource for recording and sharing copyright status information."

    May 06, 2009
    * Recent Info Access Study in UK Organizations Identifies Barriers Set by IT

    News release: "Recommind...search-powered information risk management (IRM) software....released the results of its recent research into the information access and search habits of UK organisations. With businesses capable of searching just 50 percent of the information that their employees need for their daily tasks, the findings indicate that legacy, one-size-fits-all ‘Enterprise Search 1.0’ systems are no longer suitable for modern enterprises that require instant, automated and highly relevant access to all kinds of information – from documents and email to fellow colleagues’ expertise and knowledge to project-specific information. The impact on businesses from this technology failure includes staff spending many hours searching fruitlessly for the information they need to do their daily jobs – with approximately a quarter of those surveyed admitting that employees typically spend more than half a day a week on this task. For a company with 1,000 employees, this equates to upwards of £50,000 worth of lost time a week or £2,600,000 a year."

    April 28, 2009
    * Court Extends Time to Opt Out of Google Settlement by Four Months

    Follow up to Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement, from the Authors Guild: "The court overseeing Authors Guild v. Google extended the time for authors and publishers to opt out of the settlement by four months, to September 4th (Judge Chin's order). The fairness hearing will be on October 7th."

  • New York Times: "The Justice Department has begun an inquiry into the antitrust implications of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service..."

  • April 25, 2009
    * OCLC: - Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want

    "In 2008, OCLC conducted focus groups, administered a pop-up survey on WorldCat.org—OCLC’s freely available end user interface on the Web—and conducted a Web-based survey of librarians worldwide. The report, Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want, presents findings from these research efforts in order to understand:

    • The metadata elements that are most important to end users in determining if an item will meet his or her needs
    • The enhancements end users would like to see made in online library catalogs to assist them in consistently identifying appropriate materials
    • The enhancements librarians would recommend for online library catalogs to better assist them in their work
    • The findings indicate, among other things, that although library catalogs are often thought of as discovery tools, the catalog’s delivery-related information is just as important to end users.

    April 20, 2009
    * The World Digital Library Has Launched

    "The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research."

    April 15, 2009
    * ALA Releases State of America’s Libraries Report

    News release: "The value of libraries in communities across the country continued to grow in 2008—and accelerated dramatically as the national economy sank and people looked for cost effective resources in a time of crisis, according to the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual State of America’s Libraries report, released today as part of National Library Week, April 12-18, 2009. U.S. libraries experienced a dramatic increase in library card registration as the public continues to turn to their local library for free services. More than 68 percent of Americans have a library card. This is the greatest number of Americans with library cards since the American Library Association (ALA) started to measure library card usage in 1990, according to a 2008 Web poll conducted by Harris Interactive. The report also says library usage soared as Americans visited their libraries nearly 1.4 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, an increase of more than 10 percent in both checked out items and library visits, compared to data from the last economic downturn in 2001."

    April 12, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Proactive Leadership & The Role of Information: Identifying Strategic Networks of Information

    Proactive Leadership & The Role of Information: Identifying Strategic Networks of Information - Networking is supposed to be essential to successful leaders. But what is the importance of networking conceptually? People are only one form of this vital leadership resource. Stuart Basefksy explains how would one go about developing expanded networks of information and sources.

    * National Archives to Release Reagan and Bush 41 Presidential Records

    News release: "Acting Archivist of the United States Adrienne Thomas announced [April 10, 2009] that 245,763 pages of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Presidential records will be opened for research on Monday, April 13, 2009, at their respective libraries. These records, which were still pending with the George W. Bush Administration as of January 20, 2009, today cleared the review process established by President Barack Obama under Executive Order 13489.

    • "On Monday, April 13, 2009, the Ronald Reagan library will open 244,966 pages of records processed in response to hundreds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These records include the Presidential Briefing Papers collection, Office of Speechwriting research material, and approximately 13,000 pages of declassified records on numerous foreign policy topics. To date, more than ten million pages of Presidential records have been processed at the Reagan library."
    • On Monday, April 13, 2009, the George H. W. Bush library will open 797 pages of records that deal with Saudi Arabia. To date, more than six million pages of Presidential records have been processed at the Bush library..."

    April 10, 2009
    * Campaign for Reader Privacy

    News release: "Organizations representing booksellers, librarians, publishers, and writers today launched the latest phase in their five-year campaign to restore the reader privacy safeguards that were stripped away by the USA Patriot Act. Since 2003, the Department of Justice has used its expanded power under the Patriot Act to issue more than 200 secret search orders under Section 215 and more than 190,000 National Security Letters (NSLs). Despite several efforts to reform the Patriot Act, the FBI can still search any records it believes are "relevant" to a terrorism investigation, including the records of people who are not suspected of criminal conduct."

  • Restoring Safeguards for Reader Privacy Eliminated by the USAPatriot Act: An Appeal to Congress by the Campaign for Reader Privacy; April 7, 2009
  • March 29, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Burney's Legal Tech Review

    Burney's Legal Tech Reviews: Verizon Wireless USB760 Modem and the Cradlepoint CTR500 Mobile Broadband Travel Router - For consistent, resilient mobile internet connectivity, Brett Burney recommends these three small, versatile products that are cost effective and reliable.

    March 21, 2009
    * Columbia Journalism Review: FOIA’s Hidden Exemptions

    Follow up to March 19, 2009 - New Attorney General Guidelines on FOIA Released - CJR: "In a bit of Congressional commemoration, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Cornyn, his Texan Republican colleague, have introduced S. 612, new legislation that would require any new b(3) exemptions to specifically reference the Freedom of Information Act, so that these exemptions would be easier to spot. The senators have frequently collaborated on legislation designed to improve FOIA, and this is the third consecutive Sunshine Week in which Cornyn and Leahy have introduced this legislation. In 2007, it passed the Senate unanimously...Because the law only applies to future b(3) exemptions that Congress might write, it does nothing to address those already in the US Code. Like Title 7, Chapter 77, Sec 4608, Subsection G, Paragraph 1, which protects certain information about honeybee handlers, or Title 7, Chapter 80, Section 4908, Subsection c, which does something similar for watermelon producers and handlers submitting information quantifying the size of their business in order to participate in the National Watermelon Promotion Board."

    March 19, 2009
    * Sony eBookstore Provides Access to Half-Million Free Public Domain Books From Google

    News release: "Starting today, The eBook Store from Sony will provide access to more than a half-million public domain books from Google optimized for current models of the Reader. At Sony’s eBook store (ebookstore.sony.com), a button on the front page leads to the books from Google, which people can transfer to their PRS-505 or PRS-700 Reader at no cost. The process is seamless for Reader owners who have an account at the store. Those new to the store will need to set up an account and download Sony’s free eBook Library software. To start, people can access more than a half-million public domain books from Google, boosting the available titles from the eBook Store to more than 600,000."

    March 14, 2009
    * Economic Downturn Spurs Expanded Need for Libraries

    New York Times: Times Are Tough, and Libraries Are Thriving

  • "People are flocking to libraries after forsaking Barnes & Noble or ditching their HBO service and subscriptions to Netflix, library officials said, because libraries’ books, DVDs and CDs have a significant advantage: They are free. Some people are showing up at libraries for the first time for free entertainment — movies, lectures, concerts and puppet shows, library officials said. Still others are capitalizing on their newspaper racks, books and free Internet service for job searches and investment advice or advice on a topic that the title of a much-thumbed book makes obvious: “Surviving a Layoff: A Week-by-Week Guide to Getting your Life Back Together.”
  • Related postings on financial system
  • March 11, 2009
    * ACLU Releases Report On Patriot Act Abuses

    News release: "The American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive report today examining widespread abuses that have occurred under the USA Patriot Act, a law that was rushed through Congress just 45 days after September 11. In the almost eight years since the passage of the controversial national security law, the Patriot Act has led to egregious government misconduct."

  • Reclaiming Patriotism: A Call to Reconsider the Patriot Act, Published March 2009
  • March 10, 2009
    * Will Raw Data Feeds on Congressional Activities Finally Reach the Public Domain?

    Mother Jones: "By slipping a simple, three-sentence provision into the gargantuan spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, a congressman from Silicon Valley is trying to nudge Congress into the 21st Century. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) placed a measure in the bill directing Congress and its affiliated organs—including the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office—to make its data available to the public in raw form. This will enable members of the public and watchdog groups to craft websites and databases showcasing government data that are more user-friendly than the government's own."

    * Upcoming: Competitive Intelligence Workshop at Computers in Libraries 2009

    Post-Conference Workshop on Competitive Intelligence, April 2, 2009 - 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM, Sabrina I. Pacifici, Law Librarian, & Founder/Editor/Publisher, LLRX.com and beSpacific.com

  • Librarians, competitive intelligence (CI) experts, and knowledge specialists will all benefit from this seminar focused on key, reliable, low-cost, as well as free, resources, services, tools, techniques and applications, including social networking sites, blogs, wikis, intranets, email alerts, RSS, and even IM. Whether you are managing daily current awareness services, tracking the global financial crisis, or keeping your organization current about trends, competitors, and opportunities, learn how to build, maintain, and leverage CI initiatives that serve teams, communities, and organizations and improve business processes.

  • March 07, 2009
    * American Library Association: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 101

    ARRA 101: "Completing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a long and arduous process for the Obama Administration and the new Congress. Now that President Obama has signed the bill into law, our nation can begin the journey of restoring our economic stability through the programs and initiatives this law will make possible.

    Throughout the process of creating this law, the library community demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the American public by working to inform our leaders in Washington about the programs and services libraries across the country are providing to help America get back to work, such as assistance with resume building and online job searching as well as free classes to teach the public 21st century job skills.

    With many opportunities available to libraries through the stimulus bill, the library community must continue our efforts to educate our elected officials on the benefits of investing in libraries – focusing now on the state level."

    February 23, 2009
    * Google Book Search Settlement - New Commercial and Access Models Await Readers

    Timothy B. Lee: "Speaking at Princeton on Thursday, Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers, discussed the landmark settlement in the Google Book Search case. Sarnoff speculated that the agreement could effectively give Google and Amazon a "duopoly" in the online book market."

  • Richard Sarnoff - Reinventing Access to Books: The Landmark Settlement among Authors, Publishers, Libraries, and Google. Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, February 19, 2000
  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • February 22, 2009
    * Five Year Plans for State Libraries - 2008-2012

    "The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas."

  • "Each state creates a 5-year plan for its programs to strengthen the efficiency, reach, and effectiveness of library services. Click on a state...to see its 5-year plan for 2008-2012 (all plans are in PDF format)."
  • February 21, 2009
    * February 2009: Civil Rights Digital Libraries Enhance Americans’ Understanding of Important Era

    "The Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL), a comprehensive civil rights Web site and portal hosted by the University of Georgia, saw an enormous spike in the number of hits during the week of January 19 when the nation celebrated the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. Among CRDL’s many video selections, users could watch a prophetic 1971 clip of civil rights activist Andrew Young predicting the election of an African American president in his lifetime, a 1962 clip of African American students turned away from the public library in Albany, Georgia, and a 1960 clip of African American first-grade girls integrating an elementary school cheered on by African Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded the University of Georgia a National Leadership Grant (NLG) to create the digital library in 2005. The project was selected in part because it provides a portal for many of the nation’s civil rights collections, resulting in much greater public access and the ability to search across many collections as if they were a single collection. It also harvests metadata from the collections, which are physically scattered throughout the country, and has contributed significantly to audio-visual metadata standards." [Institute of Museum and Library Services]

    February 13, 2009
    * Lincoln and the Law from the Law Library of Congress

    "The Law Library of Congress is pleased to present a newly digitized collection to celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The collection covers three eras including nine items in the Lincoln the Lawyer collection, five on Habeas Corpus and the War Powers of the President, and eight covering The Assassination: Trials. Lincoln's effort to restore the Union and his contributions to American political thought and its ideals of freedom often obscure the fact that he had been a successful attorney. Lincoln himself admitted his ambition lay in politics and not in the law, "My forte is as a Statesman, rather than a Prosecutor." Even if the law was Lincoln's "secondary" avocation, it was indelibly linked to him in life... and death." [Donna Scheeder]

  • Lincoln the Lawyer | Habeas Corpus and the War Powers of the President | The Assassination: Trials
  • February 11, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Six Questions and a Strategy for Campus-wide Information Competence

    Six Questions and a Strategy for Campus-wide Information Competence. At Cornell University Library (CUL) a committee was established in 2005 to address the issue of information literacy at the university. The committee did extensive research on this topic and developed an approach for seeking solutions. Stuart Basefsky presents three exhibits to accomplish this objective.

    February 08, 2009
    * Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Back Issues

    Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program - Back Issues available from 1996-2008, HTML Version (and PDF from 2001).

  • Note - the Federal Depository Library Program website is now located as follows: "The FDLP Desktop serves as a centralized resource for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which disseminates U.S. Government information to the American public through libraries across the nation. Stay up-to-date with the latest innovations and progress of the Program and utilize various tools in order to enhance public services."
  • February 01, 2009
    * Harvard Prof. on Google and the Future of Books

    Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book search project, from the New York Review of Books, Google & the Future of Books, by Robert Darnton

  • "How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright. For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. The authors and publishers objected that digitizing constituted a violation of their copyrights. After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that future be?
  • January 22, 2009
    * George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

    George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum: "The George W. Bush Library holds millions of pages of official records documenting the two-term administration (2001-2009) of the nation's forty-third president, as well as donated historical materials that document Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and his personal papers as Governor of Texas. In addition to these textual records, the Bush Library has an extensive audiovisual collection containing photographs and videotapes, as well as an extensive artifact collection containing presidential and gubernatorial domestic and foreign gifts."

    January 16, 2009
    * Financial Crisis Brings More Patrons to Public Libraries

    WSJ - Folks Are Flocking to the Library, a Cozy Place to Look for a Job Books, Computers and Wi-Fi Are Free, But Staffs Are Stressed by Crowds, Cutbacks: "A few years ago, public libraries were being written off as goners. The Internet had made them irrelevant, the argument went. But libraries across the country are reporting jumps in attendance of as much as 65% over the past year, as newly unemployed people flock to branches to fill out résumés and scan ads for job listings."

    January 12, 2009
    * More American Adults Read Literature According to New NEA Study

    News release: "For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature, according to a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts. Reading on the Rise documents a definitive increase in rates and numbers of American adults who read literature, with the biggest increases among young adults, ages 18-24. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends cited previously in NEA reports such as Reading at Risk and To Read or Not To Read."

    January 03, 2009
    * CRS: Presidential Libraries: The Federal System and Related Legislation

    Presidential Libraries: The Federal System and Related Legislation, Updated November 26, 2008.

  • "Through the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal government currently manages and maintains 12 presidential libraries. Inaugurated with the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, these entities are privately constructed on behalf of former Presidents and, upon completion, are deeded to the federal government. Deposited within these edifices are the official records and papers of the former President, as well as documentary materials of his family and, often, his political associates. These holdings are made available for public examination in accordance with prevailing law concerning custody, official secrecy, personal privacy, and other similar restrictions. This report provides a brief overview of the federal presidential libraries system and tracks the progress of related legislation (H.R. 1254, H.R. 1255,
    H.R. 5811, S. 886)."
  • January 01, 2009
    * FCC Federal-State Universal Service Joint Board Staff Releases Monitoring Report

    News release: The staff of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has released its most recent Monitoring Report on Universal Service. This report reflects information on the telephone industry filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) through June 2008. This report, with a few exceptions, reflects data filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the telephone industry for the year 2007 and prior years..Schools and Libraries Support – Schools and libraries support disbursements in 2007 increased to $1.8 billion from $1.7 billion in 2006."

  • Universal Service Monitoring Report, CC Docket NO. 98-202, 2008 (626 pages, PDF)
  • December 23, 2008
    * American Library Association Submits Report to Obama Transition Team

    News release: "After the 2008 presidential election, the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) Advisory Committee and the Committee on Legislation (COL) held meetings with the ALA Washington Office to discuss the key issues and concerns the library community must communicate to the new Administration during this time of transition and throughout Obama’s presidency. Following these meetings, the ALA Washington Office compiled a report, Opening the “Window to a Larger World,” Libraries’ Role in Changing America, which was submitted to the Obama-Biden Transition Team on Wednesday, December 17. The Washington Office is communicating with the Transition Team and hopes to continue this open dialogue over the next four years."

    December 21, 2008
    * ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2006–2007

    News release: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Statistics 2006–2007, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities of ARL’s 123 member libraries. Of these member libraries, 113 are university libraries (14 in Canada, 99 in the US); the remaining 10 are public, governmental, and private research libraries (2 in Canada, 8 in the US)."

  • ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2006–2007 - Compiled and Edited by Martha Kyrillidou, Les Bland, Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC 2008
  • * New on LLRX.com - A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement

    A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement: Jonathan Band's article outlines the settlement’s provisions, with special emphasis on the provisions that apply directly to libraries. The settlement is extremely complex (over 200 pages long, including attachments), so this paper of necessity simplifies many of its details.

    December 15, 2008
    * U.S. News Profiles Best Careers and Ahead-of-the-Curve Careers

    Best Careers, 2009: "U.S. News profiles 30 careers that offer strong outlooks and high job satisfaction. Here's what's new in 2009...as well as a look at 13 cutting-edge careers, viable now and poised for future growth. They stem from megatrends like globalization, digitization, and the wave of environmentalism sweeping the world." See the entry for Librarian.

    November 29, 2008
    * New York Times Op-Ed: How to Publish Without Perishing

    How to Publish Without Perishing, by James Gleick: "As a technology, the book is like a hammer. That is to say, it is perfect: a tool ideally suited to its task. Hammers can be tweaked and varied but will never go obsolete. Even when builders pound nails by the thousand with pneumatic nail guns, every household needs a hammer. Likewise, the bicycle is alive and well. It was invented in a world without automobiles, and for speed and range it was quickly surpassed by motorcycles and all kinds of powered scooters. But there is nothing quaint about bicycles. They outsell cars...Go back to an old-fashioned idea: that a book, printed in ink on durable paper, acid-free for longevity, is a thing of beauty. Make it as well as you can. People want to cherish it."

  • May I add what so many of us have known throughout the span of our respective careers - librarians will never be obsolete - either.
  • * New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2008

    100 Notable Books of 2008 - New York Times: "The Book Review has selected this list from books reviewed since Dec. 2, 2007, when we published our previous Notables list." Includes Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction.

    November 22, 2008
    * Has Research Largely Become, Search Only?

    The Fast-Food Information Age: We Are What We Read, Michael Ross - November 10, 2008

  • "...teachers and students—whose jobs and degrees depend on trust and accuracy—in addition to ordinary Internet users, turn to search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo) as their first, and perhaps only, destination for information. This behavior, the automatic reliance on Internet search engines as the primary (if not only) way to get the information we need, apparently has been thoroughly ingrained in us, in spite of the likelihood that the best or most reliable information may not be freely available on the Internet, but rather behind firewalls on premium sites that have been written, researched, vetted, and compiled by scholars, researchers, and other knowledge professionals. In addition, many, if not all, of these sites are available to anyone with a library card; but clearly they are underused, either because people don’t know about them or because the temptation to use Google and the ease of doing so trump other benefits."
  • November 08, 2008
    * Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web

    Hull D, Pettifer SR, Kell DB 2008 Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web. PLoS Computational Biology 4(10): e1000204 doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204 [Gerry McKiernan]

  • "Many scientists now manage the bulk of their bibliographic information electronically, thereby organizing their publications and citation material from digital libraries. However, a library has been described as “thought in cold storage,” and unfortunately many digital libraries can be cold, impersonal, isolated, and inaccessible places. In this Review, we discuss the current chilly state of digital libraries for the computational biologist, including PubMed, IEEE Xplore, the ACM digital library, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Citeseer, arXiv, DBLP, and Google Scholar. We illustrate the current process of using these libraries with a typical workflow, and highlight problems with managing data and metadata using URIs. We then examine a range of new applications such as Zotero, Mendeley, Mekentosj Papers, MyNCBI, CiteULike, Connotea, and HubMed that exploit the Web to make these digital libraries more personal, sociable, integrated, and accessible places. We conclude with how these applications may begin to help achieve a digital defrost, and discuss some of the issues that will help or hinder this in terms of making libraries on the Web warmer places in the future, becoming resources that are considerably more useful to both humans and machines."
  • November 02, 2008
    * Harvard Opts-Out of Google Book Scanning for In-Copyright Works

    Follow up to October 28, 2008 posting, Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement, from the Harvard Crimson: "Harvard University Library will not take part in Google’s book scanning project for in-copyright works after finding the terms of its landmark $125 million settlement regarding copyrighted materials unsatisfactory, University officials said yesterday."

    October 29, 2008
    * New on LLRX - E-Discovery Update: Pushing Back Against Hardcopy ESI Productions

    E-Discovery Update: Pushing Back Against Hardcopy ESI Productions - Conrad J. Jacoby addresses how critical technology issues related to document authenticity and document-associated metadata have left fewer lawyers willing to accept e-mail messages and other electronic documents in print format. He argues that litigants choosing to produce electronically stored information in hardcopy format should be prepared to provide more complete electronic copies of their production, even when it isn’t initially requested by opposing counsel.

