Library Juice 1:34 - September 23, 1998
Contents: 1. ALA Washington Office Legislative Action Center 2. Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998 3. Mary Minow's map to library law 4. September 21 American Libraries Online 5. Ann Symons editorial - "A Challenged Modern Library" 6. Article on why search engines stink 7. Try the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts 8. Participate in Gail Kwak's project: Librarians and Body Modification 9. Millenium Project - online forum exploring role of technology in education 10. DEMO UNIVERSE RETURNS! 11. Katherine Sharp Review - Call for Student Reviewers 12. ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION 13. ECDL Broadcast live through MBONE! (European Conference on Digital Libs) 14. "Help! I'm Surrounded by the Law and I Still Can't Understand Copyright!" 15. D.C. Environmental internships available 16. Travel scholarship available from Chinese American Libn Assn 17. Several sites giving info on international conferences 18. Reflections on last week's quote from _Information Ethics for Librarians_ Quote for the week: "We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of 4 or 500 pages" -Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal, 7 June 1841 _____________________________________________________________________________ 1. ALA Washington Office Legislative Action Center Fight for Fair Use, Fight off Premature Database Legislation, Support S. 2288, Respect Local Decision Making, Protect E-Rate http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/ (This URL and the next item both came from the same email to RUSA-L) _____________________________________________________________________________ 2. Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998 Sender: owner-rusa-l[at]ala1.ala.org S. 2288 is the Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998, "...which includes much-needed reform to improve and enhance public access to government information." The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing September 16th, "... but postponed action on the bill pending further negotiations among stakeholders." The ALA Washington Office is urging librarians to ask their Senators to "cosponsor" S. 2288. RUSA Liaison to the Legislation Assembly Jack King _____________________________________________________________________________ 3. Mary Minow's map to library law Mary Minow's map to library law has grown into a comprehensive resource. Find it at its new URL: http://www.librarylaw.com/ _____________________________________________________________________________ 4. September 21 American Libraries Online Sender: owner-alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org News stories appearing in the September 21 American Libraries Online <http://www.ala.org/alonline/> * Nancy Kranich, C. James Schmidt Are Candidates for ALA President * Starr Report Media Frenzy Hits Libraries * Filter-Makers Get Starry-Eyed over Report * Starr Report Draws Record Numbers to LC's Web Site * White House Debates Starr Report, Committee Considers Online Smut * Hawaii Cancels Dynix Contract * House Joint Hearing Focuses on E-rate * Former D.C. Library Head Is Sentenced * New Survey: 73% of Public Libraries Offer Internet * ALA's "America Links Up" Campaign Is Launched in Washington * Arkansas Librarians Fight Proposed Property Tax Repeal * New Orleans School Librarians Get Funding Boost * 190-Year-Old Diary Bound for Library Left in Taxi 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. _____________________________________________________________________________ 5. Ann Symons editorial - "A Challenged Modern Library" Sender: owner-member-forum[at]ala.org For Banned Books Week, ALA President Ann K. Symons has written an editorial, A Challenged Modern Library, which can be found at http://www.ala.org/bbooks/#cml In the editorial, she states that Freedom of thought requires the freedom to explore issues and questions necessary to education, enlightenment and self-governance. That applies to children as well as adults. Those who seek to limit other people's access to ideas they feel are dangerous or repugnant often forget that freedom is what undergirds our democracy. http://www.ala.org/bbooks/#cml ________________ Don Wood Program Manager American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom 50 East Huron Street Chicago, IL 60611 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4225 Fax: 312-280-4227 dwood[at]ala.org _____________________________________________________________________________ 6. Article on why search engines stink This email went to the SJSU SLIS listserv (silicon valley's library school): Subject: Article Why Search Engines Stink MIME-Version: 1.0 cybersace is weird. thanks to Dr. Liu's tip on the robot urls, I was chatting with a chatterbot named Elvis at http://www.toptown.com/hp/sjlaven/ and he recommended this article, which I found informative. