Library Juice 2:35 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 2:35 - September 8, 1999 Contents: 1. Encyclopedia Britannica to drop the print version 2. LOC's new online catalog 3. Citing electronic resources 4. Walt Crawford critique of Coffman article 5. 10 Graces for New Librarians 6. ALA/SRRT Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty Task Force (website) 7. Summary Report of SFPL's Post Occupancy Evaluation (New Main) 8. Library Journal editorial on SFPL Post Occupancy Evaluation 9. SF Chronicle article on SFPL Post Occupancy Evaluation 10. Letter from James Chaffee to the San Francisco Chronicle 11. SFPL Petition, 1991 12. Censorship on library listservs 13. The Civic Media Center Five Years On 14. Hermenaut: "Irish Bars and Nothingness" 15. Cliche Finder 16. "Sex in the Stacks" article 17. Article on Infoshops by Chris Dodge 18. comics research bibliography Quote for the week: "When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it." Marie de Sevigne (1626-1696) French diarist "Letters of Madame de Sevigne to Her Daughter and Friends," 1811. Homepage of the week: Randy Reichardt http://www.ualberta.ca/~rreichar/ ___________________________________________________________________________top 1. Encyclopedia Britannica to drop the print version Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 12:12:37 -0500 (CDT) From: Arro Smith or David Gentry <arro[at]io.com> To: gay librarian <gay-libn[at]usc.edu> Subject: Britannica announced that it has stopped printing (fwd) Sorry if this was addressed last week while I was signed off on vacation. I hope this doesn't spell the end of other great reference sources in book form. > > Glenn Hauman (BiblioBytes, http://www.bb.com) writes: Encyclopaedia > Britannica announced that it has stopped printing because its > multimedia CD-ROM version is a far bigger seller (July 27, 1999). > The ending of a tradition reaching back more than 200 years came > about because the company now sells only a minimal number of books, > compared with 150,000 CD-ROMS every year in Europe alone. > http://wam.pulpandpaper.net/augFeature.cfm > ___________________________________________________________________________top 2. LOC's new online catalog Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 09:27:54 +1200 From: "Alistair Kwun" <a.kwun[at]auckland.ac.nz> To: "New Librarians" <newlib-l[at]usc.edu> Subject: [website] LOC online catalog Umm...LOC is on Voyager, just like my library :-) -- Alistair Today, August 31, marks the opening of the Library of Congress' new web version of its online catalog, available at http://catalog.loc.gov The old system, known as Library of Congress Information Systems, or LOCIS, will be available until December 31, 1999. However, the last updates to LOCIS were made on August 12, so searching LOCIS will not give you any information input after August 12. The new system, based on the Voyager ILS created by Endeavor, contains all records and has combined the two major files, i.e., the older PREMARC records and the MUMS records, so it's one-stop searching. Several features are better, e.g., truncation with a question mark, but not everything is better. The OPAC does not include authority headings, for instance. There are four ways to search, one of which is called Guided Keyword, which I recommend for most keyword searches. Another search mode is confusingly called Subject/Name/Title/Call Number. It is not the only place to compose subject or other searches - Guided Keyword can do them as well. Subject/Name/Title/Call Number is basically a card catalog approach, no keywords, so it's fine for known-item searches. Unfortunately, Subject/Name/Title/Call Number does not allow limits by language, dates, country of publication, etc., for subject or name (author) searches, whereas Guided Keyword allows limits on all searches. ___________________________________________________________________________top 3. Citing electronic resources Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 12:45:48 +1200 From: "Alistair Kwun" <a.kwun[at]auckland.ac.nz> To: "New Librarians" <newlib-l[at]usc.edu> Subject: [websites] citing electronic resources - summary list Hi eveyone: A while back I posted a question asking for sites for citing electronic resources. Thanks to all those who replied to my request. Here's a summary of resources. I've checked all the links and they're all active. Hope this is not information overload :-) Sorry for this belated posting. -- Alistair Kwun Florida Distance Learning Reference & Referral Center http://www.lib.usf.edu/distance/homepage/citation.html Bibliographic Formats for Citing Electronic Information http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles/ Citing Cyberspace (Lester, James D.) http://longman.awl.com/englishpages/cyber.htm Electronic Reference -- Style Manuals http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Memorial/citing.htm Internet Public Library list of sites http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/netciteFARQ.html OCLC Guide to cataloging Internet resources http://www.oclc.org/oclc/man/9256cat/toc.htm Style Guide for Online Hypertext http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Overview.html ___________________________________________________________________________top 4. Walt Crawford critique of Coffman article Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 15:29:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Dahn <dahn[at]hermes.law.stetson.edu> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Subject: Critique of Earth's Largest Library Many thanks to Christine Lind Hage for posting this link -- I would have completely missed the critique otherwise. As strongly as I urged all of you to read Coffman's original article back in March, I now urge you to read Walt Crawford's critique if you are at all interested in ELL. It is an important contribution to this discussion. (more about this later) http://home.att.net/~wcc.libmedx/gutting.htm -- Mike Michael Dahn Librarian, Webmaster Stetson University College of Law dahn[at]law.stetson.edu (727) 562-7800 x7681 ___________________________________________________________________________top 5. 