    October 28, 2008
    * Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement

    News release: "The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search...Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.; Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation. These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner."

  • The Future of Google Book Search - Our groundbreaking agreement with authors and publishers.
  • Related postings on Google Book Search
  • September 30, 2008
    * Notice of Access to EPA Library Services Effective September 30, 2008

    Follow up to previous postings on EPA library closures, from the September 24, 2008 Federal Register: "EPA is enhancing access to library services for the public and Agency staff. EPA will open previously closed libraries in its National Library Network, with walk-in access for the public and EPA staff. Other library locations will expand staffing, operating hours, or services. This notice provides information regarding how members of the public can access the libraries and services beginning September 30, 2008."

  • "EPA's core library services and local collections are supported and supplemented by additional services and electronic resources. Public access to EPA's valuable document collections continues to be an essential function of the libraries. Thousands of EPA documents and reports can be accessed in full-text electronic format through the National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS). Members of the public can also search for EPA documents in the libraries' online catalog...Additional information about library locations, hours of operations, and available services can be found at http://www.epa.gov/libraries."
  • September 13, 2008
    * WSJ: Why Libraries Are Back in Style

    WSJ (no fee) - Why Libraries Are Back in Style: "In the latest annual National Association of Home Builders consumer survey, 63% of home buyers said they wanted a library or considered one essential, a percentage that has been edging up for the past few years. Many mass-market home builders are including libraries in their house plans, sometimes with retro touches like rolling ladders and circular stairs."

    September 02, 2008
    * Public libraries report double-digit growth

    News release: "A new study clearly finds that America’s public libraries are breaking through traditional brick-and-mortar walls to serve more people online and in person. America’s 16,543 public library buildings are leveraging technology to help children succeed in school and support lifelong learning. More than 83 percent now offer online homework resources, including live tutors and collections of reliable Web sources – up 15 percent in one year, according to Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2007-2008...The study, conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Information Use Management and Policy Institute at Florida State University (FSU), shows today’s libraries are partners in learning – providing free access to expensive online resources that would otherwise be out of reach for most families..."

    August 28, 2008
    * Pew Internet Survey: Podcast Downloading 2008

    Pew Internet and American Life Project - Podcast Downloading 2008, 8/28/2008, Mary Madden Sydney Jones

  • "As gadgets with digital audio capability proliferate, podcast downloading continues to increase. Currently, 19% of all internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they could listen to it or view it later. This most recent percentage is up from 12% of internet users who reported downloading podcasts in our August 2006 survey and 7% in our February-April 2006 survey. Still, podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of internet users, as very few internet users download podcasts on a typical day."
  • August 24, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: The Kindle for Professional Researchers

    The Kindle for Professional Researchers: DC based journalist Cheryl Miller offers seven good reasons to buy this gadget seemingly tailor-made for dedicated readers, but she also provides caveats worth your attention.

    * New on LLRX.com: The Government Domain: Back to School for Constitution Day 2008

    The Government Domain: Back to School for Constitution Day 2008 - E-gov expert Peggy Garvin guides researchers, educators and librarians to key online resources available for teaching, training and educational activities associated with the September 17, 2008 celebration of Constitution Day in the United States.

    * Gannett News Service Survey of 9,000 Public Library Systems Nationwide

    "Gannett News Service compiled 2002 data from the National Center for Education Statistics on more than 9,000 public library systems nationwide. To make a five-year comparison, GNS also obtained 2006 data from each state and the District of Columbia that were not available from NCES.

    The federal government requires states to report library information in a number of categories. GNS focused on four key yardsticks: visits, circulation (number of items checked out), operating expenses and number of public computers with Internet access.

    "Each year, more than 1 billion people visit libraries to borrow books or videos, log onto the Internet or participate in various community programs." Link to databases and related resources on the right sidebar of this page

    * Association of Research Libraries: Social Software in Libraries

    News release: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Social Software in Libraries, SPEC Kit 304, which provides an overview of ARL libraries’ implementation of software that people use to connect with one another online...In the last few years, the use of social software has grown enormously. While a growing number of libraries have adopted social software as a way to further interact with library patrons and library staff, many things are unclear about the use of social software in ARL member libraries. This SPEC survey was designed to discover how many libraries and library staff are using social software and for what purposes, how those activities are organized and managed, and the benefits and challenges of using social software, among other questions.

    For this study, social software was broadly defined as software that enables people to connect with one another online. The survey asked about 10 types of applications: (1) social-networking sites; (2) media-sharing sites; (3) social-bookmarking or tagging sites; (4) wikis; (5) blogs; (6) sites that use RSS to syndicate and broadcast content; (7) chat or instant messaging services; (8) VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol) services; (9) virtual worlds; and (10) widgets."

    The table of contents and executive summary from this SPEC Kit are available online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec304web.pdf.

    August 20, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: Technology Tools for Information Management

    Technology Tools for Information Management - Roger V. Skalbeck and Barbara Fullerton's share a fast paced presentation of 19 practical, low cost and innovative tech tools they respectively use on a regular basis. So if you are looking for ideas to improve your use of Outlook, RSS, Adobe, and enhance your presentations and collaborative goals, this article is a must read.

    * Two New Country Profiles from Library of Congress

    Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Country Profiles: Turkey and Yemen.

    August 18, 2008
    * Digital Preservation Project for Government Web Pages of Bush Presidency

    Project will preserve Bush administration Web sites, By Jill R. Aitoro: "More than 100 million Web pages from President Bush's second term will be preserved for historians, researchers and the public, thanks to a joint effort announced on Thursday of government agencies and non-profit libraries. The Library of Congress and Government Printing Office, in partnership with the California Digital Library, University of North Texas Libraries and Internet Archive, will harvest and archive all Web sites that could change under a new presidential administration. The total amount of data in the collection, which will focus on executive and legislative branch sites, is expected to reach 10 to 12 terabytes."

    August 17, 2008
    * Report: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century

    Council on Library and Information Resources, pub 142 - No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century, August, 2008 (74 pages, PDF)

  • "In February 2008, CLIR convened 25 leading librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists to consider this question. Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities that libraries are likely to face in the next five to ten years, and how changes in scholarly communication will affect the future library."

  • August 11, 2008
    * EPA Library Restoration Pact Finalized

    Follow up to previous postings on the EPA library closures, today this news release from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER): "The Memorandum of Agreement between the EPA and the American Federation of Government Employees becomes final today....EPA will not, however, re-open its specialized library for research on the properties and effects of new chemicals which held one of the world’s most comprehensive technical collections on pesticides and other compounds. EPA did pledge to reopen a Chemical Library as part of its re-opened Headquarters Library in Washington, D.C. with a “professional librarian with knowledge of chemical information” and access to an unspecified “specialized chemical collection."

    * Report: Google Still Not Indexing Hidden Web URLs

    Google Still Not Indexing Hidden Web URLs, by Kat Hagedorn
    Metadata Harvesting Librarian, Digital Library Production Service, University of Michigan Libraries, Ann Arbor, MI and Joshua Santelli
    Applications Programmer, Digital Library Production Service, University of Michigan Libraries, Ann Arbor, MI. D-Lib Magazine, July/August 2008, Volume 14 Number 7/8.

    August 03, 2008
    * Treasury Economic Update August 1, 2008

    Treasury Economic Update 8.1.08: "Job Growth: Payroll employment fell by 51,000 in July, following a decrease of 51,000 in June. The United States has added about 7.8 million jobs since August 2003. Employment increased in 33 states and the District of Columbia over the year ending in June. (Last updated: August 1, 2008). Unemployment: The unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in July, up from 5.5 percent in June. (Last updated: August 1, 2008)
    See also:

    August 02, 2008
    * NRC Solicits Public Input Into How It Can Increase Public Access to Security Information

    News release: "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking suggestions from the public on how it can increase its level of openness related to security at nuclear power plants and certain other facilities while still protecting sensitive information. A summary of the feedback will be posted on the NRC’s Web site, provided to the Commission and considered in the development of new openness policies.

    After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Commission implemented a new policy of withholding certain information. Some information previously available to the public was withheld and new information, such as certain orders to NRC licensees on security measures, was designated as classified, safeguards information or sensitive unclassified information and withheld from the public.

    In 2007, the NRC began redacting and releasing many of the safety documents previously withheld, and the agency is interested in taking additional action regarding security-related inspection and license performance information. Under consideration are several approaches, including adding more detail to an annual report to Congress on security oversight and to the cover letters for security inspection reports, and by making more information available on the NRC Web site."

    Related postings on Disappearing Docs. From Gov't Websites

    July 31, 2008
    * American Lawyer Law Librarian Survey 2008

    "Taking Care of Business - Librarians have become tougher advocates, savvier negotiators, and key contributors to their firm's growth."

  • Competitive Advantage: Business Intelligence - finding, analyzing and leveraging it-reshapes the role of law librarians, by Alan Cohen, July/August 2008.
  • July 29, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com - Legal Research Training for Summer Associates

    Reference from Coast to Coast: Summer Musings - Jan Bissett and Margi Heinen provide a timely and valuable refresher on a range of well-sourced, reliable, topical websites, guides, print and program materials useful for summer associate legal research training.

    July 27, 2008
    * Reading: Online vs Print Debate Reasonates With Educators, Librarians, Employers

    New York Times: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?: "Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books. But they argue that it is unrealistic to expect all children to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Pride and Prejudice” for fun. And those who prefer staring at a television or mashing buttons on a game console, they say, can still benefit from reading on the Internet. In fact, some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs...Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends."

  • See also this accompanying graphic illustrating online vs. print reading skills
  • July 19, 2008
    * EPA Agrees to Reopen Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City and HQ Libraries

    News release, July 11, 2008 [thanks to Jennifer Eckel]: "American Federation of Government Employees National Council of EPA Local #238 President Charles Orzehoskie today announced that AFGE Council 238 has reached agreement with EPA to reopen its libraries... Orzehoskie went on to note that this agreement must still go through. "Agency Head Review" pursuant to the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, and may not be effective until on or about August 10, 2008...Orzehoskie and Roy point out that the MOA could only get to a reasonable level of detail in committing the Agency to provide EPA libraries with "adequate space and resources". Therefore, AFGE Council 238 has asked Congress to oversee the adequateness of "...space and resources..." proposed by the Agency for each reopened library...EPA received $1,000,000 in the Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2008. These monies were to be spent "...to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration...." Orzehoskie stated that it remains unclear to the Council just how EPA has allocated these monies to restore the EPA Library Network, but he is sure that Congress will require an accounting of the monies..."

  • Related postings on EPA library closures
  • June 09, 2008
    * Introduction to Information Retrieval

    "This is the companion website for the following book. Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan and Hinrich Schütze, Introduction to Information Retrieval, Cambridge University Press. 2008. This "is the first textbook with a coherent treatment of classical and web information retrieval, including web search and the related areas of text classification and text clustering. Written from a computer science perspective, it gives an up-to-date treatment of all aspects of the design and implementation of systems for gathering, indexing, and searching documents and of methods for evaluating systems, along with an introduction to the use of machine learning methods on text collections. Designed as the primary text for a graduate or advanced undergraduate course in information retrieval, the book will also interest researchers and professionals. A complete set of lecture slides and exercises that accompany the book are available on the web."

    May 23, 2008
    * Microsoft Announces Termination of Live Search Books and Live Search Academic Projects

    Microsoft Live Search Blog: "Today we informed our partners that we are ending the Live Search Books and Live Search Academic projects and that both sites will be taken down next week. Books and scholarly publications will continue to be integrated into our Search results, but not through separate indexes. This also means that we are winding down our digitization initiatives, including our library scanning and our in-copyright book programs. We recognize that this decision comes as disappointing news to our partners, the publishing and academic communities, and Live Search users."

    May 22, 2008
    * LC Federal Research Center: International Review of the Red Cross, Reports Prepared for the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves
    • International Review of the Red Cross (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970): "The International Review of the Red Cross has been continuously published by the International Committee of the Red Cross since 1869, and jointly with Cambridge University Press since 2006. It was first published as Bulletin international Sociétés de secours aux militaries blesses and later as Bulletin international des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge. The English edition began in April 1961. The Review is “a forum for debate on international humanitarian law and humanitarian action and policy, during armed conflict and other situations of violence."
    • Reports Prepared for the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves
    May 19, 2008
    * Preserving Legal Information: The Chesapeake Project's First-Year Evaluation

    "The Chesapeake Project began as a two-year (2007-2008) pilot digital preservation program established to preserve and ensure permanent access to vital legal information currently available in digital formats on the World Wide Web. The purpose of The Chesapeake Project is to successfully develop and implement a program to stabilize, preserve, and ensure permanent access to critical born-digital legal materials. The goal is to establish the beginnings of a strong regional digital archive collection of U.S. legal materials as well as a sound set of standards, policies, and best practices that have the potential to serve as a model for the future realization of a nationwide digital preservation program. See Legal Information Archive: The Chesapeake Project, First Year Evaluation." [via Sarah J. Rhodes]

    May 18, 2008
    * Real Job Titles for Library and Information Science Professionals

    Real Job Titles for Library and Information Science Professionals - directory of "job titles...found in job listings in American Libraries, College and Research Libraries News, or have been sent to Michelle Mach by employed "librarians." [via Phil Bradley]

    * Library of Congress Publishes Updated Country Profile of Iran

    Library of Congress Federal Research Division: "The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security."

  • Country Profile: Iran, May 2008
  • May 11, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com
    May 09, 2008
    * Library Associations Signs On to Testimony in Support of GPO Funding

    "On May 7, Mary Alice Baish of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) gave testimony [Statement on behalf of GPO funding] before the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, Legislative Branch Subcommittee, in support of the fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget request of the U.S. Government Printing Office. She testified on behalf of AALL, the American Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association." [via ALA District Dispatch]

    "Our communities have a very strong interest in Federal information policy and a fervent commitment to public access to government information and a robust FDLP for the 21st Century. The mission of the Government Printing Office (GPO) is uniquely important. GPO provides the three branches of the Federal government with expert publishing and printing services and electronic access to government information through GPO Access. In addition, GPO ensures perpetual, no-fee, ready public access to the printed and electronic information published by the Federal government, in partnership with federal depository libraries.

    The public’s ability to access e-government information, either at their local depository library, neighborhood library or directly from their desktop, has grown exponentially since the enactment of the GPO Access Enhancement Act in 1993 and the move towards greater e-government by agencies, Congress and the courts. While e-government brings us many opportunities for enhanced public access, many difficult challenges remain unresolved as government moves away from producing its information in print and relies increasingly on “born digital” government information. We believe that GPO has a critical leadership role in helping the Federal government meet these unique challenges."

    May 07, 2008
    * FBI Withdraws National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

    News release: "The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand...The NSL was served on the Archive -- a digital library recognized by the state of California -- and its attorneys in November of 2007. The letter asked for personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Kahle, who is also a member of EFF's Board of Directors, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI's limited authority to issue such demands to libraries."

    April 27, 2008
    * Orphan Works Act of 2008 Introduced in House and Senate

    The Orphan Works Act of 2008 (HR 5889 and S 2913) "attempts to create a system where new creators can use old works without fear of massive lawsuits, provided that a good faith effort has been made to find out if the work in question is copyrighted." [Link]

    April 17, 2008
    * Darwin's Private Papers Online

    The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online: "For decades available only to scholars at Cambridge University Library, the private papers of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in history, can now be seen by anyone online and free of charge. This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in nearly 90,000 electronic images. This vast and varied collection of papers includes the first draft of his theory of evolution, notes from the voyage of the Beagle and Emma Darwin's recipe book." Readers may also browse the papers here.

    April 14, 2008
    * Pew Internet Presentation: Libraries Solve Problems

    "This presentation [April 7, 2008] is an overview of recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project about internet use and Web 2.0 activities. It also focuses on the Project's findings about the role of libraries when Americans are trying to solve problems...This presentation covers the highlights from the report issued late last year about library use and the experiences people had at libraries when they went there for problem-solving help."

    April 11, 2008
    * Library of Congress Opens New Interactive Collections

    Inside the Experience: "Opening April 12, interactive technologies will make the Library of Congress and its collections more dynamic and accessible than ever. This Library of Congress Experience will offer “hands-on” interaction with rare cultural treasures in ways that inspire and engage. Artifacts like the Waldseemüller map (the first to include the name “America”), the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Gutenberg Bible and original volumes from Thomas Jefferson’s Library will be virtually at your fingertips. You’ll be able to flip through their pages, magnify sections of interest and access commentary from the Library’s top experts-all on the same touch screen."

    * GPO Study of Regional Depositories

    FDLP Desktop: "The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) was directed by the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) to conduct a study on the conditions of regional depository libraries. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the extent to which public access to Federal depository resources may be impaired by current or projected organizational, financial, technological, or other conditions affecting regional libraries. The findings are to be delivered to the JCP by June 1, 2008. The Draft Outline."

    April 10, 2008
    * PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, version 2.0

    News release: "Together with its supporting documentation, the PREMIS Data Dictionary provides a comprehensive, practical resource for implementing preservation metadata in digital archiving systems. Preservation metadata is defined as information that preservation repositories need to know to support digital materials over the long term. This document is a revision of Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata: Final report of the PREMIS Working Group, issued in May 2005. The PREMIS Data Dictionary is a specification that emphasizes metadata that may be implemented in a wide range of repositories, supported by guidelines for creation, management and use, and oriented toward automated workflows. It is technically neutral in that no assumptions are made about preservation technologies, strategies, syntaxes, or metadata storage and management."

    April 06, 2008
    March 29, 2008
    * EPA commits to reestablish physical libraries in EPA Regions 5, 6, and 7, as well as the Headquarters and Chemical libraries by September 30, 2008

    EPA National Library Network News - Update on EPA's Library Network - March 2008

    "EPA submitted a National Library Network Report to Congress (PDF, 8 pages) on March 26 as requested in the Explanatory Statement accompanying the FY 2008 consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2764).

    In the Report, EPA commits to reestablish physical libraries in EPA Regions 5, 6, and 7, as well as the Headquarters and Chemical libraries by September 30, 2008 to complement existing library services. The report was transmitted to the Honorable Todd Tiahrt, the Honorable Wayne Allard, the Honorable Norman Dicks and the Honorable Dianne Feinstein.

    The Report lays out the general approach EPA plans to take for each location to reopen, and establishes operational standards applicable to every library in the EPA Network. More specific planning for each site continues.

    EPA will allocate the Congressional appropriation of $1 million using the following priorities:

    • Re-establish on-site libraries in Region 5 in Chicago, Region 6 in Dallas, Region 7 in Kansas City, and the consolidated EPA Headquarters Repository and Chemical Library in Washington, DC.
    • Enable Regional EPA libraries to update their collections, facilities, and equipment to meet Network standards.
    • Conduct a formal needs assessment for EPA library services to support future development.
    • Over the next few months, EPA will continue to engage with internal and external stakeholders on developing final plans for each library. The Agency is committed to working with its employees and outside parties on its future digitization plans (based on the third party review), a customer needs assessment, and long term strategic planning efforts.

    * AP Reports EPA Libraries Reopening

    Follow up to previous postings on the EPA library closures, news today via AP: "The Environmental Protection Agency plans to reopen five closed libraries to the public by this fall, the agency said in a report Thursday. Three of the EPA's 10 regional libraries and two libraries at the agency's Washington headquarters were closed because of limited public use and resources being available online, EPA officials had said. The closings prompted criticism from lawmakers. The EPA said in a report to Congress that it expects the closed agency libraries in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., as well as at its Washington headquarters to be reopened by Sept. 30 and possibly earlier. Congress added $1 million to the EPA's budget so that the libraries could be reopened. It also required the agency to provide the report on its library plans."

    March 27, 2008
    * Report to Congress Lays out Plans to Rebuild Physical Collections, Staff Libraries, and Continue to Work with Stakeholders on Future Digitization Plan

    News release: "The Special Libraries Association (SLA) today met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials to review the agency's report to the U.S. Congress on the future direction of its library network. The report, EPA National Library Network Report to Congress (March 26, 2008), explains the steps EPA intends to take to reopen libraries closed over the last two years, and details how the agency will allocate an additional $1 million dollars for libraries provided in the FY08 EPA budget earmarked for that purpose."

  • Information on EPA's National Library Network
  • March 23, 2008
    * Upcoming Computers in Libraries Workshop - Monitoring & Current Awareness: Mining Blogs & RSS for Research

    Workshop 8 – Monitoring & Current Awareness: Mining Blogs & RSS for Research, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Sunday April 6, 2008 - Sabrina I. Pacifici, Law Librarian, Founder/Editor/Publisher, LLRX.com and Author, beSpacific.com.

  • This workshop focuses on identifying and leveraging the best of free and low-fee web sites as well as web-related services to support your research enterprise, be it solo or collaborative. It includes “best of the web” for CI (competitive intelligence), legislation, news, government documents, academic and industry sponsored data.
  • March 13, 2008
    * GAO Report: EPA Needs to Follow Best Practices and Procedures When Reorganizing Its Library Network

    Environmental Protection: EPA Needs to Ensure That Best Practices and Procedures Are Followed When Making Further Changes to Its Library Network, GAO-08-304, February 29, 2008.

