Library Juice 1:22 - June 10, 1998
Note: Library Juice is taking a vacation. Next issue will come out July 15th. Contents: 1. Readings for Sam Trosow's new Cyberlaw class 2. American Libraries Online news stories for June 8 (ad) 3. Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics 4. Compensation and Working Conditions Online--BLS [.pdf] 5. Info on Current Cites, a monthly internet-based review journal in LIS 6. Animated American Sign Language Dictionary 7. Federal Courts Law Review [frames] 8. Dow Jones Business Directory 9. FYI - Legislation which would govern weeding in NY Libraries 10. United Nations Information Center on the Question of Palestine Database 11. Query and response - Bibliographies on "Queer Theory" 12. "Save PBS" Email petition now has unofficial "urban legend" status 13. Sources of Scholarly web reviews or reviews of scholarly web resources 14. Content Analysis of Academic Departmental Homepages 15. MOO based class on using a MOO for distance ed at "Diversity University" 16. Gary Webb Book Tour 17. Filtering debate on Web4Lib 18. The Library Juice Position on Internet Filtering. Quote of the week: "The vast number of titles that are published each year - all of them are to the good, even if some of them may annoy or even repel us for a time. For none of us would trade freedom of expression and of ideas for the narrowness of the public censor. America is a free market for people who have something to say, and need not fear to say it." -Hubert H. Humphrey, New York Times, March 9, 1967, p. 42 (cited in _Respectfully Quoted_) ______________________________________________________________________________ 1. Readings for Sam Trosow's new Cyberlaw class: <http://www.sir.arizona.edu/sm98/588-1/index.html> ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. American Libraries Online news stories for June 8 (ad) News stories appearing in the June 8 American Libraries Online <http://www.ala.org/alonline/> * South Dakota Tornado Demolishes Library * Congressional Pressure May Halt Universal-Service Program * Contra Costa Voters Reject Library Tax Measure * Loudoun County Supervisors Vote to Fund Lawsuit Defense * Dissenting NOW Chapter Supports Internet Filtering Efforts * Atlanta-Fulton Trustees Appoint Yates Interim Director * Prince William Board Approves Unrestricted Internet Policy * Atherton Explores Outsourcing * Palo Alto Moves Public-Access Computers to Library * Jefferson Davis Library Dedicated in Mississippi * Reagan Library Pulls Quilts from Display * Rare Atlas Pilfered in Paris, Recovered in London American Libraries' Web site also features the latest "Internet Librarian" columns by Karen Schneider; AL's "Career Leads" job ads; listings of conferences, continuing-education courses, exhibitions, and other events from AL's "Datebook"; and Tables of Contents for the current year. ______________________________________________________________________________ 3. Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics, April-May 1998 Scout Report Bimonthly Compilation Scout Report for Social Sciences http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/ Scout Report for Business & Economics http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bus-econ/ Scout Report Bimonthly Compilation--April-May 1998 http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bimonth/ The eighteenth issues of the Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics are available. Each Report annotates over twenty new and newly-discovered Internet resources. The In the News section of the Social Sciences Report annotates eight resources on the new regime in Indonesia. The Business & Economics Report's In the News section annotates eight resources related to economic sanctions and the arms race in India and Pakistan. The Scout Report Bimonthly Compilation for April-May 1998 is also available. Individual compilations, arranged by subject, have been split into separate files for ease of use. Each complete compilation is also available. [JS] [from The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ] ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. Compensation and Working Conditions Online--BLS [.pdf] http://stats.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cwcwelc.htm The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has recently begun to provide this publication, a complement to its print counterpart, via the web. The online version mirrors the articles, briefs, and tables of the print version. Some articles are available in text, and some only in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format. Each issue is accompanied by relevant BLS tables such as the Employment Cost Index, Major Work Stoppages, and the Occupational Compensation Survey. The present issue (Vol. 3, No. 1) contains articles on professional sports team salary caps, fatal work injuries for 1996, and scientists' earnings. [JS] [from The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ] ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. Info on Current Cites, a monthly internet-based review journal in LIS _Current Cites_ Volume 9, no. 5 May 1998 The Library University of California, Berkeley Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne ISSN: 1060-2356 http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1998/cc98.9.5.html Digital Libraries Fox, Edward A. and Gary Marchionini. "Toward a Worldwide Digital