Author archives

New Study Documents Law Enforcement Inquiries on Library Patron Data

From today’s New York Times, Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users reports on a study, not yet released by the American Library Association (ALA), that documents law enforcement inquiries for information on library patrons’ reading materials. The article indicates that there have been “at least 200 formal and informal inquiries to libraries… …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Patriot Act, Privacy

New Bill to Permanently Authorize Patriot Act Provisions

S.1266, Title: An original bill to permanently authorize certain provisions of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, to reauthorize a provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, to clarify certain definitions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legislation, Patriot Act

Commentary on Technology Applications and Personal Data Collection

Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Personal Digital Libraries and Collections “People are capturing and storing an ever-increasing amount of digital information about or for themselves, including emails, documents, articles, portfolios of work, digital images, and audio and video recordings. Computer processing, storage, and software tools available to individuals are increasing in power, volume, and …

Subjects: Libraries

Controvery Over Edits to BLM Report on Grazing Impact Study

From the LA Times, June 17, 2005: “The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study.” BLM Publishes Final Environmental Impact Study on Changes …

Subjects: E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Details Revealed on Google Library Project at U. Michigan

Following are links to several related documents worth reviewing on the Google Library Project to digitize the entire collections of participating libraries. Google Library: Peril for Publishers? Michigan Digitization Project Brief Overview (12/13/04) PDF Format Cooperative Agreement between the University Library and Google (PDF Format) Sample Titles Google’s Library Digitization Project: Reports from Michigan and …

Subjects: Copyright, Libraries, Privacy, Search Engines