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2432.html -- Laura Norvig norvig[at]cruzio.com _____________________________ "These go to eleven" --Nigel Tufnel _____________________________________________________________________________ 7. Try the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex/ The Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts is a collection of digital documents. The scope of documents in the collection includes items from American literature, English literature, and Western philosophy. The Catalogue has a number of unique features. First, not only can you search for and display texts from the collection, but you can also search the content of located texts. For example, you can search for Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. You can then search the content of The Adventures for the words like fish and belly to get a description of Huck Finn's father. Moreover, you can search the content of multiple documents simultaneously. For example, you can first locate all the documents in the collection authored by Mark Twain. Next, you can search selected documents for something like slav* to draw out themes across texts. Another unique feature of the Catalogue is the on-the-fly creation of PDF files. Using this option you can specify things like fonts and font sizes for your output. For example, you can create a PDF version of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. This feature allows you to create simply formatted but very readable documents for printing; the documents in the collection are not necessarily intended to be read online. A third unique feature of the Catalogue is the free goodies available for downloading. These goodies include complete sets of the collected documents and the tools necessary to search them without the use of your Web browser. While you will still need a direct Internet connection, the search tools provide the means for more complex content analysis and enhance access to texts in the collection. -- Eric Lease Morgan Digital Library Initiatives Department, NCSU Libraries http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/morgan/ ------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from NetInLib-Announce, see http://www.targetinform.com/netinlib/ ------------------------------------------ _____________________________________________________________________________ 8. Participate in Gail Kwak's project: Librarians and Body Modification (sent to list Librarians[at]tao.ca) Dear Collegues, I have been lurking on this list now for over a year and have found it to be one of the best library/librarian listservs in existence. I hope it is the right place to put forth a research/web development project I am working on now - Librarians and Body Modification. To this end, I have created a web page at http://www.bme.freeq.com/world/tattoo/gailcat/index.html which will be used to showcase the body modifications of librarians everywhere along with their stories, articles, rants and pictures. To get the ball rolling, I have added pictures of my own multiple ear piercings and my tattoo. I am interested in the images of librarians in popular culture and how these images and stereotypes differ from reality. I am particularly interested in librarians who have tattoos, multiple ear piercings, other piercings, scarification etc and how they are affected professionally by these modifications. If you are a librarian, library paraprofessional or library employee in any capacity and would like to participate in my project, please email me a picture of your modification (you can send it as an attachment to kwak[at]alpha.nsula.edu), and any or all of the following information - your name, email address, job title, place of employment, if you have an MLS where did you get it and when? I would also like to know if you got your modification before or after you entered the library field and once obtained, how does your modification affect your work professionally (ie reactions of coworkers, supervisors, patrons, yourself). Also, there is a story behind every modification - let's hear it! Please respond to me privately if you prefer. Thanks! Gail Kwak ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gail Stern Kwak Phone 318 357-4466 Government Documents Librarian Fax 318 357-3201 Northwestern State University Email kwak[at]alpha.nsula.edu Natchitoches LA 71457 WWW http://www.nsula.edu "Lady, I gotta tell ya...I have been grossly misinformed about witches!" -Bart Simpson _____________________________________________________________________________ 9. Millenium Project - online forum exploring role of technology in education To: NetInLib-Announce[at]targetinform.com Subject: Meet the Futurists MIME-version: 1.0 Dear All, Good Evening from Dortmund University, Germany, The Millennium Project is having totally new look, and the discussions are on the rampage.. Please also Visit the site http://millennium.aed.org/faces.shtml Thanks..Regards Arun ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Academy for Educational Development today launched the Millennium ProjectŘ a two-year, online, mediated forum on the evolving role of technology in education. The site (http://millennium.aed.org) is not merely a place to cheerlead technology, however. To be useful, the discussion will also explore problems, challenges and creative failures in a wide range educational contexts. Among the first experts to participate in the AED Millennium Project are