Library Juice 1:31 - September 2, 1998
Contents: 1. "Librarian's Yellow Pages" on web 2. CapitolWatch email service tells how individual legislators vote each day 3. GuideStar--Donors' Guide to Charities and Nonprofits 4. Resources for the Future (RFF) 5. The Dialy Bleed, a radical book of days 6. The Household Cyclopedia of General Information 7. Holdings of ALA Archives now web accessible 8. News about the list Librarians[at]tao.ca 9. No, please, not more about Gary Webb 10. Bombing protest letter now on web, with list of signatories 11. TOC of new book: _Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity_ by Earl Lee 12. SLA Affirmative Action Scholarship 13. Two items on the problem at the British Library 14. Free Speech Internet Television Newsletter 15. AKRIBIE - Who we are - what we want - what we do Quote of the week: "I have never met a public librarian who approved of censorship or one who failed to practice it in some measure." Leon Carnovsky, "The obligations and responsibilities of the librarian regarding censorship," Library Quarterly 20, January 1950 _______________________________________________________________________________ 1. Librarian Yellow Pages on web (To SJSU SLIS's listserv) I have just been informed from another listserv that The Librarian Yellow Pages is now online. It can be found at http://www.LibrariansYellowPages.com. Dawn Loomis _______________________________________________________________________________ 2. CapitolWatch email service tells how individual legislators vote each day From: Dave Paquin <davep[at]netivation.com> To: GOVPUB[at]LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU Here's a great new, free, information service. Go to http://www.capitolwatch.com and sign up for a free, daily email, customized to tell you how your individual senator and congressmen voted that day. _______________________________________________________________________________ 3. GuideStar--Donors' Guide to Charities and Nonprofits http://www.guidestar.org/ Donors and philanthropists can now more easily compare and monitor organizations to which they may contribute, while nonprofit organizations can perhaps spend less of their resources on fundraising. These are the goals of Philanthropic Research, Inc's GuideStar, a clearinghouse of information on more than 600,000 charities and nonprofit organizations. GuideStar hosts a searchable database, a newsletter, employment and volunteer opportunity listings, and valuable articles in addition to lists of links for both donors and nonprofit organizations. Database information includes brief descriptions of the charities/nonprofits and their programs, funding sources, geographic location(s), and income/asset statements. GuideStar derives its information from 990 tax submissions to the IRS as well as directly from the nonprofit organizations themselves. [JR] >From the Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1998. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ _______________________________________________________________________________ 4. Resources for the Future (RFF) http://www.rff.org/ Based in Washington DC, Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to the economic aspects of environmental issues. RFF scholars examine topics such as government regulation, risk, biodiversity, climate, Superfund policy, technology, and outer space in a variety of freely available discussion papers, articles, project summaries, and reports [.pdf]. An archive of the RFF quarterly publication _Resource_ dating back to 1995 [.pdf] is also available in addition to an on-site glossary and list of up-coming seminars. [MW] >From the Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1998. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ _______________________________________________________________________________ 5. The Dialy Bleed, a radical book of days >From The Daily Bleed page, hosted by Recollection Used Books: "Our Daily Bleed... recall on this date..... Simply click a date for significant events which occurred...public secrets made public! The Daily Bleed began as email; in November 1997 we began archiving in a database. In January we began issuing the web version... thus you can now here access dates between 12/11 & the present... All other dates are void of entries. Contact us if you'd like to receive the daily emailings. Be advised, these daily pages are graphic intensive." http://www.eskimo.com/~recall/bleed/calmast.htm The best way to get this, in my opinion, is to subscribe and get a large email each day, with numerous important events that have happened on that day in history. You can subscribe from their webpage. (ed.) Link courtesey of Jessamyn West's page. _______________________________________________________________________________ 6. The Household Cyclopedia of General Information http://members.xoom.com/mspong/ This 1881 reference book was designed to help nineteenth-century households stay healthy and productive. Need to know how to winter your bees? Build a barometer? Bleed a patient with leeches? Your answers are here. The site, a part-time project of freelance webmaster Matthew Spong, evokes a time when many households were largely self-sufficient, and the value of a book explaining how to amputate a limb, for example, could be immeasurable. Spong discovered Henry Hartshorne's wonderful compendium in a market in Sydney and has almost completed scanning the text and converting it to HTML. We look forward to the final chapter, Miscellaneous, containing everything from Proof-reading to Dialysis. [TK] >From the Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1998. