Library Juice 2:33 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 2:33 - August 25, 1999 Contents: 1. Jean Heriot's Micropress Reviews 2. Black Ice--Small Press Q 3. Joel Kahn's anti-copyright Frankentoons 4. Kansas Board of What? 5. Lather, Read, Repeat 6. Discussion of Steve Coffman's article in Searcher 7. World Biographical Index 8. Allexperts.com 9. The Pencil Pages Quote for the week: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of sXXXch, or the right of the people peaceably to XXXemble, and to peXXXion the government for a redress of grievances." The first amendment according to XStop (according to Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center) Homepage of the week: GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido, writer, speaker, ALA Councilor http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/gadhome.html DeCandido's home page presently is blocked by CyberPatrol. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1. Jean Heriot's Micropress Reviews A site with reviews of small and noteworthy publications, often in a DIY spirit, often with anarchist or situationist themes. Great reading and great for reviews of interesting and worthwhile publications you're likely not to see elswhere. http://www.teleport.com/~jaheriot/reviews.htm Blocked by CyberPatrol, at least in our library. ____________________________________________________________________________top 2. Black Ice--Small Press Q This is a small press I really appreciate and try to support at every turn. Rob Hardin's Distorture is a personal favorite (won the Firecracker Award for small press fiction 2 years ago) and I believe they also publish librarian Mark Amerika. There is also some information on the page about NEA disputes in regard to their content and related free speech issues. Their Board of Directors have included a number of "contemporary" authors (which could also read as "makes virtually no money from their art") that I believe we'll look back on as magnificent contributors who kept the faith at the end of the century. http://www.litline.org/html/fc2.html Rhonda K. Kitchens, Librarian Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library 900 North Ashley Drive Tampa, FL 33602 813-272-6429 ____________________________________________________________________________top 3. Joel Kahn's anti-copyright Frankentoons If you are interested in the question of intellectual property, you might want to check out Joel Kahn's Frankentoons, just uploaded to http://libr.org/frankentoons Frankentoons are cut up and recombined cartoon characters, like "Hulkathy," who is the Incredible Hulk with Cathy's head, or Bam B. Coyote, who is Bambi's body with Wile E. Coyote's head. Frankentoons are a game played with cartoon characters that we all grew up with, but which large corporations claim to own. Joel first created this site as a form of civil disobedience, and was eventually forced to remove it from the server he was using at Southwest Missouri State when the University received threatening letters from the copyright holders. I think it is ridiculous that this form of play should be considered illegal, that we are not allowed to use material that is almost unavoidably in our posession as participants in contemporary culture. What the legal system would finally say about Frankentoons is of course unknown at this point. Strong precendents exist to claim a right to make and share Frankentoons. An eventual lawsuit would be a wonderful outcome, because it would either establish a freedom or expose the senselessness of intellectual property laws to a potentially wide audience. I will probably not have the pleasure of participating in such a lawsuit, if it ever comes to pass. Libr.org depends on a third party for the computer space and connectivity who has a strong interest in avoiding trouble, and will probably force me to remove the site long before any action reaches the court. Others out there with their own server space may want to host Frankentoons when that happens. Joel would be happy to hear from you. Here is a message I recently received from Joel about Frankentoons: .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 05:55:15 -0500 From: jok707s[at]mail.smsu.edu To: Rory Litwin <rlitwin[at]earthlink.net> So, I guess we let the copyright holders find out about our ongoing mischief the slow & hard way. If I were to make a bet, I would say that neither of us will get a letter from a lawyer about the Frankentoons for a year or so--unless some group of radicals makes a really strong campaign out of the stuff I suggest on my text page, &/or some journalist does a story on it in a major medium. This whole tangled copyright/parody/technology/money/&c mess reminds me of the words of John Perry Barlow in his famous essay "Selling Wine Without Bottles: The Economy of Mind on the Global Net": "We are sailing into the future on a sinking ship. This vessel, accumulated copyright and patent law, was developed to convey forms and methods of expression entirely different from the vaporous cargo it is now being asked to carry. It is leaking as much from within as without. "Legal efforts to keep the old boat floating are taking three forms: a frenzy of deck chair rearrangement; stern warnings to the passengers that if she goes down, they will face harsh criminal penalties; and serene, glassy-eyed denial. "Intellectual property law cannot be patched, retrofitted, or expanded to contain the gasses of digitized expression