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Monthly Archives: September 2004

Virtual Reference: Still Looking for the Answers

I had promised a response to the Maxwell thread about VR on DIG-REF; this post, a response to two exchanges on Web4Lib, will have to do. — Karen ——————– > Bernie salvoed: > > So…there are millions of potential users familiar with the basic > > technology (using the Web/Internet, e-mail and chat), and 80% […]

Freedom in the World 2004

It’s still Banned Books Week, and I thought about going to a library and challenging a book, just for the fun of it, but instead I’ll share this report: Freedom in the World 2004, “the definitive report on freedom around the globe.” You know, globe, as in other countries? Some where censorship means you go […]

PODCasting

I’m talking about Dan Gillmor talking about Doc Searls talking about podcasting, or RSS-fed Web radio, which seems so novel except I’ve been doing a primitive version of that, more or less, ever since NPR began making its news programs available almost simultaneously with their broadcasts. Still, glad to see the geeks naming it, making […]

International PEN calls for release of Cuban prisoners

See: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/dev/viewArticles.asp?findID_=191 It’s Banned Books Week, and a good time to think about countries where people are sent to jail for decades for owning and sharing books their countries disapprove of. It’s also a good time to remember that some organizations are willing to take strong stands on these issues–on behalf of people who have […]

Filters Do the Darndest Things

Remember all the snake-oil hucksterism filtering companies dished out to librarians in the early days, before the companies turned their persuasive powers to the courts, where lesser minds prevail? Today a school librarian advised me her school can’t access Take Our Girls and Boys to the Polls: 18 Election Activities for You and Your Under […]

A9: All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Well, I see the flacks have done a good job of promoting A9 to the free world, because it’s all the yackety-yack in the biblioblogosphere, not to mention that hotbed of information theory, the Washington Post. Which is a story for another day: how innocent librarians can become less vulnerable to flacks and spin (even […]

Such a Week

We moved from Richmond to Palo Alto last week. I wanted to comment about Anne Lipow’s death, but was often offline. I posted only the briefest of comments on the blog entry set up by Infopeople. I did not have enough time or mental wherewithal to prepare my thoughts very carefully, and I did not […]

The New, Improved Barbara Boxer?

The Human Rights Campaign just hit me up for money for Barbara Boxer’s reelection. I checked my bookmarks, and reminded myself of Boxer’s words on Friday, February 20, 2004. “Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, running for re-election, said Thursday: ‘The [Mayor Gavin Newsom] has decided to challenge state law. My opinion is that state law […]

Thoughts from the Eye of the Storm

The fall semester for my MFA program kicked into gear, and we’re also juggling a household move (to Palo Alto, for any of you in that neck of the woods). All very fun and exciting, even if life tastes a bit overcomplicated at the moment. I woke up at 3 a.m. last week angry at […]