nationally-acclaimed education technologists, Chris Dede, Kathleen Fulton, Louis Gomez, Lew Perelman and Saul Rockman. The Hot Topics they introduce are: How does technology change the role of the teacher? What is the role of technology in preparing students for the workplace? How is technology changing the role played by communities in education and learning? Can technology help to improve public-private collaboration in schooling? The site also includes a resources library that will be valuable to members of this listserv. Join us at http://millennium.aed.org (The Millennium Project is a non-profit venture.) Thank you. ********************************************************************** ARUN KUMAR TRIPATHI,c/o Braun,Luetgenholthauser Strasse 99 44225,Dortmund,Germany EDUCATOR: WEB SITE REVIEW WRITER My Short Bio Resume:- http://www.iteachnet.com/resume/akumar.html Moderator of edresource list at http://www.findmail.com/list/edresource International Correspondent for WCE: http://www.gsh.org/wce Please Join Global Learn Day at http://www.bfranklin.edu/learnd.html GLD2 needs sailors:-> http://www.bfranklin.edu/interns/intern.html E-mail: <tripathi[at]amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> Research Scholar Internet Search Expert University Of Dortmund Internet Information Investigator ************************************************************************* _____________________________________________________________________________ 10. DEMO UNIVERSE RETURNS! At http://www.demouniverse.com/demou/ After more than a year's absence, Demo Universe returns to the World Wide Web. Demo Universe is a Web site devoted to self-released/unsigned/independent music and musicians. In its first incarnation, from June 1995-June 1996, DU was widely recognized as the largest archive of self-released music reviews on the Internet. You ain't seen nothing yet! Among the new features: A database of ONE THOUSAND reviews, searchable by artist, city, state, country, keyword and date -- plus the "Demo Randomizer." All reviews provide complete contact information, including live links to band e-mail and Web sites. New reviews are added daily! Weekly spotlights on the best unsigned bands in the Universe, with exclusive interviews and RealAudio song samples. Gallery of beautiful and unusual J-card art. A robust collection of links to musician home pages, DIY resources, indie labels, webzines, on-line record stores and personal favorites. DU accepts any and all recordings in all formats for review and guarantees a review w/in 90 days and often much sooner. Send to: Jim Santo's Demo Universe, POB 4218, Sunnyside, NY 11104 If you sent me a tape between February 1995 and June 1997, or a CD between June 1995 and August 1997, or a 7-inch between July 1995 and August 1997, your review is waiting! Hosted by the kind folks at Outersound (http://www.outersound.com), Demo Universe was designed to be the biggest, best and most current guide to self-released music in the world. I hope I've achieved my goal, and I welcome your comments and suggestions. Yours in obscurity, Jim Santo PS: In case you're wondering who I am, I used to write the Demorandum column for Alternative Press magazine. Since 1988 I have reviewed approximately 5,000 demo tapes. _____________________________________________________________________________ 11. Katherine Sharp Review - Call for Student Reviewers To: Multiple recipients of list LIS-L <LIS-L[at]POSTOFFICE.CSO.UIUC.EDU> Call for Student Reviewers Katharine Sharp Review (ISSN 1083-5261) http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review The Katharine Sharp Review, the first electronic journal featuring scholarship and research by students in the field of library and information science, is seeking volunteers to participate on the peer-review board for the next year. The review process needs reviewers to make this a true 'peer-review' and the opportunity to participate in the editorial process first hand will be both enjoyable and educational. The due date for applications is Thursday, October 8. The review board will be responsible for the selection and review of all submitted articles. The length of commitment to the editorial board will be for a full year (actually from now through July) and will comprise two issues (April and August). Each reviewer will be responsible for returning complete critical reviews in a timely manner that will provide guidance as to the acceptability of any one submission. In order to be considered as a potential board member/reviewer, you must currently be enrolled in a LIS program (both MLS and PhD students are encouraged to consider), have ready access to e-mail as this will be the primary means of communication, ability to view documents in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, and preferably a graphical WWW browser (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer). A strong command of English, knowledge of the library and information science field, and a strong desire to take part in a unique and ground-breaking publication is also recommended! If you are interested in applying for this unique opportunity, please send: 1) your name and institution, 2) a description of your