Library" Communications of the ACM 41(4) (April 1998). -- As they have done before, (see the April 1995 issue of Current Cites) the Communications of the ACM has devoted an issue to the topic of digital libraries. Anyone involved in digital library development probably has favorite online resources (such as our own Digital Library SunSITE http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/) for diving deep into specific problems, but this provides a wide scope in one neat package. To quote from the introduction, "This special section is a snapshot of the current state of digital library development around the world." The worldwide digital library theme has been carried out by including articles which focus upon technical, informational and social interoperability across national boundaries. The special section is broken up into the following categories: Interoperability, Special Types of Digital Libraries, Multilingual Support, National Efforts, and Supporting Technologies. And there's a related "Legally Speaking" column by Pamela Samuelson titled "Encoding the Law into Digital Libraries." As always with CACM, the work is scholarly, well-documented and foot-noted. -- JR Current Cites 9(5) (May 1998) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright 1998 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. _All rights reserved._ All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product. [URL:http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/] To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to listserv[at]library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same address. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no cost. An archive site is maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites [URL:ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission from the editor, who may be reached at trinne[at]library.berkeley.edu // ______________________________________________________________________________ 6. Animated American Sign Language Dictionary http://www.bconnex.net/~randys/ Created and maintained by Randy Stine, an ASL enthusiast, this site is designed to help users learn about ASL and the Deaf community. The heart of the site is the Dictionary, a collection of basic words that are signed in a brief video sequence, a simple, but very clever idea. The Dictionary also contains the signs for A to Z and 0 to 9. Users will also find a large number of resources for and about the Deaf community. These include related links, articles, services, and non-profit agencies. [MD] ______________________________________________________________________________ 7. Federal Courts Law Review [frames] http://www.fedjudge.org/fclr/98index.htm Federal Courts Law Review is an electronic publication provided by the Federal Magistrate Judges Association and edited by Carol Heckman, United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of New York. It aims at being a "forum for the publication of legal scholarship relating to federal courts and federal legislation," and claims to be one of the few law reviews sponsored by a judicial association. The first issue contains articles entitled "Discovery in Computer Software Patent Litigation," "Instructing the Jury in an Employment Discrimination Case," and "Civil Case Voir Dire and Jury Selection in Federal Court." Two of the authors are magistrate judges. Articles are also available via email. [JS] [from The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ] ______________________________________________________________________________ 8. Dow Jones Business Directory http://bd.dowjones.com/ Dow Jones & Company, publisher of _The Wall Street Journal_, provides this annotated and searchable webliography of business sites to help users find in-depth and accurate Internet business information. Editors rate quality sites covering business news, economics, companies, industries, and financial data according to content, access speed, navigation, and design. These ratings are coupled with descriptions, and most reviewed sites are free. The site also includes links to career information, government data, and discussion groups. [MW] [from The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ] ______________________________________________________________________________ 9. FYI - Legislation which would govern weeding in NY Libraries Below is a bill introduced into the State Assembly of concern to research libraries. It would require submission of collection development policies which include a clear deaccessioning policy. The bill was drafted in reaction to the controversy over the New Yorker article about materials deaccessioned at NYPL. Please take a look at the attached legislation. It would mandate a collections management and deaccessioning policy for all libraries in New York. I would appreciate any comments you have, and any comments from other academic and research librarians (who are really the focus of the initiative). The bill is currently in the Libraries committee, but sponsor would like to move it this session. ========================================================== A11069 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 260-d 2 to read as follows: S 260-D. COLLECTION MANAGEMENT POLICY. 