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ _______________________________________________________________________________ 7. Holdings of ALA Archives now web accessible Sender: H-NET Discussion List on the History of Library and Information Science <H-LIS[at]H-NET.MSU.EDU> From: "Elizabeth R. Cardman" <ecardman[at]ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Subject: New in the ALA Archives To: H-LIS[at]H-NET.MSU.EDU The University of Illinois Archives, which is under contract to maintain the archives of the American Library Association, is pleased to announce that the general descriptive holdings for the ALA Archives are now Web-accessible. They are available at: www.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/ala The ALA Archives' home page provides a complete listing of all holdings. A simple search mechanism permits key word searching of all scope and content notes for the archives. Finding aids [box and folder listings] are not yet available through the Web, but will be available on request. Also available electronically will be releases of "New in the ALA Archives." The most recent acquisition featured is the Columbia University School of Library Service Library Vertical Files, 1832-1994 (record series 85/7/6). The files comprise over 118 cubic feet of library documents from the U.S. and around the world. They include photographs, staff manuals, publications, booklists, floor plans, annual reports, postcards, correspondence, exhibition catalogs, commemorative brochures, signs, forms, and catalog and library cards from public, school, academic, and special libraries. There is also a substantial collection of library equipment and vendors' catalogs dating from the turn of the century; subject files on library-related topics; a series of documents from library, publishing and information science organizations in the U.S. and abroad; and documents from ALA annual and midwinter meetings and divisions of ALA. A 120-page finding aid is available. There is a digital exhibit highlighting materials from the Columbia School of Library Service Library Vertical Files, which can be seen via the 'What's New' entry on the ALA Archives home page. Additional information can be obtained from: American Library Association Archives University of Illinois Archives Room 19, Main Library 1408 W. Gregory Drive Urbana IL 61801 (217) 333-0798 illiarch[at]uiuc.edu Elizabeth R. Cardman Phone: (217) 333-0798 University of Illinois Archives Fax: (217) 333-2868 ecardman[at]uiuc.edu _______________________________________________________________________________ 8. News about the list Librarians[at]tao.ca Here is some news about the list Librarians[at]tao.ca, a list for anarchist librarians, their sympathizers, and the curious, from Chuck0, the list administrator: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hey folks. As of this morning, this list has 97 subscribers, which is darn close to that arbitrary number 100. This is pretty good for a list like this which is just over a year old. I'm please to also report that our companion web page (http://burn.ucsd.edu/~mai/librarians.html) is one of the top web pages at the Burn! site, averaging around 400 hits a month. Woo hoo! Your list maintainer, Chuck0 http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/1672/ _______________________________________________________________________________ 9. No, please, not more about Gary Webb An interview with Gary Webb: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/06.19.97/webb-9725.html The Merc's Dark Alliance site: http://www.sjmercury.com/drugs/ (links courtesey of Dinah Sanders, http://www.MetaGrrrl.com/ ) _______________________________________________________________________________ 10. Librarians protesting recent bombing now on web, with list of signatories Mark Rosenzwieg's letter protesting the bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan is now on the web, with all signatories up to the date September 2. If you would like to add your name at this point, please send it to me, along with your professional affiliation, and I will add it to the list. (mailto:rlitwin[at]earthlink.net) The URL for the letter is: http://www.libr.org/PLG/protest.html _______________________________________________________________________________ 11. TOC of New Book: _Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity_ by Earl Lee http://www.mcfarlandpub.com "I only wish I had your paper before me when I wrote Silicon