general interests within the field, 3) a *brief* paragraph describing your interest in participating in the review process, and 4) perhaps three or four keywords describing your specific interests in LIS (these are used to send you papers related to your interest), 5) the approximate date you will be graduating from your program to the editor, Kevin Ward, at review[at]alexia.lis.uiuc.edu. The due date for all applications is Thursday, October 8. For more information regarding the Katharine Sharp Review, please e-mail the editor or see the Review's WWW site, which includes the past seven issues from 1995-98, at http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review. The site is also mirrored at http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/mirrored/lis-journals/review/review/ for Europe and elsewhere. + + Kevin Ward Editor Katharine Sharp Review review[at]edfu.lis.uiuc.edu http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review + + _____________________________________________________________________________ 12. ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/Conference Friday, November 6, 1998 8:30 AM - 3:45 PM University of California at Berkeley Krutch Theater, Clark Kerr Campus 601 Warring St., Berkeley CA The wide reach and power of the Internet, changes in academic, scholarly society, and commercial presses, and the soaring cost of information are changing the face of scholarly communication and publishing. Join members of the academic community, librarians, and other information professionals and publishers in a wide-ranging discussion of the issues and challenges facing academic, scholarly society, and commercial presses. 9:00-9:15 Opening remarks Richard Atkinson, President, University of California 9:15-10:45 Panel 1 TRENDS IN SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING - Czeslaw Jan Grycz, Virtual Theological Library, Berkeley - Lisa Brawley, Assistant Professor, Kent State University. Editor, Postmodern Culture - Michael Keller, University Librarian and Director of Academic Information Resources, Stanford University - Vincent H. Resh, Professor, UC Berkeley. Editorial board, Annual Reviews 11:00-12:30 Panel 2 STATUS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING: OVERCOMING CONTRAINTS ON NEW MODES OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION - Robin Peek, Professor, Library and Information Science, Simmons College - William Arms, Vice President, Corporation for National Research Intiatives (CNRI); Publications board, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) - Paul Ginsparg, Research Physicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory - Bernard Hibbitts, Associate Dean for Communications and Information Technology, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh [invited] 1:45-3:15 Panel 3 FUTURE OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE - Carla Stoffle, University Librarian, University of Arizona - Kenneth Frazier, Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System; Chair, Steering Committee of the ARL Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) - Beverlee French, Associate Director, Shared Collections and Services, California Digital Library - Tom Sanville, Director, OhioLINK REGISTRATION: $65 in advance; $75 onsite; $25 for UC faculty, students and staff with university ID. Includes lunch for preregistered attendees. To register via the web go to the conference website registration page at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/Conference/registration.html. In order to ensure adequate processing time, please register by Monday, October 26. For more information contact Jeanne Fong at 510-642-7270 or jfong[at]library.berkeley.edu. _____________________________________________________________________________ 13. ECDL Broadcast live through MBONE! (European Conference on Digital Libs) ECDL Broadcasted Live through MBONE! Second European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries European European ICS-FORTH University of Union Research Crete Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - IEEE Computer Society - Lambrakis Research Foundation - OTE - FORTHnet - General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry for Development, Hellenic Republic - Hellenic Ministry of Culture - INTRACOM - NET Computers & Peripherals - General Eelectric Capital Information Technology Solutions - CaberNet - Ergodata - Swets & Zeitlinger B.V. 19 - 23 September, 1998 Knossos Royal Village, Heraklion, Crete, Greece Web Page: http://www.csi.forth.gr/2EuroDL E-mail: ecdl[at]cc.uch.gr - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - All plenary sessions and selected parallel sessions will be broadcasted live through the MBONE. Users connected to MBONE can view the live broadcasts with RealNetworks RealPlayer. More information including links can be found ath the "Live Broadcast" web page, at: http://www.ics.forth.gr/2EuroDL/live.html Links to live broadcast channels will soon be available from the Live Broadcast section of our web pages. The broadcasted sessions will also be archived for later viewing. Also, don't forget to view the most recent information available from the Conference