any more than real estate law might be revised to cover the allocation of broadcasting spectrum. (Which, in fact, rather resembles what is being attempted here.) We will need to develop an entirely new set of methods as befits this entirely new set of circumstances." To extend the maritime metaphor a little further: one part of the crew of this ship is running a thriving business selling to the passengers power drills and drill bits which are easily capable of punching through the outer hull, while another part of the crew constantly tries to warn the passengers that they should always point their drills *away* from the hull. If we had the same "system" for weapons, we would allow everyone to own nuclear missiles and launching hardware, but we would just keep warning them against making any launches. Our "system" is totally unstable, period. It is not going to last forever. I only hope that the Frankentoons, by literally giving faces and bodies to the elements of the dilemma, will somehow speed the ultimate resolution. Go ahead and communicate with RTMark, and with anyone else that you like. I'll keep tinkering with this at my end. Stay in touch. Joel * * * "[Reality] cannot be expressed with words and it cannot be expressed without words. Now quickly say what it is." -- Mumon's commentary on a Zen koan * * * "Email is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may have occurred during transmission." -- Anonymous ____________________________________________________________________________top 4. Kansas Board of What? Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:42:48 -0700 From: Earl Lee <ewayne[at]mail.pittstate.edu> To: KANLIB-L[at]raven.cc.ukans.edu CC: PLGNET-L <PLGNet-L[at]listproc.sjsu.edu> Subject: Evolution Fellow Kansans, fellow Americans, et al. .... I belive most of you are probably as appalled as I am by the decision of the Kansas State Bored of Education to drop evolution from the standards for public schools. This is a giant step backwards for Kansas, as now we will be labeled as just another bunch of redneck hicks, much the same way that you can't think of Tennessee without the famous Monkey Trial coming to mind. This is not just a problem of how we are perceived by others, it is now a major political problem in Kansas. Now every moron in the state can go to his/her local school board and demand that "creation science" be taught in the classroom. Frankly, "creation science" is not science, it is made-up hogwash! Just because the Bible says that the earth is flat and the sun goes around the earth, this does not make it true! Similarly, just because the Bible says that mankind was "created" doesn't make this fairy-tale true... and "Eve" wasn't made from Adam's rib, either (though I'm beginning to think the current members of the State Board of Ed. were made from the jawbone of an ass!) I am including the names and email addresses for the board on this message so you can contact them directly and voice your concerns. It is especially important to contact the chair, Mrs. Linda Holloway, who masterminded this new policy. I am also including a link to Noam Chomsky's remarks on this subject. Members: Mrs. Janet Waugh JWaugh1052[at]aol.com Mrs. Linda Holloway linhosbe[at]aol.com Mr. John Bacon jwmsbacon[at]aol.com Dr. Bill Wagnon zzwagn[at]acc.wuacc.edu Mr. "Sonny" Rundell ibvrrun[at]pld.com Mr. Scott Hill scotth[at]access-one.com Mr. Howard Voth hlv[at]ourtownusa.net Mrs. Mary D. Brown qekc86a[at]prodigy.com Mrs. Val DeFever vdefever[at]ksbe.state.ks.us Dr. Steve Abrams sabrams[at]hit.net Chomsky Comment Regarding Darwinism Controversy http://www.zmag.org/chomdarwin.htm .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. >From free! Freedom Forum Online http://www.freedomforum.org/religion/1999/8/19ksevolution.asp Education, civil rights groups mount efforts to save evolution science "Less than a week after the Kansas Board of Education decided to dump evolution as a necessary topic for science classes, a state civil rights group has threatened legal action against what it sees as an attempt by state officials to promote the Christian theory of creationism." ________________________ Don Wood American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom 50 East Huron Street Chicago, IL 60611 800-545-2433, ext. 4225 Fax: 312-280-4227 dwood[at]ala.org http://www.ala.org/oif.html ____________________________________________________________________________top 5. Lather, Read, Repeat Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 13:08:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Tamara Miller <miller[at]aztec.lib.utk.edu> To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org> cc: ... Subject: Sponsorships - Suave? Fellow Councilors -- Attached are excerpts of comments by a member of the LITA Board. Pat Ensor calls your attention to an interesting example of commercial sponsorship and urges Council to spend some time reviewing sponsorship policies. I agree that we need to review both the policies and the current agreements and practices in place. -- Tam ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:22:11 -0500 From: "Ensor, Pat" <Ensorp[at]zeus.dt.uh.edu> Subject: ALA sponsorship/affiliation with commercial orgs On the ALA Council List recently, there has been some discussion of ALA's campaign to tie in libraries and books with some special A&E programming. Of course, I can't participate in that discussion and I had not felt moved to comment in any context until today