    • "Established in 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) library network provides staff and the public with access to environmental information. Its 26 libraries contain a wide range of information and resources and are located at headquarters, regional offices, research centers, and laboratories nationwide. In 2006, EPA issued a plan to reorganize the network beginning in fiscal year 2007. The plan proposed closing libraries and dispersing, disposing of, and digitizing library materials. GAO was asked to assess (1) the status of, and plans for, the network reorganization; (2) EPA's rationale for reorganizing the network; (3) the extent to which EPA has communicated with and solicited the views of EPA staff and external stakeholders in conducting the reorganization; (4) EPA's steps to maintain the quality of library services after the reorganization; and (5) how EPA is funding the network and its reorganization. For this study, GAO reviewed pertinent EPA documents and interviewed EPA officials and staff from each of the libraries.

      Since 2006, EPA has implemented its reorganization plan to close physical access to 4 libraries. In the same period, 6 other libraries in the network decided to change their operations, while 16 have not changed. Some of these libraries have also digitized, dispersed, or disposed of their materials. Since the reorganization, EPA has begun drafting a common set of agencywide library procedures and has hired a program manager for the network. While these procedures are under development, however, EPA has imposed a moratorium on further changes to the network in response to congressional and other expressions of concern. EPA's primary rationale for the library network reorganization was to generate cost savings by creating a more coordinated library network and increasing the electronic delivery of services. However, EPA did not fully follow procedures recommended in a 2004 EPA study of steps that should be taken to prepare for a reorganization. In particular, EPA did not fully evaluate alternative models, and associated costs and benefits, of library services. EPA officials stated that they needed to act quickly to reorganize the library network in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction. EPA did not develop procedures to inform staff and the public on the final configuration of the library network, and EPA libraries varied considerably and were limited in the extent to which they communicated with and solicited views from stakeholders before and during the reorganization effort. In particular, EPA's plan did not include information that the Chemical Library was to close, and EPA did not inform staff or the public until after the fact. EPA's communication procedures were limited or inconsistent because EPA acted quickly to make changes in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction, and because of the decentralized nature of the library network."

    • Related postings on EPA Library Closures

    February 29, 2008
    * EPA Library Closures HamperingAgency Work, Arbitrator Finds

    Follow up to previous postings on EPA library closures, this news release dated February 28, 2008: "A federal arbitrator has found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guilty of unfair labor practices and acting in bad faith in its national series of library closures, according to a ruling posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA is ordered to bargain with affected public employee unions before making any further changes in its library network. During the past two years, EPA has closed or reduced access to much of its network of libraries which serve both its own specialists and the public. Altogether, access to EPA libraries in 23 states has been completely lost, and several specialized collections have been shuttered, including its headquarters library."

    February 23, 2008
    * Syracuse Researchers Link Higher Test Scores with Certified Librarians in Schools

    Press release: "New York State schools with certified librarians have higher scores on average on the fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) test than those who don’t, according to the findings of researchers at Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool).

    Preliminary findings of research conducted by Professor Ruth Small and graduate students in the Center for Digital Literacy (CDL) show a statistically significant increase—with an almost 10 point difference—in the ELA test scores among fourth-grade students whose schools had certified librarians over students in schools without certified librarians." [via ALA]

  • New York State’s School Libraries and Library Media Specialists: An Impact Study Preliminary Report, Ruth V. Small, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Jaime Snyder, Research Associate Katie Parker, Research Associate, Center for Digital Literacy Syracuse University
  • * Nonprofit Gives Children from Low-Income Families Opportunity to Read and Own Their First New Books

    "First Book is a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. We provide an ongoing supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring, and family literacy programs.

    First Book was founded in 1992. The First Book model was developed to leverage the work of local heroes who reach children through existing literacy programs in a variety of settings, such as Head Start centers, libraries, soup kitchens, churches, housing projects, and afterschool initiatives. Working through this vast network of organizations, First Book plays a critical role in transforming the quality of preschool and after-school programs nationwide.

    First Book's model is national in scope and local in impact. In our first year, First Book distributed approximately 12,000 books in three communities. Since that time, First Book has distributed more than 50 million books to children in over 3,000 communities around the country."

    February 11, 2008
    * Government Information Online (GIO): Ask a Librarian

    "Through Government Information Online (GIO) you can ask government information librarians who are experts at finding information from government agencies of all levels (local, state, regional, national international) on almost any subject from aardvarks to zygomycosis. GIO is a free online information service supported by nearly twenty public, state and academic libraries throughout the United States. All participants are designated Federal depository libraries in the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Depository Library Program. Many are also official depository libraries for their other types of governments and public agencies."

    February 09, 2008
    * Impact of Google Book Search Has Many Dimensions

    Google Book Search: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, 1/1/2008, By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology.

  • "Forget everything you believe about Google's book digitization project. Once you get past the freakishly high numbers bandied about, the two-dozen-plus distinguished institutions that have signed on, the legal paranoia and the ultra-ultra-secret processes and technologies involved-you'll find that Book Search (from the fifth most valuable company in America) is simply another high-cost effort that is simultaneously visionary and crude. It doesn't even have to succeed in order to impact the transformation of scholarship activities."

  • February 07, 2008
    * Leahy: Founding Fathers’ Papers Should Be Put Online

    Press release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today called for the papers of the Founding Fathers Project [Pew Charitable Trusts: "The Project was established more than a half century ago to publish the complete, annotated writings of the country’s founding fathers—including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin—and to make these historical treasures available to the public."] to be made available to all Americans through the Internet, at a hearing to examine the program. Established more than 50 years ago to catalogue, annotate and public the writings of some of the country’s Founders, the program has been criticized because of slow progress and high costs."

  • Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, Hearing on The Founding Fathers’ Papers: Ensuring Public Access to our National Treasures, February 7, 2008 - "The amount of federal taxpayer funds that has been spent on these projects is staggering. According to the NHPRC, nearly $30 million in federal taxpayer funds has been spent on the letter press projects since 1965. And, it is estimated that more than $60 million in combined public and private funds has been spent on these projects to date. Equally troubling is that the cost of these materials puts the Papers well out of reach for many institutions and for most Americans. Just one volume of the Hamilton Papers costs $180, and the price for the complete 26 volume set of these Papers is about $2,600. Not surprisingly, a recent poll found that only a few libraries had just one volume of the Papers and only six percent had more than one volume."
  • * Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization

    Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization, A White Paper by Oya Y. Rieger, February, 2008. 52 pp. Published by the Council on Library and Information Resources.

  • Executive Summary: "The digitization of millions of books under programs such as Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Search Books is dramatically expanding our ability to search and find information. The aim of these large-scale projects—to make content accessible—is interwoven with the question of how one keeps that content, whether digital or print, fit for use over time...The paper describes four large-scale projects—Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project—and their digitization strategies. It then discusses a range of issues affecting the stewardship of the digital collections they create: selection, quality in content creation, technical infrastructure, and organizational infrastructure. The paper also attempts to foresee the likely impacts of large-scale digitization on book collections."
  • February 04, 2008
    * President's Budget Requests $271,246,000 for Institute of Museum and Library Services

    Press release: "The President's budget request for fiscal year 2009 seeks $271,246,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The request, which was released by the White House today, represents an increase of $26,023,000 or 10.6 percent, over the FY 2008 enacted level for the Institute’s programs and administration."

  • IMLS Appropriations History 1998-2009

  • IMLS Requested and Enacted Budgets 2006-2009
  • February 03, 2008
    * University of Michigan's Library Puts Millionth Book From its Collection Online

    "The University of Michigan's University Library has just put the millionth book from its collection on-line. That's one million out of the 7.5 million volumes in the library's current holdings. Digitized materials are made available publicly via the Mirlyn library catalog and MBooks. MBooks provides full text of works that are in the public domain, creating new ways for users to search and access U-M Library content. Materials that are currently in copyright are available for searching on-line, allowing users to assess the contents of a book before deciding whether to purchase it or borrow it from the library."

  • New guide available: Google Book Search Tips. Google Book Search will help you find books digitized in the Michigan Digitization Project (MBooks) and Google's partnerships with other libraries around the world. Our new guide provides tips for searching Google Book Search, including how to download full-text books, how to locate a physical copy of books that are only available in snippet view, and how to identify what volume and issue of a journal when it is unclear in your search results."
  • January 23, 2008
    January 22, 2008
    * Publishers Announce Agreements With Universities on New Copyright Guidelines for Course Content in Digital Formats

    Press release: "The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today announced that three universities - [text of the guidelines linked as follows] Hofstra, Syracuse and Marquette — have reached agreement with the AAP on new copyright guidelines affirming that educational content delivered to students in digital formats should be treated under the same copyright principles that apply to printed materials. The guidelines, which were developed separately by the three universities, govern how librarians and faculty members distribute copyrighted content through library electronic course reserves systems, course management systems, faculty and departmental web pages and other digital formats. AAP worked with each of the three universities in cooperative efforts to establish easily understood and common-sense standards that help faculty and staff understand and interpret their rights and responsibilities when using copyrighted content in educational settings. Each of the guidelines reflects the specific needs of the particular university and is consistent with the principles of fair use while providing helpful guidance as to when permission from the copyright holder is required to copy or post materials in digital formats. AAP believes the guidelines, which are similar to those adopted by Cornell University last year, will serve as models for others colleges and universities."

    January 21, 2008
    * National Year of Reading Launced in the UK

    Do you need to read books to be clever? By Denise Winterman, BBC News Magazine: "...books are hyped as life changing and a way out of crime, poverty and deprivation by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who launched the National Year of Reading on Wednesday. Quite simply, they have the potential to open up new worlds for the reader...book sales in the UK are huge and on the rise. Last year we bought an estimated 338 million books, at a cost of £2,478m. This was 13% higher by both volume and value than five years ago, according to the Book Marketing Limited's latest Books and the Consumer survey."

  • Prime Minister launches National Year of Reading

  • "Words are at the heart of everything. The National Year of Reading is a celebration of words in every form."
  • January 19, 2008
    * Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

    Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, January 9, 2008.

  • "The future of bibliographic control will be collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based. Its realization will occur in cooperation with the private sector, and with the active collaboration of library users. Data will be gathered from multiple sources; change will happen quickly; and bibliographic control will be dynamic, not static. The underlying technology that makes this future possible and necessary—the World Wide Web—is now almost two decades old. Libraries must continue the transition to this future without delay in order to retain their significance as information providers."
  • January 17, 2008
    * NIH Guide Notice for Public Access

    "The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central. The Policy requires that these articles be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health."

    The Law:

  • The NIH Public Access Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states: SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law."

  • Journals That Submit Articles To PubMed Central

  • January 16, 2008
    * 'Google Generation' is a myth, says new research

    Press release: "A new report, commissioned by the UKL JISC [Joint Information Systems Committee] and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web. The report Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future [11 January 2008] also shows that research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors. 'These findings add to our growing understanding of subjects that should concern all who work in further and higher education – the changing needs of our students and researchers and how libraries can meet their needs.'

    The study calls for libraries to respond urgently to the changing needs of researchers and other users and to understand the new means of searching and navigating information. Learning what researchers want and need is crucial if libraries are not to become obsolete, the report warns."

    * EPA To Set Up Human Resources Shared Service Centers - Questions Remain About Fate of Libraries

    Follow up to postings on EPA library closures, this press release from January 10, 2008: EPA To Set Up Human Resources Shared Service Centers: "The Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to establish shared service centers in three locations, beginning in June 2008, to process personnel and benefits actions for the agency's 17,000 employees. The centers, to be located in current EPA facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, Las Vegas, Nev., and Research Triangle Park, N.C., also will process vacancy announcements throughout the agency. The move will improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and customer service of agency human resources operations. It is expected to take 12-24 months to complete. Staff affected by the creation of the shared service centers will continue their employment at one of the centers or elsewhere in the agency. The centers will enhance the timeliness and quality of customer service and standardize work processes."

  • See also EPA's move to 'modernize' libraries spurs concerns, By Aliya Sternstein Technology Daily, January 15, 2008
  • January 15, 2008
    * Library of Congress and Foundation Center Create New Funding Guide for Preserving Historical, Cultural Collections

    Press release: "The Library of Congress and the Foundation Center, in a joint partnership, have recently compiled a new Web-based fundraising guide to help the preservation community save the nation’s millions of at-risk artifacts for future generations. The guide, titled Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives and Museums, is available for free download at the Library of Congress."

    January 13, 2008
    * Publishers Say Enactment of NIH Mandate on Journal Articles Undermines Intellectual Property Rights Essential to Science Publishing

    Follow up to December 27, 2007 posting Mandate for Public Access to NIH-Funded Research Now Law, see this press release: "The Association of American Publishers [January 3, 2008] criticized a controversial new NIH research publication policy that was enacted as part of the omnibus appropriations package for 2008, and reaffirmed that journal publishers who have opposed the policy will continue to pursue their concerns with Congress regarding the policy’s negative impact on science publishing and the protection of related intellectual property rights. Publishers will also urge NIH to conduct a rulemaking proceeding, with opportunity for public comment, before implementing the new policy."

    January 10, 2008
    * Perceptions 2007: An International Survey of Library Automation

    Perceptions 2007: An International Survey of Library Automation
    by Marshall Breeding. January 9, 2008: "Introduction - The year 2007 saw considerable upheaval in the library automation industry. To get some sense of the aftermath of the recent rounds of mergers, acquisitions, product consolidations, and to gauge interest in open source automation systems, I created and executed a survey that aims to measure the prevailing perceptions in libraries."

    * Library of Congress, Microsoft Announce Agreement to Support New Interactive Experience for Visitors

    Press release: "The Library of Congress and Microsoft Corp. have signed a cooperative agreement that will change the way Library visitors experience history. The joint technology initiative will electronically deliver the Library’s immense collection of historical artifacts to patrons visiting its Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., and will allow unparalleled and immersive interactive experiences that will bring the institution’s vast historical collections and exhibits to life–on-site and online–through the upcoming myloc.gov Web site."

    January 05, 2008
    * BusLib Archives From 1998 to Present Now Online

    The buslib-l archives are now available from 1998 to present at http://list1.ucc.nau.edu [Tina Adams (BusLib Moderator)]


    January 03, 2008
    * European Library Launches New Version of its Website

    "The European Library launched a new version of its website on the 4th of December; the changes involve significant lay-out improvements and reflect a constant care for understanding user needs. It also introduces the latest partners’ collections and the first The European Library web-exhibition."

  • New collections and new themes: The European Library introduces 6 new collections from the National libraries of Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Russia-Moscow and Spain. Additionally, the Treasure pages have been converted into a searchable collection. Visitors can now access 307 collections under The European Library.
  • January 01, 2008
    * Internet2 and Libraries

    Internet2 and Libraries - Serving Your Communities at the Speed of Light, by James Werle and Louis Fox.

  • "Formed in 1996, Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced network consortium led by the U.S. research and higher education community. Its goals are to provide leading-edge network capabilities and to facilitate the development, deployment, and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Starting with 34 universities, Internet2 has grown to more than 300 members, including more than 200 U.S. universities working in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories, and other research institutions. ...One important feature of Internet2 is that it interconnects numerous state and regional research and education networks via a national backbone network. Another important feature is that it also connects to more than 50 international advanced networking efforts. What the consortium has created is a global, noncommercial education network, which enables unprecedented levels of collaboration across all education sectors, both within the U.S. and around the world."
  • December 31, 2007
    * The Secret Library of Hope

    The Secret Library of Hope, by Rebecca Solnit, The Nation: "Hope is an orientation, a way of scanning the wall for cracks--or building ladders--rather than staring at its obdurate expanse. It's a world view, but one informed by experience and the knowledge that people have power; that the power people possess matters; that change has been made by populist movements and dedicated individuals in the past; and that it will be again. Dissent in this country has become largely a culture of diagnosis rather than prescription, of describing what is wrong with them, rather than what is possible for us. But even in English, a robust minority tradition can be found. There are a handful of books that I think of as "the secret library of hope." None of them deny the awful things going on, but they approach them as if the future is still open to intervention rather than an inevitability. In describing how the world actually gets changed, they give us the tools to change it again..."

    December 30, 2007
    * Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans in the past year for all kinds of purposes

    Pew Internet & American Life Project: Information Searches That Solve Problems, 12/30/2007

  • Press release: "People who have faced one of several common government-related problems in the past two years are more likely to consult the internet than other sources, including experts and family members....The survey results challenge the assumption that libraries are losing relevance in the internet age. Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in this survey. And it was the young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) who led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose."
  • December 23, 2007
    * Congress Earmarks Funds to Sustain EPA Libraries

    Follow up to previous postings on EPA Library Closures, news from Library Journal: "Reversing a policy bitterly opposed by library advocates, many Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, and the watchdog Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Congress in its omnibus appropriations bill sent to President George W. Bush has earmarked $3 million to restore service at the EPA’s technical and research libraries."

    December 19, 2007
    * American Library Association Statement on E-government

    Press release: "...in a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the American Library Association (ALA) addressed the critical yet unacknowledged role public libraries play in delivering E-government services to the American people. Increasingly, government agencies refer individuals to their local public libraries for assistance and access to the Internet for citizen-government interactions. Yet public libraries are not considered members of the E-government team. ALA's statement (PDF), for the Committee's hearing on E-government, highlighted the stress these E-government services are placing on public libraries' infrastructure and suggested taking steps toward creating a partnership between public libraries and the government in order to improve E-government delivery to citizens."

    December 11, 2007
    * Acceptance Speech, Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize in Literature 2007

    Acceptance Speech, Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize in Literature 2007, December 7, 2007: "...We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education, to know nothing about the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers. What has happened to us is an amazing invention, computers and the internet and TV, a revolution. This is not the first revolution we, the human race, has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, changed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked "What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?" And just as we never once stopped to ask, How are we, our minds, going to change with the new internet, which has seduced a whole generation into its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging and blugging etc."

    December 03, 2007
    December 02, 2007
    * Draft Report of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

    Library of Congress: The period for public comment on the report is open until December 15, 2007. Comments can be submitted via the Web site at http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/contact/. Electronic submission of comments is encouraged.

  • View Letter from the Working Group – November 30, 2007

  • Read Draft Final Report of the Working Group
  • November 27, 2007
    * Universal Digital Library Completes 1.5 Million Book Digitization Milestone

    News.com: "The Universal Digital Library, a book-scanning project backed by several major libraries across the globe, has completed the digitization of 1.5 million books and on Tuesday made them free and publically available. The online library offers full text downloads of works that are in the public domain, or for which the copyright holder has been given permission to make available. Having the backing of prominent institutions such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, however, the collection goes far beyond the widely available classics, though those are there, too..." According to the director of intellectual property for the Universal Digital Library, Michael Shamos, "But once books are digitized and stored on servers around the world, it becomes impossible for any one government to destroy all the copies of a book. Once it's there it remains immortal."

    * Virtual International Authority File Project Announces Enhancements

    LC press release: "The Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and OCLC have signed a memorandum of understanding to extend and enhance the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), a project that virtually combines multiple name authority files into a single name authority service. Building on a previous proof-of-concept research project by the Library, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (the German national library) and OCLC, the new agreement adds the Bibliothèque nationale de France (the French national library) as a principal partner in VIAF and will lead to the inclusion of content from name authority files maintained by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The French name authority records will be added to the existing VIAF files built from authority data from the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Library of Congress. VIAF’s matching routines were developed by OCLC research."

    November 26, 2007
    * NYPL Acquires Papers of American Historian and Kennedy Presidential Advisor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

    Press release: "The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the late American historian, social critic, and advisor to President John F. Kennedy, announced Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "Arthur Schlesinger was a pivotally important American in the last century. He was both a brilliant historian and also a witness to, and participant in, most of the significant events of his era," said Dr. LeClerc...The Arthur Schlesinger papers consist of almost 300 linear feet of correspondence, journals, manuscripts of his writings, research files, phone logs, sound recordings, videos, date books, and clippings and will be housed in the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. The correspondence in Schlesinger's papers includes letters from nearly every significant figure in American politics, as well as many prominent scholars, thinkers, writers, and artists. Examples of prominent correspondents include Kofi Annan, Brooke Astor, Truman Capote, Bill Clinton, Marlene Dietrich, Allen Ginsberg, Hubert Humphrey, Jacob Javitz, Edward Kennedy, Edward Koch, Norman Mailer, Walter Mondale, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ralph Nader, I.M. Pei, John D. Rockefeller IV, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and Caspar Weinberger."

    November 25, 2007
    * Presentation: Reinventing the Law Library - Year is 2020

    Reinventing the Law Library - Year is 2020, NE2007: Law Libraries Without Borders II: 4th Northeast Regional Law Libraries Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Claire M. Germain, Professor of Law & Edward Cornell Law Librarian, Cornell University Law School, October 19, 2007.