Programme web page and the 7h DELOS workshop web page at: http://www.ics.forth.gr/2EuroDL/programme.html http://www.ics.forth.gr/2EuroDL/Deloas-7.html _____________________________________________________________________________ 14. "Help! I'm Surrounded by the Law and I Still Can't Understand Copyright!" [Apologies for duplicative postings] REMINDER! There are two weeks left to register for Kenneth Crew's "Help! I'm Surrounded by the Law and I Still Can't Understand Copyright!" The American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with the Hewlett Packard San Diego Research Library, is offering this Copyright Program, on Monday, October 26, 1998, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., in San Diego, California. For additional information on this program, please contact Lara Koban, AALL Educational Program Coordinator, at 312-939-4764 or lkoban[at]aall.org. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION This professional development program will demonstrate the growing importance of copyright in your career, take the fear out of the law, and show new pathways through an often-bewildering maze. If you think copyright is dry and boring, this day may also change your view. It is a day of serious learning, scandalous politics, cheerful humor, cartoons, your tough questions, and maybe a little rap music. This program is intended for law librarians, non-law librarians, and others interested in learning the issues of copyright law and the effect of copyright on your daily job. Topics covered will include: - Trends, Developments, and Future Directions of Copyright; - Fair Use Issues; - Coursepacks, Reserves, and Electronic Reserves; - Copyright and the Worldwide Web; and - Copyright and the Development of Multimedia Projects. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Participants will be able to: - Assess the situations, activities, and materials in the library that give rise to copyright issues; - Recognize that intellectual property law other than copyright may apply to some situations; - Secure copyright protection for new works; - Describe the complex balance between the rights of copyright owners and the ability to make fair use of protected works; - Analyze and apply legal rights to use copyrighted works beyond the right of fair use; - Examine the implications of new technologies for copyright; and - Pursue options for developing copyright policies for their libraries. INSTRUCTOR Instructor for this program is Kenneth Crews, Associate Professor at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and the IU School of Library and Information Science and Director of the Copyright Management Center at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. PROGRAM LOCATION Hewlett Packard San Diego Research Library San Diego, California REGISTRATION The deadline for registrations is October 5, 1998. The registration fee is $115.00 for AALL members and HP employees, $145.00 for non-AALL members, $77.00 for student members and $95.00 for student non-AALL members. The fee includes program, handouts, continental breakfast, morning and afternoon breaks. Registration forms may be obtained at http://www.aallnet.org/events/edu_home.html or by contacting Maggie Kearney, AALL Program Assistant, at 312-939-4764 or mkearney[at]aall.org. AALL recognizes major support from BNA, Inc. for the Professional Development Program. -- ******************************************************** David McFadden Southwestern University Senior Reference Librarian School of Law Library (213) 738-6726 - voice 675 S. Westmoreland Avenue (213) 738-5792 - fax Los Angeles, California email - dmcfadden[at]swlaw.edu 90005-3992 ******************************************************** _____________________________________________________________________________ 15. D.C. Environmental internships available Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:29:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Frederick W Stoss <fstoss[at]acsu.buffalo.edu> Reply-To: srrtac-l[at]ala.org To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org> Subject: D.C. Environmental internships available MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-srrtac-l[at]ala.org Please feel free to post to other lists and newsletter editors. Fred Sstoss FALL INTERNSHIPS AT N.E.T. National Environmental Trust is accepting applications for their Fall Internship Program in the areas of 1. Grassroots Organizing, 2. Press Relations, and 3. Research. Interested applicants: fax resume and cover letter to Internship Coordinator, (202) 887- 8877. Questions? (202) 887-8800. All interns receive a monthly stipend. 1. GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING Assist in the coordination of field events such as public education forums, press conferences, coalition-building, and public education; assist the DC field staff in the management of field organizers; expand coalitions; produce sample materials; prepare weekly packets and coordinate conference calls. QUALIFICATIONS: Good writing and editing skills, interest in environmental policy and politics, personal initiative. Prefer applicants with basic organizing skills, creativity, planning skills, and volunteer experience on a political campaign or as an activist. 