1. THE INTEGRITY OF LIBRARY COLLECTIONS, PARTICULARLY RESEARCH COLLECTIONS ARE OF THE HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE TO THE INTELLECTUAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE OF NEW YORKERS. SUCH COLLECTIONS MUST BE MANAGED IN WAYS THAT PROTECT AND ENHANCE PUBLIC ACCESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY. LIBRARIES ALSO NEED THE ABILITY TO MANAGE THEIR COLLECTIONS IN WAYS THAT ARE CONSISTENT WITH THEIR MISSIONS AND AVOID THE UNNECESSARY LOSS OF MATERIALS IN THESE COLLECTIONS. TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS, ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES SHOULD DEVELOP AND MAKE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC CLEAR AND EFFECTIVE COLLECTIONS MANAGE MENT POLICIES TO SERVE AS THE SOLE BASIS FOR COLLECTION MANAGEMENT AND DEACCESSIONING. 2. EVERY LIBRARY IN THE STATE SHALL DEVELOP AND PUBLISH A COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT POLICY WHICH SHALL ENSURE THE INTEGRITY OF COLLECTIONS BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CLEAR DEACCESSIONING POLICY WHICH WILL FOSTER PUBLIC ACCESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY. SUCH POLICIES SHALL BE THE SOLE BASIS FOR COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT AND DEACCESSIONING. SUCH POLICIES SHALL INCLUDE UNIFORM PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES FOR DEACCESSIONING OR OTHER DISPOSITION OF ANY AND ALL MATERIALS WITHIN THE COLLECTION, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO BRITTLE MATERIALS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, DUPLICATES, OUTDATED MATERIALS AND OTHERS. SUCH POLICIES SHALL BE FILED WITH THE STATE LIBRARY. 23 S 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law. ______________________________________________________________________________ 10. United Nations Information Center on the Question of Palestine Database http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF?OpenDatabase Information About UNISPAL http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/qpal/UNISPAL.htm The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights has made a portion of its 3,000 document database available on an experimental basis. Documents (in a Lotus Domino database), beginning with the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and running mostly from 1946 to the present, are accessible by date, subject, title, publishing entity, and type. Sources include press releases, _Yearbook of the United Nations_ excerpts, DPR studies, and Secretary-General reports, among others. Unfortunately, the search interface does not work at this time, but the many browse access methods, and the amount of accessible material give this site great power. [JS] [from The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ] ______________________________________________________________________________ 11. Query and response - Bibliographies on "Queer Theory" >From the list GAY-LIBN On Wed, 3 Jun 1998, Dion Smythe wrote: > As this is about _books_ I think it qualifies for here and isn't chat! > > I tired this on another discussion list but they were so busy have a > queer momentof fanniage and name-calling that the request sank with > only one response. However: if _you_ were asked for a beginner's > biblio on Queer Theory, what would _you_ recommend? > > I'm not after so much the full monty [ho ho] of the scholarly biblio, > but what people think is useful/accessible/a good read/provoking. > > To preserve bandwidth, please e-mail me directly at > dion.smythe[at]kcl.ac.uk > [Oh God! The British are coming! The British are coming! =:-) ] > and if people are interested I'll remove duplicates and identifying > information to protect the guilty and post it onto the list. > > Dion > > You might try looking at: Nordquist, Joan. Queer theory: a bibliography. Santa Cruz, CA: Reference and Research Services, 1997. (Social theory, no. 48) Here are some monos/collection that may help: Garber, Linda Lesbian identity poetics: judy Grahn, Pat Parker, and rise of queer theory. Foster, Thomas C.... The gay '90s: disciplinary and interdisciplinary formations in queer studies. Jagose, Annamarie. Queer theory: an introduction. Seidman, Steven. Queer theory: an introduction. More gender trouble: feminism meets queer theory. Sinfiled, Alan. Cultural politics, queer reading. Garber, Linda. Tilting the tower: lesbians, teaching, queer subjects. De Lauretis, Teresa. queer theory: lesbian and gay sexualities Al ______________________________________________________________________________ 12. "Save PBS" Email petition now has unofficial "urban legend" status [sent in by a reader] Hey, this might be a good one to mention in Library Juice. There's this cool petition to save NEA, NPR & PBS funding which is circulating like crazy all over the web. The problem is it's an urban legend. It first had the subject line "Save Sesame Street!", but I got it yesterday with the simple subject line "petition". Here are the big problems with it: "First, no one in any position of authority takes email petitions seriously. Electronic signatures are meaningless, no matter how many hundreds of thousands are collected. Second, Sesame Street was never in danger of cancellation, not even if PBS mhad been on its last legs. The petition was sent out under false pretenses. Third, the University of Northern Colorado was not pleased to find its email system deluged with responses to the students' unauthorized mailing. And finally, there was one little technical problem the students hadn't foreseen: how