    November 24, 2007
    * AP - Clinton, Huckabee Ark. papers to remain sealed through '08

    AP: "The papers of two of Arkansas' most prominent political leaders former Govs. Clinton and Huckabee remain locked in storage four years after both promised to donate them to two separate archival projects."

    November 22, 2007
    * University of Michigan Library - Guide to Elections 2008

    Documents Center, University Library, University of Michigan, Guide to Elections 2008. Choose this web guide as your basis for any aspect of election related research. It is comprehensive, current, and presents a wide spectrum of state and federal resources, as well as annotated links to free and fee-based publications, subscription services, and online guides maintainted by government, newspapers, campaigns, advocacy groups, lobbying groups, and academics.

    * NEA Report: - To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence

    National Endowment for the Arts Report: To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence: "This report is a new and comprehensive analysis of reading patterns of children, teenagers, and adults in the United States. To Read or Not To Read assembled data on reading trends from more than 40 sources, including federal agencies, universities, foundations, and associations. The compendium expands the investigation of the NEA's landmark 2004 report, Reading at Risk, and reveals recent declines in voluntary reading and test scores alike, exposing trends that have severe consequences for American society. November 2007. (100 pages, PDF)

    November 21, 2007
    * Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age

    Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age, James Waldo, Herbert S. Lin, and Lynette I. Millett, Editors, Committee on Privacy in the Information Age, National Research Council.

  • "Privacy is a growing concern in the United States and around the world. The spread of the Internet and the seemingly boundaryless options for collecting, saving, sharing, and comparing information trigger consumer worries. Online practices of business and government agencies may present new ways to compromise privacy, and e-commerce and technologies that make a wide range of personal information available to anyone with a Web browser only begin to hint at the possibilities for inappropriate or unwarranted intrusion into our personal lives. Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age presents a comprehensive and multidisciplinary examination of privacy in the information age. It explores such important concepts as how the threats to privacy evolving, how can privacy be protected and how society can balance the interests of individuals, businesses and government in ways that promote privacy reasonably and effectively? This book seeks to raise awareness of the web of connectedness among the actions one takes and the privacy policies that are enacted, and provides a variety of tools and concepts with which debates over privacy can be more fruitfully engaged. Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age focuses on three major components affecting notions, perceptions, and expectations of privacy: technological change, societal shifts, and circumstantial discontinuities. This book will be of special interest to anyone interested in understanding why privacy issues are often so intractable."
  • November 20, 2007
    * New Monthly Update on Health Care Policy Research and Analysis

    "Health Policy Picks is a monthly selection of recent publications, such as technical reports, conference proceedings, and other material produced by organizations and government agencies that conduct health care policy analysis and research. Health Policy Picks is a partnership between KaiserEDU.org and the New York Academy of Medicine Library's Grey Literature Collection...This month's Health Policy Picks presents recently released publications on Medicare, Medicaid, the Uninsured, and Health Systems."

    November 18, 2007
    * Newsweek Review of Amazon's New E-Book Reader

    The Future of Reading, by Steven Levy, Newsweek, November 17, 2007: "...the Kindle...has the dimensions of a paperback, with a tapering of its width that emulates the bulge toward a book's binding. It weighs but 10.3 ounces, and unlike a laptop computer it does not run hot or make intrusive beeps....with the use of E Ink, a breakthrough technology of several years ago that mimes the clarity of a printed book, the Kindle's six-inch screen posts readable pages... (The Kindle gets as many as 30 hours of reading on a charge, and recharges in two hours.)...E-book devices like the Kindle allow you to change the font size: aging baby boomers will appreciate that every book can instantly be a large-type edition. The handheld device can also hold several shelves' worth of books: 200 of them onboard, hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon. Also, the Kindle [costs $399] allows you to search within the book for a phrase or name...Some of those features have been available on previous e-book devices, notably the Sony Reader. The Kindle's real breakthrough springs from a feature that its predecessors never offered: wireless connectivity, via a system called Whispernet. (It's based on the EVDO broadband service offered by cell-phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere, not just Wi-Fi hotspots.)"

  • PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY, WSJ: "Amazon's Kindle makes buying e-books easy, but its hardware design and its software user interface are marred by annoying flaws, Walt Mossberg says."
  • November 17, 2007
    * Institute of Museum and Library Services Publishes FY 06 State Library Report

    "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) issued its first library statistics report on state library agencies, on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2006. The State Library Agency Report for FY 2006 [released November 2007] includes a wide array of information on topics such as libraries’ Internet access, services, collections, staff, and revenue, and is used by state and federal policymakers, researchers, and others."

  • "This report marks the first release of library statistics data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It contains data on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2006. The data were collected through the State Library Agencies (StLA) Survey, the product of a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and the U.S. Census Bureau. This cooperative effort makes possible the 100 percent response rate achieved for this survey. The frame or source of the list of respondents for this survey is based on the list that COSLA maintains of state library agencies. The FY 2006 survey is the 13th in the StLA series. The data upon which this report is based are final."

  • Download, view, and print the report (159 pages, PDF)
  • November 12, 2007
    * Smithsonian's Tribute to Carl Linnaeus

    A Tribute to Carl Linnaeus - November 13 and 14, 2007: "Scientists around the world are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. He is best known for instituting a two-name method for identifying plants and animals, called binomial nomenclature. Considered the “father” of modern taxonomy, Linnaeus named approximately 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. Today, many museums, including this one, continue to research the relationships between species, and rely on Linnaeus’ classic works. For two days in November we will celebrate this 300th anniversary with an exhibition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae and symposium."

    * Pilot Project: Free Access to Federal Court Records

    US Courts press release: "Free public access to federal court records is available at 16 libraries in 14 states [the list is included with this release] under a joint pilot project of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and the Government Printing Office. The project offers free access, at the participating 16 federal depository libraries, to the federal judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. PACER allows users to obtain case file documents, listings of all case parties, judgments, and other information from district, bankruptcy and appellate courts online, with the data immediately available for printing or downloading."

    November 11, 2007
    * Audit of the Process of Safeguarding and Accounting for Presidential Library Artifacts

    Press release - "In a statement issued on Thursday, November 8, 2007, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said: I welcome the Inspector General’s recommendations included in the ‘Audit of the Process of Safeguarding and Accounting for Presidential Library Artifacts’. This audit which was completed on October 26, 2007, examined the management of Presidential artifacts at six Presidential Libraries: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the John F. Kennedy Library, the Gerald R. Ford Library, the Ronald Reagan Library, the George Bush Library, and the William J. Clinton Library."

  • Audit of the Process of Safeguarding and Accounting for Presidential Library Artifacts, 21 pages, PDF [document posted by the LA Times, via Library Preservation]
  • November 08, 2007
    * Vendor Sponsored 2007 Global Faculty e-Book Survey

    2007 Global Faculty e-Book Survey Sponsored by ebrary

    November 07, 2007
    * Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2005

    National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2005: "This report includes national and state summary data on public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with an introduction, selected findings, and several tables. The report, based on data from the Public Libraries Survey for fiscal year 2005, includes information on population of legal service area, service outlets, library collections and services, full-time equivalent staff, and operating revenue and expenditures. The report includes several key findings: Nationwide, visits to public libraries totaled 1.4 billion, or 4.7 library visits per capita. The average number of Internet terminals available for public use per stationary outlet was 11.2."

    * Harris Poll: Four in Five of All U.S. Adults – An Estimated 178 million – Go Online

    Press release: "According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 178 million, a ten percent increase."

    November 06, 2007
    * Commentary on Digitization of the World's Libraries

    The New Yorker: Digitization and its discontents, by Anthony Grafton, November 5, 2007

  • "...the Internet will not bring us a universal library, much less an encyclopedic record of human experience. None of the firms now engaged in digitization projects claim that it will create anything of the kind. The hype and rhetoric make it hard to grasp what Google and Microsoft and their partner libraries are actually doing. We have clearly reached a new point in the history of text production. On many fronts, traditional periodicals and books are making way for blogs and other electronic formats. But magazines and books still sell a lot of copies. The rush to digitize the written record is one of a number of critical moments in the long saga of our drive to accumulate, store, and retrieve information efficiently. It will result not in the infotopia that the prophets conjure up but in one in a long series of new information ecologies, all of them challenging, in which readers, writers, and producers of text have learned to survive...the narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books."
  • October 28, 2007
    * UNESCO Launches New Literacy Portal

    UNESCO launches new Literacy Portal: "In today’s world, one in five adults is still not literate (two-thirds of them women) while 72 million children are out-of-school. Since its foundation in 1946, UNESCO has been at the forefront of global literacy efforts and is dedicated to keep literacy high on national, regional and international agendas. However, with some 774 million adults lacking minimum literacy skills, literacy for all remains an elusive target. UNESCO’s literacy programmes aim to create a literate world and promote literacy for all."

  • Literacy Portal
  • October 24, 2007
    * OCLC Report: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World

    OCLC press release and related links: "The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground—shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location—is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web. This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library’s role, including: The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the Web; How and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issues; Opinions on privacy online; Libraries’ current and future roles in social networking."

  • Complete text of the OCLC Report: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World, October 2007 (280 pages, PDF)

  • Highlights of the Report (16 pages, PDF)
  • October 19, 2007
    * Depository Distribution Status Page

    "A new Web page designed to keep libraries informed of weekly depository shipments has been released and is available at http://www.fdlp.gov/distribution/index.html."

    October 14, 2007
    * Library of Congress Veterans History Project In Race Against Time

    A mission to remember: Volunteers for the Library of Congress are racing against time to collect oral histories of America's remaining World War II veterans. By Deborah Horan, Chicago Tribune staff reporter, October 14, 2007: "Since 2000, volunteers working with the library's American Folklife Center have collected more than 50,000 taped interviews as part of the Veterans History Project...Between 1,000 and 1,500 World War II veterans are dying every day, according to estimates at the Department of Veteran Affairs. Of the estimated 17 million U.S. veterans still living, about 2.9 million served in World War II. Unless volunteers hurry to interview others who fought in World War II, participants in the project worry that servicemen...will slip away without leaving their memories for posterity."

    October 07, 2007
    * Library of Congress Launches Wise Guide Portal

    "This Wise Guide portal was designed to introduce you to the many fascinating, educational and useful resources available from the nation's library and one of the most popular Web sites of the federal government. The "Wise Guide" will be refreshed monthly, much like a magazine, offering links to the best of the Library's online materials. Each of these "articles" is based on items contained in a collection, database, reading room or other area of the Library's online offerings. You will see that we are "more than a library," and our holdings range from prints, photographs, films, audio recordings, maps, manuscripts, music and digital materials to (of course) books. We are also a place that sponsors concerts, lectures, dance performances, film screenings, and poetry readings. We hope the Guide's monthly "articles" will encourage you to explore the millions of items we make available at www.loc.gov."

    * President Nixon's Library Now a Part of NARA

    Nixon's Library Now a Part of NARA - California Facility Will Hold All Documents and Tapes From a Half-Century Career in Politics, by James Worsham, NARA, Prologue, Fall 2007, Vol. 39, No. 3.

  • "On July 11, 2007, the National Archives—with the approval of Congress—established the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in the private facility built in his honor in Yorba Linda, California, by the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation. The new Nixon Library is staffed and operated by federal employees working under a director appointed by the Archivist of the United States. The establishment of a presidential library means that eventually all of the records, artifacts, and other materials—including taped White House conversations—that document Richard Nixon's long public career will be archived and preserved in one place, creating a major research center in southern California for the study of the 37th President and the dramatic era in which he lived."
  • October 05, 2007
    * Draft Federal Depository Library Handbook Now Available

    GPO: "Library Services and Content Management (LSCM) and volunteers from the Federal depository community worked to consolidate and update the Instructions to Depository Libraries and the Federal Depository Library Manual, including its supplements, into one online publication. All the chapters were reviewed by key stakeholders, including the Depository Library Council and the professional library associations. Each chapter was also posted for public comment. LSCM staff reviewed comments, integrated them as appropriate, and served as final editors. The resulting publication is the Final Draft Version - Federal Depository Library Handbook."

    October 02, 2007
    * European Parliament: Resolution i2010: towards a European digital library

    European Parliament: Resolution i2010: towards a European digital library, September 27, 2007

    September 30, 2007
    * Report - Rising Journal Costs Limit Scholarly Access

    Rising Journal Costs Limit Scholarly Access, Emory University:
    "Are publishers getting rich publishing your research? A Bear-Stearns evaluation of Reed-Elsevier (one of the world's largest publishers of scholarly journals) recently rated the company, which earns profits of almost 40% annually, "a stockholder's dream." Should private publishers be getting rich selling information generated by research that is funded by academic institutions and the public? What's happening and how does it affect scholars? This article looks at one university’s experience."

    September 27, 2007
    * A Cyberinfrastructure Primer for Librarians

    Cyberinfrastructure, Data, and Libraries, Part 1 - A Cyberinfrastructure Primer for Librarians, by Anna Gold, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, D-Lib Magazine, September/October 2007, Volume 13 Number 9/10.

  • "The following two-part article is offered to help open up the discussion with library practitioners working directly with research faculty and graduate students, advising on issues of scholarly communication, and concerned with providing relevant data services in the context of relatively well-established library-based data support programs in GIS, social science data, and bioinformatics. Part 1 provides a primer for librarians on cyberinfrastructure, including an overview of major issues and readings to help locate the issues in the larger national and global framework, as well as an introduction to emerging critiques of global cyberinfrastructure theory. Part 2 offers an overview and analysis of current theories about the roles libraries and librarians can have associated with the multiple dimensions of cyberinfrastructure."
  • September 26, 2007
    * List of Federal Agency Internet Sites Partnership Renewed

    "GPO is pleased to announce the renewal of its partnership with the Troy H. Middleton Library of Louisiana State University through 2010.
    Originally signed in 2001, this partnership provides for Federal
    depository library access to the List of Federal Agency Internet Sites Web site. Based on the U.S. Government
    Manual, the List directs users to the Web sites of active Federal
    agencies, and can be searched in several ways. Users can view a
    hierarchical or an alphabetical list of all agencies. The agencies are
    also listed by broad category, such as boards/commissions, legislative, and quasi-official. The entire list is searchable by agency keyword as well."

    September 18, 2007
    * Law Library of Congress Launches Redesigned Website

    "The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the release of its newly designed web site. The web site includes information on a range of legal issues and research topics as well as our services and logistics of using the Reading Room. In addition to established products such as the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), Guide to Law Online and the Global Legal Monitor, new Law Library products are available as well." [Emily Carr, Law Library of Congress]

    Highlights include:

  • Congressional Hearings Project: Full-text access to selected historical Congressional committee hearings on a variety of topics.

  • Foreign and International Law Guides: Provides a starting point for researching foreign, international, and comparative law with analysis and references to official printed and online resources.

  • Pakistan: Crisis in the Judiciary - Find information and analysis of the suspension and subsequent reinstatement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

  • September 12, 2007
    * Fair Use Economy Represents One-Sixth of U.S. GDP

    "Fair Use exceptions to U.S. copyright laws are responsible for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States, according to the findings of an unprecedented economic study released today. According to the study commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and conducted in accordance with a World Intellectual Property Organization methodology, companies benefiting from limitations on copyright-holders’ exclusive rights, such as “fair use” – generate substantial revenue, employ millions of workers, and, in 2006, represented one-sixth of total U.S. GDP. The exhaustive report, released today at a briefing on Capitol Hill, quantifies for the first time ever the critical contributions of fair use to the U.S. economy. The timing proves particularly important as the debates over copyright law in the digital age move increasingly to center stage on Capitol Hill."

  • Fair Use in the U.S. Economy - Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use, September 2007 (45 pages, PDF)
  • September 11, 2007
    * Public libraries are sole source of online employment and education information for millions of Americans

    ALA: "Ever-growing patron demand for computer and Internet services in U.S. public libraries has stretched existing Internet bandwidth, computer availability, and building infrastructure to capacity, according to a new study “Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2006-2007,” conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Information Use Management and Policy Institute at Florida State University (FSU). The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ALA, found that more than 73 percent of libraries report they are the only source of free public access to computers and the Internet in their communities. Surveyed libraries said that the top three Internet services most critical to their community are online educational resources and databases for K-12 students (67.7 percent); services for job seekers (44 percent); and computer and Internet skills training (29.8 percent)."

  • Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2006-2007 Report
  • September 09, 2007
    * Reading Books in the Digital Age Subsequent to Amazon, Google and the Long Tail

    Reading Books in the Digital Age subsequent to Amazon, Google and the long tail by Terje Hillesund, Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway. First Monday, volume 12, number 9 (September 2007),

  • "In the last decades, the book industry has changed and is now characterised by two (or three) opposite tendencies: Many publishing firms are united in large multinational corporations, commercialisation has increased and bookstores are concentrated in large chains, marketing the popular. At the same time, the Internet has come to constitute an immense book market, and recently Google Book Search has demonstrated the power of the Web in book content discovery and display. Search engines and online bookstores disclose and make available books no longer in stock in ordinary bookstore chains; as a result, niche markets flourish and the total sales of obscure books have grown considerably. As a binary underflow, the electronic book slowly seems to be gathering new strength. In this article, I will present literature that analyses current transformations, and I will critically examine John B. Thompson’s analysis of the digitalisation of the book as presented in Books in the Digital Age from 2005. Only two years have passed, yet events already confirm my view that Thompson got most of it wrong."
  • September 06, 2007
    * Google Adds New Features to Book Search, Advanced Search and Google Reader

  • Google Launches New Features to Collect, Share, and Discover New Books - ComputerWorld: "Users may now..."create and search their own library built on Google Book Search, so they can organize, annotate and do a full text search through the books they have chosen...share their expertise by allowing them to annotate their libraries with labels, write reviews, rate books and then share their collections with others by sending them a link to their libraries...Explore popular passages...Select, clip and post text, allowing users to grab selections of text from out-of-copyright books to share their favorite passages or quotes with others." [Google Book Search blog posting]

  • PC World - "starting today, there's a search box at the top of Google Reader."

  • Search Engine Roundtable: "The Google Advanced Search page has added new date parameters to the date option drop down. Prior, I believe they only had the option to choose by the past 3, 6 or 12 months. Now you can also search by past 24 hours, week, month or 2 months."
  • September 03, 2007
    * Nixon Tapes and Transcripts Now Available Online

    "Between 1971 and 1973, President Richard Nixon secretly recorded 3,700 hours of his phone calls and meetings. These recordings were made in the Oval Office (commonly designated by the abbreviation "OVAL"), his hideaway office in the Executive Office Building ("EOB"), the Cabinet Room ("CAB"), Camp David ("CDHW"), and on various White House telephones ("WHT"). Currently, approximately 2,100 hours of these tapes have been declassified, released, and are available to the public. However, neither the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) nor the Nixon Presidential Library has made official transcriptions. Instead, they have left this monumental task--a task that NARA once estimated took 100 hours of staff time to transcribe 1 hour of tape--to researchers. The purpose of this website is to make these transcripts available, side-by-side multiple audio formats, to members of the public who are not able to travel to the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland, or to the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California, to listen to and transcribe the conversations for themselves."

    August 27, 2007
    August 26, 2007
    * FLARE: Foreign Law Research

    Foreign Law Research: "FLARE is a collaboration between the major libraries collecting law in the United Kingdom: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Bodleian Law Library, Squire Law Library, British Library, and School of Oriental and African Studies. It is working to improve the coverage and accessibility of foreign legal materials at the national level and to raise expertise in their use."

    * Current Awareness Search Engine Indexes 1,400 RSS Feeds on Library Related Topics

    "LibWorm Beta is intended to be a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries. LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds (and growing). The contents of these feeds are then available for searching, and search results can themselves be output as an RSS feed that the user can subscribe to either in his/her favourite aggregator or in LibWorm's built-in aggregator...Each feed searched by LibWorm has been assigned a category, so when you browse by Feed Category, you're seeing all the content from the feeds that have been assigned to that category. Subjects are pre-built searches, usually of greater complexity than the user interface currently supports, for common subjects of interest to libraryfolk." This site is free.

    * Lawyers Without Borders Seeks Book Donations

    "Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB), an organization that coordinates volunteer lawyers with nonprofit groups, rule of law initiatives, and other human rights work, is seeking donations of law books for courts and lawyers in Albania and Liberia.

    The law library of the Supreme Court of Albania in the capital of Tirana, which is accessed by judges, practitioners, and law students, is seeking English-language major treatises, hornbooks, and other publications focusing on American law and legal institutions.

    Donations to Albania should be sent to Paramount Stamping and Welding, 1200 West 58th Street, Cleveland, OH 44102, with a marking that reads, Attention: Peter Kole–LAW BOOKS. Another donor has underwritten the costs of shipping to Albania from that address.

    LWOB also is seeking donations for the University of Liberia Louis Arthur Grimes Law School, as well as for judges, students, and lawyers in Liberia. In particular, complete sets of the AmJur series are requested. These include any edition of AmJur, AmJur Forms, and AmJur Trials.