10 Graces for New Librarians Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 06:18:40 -0400 From: "Jacqueline Haun" <jehaun[at]umich.edu> To: Patricia Rivers <privers[at]wahoo.sjsu.edu> Cc: newlib-l[at]usc.edu Subject: Re: 10 Graces for New Librarians On 13 Aug 99, at 20:08, Patricia Rivers wrote: > I missed the previous messages, and just saw this reference to "10 Graces > for New Librarians". Would someone please send me the full citation? > Patricia, it can be found on the Web at: http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/albany.html Jacqueline (And yes, I cc'd to the list in case anyone else wanted quick and easy access...;-) ) ============================================== Jacqueline Haun Master's Degree Student School of Information University of Michigan jehaun[at]umich.edu ============================================= ___________________________________________________________________________top 6. ALA/SRRT Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty Task Force (website) At http://libr.org/HHP ... the SRRT Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty Task Force now has a web page, with a bibliography, a discussion of current legislation relating to poverty issues, a collection of internet resources, and the following introduction: Despite current "prosperity", millions remain hungry, homeless, and destitute. Most working poor people are barely "making it." The income gap increasingly widens. Poor-bashing has become common-place in media & politics while corporate welfare soars and conglomerates grow even bigger and more powerful. Incredibly, ALA -- until 1990 -- had never developed a formal policy on library service to poor people. Nor had there been an ALA unit dedicated to ensuring that libraries be accessible and useful to low-income citizens, as well as better informing the whole population about the dimensions, causes, and ways to end poverty itself. In that year, ALA Membership and Council approved a Poor People's Policy, but it long went unnoticed and unimplemented. In 1996, SRRTers formed a Task Force to resurrect and promote the ALA guidelines. Subsequently, the TF mounted major conference programs, secured policy-support from ALA Presidential candidates, initiated a SRRT resolution on poverty-related subject headings, distributed resource information, encouraged the OLOS (Office for Literacy & Outreach Services) Advisory Committee to create a Poverty Subcommittee, published a first-ever statement on class and libraries in American Libraries, and spawned an activist's "cookbook," Poor People and Library Services (McFarland, 1998), edited by TF member Karen Venturella. There is still much to do: * Annual programming * Lobbying ALA & Congress * Initiating a clearinghouse on library-related poverty issues (like fees, fines, and borrowing privileges) * Publishing a newsletter We can do it all. It only depends on members willing to contribute their time, energy and expertise. The Task Force on Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty is one of several issue oriented Task Forces within the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) of the American Library Association. SRRT has worked effectively to make ALA more democratic and to establish progressive priorities not only for the Association, but also for the entire profession. Concern for civil and economic rights was an important element in the founding of SRRT and remains an urgent concern today. SRRT believes that libraries and librarians must recognize and help solve social problems and inequities in order to carry out their mandate to work for the common good and bolster democracy. Want to Become a Member? Membership in the Task Force is open to anyone who joins the Social Responsibilities Round Table. For further information, contact Karen M. Venturella, Task Force Chair, at Sprague Library, Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 phone: 973-655-7153 fax: 973-655-7780 email: venturellak[at]mail.montclair.edu To join the American Library Association and SRRT, contact ALA Membership services at 1-800-545-2533 fax: 312-944-2641 email: membership[at]ala.org ALA/SRRT Task Force On Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association ___________________________________________________________________________top 7. Summary Report of SFPL's Post Occupancy Evaluation (New Main) http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/www/poe.htm ___________________________________________________________________________top 8. Library Journal editorial on SFPL Post Occupancy Evaluation http://www.bookwire.com/ljdigital/editorial.article$29030 The Key Lesson from San Francisco Staff and public input is useless when it's ignored "Already the stuff of legends, the saga of the new main library in San Francisco has just added a new chapter. Last month a team comprised of architect Cynthia Ripley and library consultants Florence Mason and Susan Kent (director of the Los Angeles P.L.) presented a massive Main Library Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) to a meeting of the staff and, a few days earlier, to the San Francisco Public Library Commission. The POE