Snake Oil" --Clifford Stoll. "Ultimately," says Earl Lee, "libraries are involved in the quest for truth, but conceptualize it in a way very different from most. Library professionals pursue a philosophy of inclusion, trying to have as many versions of Truth as possible, in the hopes that somewhere in the mass of material, something meaningful may be found by some discerning reader. But in recent years the mass of data has grown to bury truth, and defeat the discerning. Librarians have lost sight of what is important." The uncontrollable mass of data, the transformation of the library to an information center, the demise of the card catalog, the meretriciousness of publishers' offerings, the dumbing down of textbooks--these are all the subjects of thought-provoking and unsweetened opinions, welcome reminders of the rich tradition of intellectual freedom in the profession. Contents: 1. A Visit to Oz; or, "Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!": Case Studies in the Political Economy of Library Automation. 2. Libraries, Libertarianism and the State. 3. Censorship and Community Standards. 4. Library Automation in the Age of Mediocrity. 5. The Postmodern Library; or Freud in the Garden of Good and Evil. 6. Target ALA -- The Culture War Moves to the Library. 7. Freethought Materials in Libraries. 8. Women's Studies in the University. 9. Intellectual Freedom vs. Intellectual Property. 10. Outsourcing the Public Library; The "Chains" of Librarianship. 11. The Ongoing Corruption of the Arts. 12. Conclusion: Censorship into the Millennium. ISBN: 0-7864-0548-1 [144]pp., 1998, sewn softcover, notes, bibliography, index, $25 _______________________________________________________________________________ 12. SLA Affirmative Action Scholarship The Special Libraries Association is offering an Affirmative Action Scholarship for $6,000 to a minority group member who exhibits an aptitude for interest in special library work. This scholarship will be granted only for graduate study in librarianship leading to a master's degree at a recognized school of library or information science. The application deadline is October 31, 1998. To apply, call (202)234-4700, fax them at (202) 265-9317, email them at sla[at]sla.org, visit their website at http://www.sla.org or write them at: Special Libraries Association Scholarship Committee 1700 Eighteenth Street, N.W. Washington DC, 20009 This scholarship information was supplied by the Scholarship Resource Network. For more information regarding the Scholarship Resource Network check: http://www.srnexpress.com _______________________________________________________________________________ 13. Two items on the problem at the British Library -Both from Red Rock Eater Ners Service (RRE)- Forwarded by Melissa Riley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html or send a message to requests[at]lists.gseis.ucla.edu with Subject: info rre =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 11:05:01 +1000 From: Michael Lean <m.lean[at]qut.edu.au> To: rre-maintainers[at]lists.gseis.ucla.edu Subject: The rising cost of research From: jsassoon[at]cyllene.uwa.edu.au (Joanna Sassoon) A former student, now on staff at the NewDNB, has forwarded to me a message which reports the proposal of the British Library's Board of Management that a fee of 300 pounds per annum be imposed on researchers using the BL. Clearly, such a fee would effectively put a stop to use of the BL by researchers from abroad, to say nothing of the hardship it would impose on UK students and researchers outside London. It is evident that the proposal arises from the current entrepreneurial assumption that the commodification of intellectual resources will resolve their problems of funding -- an assumption which would not in any case work if applied to the funding problems of the British Library. A strong protest has been mounted by researchers, who have recently met with the Director, Dr. Brian Lang, and have been conducting regular pickets to demonstrate their concern. Both the Director and the Heritage Secretary (who will make the final decision) have indicated their doubts about such an imposition, but input from the scholarly community is urgently required. Information about the British Library Strategic Review Consultation can be found at: http://www.bl.uk and the researchers' position can be accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8435/Library.html The deadline for responses is August 28; letters should be addressed to the Director and to the Heritage Secretary as follows: Dr. Brian Lang, Director, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB; fax: 0171-412-7251. Chris Smith, MP, Heritage Secretary, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 2PW. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here's a little more on the British Library (BL) that I didn't have to hand when I sent out yesterday's note. The BL, though a public institution, has been in the forefront of efforts to privatize its resources. While most major libraries have opened their catalogues to Web access, I would guess that more of the BL's catalogues than those of any other are subject to fees. In general, its attitude recalls an old conservative Prime Minister's patrician charge that the government would sell the family silver if it could make a buck. (He, of course, was talking of the Thatcher government.) The online fees seem unnegotiable. Charging for access to the library , however, is not a done deal. It is is a central proposal in the current "Consultative Exercise" (http://www.bl.uk/index/index_main.html) that will be ruled on tomorrow (8/28). For the BL to charge for access on or off line would set an unfortunate precedent for other national collections and public information resources. Robin Alston, a former member of the BL staff who has more on this isse on his home page, tells me that "International pressure is vital". (http://www.r-alston.dircon.co.uk/) The Keep the British Library Free site at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8435/Library.html has more for those who want more. It requests email to Britain's "Heritage Secretary", Chris Smith: chris.smith[at]culture.gov.uk and strategic.review[at]bl.uk Paul _______________________________________________________________________________ 14. Free Speech Internet Television newsletter Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 23:55:58 -0700 To: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom List <alaoif[at]ala1.ala.org> From: John Gear <catalyst[at]pacifier.com> Subject: Freespeech Internet TV Newsletter Below is information about a superb resource for access to alternative press information and sources for news and opinion censored from the corporate medialith. Forward to anyone you know you is interested in knowing where to find a range of views beyond those permitted by the commissars of the airwaves. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = This is the Free Speech Internet Television newsletter. You are receiving it because you joined the Free Speech Internet Television community at http://www.freespeech.org. I'm your host, content maven, and community coordinator, Joey Manley. Welcome. If your motivation in joining was to get the 25 megs of free space on our http and RealServers, please send me an email (joey[at]freespeech.org) with your preferred directory name (in other words, the part of your URL that comes after www.freespeech.org, as in http://www.freespeech.org/whatever). Otherwise, I'll just guess, which may be disastrous! ITEM: The Non-Corporate Newswire I'm sure you've noticed: when you go to Yahoo, in addition to their famous directory of websites, you also get a little box containing AP and NYT headlines. Likewise, HotMail's homepage isn't just devoted to checking your web-based email--they've got MSNBC headlines there. It's called "synergy," and corporate media types have turned it into an artform. The idea is that one organization uses the resources of another, in exchange for helping the other build traffic and um "brand identity." Both sites and (allegedly) the audience win. (I say "allegedly" because in the cases I've listed above, there's still that nagging question of corporate control of information, on both sides of the "synergy" fence). We at Free Speech Internet Television are pleased to announce a content partnership with the Non-Corporate Newswire, an all-volunteer effort dedicated to ferreting out the most important and timely information of immediate use to activists and concerned world citizens. Headlines from NCN will be updated daily, and appear in a box on the right-hand side of our homepage. The headlines, of course, link over to the full story on the NCN page. We're not nearly as interested in traffic and um brand identity as Yahoo or MSNBC, but we are interested in helping our members find the information they want and need about issues that matter. While the focus of our site remains with democratic, progressive "Internet Television," the Non-Corporate Newswire is text-based, and should display perfectly well in any browser, over any connection (just as the purpose of Yahoo remains firm while at the same time it displays news from AP). Let your friends know about this resource! Today, headlines include "The CIA and CNN team up," "The 'Good War'?" "Human Rights Workers Expelled from Mexico," and "The Leahy Resolution Needs Your Support." Upcoming features this week include a two part special investigation about the history of legal privilege granted to corporations, and what you can do to put a brake on these "cabal-talistic" behemoth's overwhelming influence in our society. Check the Free Speech Internet Television homepage every day for the latest Non-Corporate Newswire headlines at http://www.freespeech.org/ And if you'd like to volunteer for the project, or if you have press releases you'd like to submit for consideration, contact citizen[at]speakeasy.org. Eventually, the goal is to build a 24-hour "Internet Television" and/or "Internet Radio" progressive newsfeed to complement the text, which will be available to any webmanager who wants to use it for non-commercial purposes. Note that that's very eventually, and no specific plans have yet been drawn up. You can be in on the process from the beginning! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ITEM: Is President Clinton a Terrorist? You Decide RealVideo: http://www.freespeech.org/ramfiles/feb20.ram ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ITEM: Chomsky on Propaganda Noam Chomsky is a professor at MIT and a dissident who has written several books on United States policy towards the Middle East. The New York Times considers him to be "arguably the most important intellectual alive". The citation indexes in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences lists Chomsky as the most cited living author and ranks in the top ten ever, just behind Shakespeare, Plato and Freud. Yet he is rarely interviewed by mainstream U.S. media. Here's why: RealAudio: http://www.freespeech.org/ramfiles/chomskyprop.ram For more RealAudio and RealVideo interviews with Chomsky on the Free Speech System: http://www.freespeech.org/scripts/search/main.idc?keyword=chomsky For a vast wealth of Chomsky material, including the text of entire books, see the Chomsky Archive: http://www.worldmedia.com/archive/ And for the website of David Barsamian, the producer of this most recent Chomsky interview: http://www.freespeech.org/alternativeradio/ And, finally, to get involved in countering corporate propaganda masquerating as "news," join FAIR: http://www.fair.org/ (be sure to tell them I sent you) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ITEM: Radio Bridges Overseas, Appropriate Technology for Africa's Poor Radio Bridges Overseas is a Harare-based provider of high-quality, provocative audio content in English. This complete program investigates the uneasy relationship between Africa's poor and those who would bring "new" technology to the continent, whether it's the early twentieth century and typewriters are arriving by the truckload, or it's the digital age and fiber is being laid. Thinking "big" or thinking "small"... What does appropriate technology mean? RealAudio: http://www.freespeech.org/appropriate.ram For the homepage of Radio Bridges Overseas: http://www.freespeech.org/rbo/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ITEM: Goatboy and the Music Machines This multifaceted documentary is both an examination of Radical Faerie culture--proof that gay male life in North America doesn't have to center on bars and gyms, but can, in fact, be a spiritual, political, progressive, and, yes, rural, experience--and a portrait of a unique individual, Goatboy, collector of ancient musical devices. RealPlayer 5.0 or better: http://www.freespeech.org/ramfiles/goatboy.ram RealAudio 2.0 or better: http://www.freespeech.org/ramfiles/goatboyaudio.ram To visit the website of Randy A. Riddle, the producer of this program: http://www.coolcatdaddy.com/ For a text essay about Goatboy and the Radical Faerie commune: http://www.nerdherd.net/gt-essay-radsatyr.htm For a Radical Faeries homepage by a.f.k.a. Persimmon: http://www.eskimo.com/~davidk/faeries/faeries.html ITEM: McCain Bill in Depth Joe Biles of Views from the Front takes a look at the McCain School Library Internet Filtering Bill. RealAudio: http://www.freespeech.org/biles/vff.ram To visit the Views from the Front Homepage: http://www.freespeech.org/biles/ ITEM: Africa, Terrorism, and International Debt Mike Thornton interviews Professor Dennis Brutus on his show Full Logic Reverse: RealAudio: http://www.freespeech.org:8080/ramgen/news/BrutusPartOne.rm To visit the Full Logic Reverse homepage: http://www.freespeech.org/news/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any friends who may be interested. If you wish to be removed from this mailing, send email to members[at]freespeech.org with the word "remove" in the subject line, followed by your email address. (sent by) John Gear The BILL OF RIGHTS The Original Contract with America Beware of Imitations; Accept No Substitutes; Insist on the Genuine Articles (send e-mail to catalyst[at]pacifier.com for info on t-shirts w/ this imprint) _______________________________________________________________________________ 15. AKRIBIE - Who we are - what we want - what we do AKRIBIE Arbeitskreis Kritischer BibliothekarInnen (Working Group of Critical Librarians) Akribie = our abbreviation of Working Group of Critical Librarians, is on the other hand a word in the German language which means the highest quality of exactness or accuracy in doing something. So we want to show with irony that we are doing nothing else but what the average honest and diligent librarian is doing every day: working with Akribie. Our small group has been meeting since 1988, our members work in scientific, public or all kind of special libraries in Germany. Akribie is not a registered organisation but rather a forum for candid discussion and joint action, with the goal of finding new - critical - forms and possibilities for library work. For this purpose the working group is open to everyone. We think that libraries