    These donations should be sent to Mr. Ray Fallon, Fallon Moving and Storage, 800 Marshall Phelps Road, Building 3, Unit A, Windsor, CT 06095, with a marking that reads, Attention: Lawyers Without Borders, Book Donation Project Liberia."

    August 24, 2007
    * NASA and Internet Archive Team to Digitize Space Imagery

    Press release: "NASA and Internet Archive of San Francisco are partnering to scan, archive and manage the agency's vast collection of photographs, historic film and video. The imagery will be available through the Internet and free to the public, historians, scholars, students, and researchers. Currently, NASA has more than 20 major imagery collections online. With this partnership, those collections will be made available through a single, searchable "one-stop-shop" archive of NASA imagery."

    August 22, 2007
    August 20, 2007
    * WorldCat Registry More Global With Addition of ational libraries in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

    Press release: "Since its launch earlier this year, the WorldCat Registry continues to help libraries manage and share essential data that define their organizations, such as institution type, location, URLs for electronic services, circulation statistics and population served. National libraries in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa recently agreed to load their files into the WorldCat Registry, enhancing and extending the global reach of this Web-based directory. OCLC just loaded 1,200 records from the National Library of South Africa and is preparing to load more than 8,000 records from the National Library of Australia."

    August 16, 2007
    * Anti-Piracy Program Copyright Case on Info Packet Distribution to Employees Settles

    Knowledge Networks pays $300,000 to settle internal copyright complaint - "Firm's marketing group distributed press packets to employees containing newspaper and magazine articles under copyright."

    August 12, 2007
    * The European Library Offers Access to 150 Million Entries Across Europe

    "The European Library is a non-commercial organisation. It provides the services of a physical library and the opportunity to benefit from a virtual environment in 20 languages. This website allows to search through the resources of 30 of the 47 national libraries involved in The European Library. Resources can be both digital or bibliographical (books, posters, maps, sound recordings, videos, etc.). Currently The European Library gives access to 150 million entries across Europe. The amount of referenced digital collections is constantly increasing. Quality and reliability are guaranteed by the 47 collaborating national libraries of Europe." [via Gerry Mckiernan]

    * Library of Congress Webcast Available on Torture, Detainees and the U.S. Military

    The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the following new resource: Webcast: A Panel Discussion - "Torture, Detainees, & the U.S. Military" [via Emily Carr/Law Library of Congress]
    TITLE: A Panel Discussion: "Torture, Detainees, and the U.S. Military"
    SPEAKERS: Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, United States Army; Brigadier General James C. Walker, United States Marine Corps; Ms. Jacki Northam, National Public Radio Correspondent; Professor Gary Solis, Law Library Scholar in Residence; Mr. Lee A. Casey, Baker Hostetler
    EVENT DATE: July 11, 2007
    RUNNING TIME: 1:31:03
    DESCRIPTION: On July 11, 2007, The Law Library of Congress hosted its first program in its new multimedia room. Law Library Scholar in Residence, Gary Solis, moderated the panel discussion touching upon several current topics of national interest and concern: Guantanamo; "high value" detainees; military commissions; fair trials; and allegations of torture by agents of the U.S., including military personnel. With their extensive personal involvement in combatant operations, expertise in legal issues relating to prisoner torture and mistreatment, and their association with legislative concerns, the panelists provided tremendous insight to these timely subjects. The discussion was followed by a questions and answer session with the audience."

    August 11, 2007
    * Iraqi State Library Again in Danger

    The Guardian: "Thousands of rare books and manuscripts in Iraq's national library and archive, one of the country's most important cultural institutions, are in peril after the occupation of the building by Iraqi security forces, the library's director said yesterday."

  • Related: Diary of Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive: July 2007 via the British Library website.
  • August 10, 2007
    * Survey of Law Firm Librarians Focuses on Expanded Role

    Electronic 2007 Law Librarian Survey from ALM Research - Survey Says Librarians Like Their Jobs but Are Displeased With Vendors - "Electronic research was supposed to replace books and lower costs, but it's done neither -- and librarians aren't happy about it."

    THE CHARTS

  • The Librarian's Expanding Role

  • Finances

  • Resources

  • Staffing

  • Electronic Research

  • August 03, 2007
    * New Texas Digital Library's Blog

    "I would like to announce the launch of the Texas Digital Library's (TDL) blog, The Scholar's Space, featuring a team of four contributors (including me), with more to come over the next few months. The Scholar's Space joins scholarly communications blogs sponsored by friends at other colleges and universities, and national and international organizations. We'll be providing commentary on newsworthy items related to TDL participants' local and global interests in academic processes and systems of research -- from providing access to data and information, to online collaboration and new approaches to reporting out results and public archiving of papers and data." [Georgia Harper, Scholarly Communications Advisor, University of Texas at Austin Libraries]

    July 30, 2007
    July 25, 2007
    * National Task Force Releases New Tools to Protect Cultural Heritage

    Press release: "A new collection of handy tools designed especially for libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and historic preservation and arts organizations has been released by the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. The tools are the result of the Task Force’s “Lessons Applied” initiative to develop practical applications for the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, such as helping cultural institutions apply for disaster aid and developing relationships with emergency responders...The new tools are available as free downloads." See Lessons Applied: Katrina and Cultural Heritage.

    July 24, 2007
    * Senate Committee on Commerce Hearing: Protecting Children on the Internet

    Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing, Protecting Children on the Internet, July 24, 2007.

  • Links to witness statements

  • "As the Senate Commerce Committee debates how best to protect children on the Internet, lawmakers must take special care to avoid overly simple solutions that would do more harm than good. In its zeal to protect kids from predators and potentially inappropriate content, Congress must not trample the First Amendment rights of Internet users, Center for Democracy and Technology said in a statement submitted to the Committee."
  • July 17, 2007
    * Vatican Apostolic Library Closes for 3 Year Renovation but Vatican Film Library Remains Open

    Press release: "...on July 14...the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vatican Apostolic Library) in Rome [closed] for at least three years of extensive renovation. For the Vatican Film Library at Saint Louis University, however, the world might just open up a little wider. The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, located in Pius XII Memorial library, holds microfilm copies of approximately 37,000 of the Vatican Library's 70,000 manuscript codices. Holding major portions of the Vatican's Greek, Latin and Western European vernacular collections as well as materials in Arabic, Ethiopic and Hebrew, it is one of the largest and most comprehensive libraries in the world for medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies."

    July 13, 2007
    * Center for Information Policy and Electronic Government Launched at University of Maryland

    Press release: "The College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland is pleased to announce the launching of the Center for Information Policy and Electronic Government (CIPEG). CIPEG is a multidisciplinary research and educational center that focuses on the intersections between public policy and law, ethics, and trust as they affect the uses of information in society by individuals, organizations, and governments. Originally established in 1998 as the Center for Information Policy (CIP), CIPEG is jointly sponsored by the College of Information Studies and the School of Public Policy of the University of Maryland. The Center principals are Director Dr. Paul T. Jaeger, Associate Director for Educational Programs Stephen Hannestad, and Assistant Directors Dr. Ken Fleischmann and Dr. Jennifer Golbeck. The Center also has more than twenty members from within the University community. CIPEG draws on the expertise of its members in areas such as archival science, computer and information science, education, international relations, knowledge management, public policy, and science and technology studies. Research at CIPEG spans six key areas - Information Policy, Electronic Government, Information Ethics, Social Networks, Emergency Response and Recovery, and Equal Access to Information. Center faculty and staff have researched and published extensively in these areas. Research at CIPEG is grant-based, with Center principals having received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Department of Defense, the Information Security Oversight Office, the American Library Association, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. [beSpacific author Sabrina I. Pacifici is an adjunct professor with CIPEG]

    July 01, 2007
    * ALA Washington Office Reports Congress Orders EPA to Reopen Libraries

    Follow up to postings on EPA library closures, this June 29, 2007 posting from the ALA District Dispatch blog: "After considerable pressure by librarians, researchers and the public, Congress has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restore its library network. In the fiscal year (FY) 2008 Interior Appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee orders EPA to reopen the closed libraries. Last year, EPA closed its Headquarters Library in Washington, DC, to visitors and walk-in patrons. EPA also closed several regional libraries, the toxics and pesticides library and the Ft. Meade Environmental Science Center Library."

    June 29, 2007
    * Nixon Library to Become Part of National Archives Presidential Library System

    Press Release, June 28, 2007: Nixon Library to Become Part of the National Archives Presidential Library System and to Release Formerly Withheld Nixon Special Political Documents and Tapes
    "The legal transfer on July 11, 2007, of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace from the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation to the National Archives. The new Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum joins the existing 11 presidential libraries within the federal system, from President Hoover through President Clinton. The Nixon Library will open at 8 AM (PDT) for remarks by Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and others, followed by the opening of the research room and media tours. Newly-released tapes and documents will be available in Yorba Linda, CA. Newly-released tapes will also be available in College Park, MD.

  • On July 11, the new National Archives Nixon Library web site, www.nixonlibrary.gov, will be unveiled."
  • June 26, 2007
    June 25, 2007
    * Reverberations in Case Involving FBI NSLs and Connecticut Librarians

    Follow up to previous postings on Connecticut librarians and FBI NSL gag order, via Wired Blog, Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order: "Two Connecticut librarians on Sunday [at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC] described what it was like to be slapped with an FBI national security letter and accompanying gag order."

  • From the conference program: Lifting the Gag: Patron Privacy and the Patriot Act: "When a federal lifetime gag order prevented our speakers from revealing that the FBI had demanded library records, they refused to comply. Represented by the ACLU, they successfully sued the government. Of the thousands who have received National Security Letters, Mr. Chase, Ms. Bailey and two colleagues are the only ones free to discuss the experience. They will discuss their personal and professional roles in defending patron privacy. Speakers: Peter Chase, Library Director, Plainville Public Library; Barbara Bailey, Director, Wells Turner Public Library"
  • * State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources

    "How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web? The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is pleased to announce the publication of the State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources that answers this very important and timely question. The comprehensive report examines the results of a state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic."

  • State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Report - full report

  • Introduction

  • Executive Summary

  • Findings

  • State Reports

  • Appendices
  • June 18, 2007
    * 2007 SLA Legal Division Programs and Speaker Material from Annual Conference in Denver

    SLA Annual Meeting 2007: Programming for SLA Legal Division, Saturday, June 2, 2007 - Thursday, June 7, 2007. Selected presentations and handouts are available here.

    June 17, 2007
    * Government Information Division Posts Presentations from SLA Conference

    Government Information Division, 2007 Annual Conference Recaps Denver, Colorado, June 3-6, 2007: "The Government Information Division will be recapping all its sponsored and co-sponsored events. In addition, DGI will offer recaps of other events that impact government information. This page will be updated as new recaps are made available."

    June 15, 2007
    * Chronicling America Site Now Offers 310,000 Newspaper Pages

    Press release: "Program to Put Digitized Newspapers Online Makes Eight Awards - "Approximately 310,000 digitized newspaper pages, dating from 1900 to 1910, are now accessible through the Chronicling America Web site...New features in Chronicling America include: 80,000 pages have been added (including 11 new titles); The page display has been revised. Adobe Flash Player is no longer needed for viewing; Persistent links are now displayed for every title record and page view; The persistent link enables a user to always return to the same place on the site, and it can be used for citations and hyperlinking to specific newspaper pages or newspaper title information; and Searches can be saved."

    June 12, 2007
    * GAO Evaluates Talking Books for the Blind Program

    Talking Books for the Blind, GAO-07-871R, June 12, 2007.

  • "The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a part of the Library of Congress, operates a free national talking (audio) book program for qualified blind, visually impaired, or physically disabled residents of the United States and its territories, as well as qualified U.S. citizens residing abroad. NLS produces and distributes analog cassette players and talking books and periodicals recorded on audio cassettes to approximately 434,000 individual subscribers and 33,000 institutions through a network of 132 participating libraries and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)...The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Appropriations asked us to review NLS planning and management of its digital talking book development and acquisition project. Specifically, our objectives were to determine to what extent NLS (1) performed sufficient analyses to select technologies for the next generation of the talking book system and (2) effectively managed the development of the selected digital talking book technology and mode of distribution."
  • June 06, 2007
    * 12-University Consortium Joins Google Book Project

    "The number of libraries participating in the Google Book Search Library Project just got a whole lot bigger with today's addition of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). The CIC is a national consortium of 12 research universities, including University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Google will work with the CIC to digitize select collections across all its libraries, up to 10 million volumes."
    Project Related Documents:

  • Press Release — June 6, 2007

  • Frequently Asked Questions about the Agreement and Project CIC
  • Library Collection Highlights

  • Announcement (Googlegram) from Google

  • Related postings on Google Book Project
  • June 04, 2007
    * Agency Announces Discontinuation of FTC Decisions in Print Version

    "The Federal Trade Commission has informed GPO that they will cease the print publication of FTC Decisions. These will be available in
    electronic format only beginning with Volume 129. Access to the Decisions is available at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/decisions/index.shtm or via http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS81899. The last volume distributed in print to the FDL's was Volume 128 (FT 1.11:128, item no. 0534) and distributed on Shipping List 2004-0019-S dated 01/12/2004."

    May 09, 2007
    * ALA Privacy Policy Toolkit

    American Library Association: "As part of its effort to support libraries and librarians seeking to improve their protection of library users’ privacy, ALA is making available new tools to help libraries conduct audits of its privacy policies and procedures. Developed by ALA during its own 2003 privacy audit, each tool is a document template that can be adopted and changed to serve the needs of the individual institution."

  • ALA Privacy Policy Toolkit
  • May 04, 2007
    * GPO and SMU Offer Digital Collection of World War II Publications

    Press release: "As the world pauses to remember the 62nd anniversary of the Allies' victory in Europe during World War II (May 8, 1945), the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is joining with Southern Methodist University (SMU) Central University Libraries to provide the public with a digital collection of more than 300 U.S. Government publications distributed during the course of the war...SMU Central University Libraries, which are part of GPO's Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), have digitized hundreds of historical World War II publications that are available to the public. With just a few keystrokes, Americans can access World War II reports and documents such as: Choosing Women for War - Industry Jobs, America's Biggest War Plant and Air Raid Shelters in Buildings. These documents and many others are accessible here."

    May 03, 2007
    * EPA Moves Ahead With Comprehensive Library Closure Plan

    Follow up to previous postings on EPA library closures, this May 2, 2007 press release: "Despite promises to consult with Congress before proceeding with dismantlement of its library system, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered its libraries to “disperse or dispose of their…contents,” according to agency directives released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The move to eliminate physical collections comes as EPA’s own enforcement branch warns about the risks of hampering environmental prosecutions."

    April 30, 2007
    * "America's Birth Certificate" Transferred to the Library of Congress

  • America’s Birth Certificate” — to the Library of Congress

  • Library of Congress: "Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map grew out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, near Strasbourg, France, during the first decade of the sixteenth century, to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries. Waldseemüller’s large world map was the most exciting product of that research effort, and included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501–1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands "America" in recognition of Vespucci’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century. This is the only known surviving copy of the first printed edition of the map, which, it is believed, consisted of 1,000 copies."

  • Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes, St. Dié, 1507
  • April 23, 2007
    * New Pilot Project - OCLC's WorldCat Local

    OCLC's WorldCat Local: A Promising Development for Library Patrons, by Barbara Quint,Posted On April 23, 2007: "...Local libraries adopting WorldCat Local will have a locally branded interface presented to their patrons through the library’s Web site. Options will make it possible to integrate the services with circulation records, resource sharing, and licensed full-text collections. Cooperative efforts are already underway with three major integrated library system/OPAC vendors—Innovative Interfaces, SirsiDynix, and Ex Libris Voyager. When fully interoperable, it should allow WorldCat Local to support users’ requests for items from library collections, including interlibrary loan and accessing online resources. In time, OCLC hopes to add connections to social networking services."

    April 20, 2007
    * EU Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works and Out-of-Print Works

    "The Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works and Out-of-Print Works, Selected Implementation Issues is an advisory report on copyright issues to the European Commission, presented on 19 April by the EU's High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries - which includes, inter alia, stakeholders from the British Library, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Federation of European Publishers and Google."

  • "The EU's High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries - which includes, inter alia, stakeholders from the British Library, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Federation of European Publishers and Google - will present this afternoon an advisory report on copyright issues to the European Commission. In addition, the group will discuss today how to ensure more open access to scientific research and how to improve public-private cooperation. The work of the High Level Group is part of the European Commission's efforts to make Europe's rich cultural and scientific heritage available online. For this purpose, the group advises the Commission on issues regarding digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation of cultural material."

  • Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works and Out-of-Print Works, Selected Implementation Issues

  • Annex: Model agreement for a licence on digitisation of out of print works
  • * EU Intellectual Property Infringement Proposal Galvanizes Opposition Groups

    Press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) European Office today announced a broad coalition aimed at fixing a poorly drafted intellectual property enforcement proposal that could make criminals of thousands of people in the European Union. The Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) -- set for vote in the European Parliament early next week -- makes "aiding, abetting, or inciting" intellectual property infringement on a "commercial scale" a criminal offence. However, IPRED2 defines criminal offences so vaguely that creators of legitimate websites, Internet service providers, and even librarians could be investigated by the police and face criminal records as well as fines of hundreds of thousands of euros. The coalition battling against IPRED2 includes the Brussels-based European Consumers Organisation (BEUC), the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). The group sent an open letter to the European Parliament today, urging members to support amendments that would protect consumers, innovators, and researchers."

  • Open letter to the European Parliament

  • More on IPRED2
  • * PBS Reports on Security versus Liberty: America at a Crossroads

    "Following 9/11, the U.S. government adopted some controversial new tactics intended to prevent future terrorist attacks, including warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' phone calls, secret demands for records under the Patriot Act, and FBI sting operations against people thought to be potential terrorists. The Bush Administration contends these tactics have helped to save American lives, but critics say they have severely damaged our individual liberties. Three stories illustrate the issues of security and liberty: In a Public Library / At the National Security Agency / An FBI sting operation. SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY explores this urgent national debate by talking with leading critics and advocates of the new policies, and telling the stories of people whose lives have been directly affected. If the war against terror is truly the long struggle our leaders say it will be, then so too will be the struggle to set the right balance between security and liberty. This program provides valuable information that will help Americans come to grips with the difficult choices we face."

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • April 17, 2007
    * Gadgets Presentation from 2007 Computers in Libraries Conference

    On April 16, 2007 Barbara Fullerton, Manager, Librarian Relations, 10-K Wizard, Sabrina Pacifici, Editor & Publisher, LLRX.com and beSpacific.com and Aaron Schmidt, Director, North Plains Public Library, presented their always popular round-robin Gadgets presentation at Computers in Libraries 2007.

    April 16, 2007
    * 2007 State of America's Libraries Report

    ALA press release: "New data on U.S. libraries shows almost two billion served - Predicted demise due to Internet fails to materialize: Ten years after some experts predicted the demise of the nation's system of libraries as a result of the Internet explosion, the most current national data on library use shows that the exact opposite has happened. Data released today by the American Library Association (ALA) indicates that the number of visits to public libraries in the United States increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004. According to the 2007 State of America's Libraries report, there were nearly two billion visits to U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004. The study was released today by the ALA as the nation begins its observance of National Library Week, April 15-21. In the case of academic libraries, the number of visits exceeded more than one billion for the first time in 2004, up more than 14 percent in just the previous two years."

  • A full copy of the 2007 State of America's Libraries is available at www.ala.org/2007State, and the Table of Contents for the report is available here.
  • April 11, 2007
    * Tarlton Law Library Announces Actual Innocence Awareness Database

    "The Tarlton Law Library has compiled an Actual Innocence awareness database which contains citations (and links, where possible) to current articles, scholarship, legislation and other materials in the dynamic world of wrongful convictions. The materials are classified into what are considered the primary causes of wrongful conviction: forensics/DNA; eyewitness identification; false confessions; jailhouse informants; police and/or prosecutorial misconduct; and ineffective representation. There is also a “general” category for those items which defy further categorization. The website will be updated as new resources become available. Please direct any questions or comments about this service to Melissa Bernstein."

    April 10, 2007
    * AALL Maintained List of Law Library Document Suppliers

    The AALL Document Delivery Caucus maintains a list of law library document delivery suppliers.

    April 09, 2007
    * AALL State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources

    Press release: "How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web? The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is pleased to announce the publication of the State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources that answers this very important and timely question. The comprehensive report examines the results of a state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic."

    State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Report (254 pages, PDF)

  • Introduction

  • Executive Summary

  • Findings

  • State Reports

  • Appendices
  • April 05, 2007
    * Nation's Largest Single-Subject Declassification Effort Concludes April 2007

    Eight Million Pages of New Material for Researchers on Nazi and Japanese War Crimes, Washington, D.C.: "The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), the group tasked with locating, declassifying, and making publicly available U.S. records of Nazi and Japanese war crimes, will conclude its work on March 31, 2007. The IWG was formed under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000. Its membership consists of representatives of seven Executive Branch agencies and three Presidentially appointed public members: Thomas H. Baer, Richard Ben-Veniste, and Elizabeth Holtzman. The IWG was extended twice, most recently in March 2005, to complete the largest ever congressionally mandated single-subject declassification effort. The group’s Final Report to Congress will be issued in mid-April. It will describe the history of the legislation that brought about the declassification effort; agencies’ implementation of the act; the declassification results; and recommendations for future declassification policies...The seven-year, roughly $30 million declassification effort resulted in the opening of more than 8 million pages of U.S. records—not all of them directly linked to war crimes. Notably, the records include the entirety of the operational files of the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor agency of the CIA), and more than 163,000 pages of CIA materials of a type never before opened to the public."