when I was searching the ALA Web site and found the following at http://www.ala.org/KidsConnect/spnfrm.htm "The Suave line of hair and personal care products is produced by Helene Curtis, an operating unit of Unilever, one of the world's leading manufacturers of branded consumer products and packaged goods. The Suave family line of products includes high-quality, value-priced hair care, skin and facial care, baby care and other products. " As you'll see from the site, the ad is there because Suave sponsored the "KidsConnect [at] the Library" contest last year. I do understand that this is increasingly a commercial world and ALA has to get its money somewhere; in this case, some school really benefited from Unilever's money. But, I have a visceral negative reaction to seeing the ad on the ALA Web site: it is for a line of products that have nothing to do with ALA (other than that many library users and librarians have hair), and it is a reproduction of an advertising statement from the company that implies that ALA endorses the quality of their products. The fact that it is on the Web allows for international distribution and on the Web it also loses the context of what the relationship between what the 2 organizations is. (Note: I am not trying to say that the Suave issue should be brought up, except as an example. I am interested in the overall policy and practices in the sponsorship area.) Mary Ghikas has replied to the council list briefly, noting the part of the ALA policies that governs sponsorships and also saying that procedures have been worked out in the past year, based on these policies. I'm asking/stating several things this discussion brings to mind: 1) as a member I would strongly urge that Council examine the policy and procedures about commercial sponsorships; and 2) since there was recently constituted a task force on ALA and the Web, this might also need to be to be brought up as another example of what the weight is of something that appears on the ALA Web site. Pat Ensor, Director of Library Services University of Houston-Downtown One Main Street Houston, TX 77002 Voice: (713)221-8011 Fax: (713)221-8037 Work: Ensor[at]dt.uh.edu Home: PLEnsor[at]pdq.net .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 14:48:35 -0400 To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org> From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net> Subject: Hair today, gone tomorrow After raising questions of sponsorship in the context of ALA's A&E series endorsements for cash considerations, I must say even I am shocked to what depths we have already sunk in this sponsorship business. Thanks to Pat Ensor for bringing it to our attention. I hope it's not just brushed off. The Suave hair products promotion linked to ALA is the wave of the future if we don't untangle this issue pronto. It makes my hair (what's left of it) stand on end. Mark .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 17:14:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Pamela Sieving <pcsievin[at]umich.edu> To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org> cc: ... Subject: Re: Sponsorships - Suave? Tam, thanks for pointing this out. I am, as many of you know, already uneasy about this entire issue. Even more so now that I see the KidsConnect site. And since it is on the ALA server, we need to look at it closely. I asked one of our faculty members to look at the sponsorship section, which seems to list ALA and Suave equally. She said her impulse was to click on the Suave image to order their products. We chatted for a few more minutes about this page. She volunteered that it was qualitatively different for a site to acknowledge sponsorship or support by a commercial interest than to have what reads like an advertisement on the site. Are there other equivalent sponsorships acknowleged on other ALA website pages? Pam Sieving RUSA Councilor ____________________________________________________________________________top 6. Discussion of Steve Coffman's article in Searcher First, five messages from PUBLIB: Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 18:32:39 -0700 (PDT) From: "Thomas J. Hennen Jr." <thennen[at]haplr-index.com> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Subject: Building Earth's Largest Library by Steve Coffman Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9908191832370.22658-100000[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Perhaps I missed it, but on this list there does not seem to have been any mention of Steve Coffman's article titled Building Earth's Largest Library: Driving into the Future. It was published as Volume 7, No. 3, March 1999 of Searcher magazine. It is also available on the web at: http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/coffman.htm Mr. Coffman's article has gotten so much attention that the magazine did a special feature in its July/August edition. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul/coffman.htm Coffman is Director, FYI ó County of Los Angeles Public Library and a serious dreamer. He has a vision of Earth's Largest Library that will make Amazon.com pale by comparison. He speaks of melding catalogs, circulation systems, and delivery mechanisms into the type of structure that propelled amazon.com from nothing to a billion dollar business in just four years. One senses he agrees with the authors of the 1948 classic book A National Plan for Library Service. To paraphrase the authors of that work: Make no small plans, for they have not the magic to stir our souls. Mr. Coffman has certainly managed to do some magic that is stirring souls in the library world. And no one would accuse him of making small plans! The response has been overwhelming by library professionsls, but Coffman adds that no fewer than 8 commercial concerns have contacted him with proposals to implement his vision separate from the library community. FYI is described on its home page as a fee-based research service of the County of Los Angeles Public Library. FYI is a unique and affordable research service designed to provide a full range of business and consumer information for all your project and day-to-day needs. All research is conducted by highly-trained professionals and is available in person, by telephone, by fax or through the Internet. See https://fyi.co.la.ca.us/ I would like to hear some responses by publibbers to his proposals and dreams. Coffman seems to be not only thinking outside the box, as the cliche goes, but to have dreamed up whole new boxes to juggle around. --------- Thomas J. Hennen Jr. haplr-index.com 6014 Spring Street Racine,WI 53406 Voice: 414-886-1625 Fax: 414-886-5424 thennen[at]haplr-index.com .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 18:58:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Dahn <dahn[at]hermes.law.stetson.edu> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu>, Subject: Re: Building Earth's Largest Library by Steve Coffman At 06:34 PM 8/19/1999 -0700, Thomas J. Hennen Jr. wrote: >Perhaps I missed it, but on this list there does not seem to have been any >mention of Steve Coffman's article titled Building Earth's Largest Library: >Driving into the Future. It was published as Volume 7, No. 3, March 1999 of >Searcher magazine. It is also available on the web at: >http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/coffman.htm > >I would like to hear some responses by publibbers to his proposals and >dreams. Coffman seems to be not only thinking outside the box, as the >cliche goes, but to have dreamed up whole new boxes to juggle around. Thomas, Yes, you missed the PUBLIB discussion on Coffman's article... but it was easy to miss. It consisted of one post by me back in late March, 1999. I posted a message very similar to yours, expressing fascination with Steve Coffman's ideas and eagerness to hear PUBLIB discussion of it. My post, however, generated no list discussion whatsoever, though I did receive some private replies from some Publibbers. I am now an academic law librarian, but my roots are in public libraries, and I feel that Steve's issues are extremely important. Back in March, when I read Steve's article, I couldn't stop my mind racing about it (I know, I'm such a geek), and I ended up writing a "response" article to his, which was published on Searcher Magazine's Web site. See: http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul/dahn.htm On October 28th of this year, there is going to be a national teleconference, where Steve Coffman will discuss his ideas further. See: http://www.incolsa.net/HTML/teleconf/coff.htm Then, on November 8th of this year, there will be a full-day track on this subject at the Internet Librarian conference in San Diego. See: http://www.infotoday.com/il99/monday.htm#tracka So, there seems to be momentum growing for these ideas. Unfortunately, most of my discussions with librarians about this (including my initial post to PUBLIB) have been met with apathy... which is sad. If public librarians do not take an active role in this issue, it will be the private sector that will make this happen, which is likely to result in a system that is more costly and less feature-rich than it would have been otherwise -- in the same way that most (ok, ALL -- I won't argue) OPAC systems are far too costly for the value they provide. Anyway, for those of you who are interested in this issue, the following links are a good place to start (but they are not a good place to end): http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/coffman.htm http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul/coffman.htm http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul/dahn.htm http://www.incolsa.net/HTML/teleconf/coff.htm http://www.infotoday.com/il99/monday.htm#tracka -- Mike Michael Dahn Librarian, Webmaster Stetson University College of Law dahn[at]law.stetson.edu (727) 562-7800 x7681 http://www.law.stetson.edu .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. In a message dated 99-08-23 09:39:46 EDT, Michael Dahn writes: > Yes, you missed the PUBLIB discussion on Coffman's article... but it was > easy to miss. It consisted of one post by me back in late March, 1999. > ... accurate, but not quite thorough response, Michael. When the ad for the upcoming teleconference appeared a couple weeks ago, I commented briefly, here on PUBLIB. Far from apathetic, I find Coffman's ideas rejectable, as inconsistent with what i believe are fundamental public library values. I'm sure they are "marketable", but i find that beside the point. Nor do i believe Coffman "owns" these ideas. Most of them amount to one application of ideas in *Future-driven library marketing*, by Darlene E. Weingand, for example. That book, i would recommend for understanding this marketing mentality, not because i agree with it. thom stuart St. Cloud, MN .