to stop the petition once its purpose had been served. Fast-forward to 1998, three years later. The students have long since been reprimanded for their ill-conceived actions (one has even left the University, allegedly as a result of the fiasco). They and officials of the University have issued repeated pleas for mailings of the petition to halt. And, lo and behold, their misbegotten brainchild remains in wide, constant circulation to this very day, all across the Internet and around the world." Full story on it: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa052798.htm Home page for The Mining Company's Urban Legends area: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/ A great resource! ______________________________________________________________________________ 13. Sources of Scholarly web reviews or reviews of scholarly web resources exchange on Web4Lib <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/> > > Hi all -- > > > > I apologize if this is something previously discussed on the list -- > > > > I'm looking for sources of **scholarly** web reviews or reviews of > > scholarly web resources. I'm putting together a "how-to" workshop on > > collection development and I would like to make sure that I have my bases > > covered -- > > > > so far, some of the sites I have id'd as suitable include: > > > > Argus, Magellan, LJ digital Webwatch, ADAM, Ariadne, College & Research > > Library News,Scout Report. > > > > If anyone else in interested, I'll summarize for the list. > > > > tia -- > > Angela > > Hi. Not sure if these actually meet your criteria, but I would include: > > BUBL: http://bubl.ac.uk/link/ > Infomine: http://lib-www.ucr.edu/ > and maybe: > WWW Virtual Library: http://vlib.stanford.edu/Overview.html > (some reviews, though not many). > > And I for one would be interested in a summary of what you find. Good > luck. > > Larry Campbell email: larrycam[at]unixg.ubc.ca > Information Services telephone: (604) 822-2076 > Koerner Library > University of B.C. > > On Fri, 5 Jun 1998, Angela Elkordy wrote: > I would add two more: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/projects/ Access to Network Resources http://www.calvin.edu/library/as/ AlphaSearch Jian Indiana University Libraries Another source is Academic Info http://www.academicinfo.net Mike Madin. ______________________________________________________________________________ 14. Content Analysis of Academic Departmental Homepages [Sent to the list LIS-L] As a science reference librarian and bibliographer [Yes, I do have a real job, (and a wife, three kids, mortgage, etc. [:->], I seek to maintain an understanding of the information needs of my clientele as well as the research interests of the faculty and staff I serve in the selection of materials that will best support their research interests. Last year, in an effort to gain a better understanding of such interests, I identified and reviewed the Web pages of my liaison departments as well as the official individual homepages of each member of a department, e.g. Aeronautical Engineering. My immersion and digestion of this formal information, has been of greay benefit in identifying and selecting materials for purchase for our library collection [This knowledge has been most useful in decisions realating to the purchase of more expensive engineering monographs and proceedings]. At one point, I considered tabulating the interests of my departmental faculty into a spread- sheet as a formal aid for assisting in the decision process for retrospective purchases as well as future considerations. However, in a recent revisit to my project on the use of Intelligent Software Agents for library applications, it occurred to me that an ideal application of Agent Technology for collection development for libraries would be one in which Agents analyze the contents of departmental homepages and generate a group user profile department based upon a synthesis of the expressed (and possibly implicit or latent) collective research interests. With such a collective user profile, one could now consider using it as a Mega Search Statement that another agent would use to search the Web, local (or remote) licensed index and abstract databases, other OPACs, etc. to identify relevant resources for subsequent consideration for selection and purchase and/or incorporation within the local 'collection'. Of course, we would want the ability to instruct the Content Agent so that we would be able to be selective in a choice of a department an/or to specify the type of electronic database for a subsequent search by the Search Agent. One would of course wish to manage that agents such that one could massage the results of each agent such that results could be organized according to professional judgment. It would be hope that the results could in turn be used to identify the deficiencies of the local 'collection'. For example, to identify those e-journals that best 'suit' the interests of a department, or to identify key Web resources that would serve the interests of a department or a rsearch group within a department. One could also imagine providing an alerting service to which a faculty member could subscribe that would provide them with a Mega Current Awareness Service of newly discovered items. [One could indeed consider using another agent, a Feedback Agent, that in turn could provide a Real Time update to each and every faculty members