    April 04, 2007
    * Stanford Launches Database of Copyright Renewal Records

    "The Copyright Renewal Database makes searchable the copyright renewal records received by the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963. Note that the database includes ONLY US Class A (book) renewals. The period from 1923-1963 is of special interest for US copyrights, as works published after January 1, 1964 had their copyrights automatically renewed by the 1976 Copyright Act, and works published before 1923 have generally fallen into the public domain. Between those dates, a renewal registration was required to prevent the expiration of copyright, however determining whether a work's registration has been renewed is a challenge. Renewals received by the Copyright Office after 1977 are searchable in an online database, but renewals received between 1950 and 1977 were announced and distributed only in a semi-annual print publication. The Copyright Office does not have a machine-searchable source for this renewal information, and the only public access is through the card catalog in their DC offices."

    * Study Examines Wikipedia’s Use of Open Access Research and Scholarship

    From First Monday this month, What open access research can do for Wikipedia, by John Willinsky: "This study examines the degree to which Wikipedia entries cite or reference research and scholarship, and whether that research and scholarship is generally available to readers. Working on the assumption that where Wikipedia provides links to research and scholarship that readers can readily consult, it increases the authority, reliability, and educational quality of this popular encyclopedia, this study examines Wikipedia’s use of open access research and scholarship, that is, peer-reviewed journal articles that have been made freely available online."

    March 27, 2007
    * Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, March 28, 2007

  • Statement of Robert S. Mueller, III Director Federal Bureau of Investigation: "Last week, the Committee heard testimony from Glenn Fine, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice regarding a recent report issued by his office on the FBI's use of national security letters, or NSLs..As you heard from the Inspector General, he did not find any deliberate or intentional misuse of the national security letter authorities, Attorney General Guidelines or FBI policy. Nevertheless, the review by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified several areas of inadequate auditing and oversight of these vital investigative tools, as well as processes that were inappropriate. Although not intentionally, we fell short in our obligations to report to Congress on the frequency with which we use this tool and in the internal controls we put into place to make sure that it was used only in accordance with the letter of the law. I take responsibility for those shortcomings and for taking the steps to ensure that they do not happen again."
  • March 25, 2007
    March 22, 2007
    * ACLU v Gonzales COPA Decision

    ACLU v Gonzales [originally ACLU v. Reno, then ACLU v. Ashcroft], Final Adjudication on the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, March 22, 2007 (84 pages, PDF)

  • Alternate link to the PDF decision, ACLU v. Gonzales, 22 March 2007, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Final Order, 98-5591, 22 March 2007
  • March 21, 2007
    * Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (BETA)

    "The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress today announced that Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers is debuting online with more than 226,000 pages of public domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia, and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910. The text of the newspapers is fully searchable, and search terms can be limited to a particular state, a specific newspaper, by year or years of publication and even by months."

    March 20, 2007
    * New Library of Congress Digital Preservation Website

    New site on the Library's leadership in preserving digital assets: "The Library of Congress has taken a collaborative approach to the collection and preservation of digital information in order to remain relevant and useful to Congress and its constituents in the digital age. No single institution can do the job of collecting, preserving and making available all the information in digital form that that students, teachers, researchers and lifelong learners have come to expect will be available at the touch of a mouse. In December 2000, Congress asked the Library to lead a collaborative project, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), in recognition of the importance of preserving digital content for future generations. Congress passed special legislation (Public Law 106-554) appropriating $100 million to the Library of Congress to lead this effort. The goal of the program is to develop a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve the growing amounts of digital content, especially materials that are created only in digital formats, for current and future generations."

    March 18, 2007
    March 12, 2007
    * Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification Checklist is Published

    Press release: "The Center for Research Libraries and RLG Programs (a unit of the OCLC Programs and Research division) announce the publication of Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist."

    March 08, 2007
    * DOJ OIG Report Documents FBI Underreporting Use of National Security Letter

    The Blotter (ABC News): "The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department's Inspector General."

  • A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of National Security Letters (Unclassified), March 2007

  • Statement of the Attorney General: "The Attorney General commends the work of the Inspector General in uncovering serious problems in the FBI's use of NSLs. He has told the Director that these past mistakes will not be tolerated and has ordered the FBI and the Department to restore accountability and to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of national security letters."
  • Department of Justice Statement on Inspector General's Report on National Security Letters: "...the OIG found no deliberate or intentional misuse of authorities, whether NSL statutes or Attorney General Guidelines. Nevertheless, the OIG review identified several areas of inadequate auditing and oversight of these vital investigative tools, as well as inappropriate processes, and these are findings of significant concern. As a result, Director Mueller is implementing reforms to the process designed to correct those deficiencies identified – with accountability. Those steps include strengthening internal controls, changing policies and procedures to improve oversight of the NSL approval process, barring certain practices identified in the Inspector General’s report, and ordering an expedited inspection."

  • A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of Section 215 Order for Business Records (Unclassified), March 2007

  • See related postings on National Security Letters (NSLs)
  • * WorldCat.org Citation Feature Helps Students and Researchers

    News: "Item records in WorldCat.org, WorldCat’s open-Web interface, now include a Cite this Item link that provides bibliographic citations in five common styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian. Displayed in a separate pop-up window, the citations follow the reference standard for each style. The citations window cautions users that "formatting rules within a style can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study," and that they should apply the specific requirements of a reviewing body."

    March 06, 2007
    * USPTO Notice of Removal of Paper Search Collection of Registered Word-Only Marks From Trademark Search Library in VA

    Notice of the Removal of the Paper Search Collection of Registered Word-Only Marks From Trademark Search Library in Arlington, VA - March 6, 2007 Federal Register.

    * Google Book Search Adds Another Partner

    Google Librarian Center posting: "Today we announced our 13th Library Project partner, the Bavarian State Library. With the announcement of a fourth library partner located outside the U.S., we're making headway towards our goal of helping people find books from libraries all over the world through Google Book Search. We're making a good deal of headway elsewhere, too. Let's take a look at some of our numbers as they stand right now:
    Publisher partners: Over 10,000 from around the world
    Library partners: 13 today
    Books in the index: Over a million
    Book Search interfaces: 9 (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese)".

    March 05, 2007
    * Article Details Largest Library Closures in the U.S.

    SFGate.com reports that on April 7, Jackson County Oregon will closed "its entire public library system...as the 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year -- nearly 80 percent of the system's budget."

  • See the Jackson County Library Information blog for postings, inclusive of this information: "The final day to check out library materials will be Thursday, April 5th. Libraries will be open on April 6th for in-library use, and to receive returned materials. All books and other items will be due back on April 6, 2007. No library services will be available to the public after April 6, 2007. This includes access to library collections; use of meeting rooms; access to computers; computer instruction; adult, teen and children’s programs; reference services; book delivery to the homebound and to retirement homes and daycare centers; remote computer access to electronic databases and downloadable audiobooks; wireless access; and all other library services."
  • March 04, 2007
    * DOJ Seeking Industry Cooperation in Tracking File Uploading Activity

    News.com: "The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned. That proposal surfaced Wednesday in a private meeting during which U.S. Department of Justice officials, including Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, tried to convince industry representatives such as AOL and Comcast that data retention would be valuable in investigating terrorism...and other crimes...At the very least, the companies would be required to keep logs for police of which customer is assigned a specific Internet address. Only universities and libraries would be excluded, one participant said. "There's a PR concern with including the libraries, so we're not going to include them," the participant quoted the Justice Department as saying. "We know we're going to get a pushback, so we're not going to do that."

    February 28, 2007
    * Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg. ("Blue Series")

    Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg. ("Blue Series"), Nuremberg, 14 November 1945 - 1 October 1946 - released by the Library of Congress, February 28, 2007.

  • "This 42-volume series, also known as “The Blue Series,” is the official record of the trial of the major civilian and military leaders of Nazi Germany who were accused of war crimes. The accused were: Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Robert Ley, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walter Funk, Hjalmar Schacht, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Martin Bormann, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Constantin von Neurath, and Hans Fritzsche. The International Military Tribunal, under the jurisdiction of the Allied Control Authority for Germany, directed the publication of this series."
  • * World Book Day 2007 in the UK and Ireland will take place on Thursday 1st March

    "World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago...It is a partnership of publishers, booksellers and interested parties who work together to promote books and reading for the personal enrichment and enjoyment of all. A main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own."

    * U.S. Army Field Manuals, War Department/Department of the Army Pamphlets

    Library of Congress - U.S. Army Field Manuals, War Department/Department of the Army Pamphlets: "The full text of selected U.S. Army Field Manuals (FMs), War Department Pamphlets (WD PAMs), and Department of the Army Pamphlets (DA PAMs), which particularly address some of the current research needs and interests of The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library, U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia, will be added regularly to this site."

    February 27, 2007
    * Hearing on Reforming the Presidential Library Donation Disclosure Process

    Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing: Reforming the Presidential Library Donation Disclosure Process, February 27, 2007. "This hearing will examine the need for public disclosure of donations made to private foundations established to fund presidential libraries and related facilities. The committee will consider possible legislative proposals to require such disclosure."

    * Commentary on Our Increasingly Digitized Lives

    Envisioning the Whole Digital Person, by Jonathan Follett, Published February 20, 2007: "Our lives are becoming increasingly digitized—from the ways we communicate, to our entertainment media, to our e-commerce transactions, to our online research. As storage becomes cheaper and data pipes become faster, we are doing more and more online—and in the process, saving a record of our digital lives, whether we like it or not." [via Darlene Fichter]

    February 23, 2007
    * FY2008 Budget Documents: Internet Access and GPO Availability

    CRS Report, RS22605, FY2008 Budget Documents: Internet Access and GPO Availability, February 13, 2007: "This report provides brief descriptions of the budget volumes and related documents, together with Internet addresses, Government Printing Office (GPO) stock numbers, and prices to obtain these publications. It also tells how to find locations of government depository libraries, which can provide both printed copies for reference use and Internet access to the text. This report will be updated as events warrant."

    February 16, 2007
    * Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century

    "The Presidential Timeline provides a single point of access to an ever-growing selection of digitized assets from the collections of the twelve Presidential Libraries of the National Archives. Among these assets you'll find documents, photographs, audio recordings, and video relating to the events of the presidents' lives. The goal of the project is to make these resources readily and freely available to students, educators, and adult learners throughout the world."

    February 11, 2007
    * Former NASA Engineer Leads Google Book Search Project

    Google's Moon Shot, by JEFFREY TOOBIN - The quest for the universal library. New Yorker, Posted 2007-01-29

  • "Every weekday, a truck pulls up to the Cecil H. Green Library, on the campus of Stanford University, and collects at least a thousand books, which are taken to an undisclosed location and scanned, page by page, into an enormous database being created by Google. The company is also retrieving books from libraries at several other leading universities, including Harvard and Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library. At the University of Michigan, Google’s original partner in Google Book Search, tens of thousands of books are processed each week on the company’s custom-made scanning equipment...The chief engineer of Google’s system for scanning books in the library collections is Dan Clancy, who joined the company after eight years at NASA, where he supervised teams of Ph.D.s. working on problems related to artificial intelligence."

  • Related postings on the Google Library Project
  • February 07, 2007
    * Law Library of Congress To Celebrate 175th Anniversary in 2007

    "Founded in 1832, the Law Library of Congress is the de facto national law library. Its mission is to provide research and legal information to the U.S. Congress, U.S. federal courts and executive branch agencies, and to provide reference service to the public. To accomplish this mission, the Law Library has amassed the world's largest collection of law books and other legal resources from all countries, now comprising more than 2.5 million items. The Law Library is playing a leadership role in the creation of a Global Legal Information Network, a consortium of 46 government agencies and international institutions that contributes and shares global legal resources online." [Link]

    February 06, 2007
    * Hearing on Oversight of Recent EPA Decisions

    "This morning, February 6, 2007, ALA President Leslie Burger testified before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), concerning the recent closure of several libraries in the Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA). Link to Burger’s full testimony.

  • "As one recently retired EPA librarian described it," Burger said in her testimony, "the EPA libraries have been functioning like a virtual National Library on the Environment. Now that some of these regional libraries and the pesticide library are closed, key links have been removed from the chain, thus weakening the whole system...Without more detailed information about the EPA's digitization project, we cannot assess whether they are digitizing the most appropriate materials, whether there is appropriate metadata or cataloging to make sure that people can access the digitized materials, and that the technology that will be used to host the digital content and the finding software meets today's standards."

  • Related postings on EPA library closures
  • * Debate Escalates Over Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist Univ.

    Inside Higher Ed - Broadening the Bush Library Debate: "As professors at Southern Methodist University have mobilized against the plans to build President Bush’s library there, their focus has not been the library, but a policy institute to be affiliated with it that would have as its mission promoting the Bush philosophy."

    February 02, 2007
    * Cornell Law Library Announces Launch of Legal Research Engine

    "The Cornell Law Library is pleased to announce its new Legal Research Engine This specialized search engine helps users easily find authoritative online legal research guides on every subject. It searches approximately 20 different web sites that either prolifically publish guides, or index and link to guides." [Julie M. Jones]

    February 01, 2007
    * British Library Institutes Access Fees for Archives

  • Press release, The British Library and the Public Sector Spending Review: "Readers may have read in the newspapers that the British Library may have to start charging for access to the reading rooms. We are currently working with DCMS to assist them in making the best case for the British Library in the current public sector spending review. They will present our case to the Treasury over the next few weeks and months. However all commentators agree that the current economic climate dictates that this will be a tight settlement."

  • Fury at British Library plan to charge for reading rooms, January 29, 2007

  • British Library to start charging, January 28, 2007

  • The British Library: "We hold over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents, 3 million sound recordings, and so much more."
  • January 31, 2007
    * Anglo-American Legal Tradition Project Launches Website

    Via Spencer L. Simons, Director of the Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law University of Houston Law Center:

  • "The Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston Law Center is proud to announce the inauguration of the extraordinary new website, the Anglo-American Legal Tradition (AALT). The AALT is the result of over fifteen years of negotiation with the National Archives of the United Kingdom by Robert C. Palmer, Cullen Professor of History and Law at the University of Houston. The license with the National Archives permits the free, non-commercial, public display and use of the images captured by Professor Palmer's ongoing project to acquire images of the main categories of court records over almost four centuries (c.1272 - 1650); at this point, some 450,000 images have been acquired. Access to these documents was previously possible only through use of the original documents at the National Archives itself...In order to facilitate use of these ancient documents Professor Palmer has supplied guides to paleography and overviews of English legal history, as well as links to other websites of interest to legal historians. The AALT will continue to add images from the National Archives, as well as collections of historical documents from other court systems in the Anglo-American legal world."
  • January 25, 2007
    * Library Workflow Redesign: Six Case Studies

    Library Workflow Redesign: Six Case Studies, by Marilyn Mitchell, editor, January 2007. 81 pp.

    Supplemental Information (these documents are not in the published report):

  • Appalachian College Association, supplements (PDF)

  • The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges, supplements (PDF)

  • The Robert W. Woodruff Library of the AUC, supplements (PDF)

  • January 23, 2007
    * Challenges to Copyright Law Rejected By 9th Circuit

    Stanford Center for Internet and Society: " Kahle v. Gonzales - In this case, two archives ask the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to hold that statutes that extended copyright terms unconditionally — the Copyright Renewal Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA)— are unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, and that the Copyright Renewal Act and CTEA together create an "effectively perpetual" term with respect to works first published after January 1, 1964 and before January 1, 1978, in violation of the Constitution’s Limited Times and Promote...Progress Clauses. The Complaint asks the Court for a declaratory judgment that copyright restrictions on orphaned works — works whose copyright has not expired but which are no longer available — violate the constitution."

  • Opinion, Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Brewster v. Gonzales, January 22, 2007
  • January 19, 2007
    * New on LLRX.com for January 2007

    Table of Contents for LLRX.com - January 15, 2007 issue:

  • Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide, by Sabrina I. Pacifici

  • The Impact of Social Networking Tools and Guidelines to Use Them, by LaJean Humphries

  • The Blog - Another Tool in Your Arsenal, by Janet Peros

  • Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys: How the Web Will Continue to Change How We Do Business in 2007, by Frederick L. Faulkner IV

  • CongressLine, by GalleryWatch.com: Authorization and Appropriation, by Paul Jenks

  • The Government Domain: Testing the THOMAS Beta, by Peggy Garvin

  • Deal or No Deal – Licensing & Acquiring Digital Resources: License Negotiations Reprise, by Kara Phillips

  • The Tao of Law Librarianship: Becoming A Wiki Warrior, by Connie Crosby

  • Burney's Gadgets for Legal Pros: Reviews -- Doing Double Time With Dual Monitors and Video Chatting Via Your Laptop, by Brett Burney

  • E-Discovery Update: E-Discovery New Year's Resolutions for 2007, by Conrad J. Jacoby

  • Commentary: The Iraq Troop Surge by Beth Wellington

  • A Cup of Creativi-tea: Start a Resolution, by Terri Wilson
  • January 13, 2007
    * Civil Rights Commission and Thurgood Marshall Law Library Host Site With Civil Rights Historical Publications

    Press release: "As the Nation pauses to remember the achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) teams up with the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) and the Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law, to provide the American public a website of authentic Civil Rights historical publications...The Thurgood Marshall Law Library..has been scanning hundreds of historical Civil Rights publications to make this digital collection possible. These documents are provided by USCCR. With a couple strokes of the keyboard, Americans can access Civil Rights documents such as The Civil Rights Act." These documents are accessible on the Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights website.

    January 12, 2007
    * EPA Library Closure Plan Halted Pending New Congressional Action

    Follow up to a series of postings on the EPA library closures, this new posting indicates states that the EPA "...has no plans to shut down more of its libraries and has ceased destroying duplicative research materials until it answers questions from Congress, a spokesperson said Friday."

    January 11, 2007
    * Library of Congress Professional Guild Member Paper on Eliminating Series Authority Records and Series Title Control

    Eliminating Series Authority Records and Series Title Control: Improving Efficiency or Creating Waste? Or, 12 Reasons Why the Library of Congress Should Reconsider Its SARs Decision, prepared for AFSCME 2910 by Gary M. Johnson, January 11, 2007.

    January 10, 2007
    * Top 10 Court Web Site Awards Announced for 2006

    The Justice Served 2006 Top 10 Court Website Award winners. Among the winners is the Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries.

    January 05, 2007
    * Updated CRS Report on Restructuring EPA Libraries

    Follow-up to previous postings on EPA library closings, via FAS, this recent CRS report, Restructuring EPA's Libraries: Background and Issues for Congress, updated January 3, 2007.

  • "EPA determined that the utility of some of its libraries had declined as the agency has made more information available through the Internet, and as heightened security at its facilities has led to fewer public visitors..."

  • See also the American Library Association (ALA) EPA Libraries Update website
  • December 27, 2006
    * ARL Academic Law Library Statistics, 2004-05

    Press release: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) announces the availability of the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2004–05. This publication presents compilations and rankings of data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 77 law libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America. In 2004–05, the reporting law libraries held a median of 313,574 volumes, had total expenditures of $200,223,137, and employed 2,259 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at 46% and 45% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $11,858,683 for electronic materials; this includes a total of $10,235,586 for electronic serials."

  • Download the data files [Excel] or a PDF of the publication
  • * ARL Publishes Health Sciences Library Statistics 2004-05

    Press release: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) announces the availability of the ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2004-05. This publication presents compilations and rankings of data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 67 medical libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America. In 2004-05, the reporting health sciences libraries held a median of 243,011 volumes, had total expenditures of $229,669,155, and employed 2,537 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at 45% and 42% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $40,211,607 for electronic materials, or a median of 43% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $36,656,698 for electronic serials."

  • Download the data files [Excel] or a PDF of the publication
  • December 25, 2006
    December 20, 2006
    * Grant to Internet Archive Allows Expansion of Open Access Historical Collections

    Press release: "The Internet Archive Receives Grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to Digitize and Provide Open Online Access to Historical Collections from Five Major Libraries...The Sloan Foundation is proud to support the digitization of these high-value collections from five of the nation's leading cultural institutions and to ensure that these materials will always be available through public channels for future use...These collections include:

  • Boston Public Library: The John Adams collection, which is the complete personal library of the Founding Father, lifelong book collector and second President of the United States.

  • The Getty Research Institute: Major collection of books on art and architecture and an alternate collection on the performing arts.

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The archive of publications issued by the Metropolitan Museum through the present.

  • Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley: Key primary texts documenting the California Gold Rush and Western expansion.

  • Johns Hopkins University Libraries: The James Birney Collection of Anti-Slavery materials."