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 18:27:43 -0700 (PDT) From: "Susan B. Hagloch" <haglocsu[at]oplin.lib.oh.us> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Subject: Coffman & Dahn's Vision Hi, all! Mike Dahn said that we publibbers had been apathetic not to respond to his original post about Coffman's article in SEARCHER. I think it was less apathy than that we were taking time to digest it. I read the article when it originally appeared in the magazine, and photocopied it for my Department Heads. Next to get it will be my Board of Trustees. I think that a great many of us have been thinking along these lines without having been able to articuluate our thoughts as well as Coffman and Dahn have done. Looking at what is developing in Ohio, with OPLIN and the Statewide Resource Sharing initiative shows what can be done. Unfortunately, Ohio's Statewide Resource Sharing was not funded in the state's 2000-2001 biennium budget, so the State Library is looking at funding alternatives. Mike's article is interesting in the ways that he sees us possibly achieving the vision. As he points out, many professionals will say it cannot be done, and that we are wasting our time. At a meeting I attended a few years ago, a very savvy librarian told me that it was impossible for patrons to place their own holds on a multi-library database; not technologically impossible, but totally unfeasible. He didn't seem to understand that our consortium was already doing it! We can do it. We are already beginning. It will take time, sure, and the final result probably won't be an exact duplicate of Coffman's vision. Reality does shape our ends. But -- What an exciting time to be a librarian!! Susan Susan B. Hagloch, Director Tuscarawas County Public Library 121 Fair Avenue NW New Philadelphia, OH 44663-2600 "Information is the currency of Democracy." Thomas Jefferson .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 03:43:44 -0700 (PDT) From: "Karen G. Schneider" <kgs[at]bluehighways.com> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Subject: Coughing up Coffman Apathetic? O.k., I'll bite. Some of the ideas were fun. But some of the comments were unsubstantiated, and others made wild leaps from hypothesis to conclusion. Coffman wrote, "Statistics show that less than 3 percent of the average public library's circulation comes from interlibrary loan (Baker, 1993)." Well--but what does this prove? It might demonstrate several things: * INTRAlibrary loans work so well that loans aren't needed * The browsable physical collection is what people really want * Six-year-old statistics don't show much I'm not sure these statements are completely, exclusively true--but I don't think they're entirely or even wholly false. As for his conclusion--local databases are awful; let's use OCLC--all I can ask is, post hoc ergo propter hoc? C'mon, admit there's more it than that. As for the public library as commercial venture--oy, here we are representing one of the last bastions of public service, and someone is proposing we should sell our stuff? Other people do the commercial schtick a lot better. Not only is there nothing wrong with the traditional public library model of free service--it's a proud tradition. As for that "deadwood," yes, libraries should weed collections--but even I have an issue with wholesale abandonment of older materials. We can get too careless too soon with our history. Knock knock knock, hello Coffman? It's a LIBRARY, not a BOOKSTORE. We are LIBRARIANS, not BOOKSELLERS. We have a higher calling than making sure we have enough copies of Clancy's latest junk to turn a profit. What do we say fifty years from now when we have regained our collective senses and begun to understand how the wildly commercial Mc90's endangered so many public resources? We're sorry, we were too busy trying to turn a profit to keep copies of that author's first works? We were too excited about forthcoming formats to take care of the old ones? I don't think so. Maybe being a true-blue public servant, a purveyor of free books and services for the masses, isn't good enough for Coffman, but it is damn fine good enough for me. On the other hand, Coffman did a good job (though he is no trailblazer here) in outlining the weaknesses of the online catalog, that bloated bastion of ancient library technology. Our catalogs stink. They ARE also way overpriced. Some of this may be due to the vendors--but some of this may be due to the library profession, which sometimes (often?) puts a premium on the wrong features. Look how long it has taken most of us to go to web-based catalogs. How many of us sneak looky-loos at Amazon to enhance reader's advisory when we find something in our funky old inflexible, ugly and impersonal catalogs? And as Coffman points out--if you have to take a class on how to use a web-based database, it's not an effective tool. One of the truly funky facts of library science is that for many of us the term "library automation" meant putting the library database into electronic format... and everything else trailed a poor second at best. If we had had more perspective on it, ironically, we would have ended up with a better product. (However, that product would still not be for sale...) ________________________________________________ Karen G. Schneider kgs[at]bluehighways.com http://www.bluehighways.com Assistant Director of Technology, Shenendehowa Public Library, NY Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, Neal Schuman, 1997 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Now, some of the traffic from PLGnet-L: Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 