clearly isn't the last word in this story, which will go on for decades." ___________________________________________________________________________top 9. SF Chronicle article on SFPL Post Occupancy Evaluation Throwing the Book at Library Study says S.F. main branch lacks shelf space, has confusing layout San Francisco Chronicle, August 27, 1999 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/27/MN8913.DTL "San Francisco's 3-year-old main library may be a busy and beautiful building, but its shelf space is already full and its layout confuses many visitors, a new city-commissioned study says. "Fixing all the problems detailed in the report could cost millions of dollars, concede library officials, who agree with the report's basic findings. They have not even begun to think about where they might get the money." ___________________________________________________________________________top 10. Letter from James Chaffee to the San Francisco Chronicle in response to their August 27 article Dear Editor: I read with interest your cover story on the Post Occupancy Evaluation of the New Main Library. With a fair amount of detail regarding What, Where and When, your reporter could have devoted just a bit of newspaper space to Why. Why is part of the story too. The reason for the debacle that is the New Main Library is the "public private partnership." The purpose of the library was subverted for the personal benefit of those who were raising private money. Among many other examples, the managing partner of the architectural firm and the president of the Library Commission considered it a badge of honor that they had prominent positions in the money raising organization (instead of doing their jobs?). The report says as much when it notes at page 2-1: "[It] is therefore not whether mistakes were made, but whether the perspective of the design team and the perspective of those who currently operate the facility were *congruent*. (Emphasis in original.) Thus the function of the library became a beggar in its own house in favor of those who were drinking at the income stream of private money. It was nothing less than the conversion of public assets to private benefit. While this was going on, planning details were openly mocked by library officials who were busy stirring Martinis for the New Main. Sincerely, James Chaffee ___________________________________________________________________________top 11. SFPL Petition, 1991 19 February 1991 To the Library Commissioners San Francisco's new main library building is much needed and eagerly anticipated. Many meetings have been held to elicit staff expertise for designing this structure. Yet only a modicum of input has been heeded. Three major points need correction: 1. SPACE. Of the 375,000 square feet promised, much of it will be all but useless. This has come about through peculiarities of design (wedge-shaped rooms, few secure spaces for restricted reference materials, etc.) and a certain inflexibility in the permanent placing of reference desks, bookcases, and other furniture - an insistence on conformity to "architectural conepts" rather than practical use. Librarians have asked for a modular approach and flexibility; architects are insisting on a set-in-stone permanence that does not fit the practical daily needs of a successfully functioning library. Off-site storage is already looming as a possibility; obviously the current plan for the new building is not meeting the needs set forth to voters to justify the expenditure. 2. HEALTH. A) The absence of REAL WINDOWS (i.e., openable windows as opposed to glass walls) creates an indoor environment redolent with building-material chemicals and an excellent breeding ground for germs that cause a variety of illnesses - all of which will be recycled again and again. Well aware of the growing medical and now legal literature on "sick building syndrome" and of innovations by architects in Europe and other parts of the English-speaking world staff members have insisted on the inclusion all over the library of openable windows. 3. ENERGY. Ironically, the reason cited for closed windows is conformity to a California Energy Commission regulation for conserving energy in public buildings. With San Francisco's climate, the city needs to heat the current building for four months of the year; a sealed new building will require energy expenditure for all twelve months just to maintain a livable environment, creating an increased and ongoing unnecessary expenditure for an ever-decreasing city budget. Other public buildings, such as schools, are built throughout California each year - with windows that open, successfully enough to satisfy the California Energy Commission. Willie Brown, in his endorsement of the bond to build a new library for San Fransicso proclaimed that we should "do it right". Spending from $92 to $98 million dollars on a structure in which librarians are being asked to cram their books and services into preconceived, inadequate spaces, in which San Francisco's climate is ignored, in which the health of staff and citizenry is glibly disregarded, and in which ongoing budgetary limitations are not given a thought, is hardly "doing it right" by San Francisco or San Franciscans. Staff input and suggestions have been based on careful research and considerations of public trust, the uniqueness of San Francisco's climate, and a sound knowledge of the everyday needs of properly functioning libraries. What is presented here is an outline of unworkable and totally unacceptable conditions that are now being built into the new library. We, the undersigned staff, respectfully request that the Library Commissioners take a close and