  • Related postings on the Google Book Project
  • December 19, 2006
    * Sabrina Pacifici Profiled in Law Practice Magazine, December 2006

    The December 2006 issue of ABA's Law Practice Magazine features a profile of Sabrina I. Pacifici, founder, editor, publisher of LLRX.com and author of beSpacific. After a decade of publishing the free webzine on law and technology resources, and with more than four years and 11,000 postings on beSpacific.com, I am delighted to continue my active participation in such a expert profession, both here and abroad, which values innovation, creativity, contribution and community. Thank you for all your support, and I look forward to publishing your articles in 2007.

    * New on LLRX.com

    The following articles are available in the December 2006 issue of LLRX.com:

  • Bloggers Beware: Debunking Nine Copyright Myths of the Online World - Updated, by Kathy Biehl

  • Criminal Justice Resources - Criminal Justice Blogs, by Ken Strutin

  • A Compilation of State Lawyer Licensing Databases, by Trevor Rosen and Andrew Zimmerman

  • Deep Web Research Research 2007, by Marcus P. Zillman
  • Librarianship - Promoting Public Service and Philanthropy, by Kara Phillips

  • CongressLine by GalleryWatch.com: Voting in Congress, by Paul Jenks

  • E-Discovery Update - by Fios Inc.: Choosing An E-Discovery Vendor, by Conrad J. Jacoby

  • Reference from Coast to Coast: An Overview of Selected SEC Resources on the Web, by Jan Bissett and Margi Heinen

  • Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys: Planning Your 2007 Web Strategy, by Frederick L. Faulkner IV

  • The Government Domain: 2007 Calendars and Schedules, by Peggy Garvin

  • After Hours: But Wait! There's More, by Kathy Biehl

  • FOIA Facts: Rapid Response Team for FOIA, by Scott A. Hodes

  • The Tao of Law Librarianship: Reaching Across the Generations in the Profession, by Connie Crosby

  • Commentary: The Military Commissions Act and The Habeas Corpus Act, by Beth Wellington
  • December 18, 2006
    * Library of Congress Launches RSS Feeds

    List of Library of Congress RSS Feeds
    News - A bulletin service of the latest news from the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing resources to Congress and the American people
    Upcoming Events - Listing of the dozens of free concerts, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, films and other special programs offered at the Library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
    New on the Web - Updates on new collections, features, reference materials and other services available on the Library's award-winning Web site New Webcasts: The latest webcasts and podcasts of lectures and events sponsored by the Library
    What's New in Science Reference - new products and services on the subject of science and technology from the Library's Science, Technology & Business Division.

    December 13, 2006
    * ALA Calls for Real Update on EPA Library Status

    Follow up to my December 11, 2006 posting, EPA Responds to Protests Over Library Closures, see today's ALA Press release: "American Library Association (ALA) President Leslie Burger responded to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) update Monday on the status of agency libraries. "The teleconference raised more questions than it answered. It is a gross oversimplification to state that everyone benefits when libraries go digital. This is only true when there is a thoughtful digitization plan that ensures valuable information is not lost and public access is retained. We are still waiting for the EPA to disclose its digitization plan and budget," Burger said."

    December 11, 2006
    * EPA Responds to Protests Over Library Closures

    Follow up to recent postings on opposition by public interest groups, members of Congress, library associations, librarians, and scientists, to the closure of EPA libraries throughout the country, today this EPA press release stated: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing broader access to a larger audience by making agency library materials available through its public Web site. Retrieving materials will be more efficient and easier to locate by using EPA's online collection and reference services. "When libraries go digital, everyone benefits," said Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock. "By modernizing our libraries, EPA is bringing our cutting edge science to your fingertips, whether you live across the street, or on the other side of the world."

  • Union of Concerned Scientists USA guide details the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to act upon a proposal to close its scientific libraries.
  • December 08, 2006
    * EPA Redacting Library Website to Remove Public Access to Reports

    Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) press release: "defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar...on December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA's Washington D.C. Headquarters."

  • Look at the materials removed from the OOPTS Library website

  • Related postings on EPA library closures
  • December 07, 2006
    * Harvard University Opens Immigration Collection

    "Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, is a web-based collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the US from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression...Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, includes approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 6,000 photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival collections."

    December 04, 2006
    * Internet Archive Helps Secure An Exemption to Digital Millennium Copyright Act

    Press release: "...Internet Archive has successfully advocated for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA prohibits circumvention of technological measures employed by or on behalf of copyright owners to protect their works ("access controls"). Specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201(a)(1)(A) provides, in part, that “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” In order to ensure that the public will have continued ability to engage in noninfringing uses of copyrighted works, such as fair use, subparagraph (B) limits this prohibition. It provides that the prohibition against circumvention “shall not apply to persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be in the succeeding three-year period, adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses of that particular class of works under this title” as determined in a rulemaking proceeding." [thanks to Darlene Fichter]

    December 01, 2006
    * Special Report on Books From Forbes

    The 12-1-2006 issue of Forbes includes a Special Report, simply titled, Books. The report includes a series of articles on endurance of books, and the role technology has and will play, in their evolving future role.

  • Custom-Built Libraries, By Brandy Slagle

  • Publish And Perish, By Elisabeth Eaves. "Books crumble. Discs degrade. Is the age-old quest to preserve human knowledge just a pipedream?"

  • How The Internet Saved Literacy, By Maureen Farrell. "Reading skills are not eroding; they are just becoming more social--and more closely tied to writing."

  • The Secret Life Of An Online Book Reviewer, By Helen Coster. "Donald Mitchell has written 2,923 book reviews for Amazon.com--and made $20,000 doing it."

  • We Stole This Headline, By R. M. Schneiderman. "Universities are increasingly employing software to nab plagiarists. When will the media and publishing houses catch up?"

  • 2008's Hottest Book?, By David A. Andelman. "HarperCollins is betting big on an American author writing in French about a Gestapo agent."

  • My Author, My Life, By Hannah Clark. "How far will Robert Jordan's fans go to keep their favorite write alive?"

  • Video: The Future Of Publishing. "Why the web has been a boon for the literary world."
  • November 30, 2006
    * Democrats Push to Stop EPA Library Closures

    Committee on Government Reform Minority Office: "In an ongoing effort to protect and preserve the vast resources of the Environmental Protection Agency, Reps. Gordon, Dingell, Waxman, and Oberstar call on the agency to stop efforts to close libraries across the country pending a review by Congress. In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, Ranking Members Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN), John Dingell (D-MI), Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and James Oberstar (D-MN) expressed their serious concerns over the current implementation of "library reorganization" plans and the "destruction or disposition" of library holdings."

  • Letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, November 30, 2006

  • Related postings on EPA library closures
  • November 25, 2006
    * Computers and Coffee Bars Replace Books in Some College Libraries

    Boston.com: Coffee's on, dusty books are out at UMass library - Extras aimed at drawing students, November 25, 2006: "Libraries are clearing out books for cafés, tutoring, and career advising, according to the Association of Research Libraries. UMass and four other area colleges are moving a total of 500,000 seldom-read books into an old mountainside military bunker. The University of Texas at Austin has probably gone the farthest, removing all 90,000 books from its undergraduate library in favor of more computers and group study areas."

    November 21, 2006
    * Academic Libraries: 2004 (published November 2006)

    "Description: The selected findings and tables in this report, based on the 2004 Academic Libraries Survey, summarize services, staff, collections, and expenditures of academic libraries in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report includes a number of key findings: During fiscal year (FY) 2004, there were 155.1 million circulation transactions from academic libraries’ general collection. During a typical week in the fall of 2004, 1.4 million academic library reference transactions were conducted, including computer searches. The nation’s 3,700 academic libraries held 982.6 million books; serial backfiles; and other paper materials, including government documents at the end of FY 2004. Academic libraries spent $2.2 billion on information resources during FY 2004."

  • Download, view and print the report as a pdf file.
  • November 07, 2006
    * Boxer Leads Senators in Call for Restored Access to EPA Libraries

    Follow-up to postings on the closure of EPA libraries around the country, see this related press release of November 3, 2006: "Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)...led a group of Senators in a letter to senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee requesting that the Committee direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restore and maintain public access to its library collections. Despite an EPA report in 2004 showing that the monetary benefits of operating EPA libraries far outweigh the costs, the agency is shutting down libraries across the country that hold valuable information on important public health and environmental issues."

    November 04, 2006
    * Update on Google Print Project

    From the Official Google Blog, November 3, 2006: "The world's libraries are a tremendous source of knowledge, much of which has never been available online. One of our goals for Google Print is to change that, and today we've taken an exciting step toward meeting it: making available a number of public domain books that were never subject to copyright or whose copyright has expired. We can show every page because these books are in the public domain. (For books not in the public domain we only show small snippets of the work unless the publisher or copyright holder has given us permission to show more.)"

    October 31, 2006
    * New LC Country Profiles on Russia and Bulgaria

    Library of Congress- Federal Research Division Country Profiles: Russia, October 2006 and Bulgaria, October 2006.

    * EPA Specialized Chemical Research Library Closed

    Press release, October 30, 2006: "Without any word to the public, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has closed its specialized library [Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library] for research on the effects and properties of chemicals, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The library’s unique technical collection is being offered for dispersal, with the remainder kept in storage."

  • Related postings on closure of EPA libraries around the country.
  • October 26, 2006
    * ALA Lists Best Free Reference Web Sites 2006

    Best Free Reference Web Sites 2006 - Eighth Annual List - RUSA Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS): "This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web."

    * Library of Congress Launches Comprehensive New Search Feature

    New Search (BETA): "For the first time you can search the largest sections of the Library's site from one search box." Search individually or collectively, the following content: U.S. historical and cultural collections (American Memory); Library of Congress Online Catalog; Prints & Photographs Online Catalog; Library of Congress Web site.

    October 20, 2006
    * Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries 2005

    "The Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries 2005 Results report has been posted. The survey results reflect conditions in depository libraries as of December, 2005. The 2005 Biennial Survey Significant Findings report was also posted..." [Link to both surveys]

    October 18, 2006
    * Proclamation by the President - National Character Week

    Press release, October 13, 2006: President proclaim[s] October 15 through October 21, 2006, as National Character Counts Week...call[s] upon public officials, educators, librarians, parents, students, and all Americans to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs."

    October 16, 2006
    October 13, 2006
    * PEER Reports EPA Scientists Losing Access to Research Sources

    Follow up to previous postings on closures of EPA libraries around the country, this October 9, 2006 press release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sharply reducing the number of technical journals and environmental publications to which its employees will have online access, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This loss of online access compounds the effect of agency library closures, meaning that affected employees may not have access to either a hard copy or an electronic version of publications...In addition to technical journals, EPA is also canceling its subscriptions to widely-read environmental news reports, such as Greenwire, The Clean Air Report and The Superfund Report, which summarize and synthesize breaking events and trends inside industry, government and academia. Greenwire, for example, recorded more than 125,000 hits from EPA staff last year."

    * Draft Paper, Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation

    Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation, Public DRAFT September 21, 2006, R. David Lankes, Joanne Silverstein. Produced for the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy. Information Institute of Syracuse. Syracuse University’s school of Information Studies.

  • There are three ways to provide comments on the public draft: Read and E-Mail; Read and Join the Online Forum; The full text of the proposal has been placed on a Wiki. Register and you can get in and edit any part of the draft.
  • October 12, 2006
    * University of Wisconsin-Madison Joins Google Books Library Project

    Press release: "Together, the UW-Madison and Google will expand access to hundreds of thousands of public and historical materials from the UW-Madison libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. Some wonderful examples from their collection can be found here. The combined 7.2 million holdings of these libraries comprise one of the largest collections of historical documents and books to be found in the United States."

    October 09, 2006
    * New LC Country Profile on Jordan

    Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Country Profile on Jordan, September 2006.

    October 07, 2006
    * Government Sponsored Library Locators

    FirstGov.gov: Government and Public Libraries - National, federal agency, and local libraries; online library databases; grants and benefits for libraries.

  • Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education: Search for public/private schools, colleges and libraries (information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, and statistics).
  • September 29, 2006
    * Public Libraries and the Internet 2006: Study Results and Findings

    "The 2006 national study presents findings from both a national survey and case sites. The national survey provides provides longitudinal data regarding public library Internet connectivity and public access computing services and resources, but also explores the impacts and benefits that communities derive from public library connectivity. The case sites focused primarily on successfully networked public libraries and the issues, solutions, and approaches that these libraries faced and resolved in order to develop sustainable and high quality public access computing and Internet services.

  • Public Libraries and the Internet 2006: Study Results and Findings (255 pages, PDF), by John Carlo Bertot, Charles R. McClure, Paul T. Jaeger, & Ryan J. (Sep 2006)
  • [Note: The 2006 report is also available in sections. Use this link.}

    September 28, 2006
    * New on LLRX.com: Law Librarian Nominated for Animal Planet Hero of the Year Award

  • Law Librarian One of Top Ten Finalists for Animal Planet Hero of the Year Award, by Kara Phillips

  • Bios of the Hero of the Year Nominees. You can cast your vote here, until October 6.
  • * CRS Report on Protection of Security-Related Information

    Protection of Security-Related Information, September 27, 2006 (via FAS, 29 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on use of various designations for government documents to restrict public access
  • September 27, 2006
    * University Complutense of Madrid Joins Google Book Project

    Press release: "Working together, Google and the University Complutense of Madrid will digitise the university's hundreds of thousands of public domain works, so that anyone, at anytime will be able to view, browse, read, and even download the full texts from the library's historic and special collections. The library of the Complutense University of Madrid is the largest university library in Spain."

    Related news and postings:

  • Related postings on Google Book Search project

  • Press release: "...the University of California, Berkeley, announced (Tuesday, Sept. 26) that it is delivering educational content, including course lectures and symposia, free of charge through Google Video. Because of the quality and quantity of these video offerings, UC Berkeley will be the first university with its own page on the Google Video Web site, campus officials said. The campus is making more than 250 hours of content available to the public through Google Video." [via ResearchBuzz]

  • September 22, 2006
    * EPA Headquarters Library Closes Effective October 1, 2006

    Follow-up to previous postings, EPA Commenses Closure of Libraries Amid Protests and EPA Libraries And Unique E-Catalog Threatened by Budget Cutbacks, this September 21, 2006 rress release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is closing its Headquarters Library to the public, as well as its own staff, effective October 1. This shutdown is the latest in a series of agency library closures during the past few weeks, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As with the other library collections, the books, reports and research monographs in the EPA Headquarters Library have been boxed up and are currently inaccessible to anyone."

    September 18, 2006
    * Maryland State Law Library Opens New Special Collections Room

    Press release: "When the Maryland State Law Library opens its new Special Collections Room September 21, the long treasured and newly restored Audubon bird prints will have a new home. The expanded and enhanced room, which houses rare books, documents, and articles collected since the library’s founding in 1827, was built to preserve the room’s wealth of American and Maryland history. The Special Collections Room’s star is its 1830s edition of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America,” one of fewer than 100 in existence today. The library acquired the four-volume set in 1834 in its largest, 'double-elephant folio' size format. Similar collections have been sold at auction for millions of dollars."

    September 15, 2006
    * Survey of Consumer and Professional Medical/Health Reference Tools

    From Diane Kovacs:

  • Results of Core Consumer Medical/Health Reference Tools Survey, includes Print, Free Web-Sites, Govdocs Sites, and Fee-Based Websites.

  • Results of Professional Professional/Research Medical/Health Core Reference Survey, includes Print, Free Web-Sites, Govdocs Sites, and Fee-Based Websites.
  • September 14, 2006
    * Transcripts of Supreme Court Oral Arguments Available Free Beginning In October

    Supreme Court press release: "Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court will make the transcripts of oral arguments available free to the public on its Web site on the same day an argument is heard by the Court...The Court's current contract reporting service, Alderson Reporting Company, will now utilize the services of a court reporter in the Courtroom and high-speed technology to transcribe the oral arguments more quickly. Transcripts can be located by clicking on the "Oral Arguments" prompt on the home page of the Court's Web site and selecting "Argument Transcripts." Transcripts will be listed by case name and the date of oral argument. Transcripts are permanently archived beginning with the 2000 Term on the Court's Web site. Transcripts prior to the 2000 Term are maintained in the Court's Library."

    September 12, 2006
    * Google Joins ALA and Bookstores to Promote Access to Banned Books

    Inside Google Book Search Blog: "Starting today, you can visit http://www.google.com/bannedbooks to explore 42 banned or challenged books honored by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as among the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. You can see which of these novels have been targeted for banning, find out where you can buy or borrow them, and check out what authors and critics have to say by browsing related books."

    September 11, 2006
    * Group Outlines Ramifications of EPA Library Closures

    Follow-up to previous postings on EPA's closure of libraries, this press release: "Prosecution of polluters by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "will be compromised" due to the loss of "timely, correct and accessible" information from the agency's closure of its network of technical libraries, according to an internal memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA enforcement staff currently rely upon the libraries to obtain technical information to support pollution prosecutions and to track the business histories of regulated industries."

    September 07, 2006
    * National Archives Issues Progress Report on Declassification Initiatives

    National Archives Issues Progress Report on Declassification Initiatives: "The new NDI program will reduce redundancies in declassification review, will promote accurate and consistent declassification decisions, will improve equity recognition across the declassification community, develop centralized priorities and management controls around the priorities, and make the declassification process more transparent to the public."

  • Related postings on government secrecy and classification of documents
  • * Kennedy Library Archivist Article on Efforts to Retrieve Missing Kennedy Documents

    Reclaiming Pieces of Camelot - How NARA and the JFK Library Recovered Missing Kennedy Documents and Artifacts, by James M. Roth: "Among the more celebrated individuals suspected of misappropriating presidential and federal documents is Evelyn Lincoln, former secretary to President John F. Kennedy. Through the efforts of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library staff, the National Archives general counsel, and the U.S. Department of Justice, many of these documents and items apparently taken by Lincoln have now been returned to their rightful place. This is the story of how that happened...Finding aids for the papers are online at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum web site."

    September 01, 2006
    * Registry of Digital Masters

    CLIR: "A joint project of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) and OCLC, the registry provides a trusted service for the communication, coordination, and discovery of information about digital masters, their production, and the availability of use copies. The registry includes both digitally reformatted and born-digital objects. Hosted by OCLC and developed on the basis of recommendations from the DLF Registry of Digital Masters Working Group, the Registry of Digital Masters is a union catalog that uses MARC records to describe digital resources and provide details about their digitization and the preservation intentions of the institutions that are responsible for them."

  • Registry of Digital Masters
  • August 31, 2006
    * Commentary Examines False Copyright Claims on Works in Public Domain

    Mazzone, Jason, "Copyfraud". Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 40 Available at SSRN [via Public Knowledge]

  • "Copyfraud is everywhere. False copyright notices appear on modern reprints of Shakespeare's plays, Beethoven's piano scores, greeting card versions of Monet's Water Lilies, and even the U.S. Constitution. Archives claim blanket copyright in everything in their collections. Vendors of microfilmed versions of historical newspapers assert copyright ownership. These false copyright claims, which are often accompanied by threatened litigation for reproducing a work without the owner's permission, result in users seeking licenses and paying fees to reproduce works that are free for everyone to use."
  • August 30, 2006
    * Free Downloads of Public Domain Books Now Available From Google Book Search

    Google press release: "Starting today, readers can find new, and free, downloadable versions of some of the world's greatest books on Google Book Search. Working with our library partners, we're expanding access to books that are out of copyright and have become public domain material. Users can search and read these books on Google Book Search like always, but now they can also download and print them to enjoy at their own pace."

    Related sources and information:

  • Postings on Project Gutenberg

  • U. of Michigan Adds Books Digitized by Google to Online Catalog, but Limits Use of Some: "If a scanned book is still under copyright...users will not be able to read the digital copy. Instead, the card-catalog system will return a list of the pages that contain the search term and how many times the term appears on those pages. The reader will be directed to the library's stacks for the printed book."

  • * AP Gramling Awards Include News Research Center Director

    The Associated Press names 9 winners of Gramling Award for excellence: "The honorees include a video journalist who established a new bureau in North Korea, a department head whose team takes the lead in using research in everything from urgent breaking news to long-term investigative work, and editors who expanded AP's medical and science offerings and created a service targeted at the under-35 generation of readers."

  • As posted to NewsLib this afternoon, "The staff of The Associated Press News Research Center is thrilled to announce that our director, Lynn Dombek, has been honored with a $10,000 Gramling Achievement Award for 2006, one of the most prestigious and much-coveted awards bestowed on AP employees. Lynn was recognized for "transforming her team of researchers into an integral part of AP journalism across all platforms and departments."
  • Kudos to Lynn and her terrific team.

    August 29, 2006
    * Rutgers-Camden Law School Library Offers NJ Supreme Court's Attorney Disciplinary Review Board Decisions

    Follow-up to my June 13, 2006 posting, New Searchable Database of Congressional and NJ Legislative Documents, this August 29, 2006 announcement from Rutgers: "The Law Library at the Rutgers-Camden law school now offers [free] the decisions of the New Jersey Supreme Court's Attorney Disciplinary Review Board from December, 1998 onward. These decisions are online here."