interests based upon their selection and use of selected resources] In planning for the formal establishment of my clearinghouse devoted to the use of Agents for collection development, reference as well as technical services, called _Library Agents(sm)_ {:->], I would be interested in learning about any efforts envisioned, as well as those related to it. BTW: The address for Library Agents(sm) is: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Agents.htm Currently, this site has a fuller description of the Larger Project, as well as links to key Agent clearinghouses. [I am aware of the various e-mail alerting services offered by publishers (e.g., Elsevier, IOP) and information services (e.,g EBSCO, ISI) and would appreciate learning about any compendium of such Agent-based services as basic background for Library Agents(sm).] As Always, Any and All citations, sources, contributions, critiques, questions, concerns, comments, or queries are Most Welcome! Joy! Gerry McKiernan Curator, CyberStacks(sm) Iowa State University Ames IA 50011 gerrymck[at]iastate.edu http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/ "The Best Way to Predict the Future is To Invent It" Attributed to Peter Drucker ______________________________________________________________________________ 15. MOO based class on using a MOO for distance ed at "Diversity University" [sent to Web4Lib: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/ ] Using Diversity University Moo for Distance Education: Bibliographic Instruction and other Topics? This will be a series of three 2 hour classes in Diversity University MOO, learning how to use the MOO environment to enhance teaching of Distance Education Students. In the course of this class, you will become familiar with many basic moo commands, become a builder on DU MOO, create an office there as well as at least one basic teaching tool. Upon successful completion of the course, you will be given the ability to create your own group of students and have them come into DU. Dates and time for online attendance: Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, EDT - August 18, 25, and September 1, 1998 Format: MOO based course. Students will be given characters on DU MOO and will attend sessions there. In MOO homework time will be necessary to complete projects for the course. Assistance will be available between class sessions. Syllabus of course is available at: http://www.kovacs.com/DU/mooclass.html Registration Information Deadline August 15, 1998 Registration http://www.kovacs.com/DU/mooclassreg.html or Contact Diane K. Kovacs diane[at]kovacs.com 330-273-5032 Tuition: $55 Payable by Check or Purchase Order Instructors: Diane K. Kovacs diane[at]kovacs.com and Isabel Danforth danforth[at]tiac.net About the Instructors Diane K. Kovacs is President of Kovacs Consulting - Internet & World Wide Web Training & Consulting and is the editor-in-chief of the Directory of Scholarly and Professional Electronic Conferences. She has more than 6 years of experience as an Internet Trainer and Consultant. Diane's first book The Internet Trainer's Guide, was published by Van Nostrand Reinhold in 1995. The 2nd Edition: Internet Trainer's Total Solution Guide was published by VNR in 1997. She has also co-authored with her husband Michael Kovacs, Cybrarians Guide to Successful Internet Programs and Services which was published by Neal-Schuman in 1997. She is co-authoring with Ann Carlson a forthcoming book Health and Medicine on the Internet from Library Solutions Press She was the recipient of the Apple Corporation Library's, Internet Citizen Award for 1992 and was the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association's first recipient of the Young Leadership Award in 1996. Diane received an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois in 1989 and an M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from Kent State University in 1993. Isabel L. Danforth is currently a reference librarian in the Wethersfield, Ct. Public Library, and is active in issues dealing with technology in the library. She has also worked in the fields of business data processing and education. Besides her MLS degree from Southern Connecticut State University, she holds an MS in Geology from the U. of Michigan, and a BS in mathematics and geology from Tufts University. She is active in bringing the Internet into her public library, and serves on the committees to design and implement web pages for both the Town of Wethersfield, and the Wethersfield Public Library. Isabel walks through the MOO world as Ringer, serving as an administrator on several MOOs. She is co-founder and director of Librarians' On-line Support Team, an organization which reaches out to librarians around the world, providing moo-based workshops and mentoring to librarians who have been thrust onto the Internet. Isabel has been active in the online library world since 1993. She has been cited for her work with L.O.S.T. several times in Karen Schneider's Internet Librarian column in American Libraries. She has taught online in DU since 1997. Additional Summer 1998 workshops: For Credit: BA3636 Business Resources on the Internet Tuesday July 7 and Thursday July 9 1:00p.m.