2. PRESS RELATIONS Conduct research for radio, TV and print media stories, organize media events and paid advertising projects, and pitch stories to radio producers and print media reporters. QUALIFICATIONS: Previous volunteer work on a political campaign or in a politically charged setting; writing and editing skills; interest in communications; some background with environmental, conservation or other public interest groups. 3. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY RESEARCH (TOXICS) Duties will include 1) Research on a range of environmental policy issues but predominantly on toxins and children's environmental health issues, and 2) Some constituency organizing. QUALIFICATIONS: The ideal intern will have creativity and initiative for conducting original political and constituency research to further a national toxics campaign, strong writing and phone communication skills, some previous work experience, and an interest in toxics or children's' environmental health issues. Posted 9-18-98 by: Frederick W. Stoss, M.S. (zoology-aquatic ecology), M.L.S. Biological Sciences Librarian Science and Engineering Library -- Capen Hall -- Room 228-B SUNY Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260-2200 716/645-2946 ext. 224 -- 716/645-3710 FAX fstoss[at]acsu.buffalo.edu SEL URL: http://wings.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/ _____________________________________________________________________________ 16. Travel scholarship available from Chinese American Libn Assn Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 15:14:09 -0500 From: Cathleen Bourdon <cbourdon[at]ala.org> To: Reference and User Services Association List <rusa-l[at]ala1.ala.org> Subject: Travel scholarship available from Chinese American Libn Assn Reply-To: cbourdon[at]ala.org Sender: owner-rusa-l[at]ala1.ala.org The Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) announces the offering of the C. C. Seetoo/CALA Conference Travel Scholarship. As a joint effort between Mr. Seetoo and CALA, an award in the amount of US$500 will be given to a student to attend the annual ALA Conference and CALA program. The Scholarship is designed to provide the award recipient mentoring and networking opportunities at the ALA conference. Students of Chinese heritage who are currently enrolled in ALA-accredited library and information science programs are encouraged to apply. The 1999 application deadline is February 15, 1999. The winner of the award will be announced by April 30, 1999. The award will be presented at the ALA annual conference in New Orleans. Founded in 1973, the Chinese American Librarians Association is affiliated with the American Library Association, and has six regional chapters. In addition to holding annual programs, CALA publishes its own Newsletter, Membership Directory and the Journal of Library and Information Science in cooperation with the National Taiwan Normal University. Born in Shanghai in 1916, Mr. C. C. Seetoo was graduated from Shanghai University in 1939 and moved to Taiwan in 1946. Through his entrepreneurial success in the export business, he has traveled all over the world making many friends and valuable contacts along the way. He recognizes and values the benefits of networking for people striving to become successful professionals, and wishes to provide such an opportunity to students by co-sponsoring this Travel Award. For application and more information about the Scholarship, please contact Dr. Mengxiong Liu, Chair of the CALA Scholarship Committee at Clark Library San Jose State University One Washington Square San Jose, CA 95192-0028 Phone: (408) 924-2817 Fax: (408) 924-2701 Email: mliu[at]email.sjsu.edu _____________________________________________________________________________ 17. Several sites giving info on international conferences Approved-By: ifla[at]NLC-BNC.CA Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 13:27:23 EDT Reply-To: International Federation of Library Associations mailing list <IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA> Sender: International Federation of Library Associations mailing list <IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA> From: Leah Sparks <LeahJ[at]AOL.COM> Subject: Thanks for Conference Info! To: IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA Hello everyone! Thanks so much for the helpful web sites on international conferences. I have found many possibilities and I appreciate the input of people from so many different parts of the world. I have included below the sites that were suggested by at least three or four people in case anyone else would like to view them. Best wishes, Leah Sparks Public Librarian Maryland, U.S. LeahJ[at]aol.com http://www.bubl.ac.uk/news/events/ http://carduus.imi.gla.ac.uk/inform/Meetings.html http://www.hsl.unc.edu/libcal.htm http://floti.bell.ac.uk/events/default.htm http://rodent.lib.rochester.edu/ssp/events/events.htm NETINET http://204.32.12.2/conf.htm Blackwell's http://www.readmore.com/about/conf.html American Libraries Datebook http://www.ala.org/alonline/datebook/datebook.html http://www.unf.edu/library/conferences/ *********************************************************************** * IFLA-L is provided by the International Federation of Library * * Associations and Institutions (IFLA). For further information about * * IFLA activities, including organization or personal affiliate * * information, contact: IFLA[at]ifla.org * * * * URL: www.ifla.org * *********************************************************************** _____________________________________________________________________________ 18. Reflections on last week's quote from _Information Ethics for Librarians_ Last week I couldn't resist commenting on the quotation I chose. I would like to discuss it further. First, here's the quotations and the questions I asked about it: ............................................................................... Quote for the week: "If information is not neutral, if moral judgments are part of information usage, and if one of our jobs as a profession is to recognize those judgments and to make decisions, it would seem that certain principles of truth, justice, equality, and freedom must be defining values of the profession." -Mark Alfino & Linda Pierce, p. 123 of their _Information Ethics for Librarians_ (Editor's comment: I have to think about this. Whose judgments are being refered to, the librarian's or the user's? And why make the stated principles and not others - such as "Family Values" - the defining values of the profession?) .............................................................................. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that "Family Values" are possibly to be seen as fundamental values of librarianship. I would like to suggest that it's too easy to assume that there is something in the nature of the work of librarianship, something eternal and innate, that makes truth, justice, equality and freedom its defining values. Those make good defining values, but it is up to define the profession through them. Librarianship is a function, an occupation. There is nothing in its defining nature that would prevent it being torn from its "defining values," as we chose them to be. I have been naive about this in my thinking in the past. I took the quotation in question out of its context in a very thoughtful book. However, I think that _Information Ethics for Librarians_ leaves a major unanswered question behind in its recommendation to rethink library service with consideration of community values: How is any consensus about what is in the public interest to be created among librarians? Finding such a consensus seems to be only more difficult if we distance ourselves from the attempted objectivity of empirical science as a measure of truth, as is recommended by the book. The debate over social responsibility and intellectual freedom is still with us, perhaps not in the form of debate so much as in the form of a dilemma or a tension, despite arguments for a co-existence or synthesis. Whose judgments about the moral significance of a piece of information - or an information need - are to prevail, the librarian's or the patron's? Aside from the duty to give full representation to all points of view in collection development, the essence of intellectual freedom and neutrality in service seems to be to respect the mind of the patron. And if we are going to play a role of educators or moral advisors, what are our qualifications? It is an occassional dream of mine to make a case for some objective truth to the liberal/progressive position, and argue for its incorporation into the educational role of librarianship on that basis. After all, truth, justice, equality and freedom all have opposition in the political arena, and the True political analysis of things indeed claims to be True. But even if those who strongly disagree with a leftist analysis of things REALLY ARE the dupes of the ruling class, in a society of democratic pluralism their opinions have to be respected. As disingenuous as David Berninghausen's argument in "'Social Responsibility' vs. The Library Bill of Rights" against the formation of SRRT clearly was, (the article is given an illuminating discussion in Pierce & Alfino's book) the principle of intellectual freedom, as the principle of respect for others, is still a limiting factor in our natural desire to guide library users according our own personal judgments or personal sense of the community or public interest. Even if most librarians rarely consider it an issue that needs to be thought about, I think the question is subtly at issue in almost every transaction and decision a librarian makes. I can admit that I have an "overdeveloped" conscience, but I think this conflict or tension is at the heart of the profession, and might be the most difficult thing about it. -Editor _____________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ | | | # # ##### ##### ## ##### # # | | # # # # # # # # # # # # | | # # ##### # # # # # # # | | # # # # ##### ###### ##### # | | # # # # # # # # # # # | | ###### # ##### # # # # # # # | | | | | | # # # # #### ###### | | # # # # # # # | | # # # # # ##### | | # # # # # # | | # # # # # # # # | | #### #### # #### ###### | | | | | | 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 12:02 PM