    August 25, 2006
    * Hurricane Digital Memory Bank

    Center for History and New Media, George Mason University: "The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media and the University of New Orleans, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History and other partners, organized this project."

    * Commission Calls on Member States to Contribute to European Digital Library

    "25 August 2006 - The European Commission adopted on 24 August 2006 a Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (PDF). The Recommendation aims at bringing out the full economic and cultural potential of Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage through the Internet. It is part of the Commission's strategy for the digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage as set out in the Commission Communication ‘i2010: digital libraries’. In the Recommendation, the Commission calls on Member States to act in various areas, ranging from copyright issues to the systematic preservation of digital content in order to ensure long term access to the material."

  • Recommendation (PDF)

  • Press release Commission calls on Member States to contribute to the European digital library published on Europa Website.

  • FAQ published on Europa Website
  • August 24, 2006
    * Google Book Search Contract to Digitize UC Collection Released

    The Chronicle of Higher Education obtained a copy of the 13 page agreement between Google, Inc. and the Regents of the University of California that details the scope of the digitization project, as well as copyright and ownership issues.

  • Related postings on the Google Book Search Project
  • August 23, 2006
    * EPA Commenses Closure of Libraries Amid Protests

    Press release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead this summer to shut down libraries, end public access to research materials and box up unique collections on the assumption that Congress will not reverse President Bush's proposed budget reductions, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA's own scientists are stepping up protests against closures on the grounds that it will make their work more difficult by impeding research, enforcement and emergency response capabilities."

  • EPA FY 2007 Library Plan (18 pages, PDF)

  • EPA Libraries And Unique E-Catalog Threatened by Budget Cutbacks
  • August 22, 2006
    * NY Public Library Adopts LC Classification System

    New York Times Editorial today: Where the Books Are. See also this related posting, NY Public Library Project to Update Access to Reference Works.

    August 21, 2006
    * Commentary on the Future of Digital Archiving

    Can Our Culture Be Saved? The Future of Digital Archiving, by Diane Leeheer Zimmerman, New York University - School of Law, July 25, 2006

  • "This article steps behind the Google Library controversy to examine in depth what the enormous public benefits that would flow from allowing a broad right of digitization for preservation purposes, and why such a right by necessity would require changes in existing copyright law. It also then asks whether we can realistically hope to "save" the fragile embodiments of our cultural life this way without making some provision for public access to the databases in which works are preserved. Finally, the article attempts to identify what the public-regarding goals of digital archiving for purposes of preservation should be, the responsibilities that would attach to the right to archive, and the kinds of compromises between the interests of the copyright owning community and the public that might be feasible to enable citizens of the world to create and protect their modern version of the Library of Alexandria."
  • * UN Office on Drug Crimes Legal Library and World Drug Report 2006

    "The UNODC legal library is a unique source of the legislation adopted by States and territories around the world to put into effect the international drug control conventions. The library contains laws and regulations dating back to 1948 and is updated regularly with new laws adopted by Member States and other States. With the adoption of the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the subjects covered by the E/NL (the UN symbol for the publication of laws and regulations mandated by the three drug control conventions and necessary to put them into effect) series were extended to include money laundering, confiscation, mutual legal assistance, extradition, controlled delivery and undercover operations and illicit trafficking by sea."

  • World Drug Report 2006: "The World Drug Report 2006 endeavours to fill this gap. It provides one of the most comprehensive overviews of illicit drug trends at the international level. In addition, it presents a special thematic chapter on cannabis, by far the most widely produced, trafficked and used drug in the world. The analysis of trends, some going back 10 years or more, is presented in Volume 1. Detailed statistics are presented in Volume 2. Taken together, these volumes provide the most up-to-date view of today's illicit drug situation."
  • August 17, 2006
    * NY Public Library Project to Update Access to Reference Works

    New York Times - With a New Classification System, the New York Public Library Makes a Change for the Clearer: "Librarians have begun a yearlong project to reorganize, reclassify and update the roughly 25,000 reference works on the room’s open shelves. When they are done, officials promise, readers will have a much easier time locating many of the most commonly consulted works, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica to Shakespeare's plays."

    August 09, 2006
    * New LC Country Profile of China

    LC Country Profile of China, August 8, 2006 (43 pages, PDF)

    * UC Libraries Partner With Google to Digitize Books

    Press release: The University of California libraries today (August 9, 2006) announced their partnership with Google to digitize books from the libraries' collections. UC becomes the latest partner in the Google Books Library Project, which was launched in December 2004 to digitize books drawn from the libraries of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, and the New York Public Library. The digitized books will be searchable through Google Book Search."

  • Official Google Blog, Welcome to the University of California libraries
  • July 27, 2006
    * House Passes Bill Requiring Mandatory Net Filtering By Libraries

    H.R.5319 - To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.

  • CDT: "The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would force schools and libraries to block chat and social networking sites as a condition of receiving federal E-rate funding. This bill goes far beyond the already broad mandate that requires schools and libraries to filter out obscenity and "harmful-to-minors" content and would block access to many legal and valuable web sites and Internet tools. Because chat and social networking are woven into the fabric of Internet communication, a huge range of sites may be declared off limits in libraries and schools. The bill appoints the Federal Communications Commission as the arbiter of what can and cannot be accessed in libraries around the country, meaning that for the first time, the federal government would be getting into the business of evaluating and screening wholly lawful Internet content."
  • July 24, 2006
    * Collaborative Reference Work in the Blogosphere

    Collaborative Reference Work in the Blogosphere, by Jeffrey Pomerantz (16 pages, PDF): "This paper explores the use of blogs as a platform for providing reference service, and discusses Lycemum, and open source software project from ibiblio.org, for this purpose."

    July 20, 2006
    * 2006 AALL Diversity Symposium Presentations

  • Pioneer Minority Law Librarians PowerPoint, compiled by Lauren M. Collins of Wayne State University Law Library

  • Diversity in Law Librarianship Bibliography, compiled by Tina S. Ching of the Arizona State University Law Library [via Andrew Evans, Washburn University Law Library]
  • July 19, 2006
    July 17, 2006
    * New on LLRX.com

  • And you thought gadgets were only for the kitchen: The Return, by
    Brian Neale, Roger Skalbeck, Susan Skyzinski and Barbara Fullerton

  • And you thought gadgets were only for the kitchen: The Future, by
    Brian Neale, Roger Skalbeck, Susan Skyzinski and Barbara Fullerton

  • Writing Justice Blackmun, by Linda Greenhouse

  • Statement of Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel, The National Security Archive, Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing on the Media’s Role and Responsibilities in Leaks of Classified Information

  • Refining the Standard: Authenticating Computer-Based Evidence, by M. Sean Fosmire

  • Update to Researching Australian Law, by Nicholas Pengelley

  • Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys: Four Ways to Enhance Your Firm Website, by Frederick L. Faulkner IV

  • E-Discovery Update - by Fios Inc.: How Well Can You Protect Privilege Through Private Contract?, by Conrad J. Jacoby

  • CongressLine, by GalleryWatch.com: Congressional Seedlings, by Paul Jenks

  • Express Yourself on Your PDA, by Brett Burney

  • FOIA Facts: Who or What Constitutes Media under the FOIA?, by Scott A. Hodes

  • The Government Domain: Summer Infosnacks, by Peggy Garvin

  • A Cup of Creativi-tea: Icebreakers, by Terri Wilson

  • After Hours: The Grill Guru / Incense and...Cinnamon?, by Kathy Biehl

  • Commentary: Voters Rights Act, by Beth Wellington

  • LLRX Court Rules, Forms, and Dockets, the unique, free searchable database, maintained and continually updated by Margaret Berkland.

  • LLRX.com Bookstore has new recommendations
  • * OCLC to Open WorldCat Searching to the World

    From Paula J. Hane: "In a move designed to reach users outside library environments, OCLC is planning to launch a new destination site and downloadable search box for searching the content of libraries participating in WorldCat. Scheduled for a beta release sometime in August 2006, the new WorldCat.org site will continue OCLC's efforts begun with its Open WorldCat program to make library resources more visible to Web users and to increase awareness of libraries as a primary source of reliable information."

    July 14, 2006
    * Appropriations Committee Approves $15 Million for New DC Library

    Appropriations Committee press release, July 13, 2006: "The Senate Appropriations Committee today gave approval to the fiscal year 2007 District of Columbia spending bill. The bill totals $597 million in federal funds, which is $200,000 below the fiscal year 2006 enacted level and the same as the President's budget request...$15 million for a new Central Library in the District of Columbia. The President requested $30 million for a new central library, noting the need for a state-of-the art facility which would provide citizens access to modern technology and improved research and meetings facilities. The Committee believes that a better library system will help the District lower its adult illiteracy rate of 37 percent and help improve lives and opportunities of DC residents."

  • Senate Reports: 109-281 -- [FEDERAL PAYMENT TO THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FOR A NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART CENTRAL LIBRARY]
  • July 11, 2006
    * American Lawyer Survey on Law Librarians 2006

    Law Librarians Look Beyond Books - "Once endangered, librarians have expanded their role to include such duties as market research and competitive intelligence."

  • The Librarian's Expanding Role

  • Electronic Research

  • Staffing

  • Resources

  • Finances
  • July 06, 2006
    * Commentary on Style and Substance in Website Writing and Design

    Putting the White Back in Strunk and White, by Christina Wodtke. "Style and appropriateness may seem like an odd duo, but they are not. Style is the natural result of the over-abundance of energy and unique perspective a designer—creative person—is gifted and cursed with. Appropriateness is what helps them guide it in its application."

    * Use of National Security Letters to Obtain Private Data

    USAToday.com follow's up on news about the FBI dropping demands for Connecticut library patron records with this article on the expansive post 9/11 use of National Security Letters to obtain private data from a range of organizations.

    July 04, 2006
    * Challenges and Obstacles Remain for Virtual Reference Services

    Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2, by Pascal Lupien.

  • "There is a virtual minefield of technology obstacles when implementing virtual reference. Many VR software programs do not work well with certain browsers and operating systems—or with slower Internet connections. This is particularly true of co-browsing, one of the most important value-added features that VR software offers over instant messaging (IM)."
  • June 29, 2006
    * Marketing Toolkit for Private Law Libraries

    From the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section of AALL, this Revised Marketing Toolkit (June 27, 2006), includes content in the following categories: Mission Statement, Competencies for Head Law Librarian, Commonly Asked Questions and Answers, Bibliography, and Statistics Handbook.

    June 26, 2006
    * FBI Drops Demand for Connecticut Library Patron Records

    A resolution to the case involving Connecticut librarians and an FBI NSL gag order regarding patron records - today the ACLU announced the FBI has dropped the case.

  • Text of Library Connection National Security Letter, released 6/26/2006
  • June 23, 2006
    * NARA Seminar on Mandatory Declassification of Gov. Docs.

    Press release: "A free workshop [June 30, 2006 - Jefferson Room National Archives Building 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20408]sponsored by the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office that is aimed at informing the researcher public and the media of their rights in obtaining the maximum information by requesting a declassification review of classified national security documents. Due to limited space, pre-registration is required. Call 202-357-5250 or email isoo@nara.gov to reserve a place."

    * Morehouse College Recipient of Dr. King Document Collection

    AP reports that Dr. King's collection of writings and books will be given to his alma mater, Morehouse College, after their purchase by a group of distinguished community leaders, thus ensuring availability to the public in years to come.

    June 21, 2006
    * DOT Law Library Newsletters

    DOT Law Library Newsletters, from Summer 2001 through Winter 2005, available in PDF and HTML versions [Michael Ravnitzky]

    See also:

  • DOT Library's Online Catalog which "contains over 80,000 bibliographic records, with more being added each day. There are three Search Types available: Simple Search, Browse Search, and Power Search."

  • Online Digital Special Collections

  • June 20, 2006
    * New York Public Library Continues to Excel at Phone Reference Services

    New York Times: Library Phone Answerers Survive the Internet

    June 19, 2006
    * Congressional Mandate for NIH Public Access

    Press release: House Appropriations Committee Directs NIH to Ensure Tax-Funded Medical Research is Freely Available in Agency’s Online Archive

    Related references and sources:

  • Proposal to Expand Free Electronic Access to All Research Funded By NIH

  • Chronicle of Higher Education (sub. req'd), House Committee Would Require Open Access to NIH-Backed Research
  • : "A little-noticed provision in a bill passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee would require federally sponsored researchers to make their findings more widely available to the public. The provision appears in an appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for the 2007 fiscal year, which begins on October 1. It would require all researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health to submit electronic versions of papers reporting their findings to PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's online system, and they would have to do so within one year of publication in a scholarly journal."
  • FCW.com: House appropriation mandates NIH public access policy

  • "The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit organization committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature freely available online, without restrictions on use or further distribution, free from private or government control."

  • * Selected Links Available for SLA News Division Sponsored Programs 2006

    News Division Program for the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 2006, June 10 - 15, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland.

  • Links to selected presentations and handouts
  • June 14, 2006
    * Hearing on Broadband Internet Access, Competition and Consumer Protection

    Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Reconsidering Our Communications Laws: Ensuring Competition and Innovation, June 14, 2006.

  • Links to member statements and testimony [HTML]

  • FTC press release on testimony: "The Federal Trade Commission today told the Senate Judiciary Committee that as the Committee considers legislation to amend the Communications Act, it should preserve the FTC's existing authority to protect consumers and maintain competition in the broadband services industry."
  • June 13, 2006
    * Americans Say Public Libraries Are Essential to 21st Century Communities

    Press release: "Americans prize public library service in the Internet Age, a new research report released today by the nonpartisan public opinion research organization Public Agenda concludes. As local communities and states contend with tight budget constraints for public services, the public sees libraries as potential solutions to many communities' most pressing problems, from universal access to computers to the need for better options for keeping teens safe and productive."

  • Long Overdue: A Fresh Look at Public Attitudes About Libraries in the 21st Century
  • * New Searchable Database of Congressional and NJ Legislative Documents

    From John P. Joergensen, Rutgers University School of Law - Camden Law Library, news about the launch of a searchable online collection of U.S. Congressional documents, hearings and prints that are being scanned from their holdings. This is an ongoing project, and the collection will expand over time. In addition, see also the New Jersey Session Laws Online, Acts of the New Jersey Colonial Assembly and Session Laws of the New Jersey Legislature (currently in Beta).

    June 11, 2006
    * Primary Research Group Has Published Law Library Benchmarks

    Press release: "The study presents data from a survey of 84 law libraries; data is broken out for law firm, university, government and private company law libraries, and by size of the library’s content budget. The study has approximately 300 tables of data summarizing a broad range of developments in law library policies regarding personnel and salaries, materials spending, procurement, management, reference services, and information policy."

    June 08, 2006
    * Archivist for JFK Library Announces Launch of Huge Digital Library

    AP reported that JFK archvist Allan Goodrich announced a huge digitization project to be completed by the end of 2007, which would provide web access to "48 million pages of documents, 400,000 photos and 1,200 hours of video.."

  • NARA press release: "Twenty-nine years after participating in the formal groundbreaking of the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Columbia Point, Senator Edward M. Kennedy today announced a major and unprecedented effort by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to build a new library – a digital one consisting of the entire collection of papers, documents, photographs and audio recordings of President John F. Kennedy, eventually making them accessible to citizens throughout the world via the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's web site...Included among the millions of historical papers, documents and images that will be permanently preserved are precious and irreplaceable records of the nation’s struggle for Civil Rights; its conflict with the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War; its efforts to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the decade; its commitment to public service through the creation of the Peace Corps; its prevention of a nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile Crisis; and its embrace of American art and culture under the guidance of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy."

  • June 07, 2006
    * Shift From Paper to Digital Libraries Offers New Preservation Challenges

    Fragile digital data in danger of fading past history's reach, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6-7-06)

  • "Many of the records that once allowed historians to study a society's history --- from personal correspondence to government documents --- may be slipping, irretrievably, into the digital ether...compared to the sturdy format of paper and books, digital information is extremely fragile, disappearing as software becomes obsolete, hardware breaks down and viruses wipe out volumes."
  • June 06, 2006
    * User Generated Content As Challenge to Libraries Bears Scrutiny

    WSJ free feature: Why Getting the User To Create Web Content Isn't Always Progress

    June 05, 2006
    * Commentary Highlights Digital Strategies of Web 2.0 and Educational Impact

    Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 2 (March/April 2006): 32–44.

    May 31, 2006
    * Connecticut Librarians Challenging Constitutionality of Patriot Act Gag Speak Out

    Following up on previous postings about Connecticut librarians gagged by the FBI's use of the National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act, news from an ACLU press conference on the identity of the librarians and their respective statements as follows:

  • Barbara Bailey

  • Peter Chase

  • George Christian

  • Janet Nocek
  • May 25, 2006
    * LC Web Capture Project

    "The Library of Congress preserves the nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions of acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and the American people to foster education and scholarship extend to digital materials, including Web sites...In 2004, the Library’s Office of Strategic Initiatives created a Web Capture team to support the goal of managing and sustaining at-risk digital content. The team is charged with building a Library-wide understanding and technical infrastructure for capturing Web content. The team, in collaboration with a variety of Library staff, and national and international partners, is identifying policy issues, establishing best practices and building tools to collect and preserve Web content."

    * AALL Launches a Speakers Directory

    AALL Speakers Directory and AALL Speakers Directory FAQ

    May 24, 2006
    * Librarian Mediated Search Best Option for Cancer Patients According to Study

    From PERC: Patient Education Resource Center [U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center], "lists of information sourcesrelating to a specific cancer diagnosis or issue. The purpose is to help newly diagnosed patients and their loved ones find sources of information and support. The guides are not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to provide starting points for information seeking."

  • Related reference, Librarians provided new information, resources for 95 percent of patients: "...despite the ease and availability of Internet searches, cancer patients looking for information about their disease found more information by seeking help from a librarian than by searching on their own, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center."
  • May 18, 2006
    * Debate on Future of the Library Catalog

  • The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools, Final Report, March 17, 2006, prepared for the Library of Congress by Associate University Librarian Karen Calhoun of Cornell University (52 pages, PDF)

  • A Critical Review of The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools, April 3, 2006 (24 pages, PDF)

  • ALA urges more deliberation, library involvement in Library of Congress' cataloging changes, May 16, 2006

  • Library Journal (reg. req'd), ALA Rebukes LC, Calls for Consultation with Libraries and Delay in Bibliographic Changes, May 18, 2006

  • May 14, 2006
    * Eight Reasons Solo Lawyers Should Use Law Libraries

    Eight Reasons Solo Lawyers Should Use Law Libraries, by Mary Whisner.

    May 12, 2006
    * Medical Journals Backfiles Digitisation Project

    May 11, 2006 press release: "Complete back issues covering nearly 200 years of historically significant biomedical journals are being made freely available online as a result of a landmark project launched today at the Wellcome Trust headquarters in London. On completion, the Medical Journals Backfiles Digitisation Project will deliver over three million pages of medical journals to the archive, free to anyone through standard search tools such as PubMed and Google."

    May 10, 2006
    * Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006

    As reported by Declan McCullagh, the text of new legislation to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.

    May 09, 2006
    * National Archives' Investigation into Missing Papers of Chief Justice John Roberts

    Report of Investigation: John G. Roberts' Missing File by the Office of Inspector General, National Archives and Records Administration, 27 September 2005. "This report has not been previously released. It was supplied in paper form to Washington, DC-area researcher Michael Ravnitzky by the National Archives and Records Administration."

  • Washington Post, May 11, 2006: The Case of Roberts's Missing Papers - Investigators Are Still Unable to Locate File On Affirmative Action
  • May 08, 2006
    * New Portal to Open Access Journal Content

    "Open J-Gate is an electronic gateway to global journal literature in open access domain. Launched in 2006, Open J-Gate is the contribution of Informatics (India) Ltd to promote the Open Access Initiative (OAI). Open J-Gate provides seamless access to millions of journal articles available online. Open J-Gate is also a database of journal literature, indexed from 3000+ open access journals, with links to full text at Publisher sites."

    May 05, 2006
    * Federal Court Challenges FCC's Power to Enforce Broadband Internet Surveillance

    Follow-up to yesterday's posting, FCC Orders VoIP and Broadband IP Compliance With Law Enforcement Surveillance - today Reuters reports that in a case [American Council of Education v. FCC, 05-1404] before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the FCC's surveillance order was met with skepticism by Judge Harry Edwards, who called the agency's position "totally ridiculous."

    May 04, 2006
    * RLG to Merge With OCLC

    Press release, May 3, 2006: "Two of the world's largest membership-based information organizations have agreed to come together. The combined organization will offer an integrated product and service line, and will give libraries, archives and museums new leverage in developing services, standards and software that will help them support research and disseminate knowledge online."

  • Frequently Asked Questions: RLG Proposal to Combine with OCLC

  • RLG to Merge with OCLC, by Paula J. Hane

  • May 01, 2006
    * ALA's New Legislative Action Center