hard look at the plans for our new library and not set their names to an edifice that betrays the intent for which the building gained public support and grossly betrays the trust of the citizens of San Francisco. (Signed by 31 librarians. Two others had their signatures removed out of fear of reprisal by the administration.) ___________________________________________________________________________top 12. Censorship on library listservs Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 18:04:30 -0700 (PDT) From: "Gordon Riley" <gdriley[at]hotmail.com> To: publib <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu> Subject: Censorship on library listservs I wrote the following article for School Library Journal last June, but it was not published because the Dr. Laura controversy had gotten old by then. It is not about her so much as it is about how we respond to issues. I had a specific word limit, so it is not as detailed as I might have liked, but I decided to put it on the listservs in the form that I would have had it published. I wanted to wait until the majority of our subscribers in school libraries were back to work, not because I was waiting to see if my prediction about a law requiring school libraries to install filtering software would come true. WHOSE LISTSERV IS IT ANYWAY? I had never heard of Dr. Laura until I ignored a flash of postings about her on the PUBLIB listserv. An electronic mailing list of mainly public librarians was discussing a radio psychobabble-talkshowhost's attack on ALA for linking to a university site containing graphic sexual information for teens. After the first day I deleted all the messages based on their subject lines, because I wasn't much interested in this new permutation of an endlessly unsolvable topic. Until a posting on LM_NET, a list exclusively for school librarians, drew my attention. It reported that Dr. Laura had been involved in getting money pledged for the benefit of children to be withdrawn, as part of a broader 3-part attack on ALA. An interesting discussion arose, but was quickly cut short when the moderator of the listserv posted a pair of edicts which stated that the Dr. Laura controversy was not relevant to school libraries and that henceforth anyone who attempted to post a message on the forbidden topic would suffer the 21st century equivalent of having their tongues cut off, would be banned from posting to the list. As a previous critic of the moderator, I was promptly censored for arguing that the issue was an important topic for discussion. Peter Milbury, whose sole qualification for holding the important post of moderator is that he started the dang thing before most of us had email, insisted that he was justified in banning me "due to the continued postings on Dr. L. which were not on target." The idea that Dr. Laura's attack on ALA has no bearing on school libraries is absurd for at least 3 major reasons. Her big complaint is ALA's position against filtering software. In my last school in North Carolina there was no hotter issue in the Technology Committee than the fact that we did not have it. To knuckle under and install Net Nanny to the detriment of my kids' educations would have been a real easy thing for me to do. Moreover, a bill was introduced in Congress that would have required me to do so. Although the bill did not have sufficient support to pass in that form at that time, direct political pressure such as is being applied by Dr. Laura ensures that another such bill will be considered soon, perhaps as a national election issue. Every day that Dr. L's tirade continues, every mention she makes of it, makes it that much more likely that principals and school board members are going to have their attention drawn to the associated issues. The second reason has to do with her attack on Columbia University's Go Ask Alice site. It is not that she is attacking this site, but that she is attacking it because it gives accurate, honest information for teens about sexuality issues. Is it such a great leap to think that books dealing with this kind of topic might be next to draw fire on the Dr. Laura show? These two issues, filtering software and sexuality information, are crucial, everyday issues for those responsible for running school libraries, therefore public opinion and those trying to manipulate opinion are relevant. The third reason has to do with the idea of teaching about libraries. Have school librarians so bailed on this concept that the idea of informing teachers about potential classroom issues related to libraries is not even considered, even when they are national issues about constitutional questions related directly to kids? Is there no possibility whatsoever that a school librarian somewhere might want to talk to the students about this during library period? Dr. L is promoting the general idea that public libraries are bad places for kids. If so, this would mean an entirely different role for the school library, not being able to depend on the resources of the public library to supplement the collection. Generally and specifically, there is no question that this bears directly on school libraries. Even if relevance was not so obvious, should discussion of a particular topic be banned in a librarians' discussion? Is it not one of the guiding principals of our profession providing access to information? It is for the user to decide what information is relevant to him, and what to ignore or delete. The only even halfway logical argument that can be made is that this situation doesn't have a direct bearing on school libraries YET. Except perhaps for what it shows us about ourselves. Librarians talk a good game about free speech