13:35:06 -0400 To: Pisces0243[at]aol.com, MELISSAR[at]sfpl.lib.ca.us, PLGNET-L[at]listproc.sjsu.edu From: mark rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net> Subject: Initial response to Coffman 1) It is interesting to me how the model proposed by Mr Coffman for all public libraries is derived from his experience with special fee-based services for "the business community",postulating an assumed identity of interests, needs, capacities, values, between the general public and the information seekers in the world of business which is a hypothesis problematic at its very basis. These special,fee-based "business services" instituted at various public library institutions not only are elite, publically-subsidized services for the community of wealth and power, but invariably seem to become the "model" for the library of the future. However, who can argue that the information/knowledge/edification, library-services needs of the citizen are the same as business, that they have the same rhythm, the same function, the same quality,the same "telos"; that they exist in the virtual vacuum of business-related interactions. This anti-humanistic assumption attacks the humane function of the complex institution of the public library in society and reduces it to a one-dimensional model which may suit the business world, but will not serve variegated communities of notionally equal citizens. It also is an based on the introduction for pay-as-you-go services which would essentially discriminate against users on the basis of their capacity to pay fees for service. Mr Coffman proposes a new model and a new philosphy for a pay-per-view world. 2) On another level, there is an analogy here with the conceptual world of business organization a la Toyota, in terms of the way, presumably, these "brave new world" libraries would function. Welcome to the world of "lean production" that the Japanese instituted in the production of automobiles and which became the rage here in the West (even as the Japanese now move away from it). I won't go into the details here but the notion of "just-in-time" supply, in which the need for warehousing parts for production processes is eliminated (the production process is so "fine tuned" that parts arrive "just-in-time" for assembly from suppliers) except here the warehoused parts are the books in the libraries collections: we would no longer have to pay the costs of "warehousing" them i.e. having books etc. in available on-site collections, but would only get them "as needed" from suppliers. The ultimate in the industrialization of library management. There are more analogies with "lean production" which I hope to elaborate on later (or you are welcome to pick up this thread, if you wish). Just a few initial thoughts based on the summary already posted of Coffman's thesis. Mark .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 08:29:39 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Reply-To: BartaC[at]barton.cc.ks.us I absolutely agree with Mark on both his points of analysis. There are several things that I have been thinking about that I can't reconcile. 1. Entrepreneur X does his market research at his local public library, at no cost to him, using the very expensive business resources that they managed to buy on their ever shrinking budget. He makes a gazillion dollars marketing his new brand of widget. Because the city/county has decided to forgo charging taxes on all new businesses, Entrepreneur X pays no taxes and the library gets no additional funds. 2. Isn't interlibrary loan the library equivalent of "just in time" warehousing? Carol Carol Barta Director of Learning Resources Barton County Community College Great Bend, KS 67530 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. PLG'ers, As some of you may recall, this is the same wag who wrote the cover article for American Libraries back in March '98 about running your library like a bookstore. While I have not read this latest one, it sounds in step with his AL piece in which he argued an all-out assault on the relative privileges (in pay and hours) of non-degreed library positions and their replacement with the wage- and hour-structure of Borders and B&N workers. He carried this out, of course, under the guise that libraries need espresso and lay-z-boys to keep up the torrid pace of business. Coffman's attacks are symptomatic of the war being waged by capital on workers on every imaginable front. Liberal policies and institutions that were previously accepted as necessary in maintaining some semblance of stability under capitalism are now subject to commodification. Coffman serves as a frontline facilitator of this war in his position as "consultant." On a personal level, I do not know whether he sadistically enjoys designing mechanisms for throwing people out of work, or in a fog of false-consciousness, he sees no other way of maintaining his own privileged position. Functionally his position is the same either way and therefore, he and his ilk must be confronted and combated at every opportunity. -Chris Hudson .