and their employees should reflect social change, and make this the basis of their work. We favor democratic internal structures, freedom of group action, and the greatest possible strengthening of individual responsibility. We support the participation of library users in all aspects of substantive decision-making in library work. There are two or three meetings annually for the discussion of general questions and the exchange of library news. These meetings serve the purpose of continuing education, with occasional visits or lectures by invited speakers. The venue, subject and shape of the meetings are determined by the participants. Akribie took part in librarian's meetings and congresses every year offering information booths as well as forums and presentations on a wide range of topics such as: - Books and libraries in ghettos and camps (1990) - The honour of professionalism or voluntary labour in libraries (1995) - Internet and the future of libraries (1996) - Demolishing - the last act? The demolition of the City and State Library by the city authorities in Dortmund (1997) - Libraries without state? What is happening at the main national libraries in Germany? Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The German Library) at Frankfurt and the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) at Berlin from the perspective of users? What are supporter groups and friends of the libraries doing for our public libraries? (1998) Contact with similar groups, whether in allied professions or in foreign countries, broadens our knowledge of otherwise little-known problems and practices. Thus Akribie has contacts with library and information workers in Germany (AKRIBIE, Bielefeld), with colleagues in Austria (KRIBIBI), England (Information for Social Change), Sweden (Bibliotek i Samhälle = Library in Society) and USA (Progressive Librarians), with the Alternative Library in Hellersdorf/Berlin East and with the Bookmobile for Nicaragua project. For purposes of communication between meetings and for the information of quite a number of colleagues who are interested in the topics of Akribie but cannot come to our meetings, there are a newsletter and occasional reports in the magazine LAURENTIUS (Hannover). Each individual member of Akribie is free to decide how much to contribute towards activities and costs. Akribie is a circle of critical librarians and library employees which has its roots in the protest movement of 1968. In the last years or decades several of us have been engaged in union work or participated in different alternative mouvements like Anti Atomic or Disarmament or Environmental or History workshop mouvement. - 2 - The library profession in Germany has a very strong tradition which comes from prussian bureaucracy. Like David against Goliath, Akribie aims to fight against this tradition and its implications because it has prevented democratic development both inside and outside German libraries. So for most of the library employees it is still more important to follow the administrative rules than to engage for the service of the users and for the public role of the library. Although many libraries have staff representatives to ensure the rights of their workers, there is nevertheless a feeling of subordination and even anxiety among our colleagues. We have to challenge this authoritarian tradition and to overcome the hierachic structures even in the organization of library employees: there is one organization for each type of employees: academic librarians, librarians with a diploma for scientific and for public libraries, for library assistants. After years of discussions about one library federation only the union of public librarians decided to merge with the library assistants. Akribie has been discussing with colleagues from East German libraries the shrinking of the East German library system. Almost all company libraries have been dismissed, also a great number of public libraries in villages and provincial towns. Many employees have been discharged or were obliged to retire early, at the Humboldt University in Berlin most of the staff of the Institute of Library Science has been replaced by West German professors. AKRIBIE and the journal LAURENTIUS became a forum for east german colleagues to discuss and publish their point of view in this process. Another point of our concern was the consequences of the reunification of East and West Germany in the library and book sector. After reunification in 1990 the greatest part of their recent book production was simply eliminated in Eastern Germany. That was not the result of a political command but was more or less executed as an act of adapting to the rules of free-market economy: empty the depots and make room for western literature. All books published in the GDR were deemed worthless. There was no official attempt to stop this vandalism, but there were several personal initiatives. A west german clergyman, Father Martin Weskott, started to rescue more than half a million GDR books. These books were stored in a huge barn