-4:00p.m. EDT. http://www.kovacs.com/akronu/onlineclassreg.html BA3635 Health and Medicine on the Internet Tuesday August 4 & Thursday August 6 1:00 - 4:00 pm, EDT http://www.kovacs.com/akronu/onlineclassreg.html Fall 1998 Workshops: For Credit: BA3636 Business Resources on the Internet Tuesday Sept. 22, 29 & Oct. 6, 1998 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. EDT http://www.kovacs.com/akronu/onlineclassreg.html BA3635 Health and Medicine on the Internet Thursday October 15, 22, 29, 1998 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. EDT. http://www.kovacs.com/akronu/onlineclassreg.html Editor-Directory of Scholarly and Professional E-Conferences http://www.n2h2.com/KOVACS or http://www.arl.org ________________________________________________________________________ Diane K. Kovacs | http://www.kovacs.com Kovacs Consulting - | fax: (330)225-0083 Internet & World Wide Web Training | phone: (330)273-5032 ________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ 16. Gary Webb Book Tour Former San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb has expanded upon his "Dark Alliance" series in a new book entitled "Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion," published by Seven Stories Press. Media activists might remember the "Melt the Media Snow Job" campaign that FAIR organized at three major print outlets-- The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post-- to draw media attention to Webb's findings, and to the media's apparent unwillingness to seriously investigate Webb's charges (to read Norman Solomon's analysis of the coverage of the Webb series, "Snow Job: The Establishment Papers Do Damage Control for the CIA," go to http://www.fair.org/extra/9701/contra-crack.html). In the intervening months, the links between the CIA and the drug trade still remain largely unexplored by the national press, even in the face of recent CIA documents that support some of Webb's findings. To read FAIR's coverage of the Contra-Crack controversy of the past ten years, go to http://www.fair.org/issues-news/contra-crack.html. Webb will be appearing in several cities in June to promote his new work. You can go see Gary at one of the following locations: -New York City June 10 6:00 pm Revolution Books More Info: 212. 691. 3345 June 11, 6:30 pm: "CIA, Drugs & the Media" with Louis Wolf, Michael Levine, Bob Law & Utrice Leid. Sponsored by WBAI 99.5 FM. More info: 212. 226. 8760 -Amherst, MA June 12 Food For Thought Bookstore More Info: 413. 253. 5432 -San Francisco* June 13 7:30 pm, King Middle School, 1781 Rose Street, Berkeley More info: 510. 848. 6767 ext 609 -Philadelphia June 15 Talk and booksigning at Robin's Bookstore 215. 735. 9600 -Washington, D.C. June 16 Talk and book-signing with Congresswoman Maxine Waters at Vertigo Books, 6:00 pm More Info: 202. 429. 9272 -Chicago June 17 Panel & booksigning sponsored by Chicago Media Watch -Seattle June 18 Talk and booksigning at the University Bookstore More Info: 206. 545. 9477 ext 202 -Petaluna, CA Talk & Signing First Annual Progressive Festival More Info: 707. 763. 8134 "Gary Webb brought back before the American public one of the darkest secrets of the 1980s-the cocaine smuggling by the Nicaraguan Contra forces-and paid for this service with his job." ----Robert Parry, winner of the George Polk Award for National Reporting For more information on Webb's new book, go to http://www.sevenstories.com/dark.htm Peter Hart FAIR (212) 633-6700 ext. 304 http://www.fair.org ++++++++++++++++++++++ ______________________________________________________________________________ 17. Filtering debate on Web4Lib [ http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/ ] On Mon, 1 Jun 1998, Bob Cherry wrote: > First, the child wanted this material. It didn't just "Pop up" > on the screen. The child had to spend time searching it out, > finding the URL, selecting it and requesting a download. It > was not an accident! Again, I have to disagree. Another thing with sex on the Web ... I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but there are more and more non sexual sites on the Web that, while not sexually explicit in and of themselves, are sponsored by and contain ads for pornographic sites. And, furthermore, these ads are usually moving GIF files that are VERY sexually explicit. More and more, some of the kids and teens around here are searching for materials on their favorite rap stars or supermodels and pulling up, inadvertantly, some very sexually explicit material. And, even beyond this, what about the sexually explicit sites who put some very common and seemingly innocuous terms in their META tags? I've been on the 'Net for years and there have still been times that I've inadvertantly pulled up some pornographic crap simply because of the META tags and the way a page was indexed because of the tags that were used. Wasn't there just someone on this very mailing list who searched for the words to a nursury rhyme and wound up at a pornographic site in Germany? > Secondly, the same child could enter many > public libraries and pull down books off the shelves which > contain foul language for a child as well as material mean for > adult patrons. Yes, but the books don't have live action video shots of men having sex with children or women having sex with animals, do they? <SARCASM> At least the ones on my library's shelves don't. But, then again, I am from a fairly *conservative* part of the country. Maybe other public libraries do things differently. </SARCASM> > Geeze. Sum peeples chillens! If only it *were* the children ... <SIGH> Erin --------------------------------------------------------------- Erin M. Noll Kenton County Public Library Assistant Systems Librarian 5th and Scott Streets enoll[at]kenton.lib.ky.us Covington, KY 41011 http://www.kenton.lib.ky.us/ v. (606)491-7610 f.