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. And finally, Steve Coffman's message to LIBREF-L: >===== Original Message From "Stephen Coffman" <coffman[at]CERF.NET> ===== I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who emailed, faxed, phoned, wrote, and button-holed me in the hall in response to the Building Earth's Largest Library article (full text on the web at www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/searcher.htm). Whenever possible, I have tried to respond personally to all of you who took the trouble to write me directly, but at times the response was so overwhelming that I could have missed a few in the flood. If so, please accept my apologies. The interest in the original piece so great that Barbara Quint, the editor of Searcher Magazine, twisted my arm behind my back (just kidding) until I agreed to do a follow-up article to address the many questions and issues that you raised. That is now finished, and also available full-text on the Web at www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul/searcher.htm. What interests me the most about this thing is that even though it most assuredly is a "GREAT BIG HAIRY WILD-EYED IDEA!" as one of you put it (attribution upon request)...we are very fortunate to live in a time when GREAT BIG HAIRY WILD-EYED IDEAS can actually become great big hairy wild-eyed THINGS ...and if you need any proof of this, all you have to do is look at Amazon. Should our dreams be any smaller? If you are interested in learning more about Earth's Largest Library and how it could benefit your patrons, and what it might take to pull it off, there are a couple of great programs going on this Fall. First, INCOLSA and the OCLC Regional Networks are sponsoring a nationwide satellite teleconference on Earth's Largest Library this October 28th. This will be a general presentation of the concept followed by a discussion of the issues with an in-studio reactor panel of librarians representing a variety of institutions, followed by live chat and email discussion with the audience at remote sites. For further details on this please see the INCOLSA Web site at ....http://www.incolsa.net/HTML/teleconf/coff.htm Then on November 8-11, the Internet Librarian Conference in San Diego is sponsoring a full 1 1/2 day Track on Building a Business Plan for Earth's Largest Library. Featured speakers include: Georgia Brown, VP OCLC Roy Tenant UC Berkeley Bob Doran, Senior VP Baker & Taylor Mary Jackson, "Queen" of ILL, ARL IXL Internet (the team that developed the BookSense program --- the ABA's answer to Amazon.com) George Relles, business development and pricing consultant for the online industry Mary-Ellen Mort, developer of the highly-acclaimed JobStar web site brought to you by California public libraries Ronald Wohl and Mark Haas, consultants on logistics to the USPS Ralph LeVan, Office of Research, OCLC Barbara Quint, Editor, Searcher Magazine ..and others yet to be named. For further information on the Internet Librarian Conference, please see ...http://www.infotoday.com/il99/monday.htm I look forward to meeting many of you at both of these programs. And maybe with a little luck, some hard work, and a lot of enthusiasm, we just might be able to pull something off. I have my fingers crossed. Thanks again, SC Steve Coffman Director, FYI County of Los Angeles Public Library 1-800-582-1093 562-868-4065 fax coffman[at]cerfnet.com ____________________________________________________________________________top 7. World Biographical Index http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/acwww25u/wbi_en/ This database contains about 2.4 million short biographical entries for prominent individuals who lived in North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. The entry for each person contains the name, variations of the name, pseudonyms, the years of birth and death, or years mentioned, occupation, source quoted, and bibliographic information about the sources used. It is also a compiled index to many biographical archives, giving archive name and fiche number. Based on the 5th, CD-ROM edition (K.G. Saur, 1998). - cl Subjects: biography Librarians' Index to the Internet http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/ ____________________________________________________________________________top 8. Allexperts.com - http://www.allexperts.com/ This free question and answer service has pulled together more than 4,000 volunteers (aka experts) to answer questions on over 1,000 topics. Topics are browsable and descriptions of volunteers areas of interest and expertise are searchable. Definitely worth a look and a try if you can't find the answer yourself or want another's suggestions. - cl Subjects: reference - general Librarians' Index to the Internet http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/ ____________________________________________________________________________top 9. The Pencil Pages - http://pencilpages.com/ Everything there is to know about the humble but ubiquitous pencil. Originally intended for pencil collectors, this site has expanded into a comprehensive resource on the history, nature, manufacture, and collectibility of this enduringly useful writing and drawing tool. - jg Subjects: pencils >From Librarians Index to the Internet http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/ ____________________________________________________________________________top L I B R A R Y J U I C E | http://libr.org/Juice/ | Original material and added value in Library Juice | is copyright-free; beyond that the publisher makes | no guarantees. Library Juice is a free weekly | publication edited and published by Rory Litwin. | Original senders are credited wherever possible; | opinions are theirs. Your comments and suggestions | are welcome. Juice[at]libr.org This page was created by SimpleText2Html 1.0.3 on 24-Aug-99.