beside the church in the village of Katlenburg, not far from Göttingen. Every Sunday people from all around the world would come to buy some of these rare documents and sometimes listen to the authors of these discarded books. The money from the bookselling was used to fund projects in developing countries. Akribie offered a tour from the Bibliothekartag in Göttingen 1995 to Katlenburg and held one of its meetings in 1996 in this remarkable village. Akribie believes that library work should not be restricted to library management and library technology but that it is rather a kind of civil activity. Our concern: the main reasons which lead the libraries and their boards to the introduction of modern technology are primarily goals of rationalization. Libraries as places of communication will disappear behind functions like delivering materials which users in the future will be able to do from their working place at home. What culture concept have libraries and what they expect from the new technologies: which technology for which libraries? We think it is necessary to study library history as well as library developments in other countries in order to learn from relevant experiences in former times and under different conditions. - 3 - Especially in Germany there is additional reason to examine the history of libraries: because it is so closely connected to the history of Germany in this century and to the difficulties of Germans in facing this history. So several meetings and publications of Akribie members have been concerned with the history of libraries and librarians under Nazi regime and some consequences of this history up to the present day (f.i.: Von faschistischer Tradition in deutschen wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken. Auf der Suche nach einer demokratischen Bibliothek der Zukunft.1995). The main topic of our meeting in Bremen in the fall of 1997 was: The restitution of books from two points of view: Books of jewish emigrants unlawfully remaining in german libraries, and: books as war booty. Historical and political aspects of the german-russian discussion about the restitution of books and objects of art. This meeting gave us the most widespread and positive echo within the German press: the very established weekly paper DIE ZEIT wrote about Akribie as a group "which becomes more and more important for the intellectual life in Germany", the well known journalist Rolf Michaelis wrote - in reference to our meeting - one page about the activities of the university library of Bremen to restitute the jewish books. Agatha Haun from the German-Russian Exchange in St.Petersburg has enabled us to get special reports about the situation of NGO libraries in Russia and has offered to develop partnerships to russian libraries. We think it will be a valuable opportunity to have contact with very diligent Russian colleagues and to encourage practical and confident cooperation with them. It is not our position to urge the russian and polish people to give us back the books and pieces of art they got after the end of the Second World War rather than finding ways that everybody who wants it can see or use them. In the last years we gained an increasing echo within the German library profession though we don't estimate our impact as a very strong one. But quite a number of colleagues are interested in the topics we raise and the articles and books we publish. At the last library congress (Bibliothekartag) in Frankfurt in the beginning of this month the colleagues picked up all copies of LAURENTIUS we offered, bought a great number of titles from the LAURENTIUS publishing house and came to meet of Akribie membersfor discussion. Finally I want to give a short outline: What does social responsibility mean for us: - free access to public libraries for everybody, free of charge - book and media collections free of censorship and restrictions - libraries for all citizens, specially for the socially disadvantaged and handicapped - dedication to the service for all patrons, encouragement for all citizens to engage for their library and for their community. - democratic structures within the libraries, engagement of librarians for democratic structures in the society - supporting the development of socially engaged library work worldwide! Finally: the attempt to translate a poem Akribie placed at the end of its selfdesription: In other words Criticism is not a complaint but a question directed toward understanding - the declaration of war against state of affairs and resignation. Frauke Mahrt-Thomsen _______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ | | | # # ##### ##### ## ##### # # | | # # # # # # # # # # # # | | # # ##### # # # # # # # | | # # # # ##### ###### ##### # | | # # # # # # # # # # # | | ###### # ##### # # # # # # # | | | | | | # # # # #### ###### | | # # # # # # # | | # # # # # ##### | | # # # # # # | | # # # # # # # # | | #### #### # #### ###### | | | | | | http://www.libr.org/juice/ | | | | Except where noted, 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 12:03 PM