(606)655-7960 --------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________________ 18. The Library Juice Position on Internet Filtering. One of the pitfalls of running an internet-based forwarding service is that the content of the material that makes it into an issue can be skewed according to what is flowing through cyberspace most copiously at any given moment. Chuck Munson's messages on the issue of internet filtering tend to be thought provoking and entertaining. However, I have included them in Library Juice so often that I probably appear to endorse the same positions on internet filtering that he expresses in his email and on his web page, [at http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/1672/ ]. In fact, I don't. Although I think the effects of exposure of children to pornography are really not known, it's a legitimate fear, and libraries will pay dearly if they do not accomodate families on this issue. Legally, it is not clear that children have the same rights as adults. I think it is probably untenable to argue that they do. It's also not seriously likely that children (pre-teens) need to have access to the internet in the same way that adults do. The basic interest parents have is in their children becoming computer literate, and that seems to many to mean knowing how to use the internet. I think that there is an alternative to providing filtered internet access to children, and that is to create "web" content for kids that "lives" on a CD Rom, either in the computer or on a LAN. They can safely surf this CD Rom using Netscape or any other browser, potentially even one with a customized "Kidz" interface, without being connected to the actual internet. The content of the CD Rom could be put together by children's librarians and web programmers. In the adult's area, internet terminals must remain unfiltered, to enable access to the sometimes valuable and important sites that filtering software accidentally, and sometimes deliberately, blocks out. (Some might argue that erotic and websites are a legitimate interest as well. I won't get into that issue here.) The library can apply its existing policy on children's use of the general collection to the internet terminals as well. Some children are encouraged by their parents to use the general collection. In the relatively serious environment of the adult's area, there is no reason to make the internet "off limits" in the adult's area as long as the library's policy allows unsupervised children (pre-teens) there to begin with. There isn't a much better environment for children to learn in than the communally intellectual space of a main reading room. The same is equally true of adolescents, whom we should be thankful to see in a library. I don't think teenagers will be harmed by accidentally bringing up pornography on a public web terminal. If pornography is in fact harmful to teenagers, a glimpse of it in a public place shouldn't worry parents. There are plenty of other things to worry about. More to the point in this controversy might actually be the public's attitude towards public space in these times. More and more, the general public has grown fearful of "what's out there" in society at large. A library ought to be thought of as a safe place. It might be that parents aren't as afraid of the pornography on the internet as they are of how it will be handled by the adults in the library (especially the librarians) if it does come up in front of their children, whether deliberately or inadvertently. I think that if parents can be made to trust the public space of their public library as a safe place, they will be less interested in trying to protect their children from what they might find there. Yet it is difficult to do this when librarians are increasingly unable or unwilling to take responsibility for the safety of unaccompanied children in a library. The REAL issues are deeper than the filtering controversy, and come down to the fact that our nation's children aren't being taken care of very well, either by their families or their "village" or community of responsible adults. Perhaps with respect to the internet it is important to advocate supervision, either by parents or librarians, of children in their neighborhood or school libraries. ______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ | | | # # ##### ##### ## ##### # # | | # # # # # # # # # # # # | | # # ##### # # # # # # # | | # # # # ##### ###### ##### # | | # # # # # # # # # # # | | ###### # ##### # # # # # # # | | | | | | # # # # #### ###### | | # # # # # # # | | # # # # # ##### | | # # # # # # | | # # # # # # # # | | #### #### # #### ###### | | | | | | http://www.libr.org/juice/ | | | | Items appearing in Library Juice are copyright-free, | | so feel free to share them with colleagues and friends. | | Library Juice is a free weekly publication edited by | | Rory Litwin. Original senders are credited wherever | | possible; opinions are theirs. Your comments and | | suggestions are welcome. mailto:Juice[at]libr.org | |__________________________________________________________|
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Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 12:08 PM