Free Range Librarian

http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/001543.shtml
See Dan Gillmor’s request, as he experiments with “headline news” via a Handspring Treo 600: “My blogging software doesn’t give me an easy way to make a quick posting into just those two fields [title and entry], with an extremely low-bandwidth page that’s easily readable on the handheld.” He also wants a quick way to [...]

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

Had Thanksgiving with a large group of librarians, and we finally focused on one key reference question: can anyone prove or disprove the story that Lynn Cheney wrote lesbian pulp fiction?
(Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)
Bookmark to:

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/23/BUG5D37C7T1.DTL
A computer break-in at Bancroft Library (UCB) highlights one of my concerns about RFID: many library servers aren’t secure to begin with–and that, hand in hand with a potent technology such as RFID (full disclosure: I don’t have any indication Bancroft plans to implement RFID), could lead to compromised user privacy. You can read [...]

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

http://oclc.org/news/releases/20031124.htm
Was I the only one to wonder why OCLC would raise such a kerfuffle over this small issue while negotiating with Google over a deal related to dumping a gadzillion OCLC records (created by its members, no less) into the Google database?
Bookmark to:

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

Oh, tasty treat, for those who never metadata they didn’t like! The office of OCLC Research has its own feed:
http://oclc.org/research/announcements/oclc_research_announcements.rdf
Bookmark to:

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

Very few narrative blogs are good enough to capture my attention, but my finicky standards are met by The Laughing Librarian http://laughinglibrarian.com/
and the blog for the Lipstick Librarian http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com/blog/.
I particularly like the “filtered” version of The Laughing Librarian, and I appreciate Linda Absher’s willingness to let it all hang out (and her [...]

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0311/0224.html
Dan Robinson recounts his family’s history with FBI investigations, in a lively thread about whether “it can happen here” (”it” meaning aggressive enquiries into personal reading behavior).
Bookmark to:

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

http://www.cato.org/pubs/scr2003/publiclyfunded.pdf
In “A Missed Opportunity” (Cato Supreme Court Review, Sept 2003), Bob Corn-Revere offered a fresh (and highly readable) take on CIPA. Not only is his reasoning lucid and original, but for the first time since July, I felt a spark of hope on this issue. “The public forum doctrine, which originated as a [...]

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

http://tinyurl.com/w1hp
The current ALA pres came up and swinging with a powerful statement submitted to a Judicial Committee Hearing, “America After 9/11: Freedom Preserved or Freedom Lost?” Yet another reason why I want Santa to bring me a Carla Hayden Action Figure.
Bookmark to:

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]

In a Web4Lib thread responding to a rather acerbic article about libraries from the Philadelphia Weekly, there was a great post from Suellen Stringer-Hye, reminding us with a few words and a link of Ted Hughe’s wonderful poem about libraries.
Even the most misfitting child
Who’s chanced upon the library’s worth,
Sits with the genius of the [...]

Bookmark to:

[Read more →]