and how spirited debate leads to intelligent solutions, but do we really believe and practice it? The moderators of PUBLIB and LM_NET have both expressed to me that they are more concerned with seeing that people are not insulted and offended. They say it is important to suppress flamers, which is Net lingo for people who seem to delight in making personal attacks on those with whom they disagree. They claim that it is their duty to suppress these discussions by prior restraint, that is, before they lead to flames. Yet I must argue that an adapted truism is closer to the ideals that I would expect librarians to support. There should be something on my listserv to offend anybody. Gordon Riley, Electronic Resources Librarian Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg PA The opinions expressed are my own! ******* "It's all about sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made." Former NFL Head Coach Monte Clark who heard it from Geroge Burns. ___________________________________________________________________________top 13. HOW TO MAINTAIN AN ALTERNATIVE LIBRARY The Civic Media Center Five Years On By James Schmidt, Coordinator _Librarians at Liberty_ vol. 5, no. 2 & vol. 6, nos. 1 & 2 (June 1998): pp. 46 - 47. In the beginning in 1993 a group of alternative publishers and supporters of free media came together in Gainesville, Florida to launch an information insurgency. They decided to name their effort "The Civic Media Center and Library, Inc.," usually shortened to the "Civic Media Center," the "Center," or the "CMC." Originally conceived as a public archive and clearinghouse for independent, non-corporate print and recorded material, including a lending library, the Center has grown in five years into an incredible community resource that provides the services of a library, meeting space, office space, music hall, youth center, and arts center all rolled into one. It has been a fun but sometimes hectic and trying five years. There are some important lessons for folks interested in building alternative libraries to learn from the Gainesville community's experience with the Civic Media Center. In January of 1994 retired librarian and CMC board member Charles Willett wrote an article for his publication Librarians at Liberty about the founding of the Center and the high hopes that the original organizers had for their brainchild (see p. 28). Now in 1998 many of those original players, with some notable exceptions including former director Joe Courter and Charles himself, have moved on to other projects, but the Center remains. To those of us who have been around for the long haul, it seems that the original goals of the Center have been met and in some ways surpassed by all the growth and changes that the project has undergone. The original CMC lending library, based conceptually on the example of the Alternative Reading Room in Asheville, NC (no longer in existence), is still the anchor of the project. Thanks to generous donations of material from Charles' CRISES Press and many other local donors, the library has grown by leaps and bounds, and now includes almost two thousand books and hundreds of video and audio tapes. The collection also includes dozens of magazine titles as well; these are available for in-house use, with the Alternative Press Index as a research guide and photocopies available in the back room for five cents each. Once the Center got up and running and was beginning to be a self-sustaining project, the organizers turned their attention to internal structure and long-term planning beyond the basics of daily operation. Incorporation as an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was one of the first hurdles to clear. The precise configuration of the relationships among the board of directors required by law for incorporation, the paid staffer (manager/coordinator), and the volunteer staffers has been one of our longest-running confusions. I am pleased to report, however, that true to the egalitarian ideals that our collection promotes, the staff of the CMC have worked very hard to come up with positive, democratic ways to channel our collective ingenuity and dreams for the project. As Charles' article from 1994 states: "Corporations need officers and a board of directors, but operations may be handled better as a collective." Our experience at the CMC has proven that a collective model is the best basic structure to work from. We've experimented with various formats in terms of committees and "officers" and have settled into a loose collective structure that incorporates the varying levels of drive and availability amongst our volunteers by delegating responsibility to individual "mission chiefs" and a series of ad hoc committees. The coordinator oversees day-to-day operations and the group makes collective decisions at weekly volunteer meetings and a series of biannual retreats jokingly referred to as "boot camps." We have reconstituted the board as a representative sample of staffers at these retreats. This body, the collective as represented at a given retreat, is the highest decision-making power of the Center. Volunteers are essential to the functioning of the Center. They staff the space during regular operating hours, set up and run events, maintain the membership, finance, and collections records, assemble newsletters and other mailings, engage in phone drives, and perform many other tasks too numerous to list here, all of which are essential to making the CMC go. The volunteers and staff have found fertile ground in which to plant the project's roots in the many layers of Gainesville's progressive community. It is these "people connections" that really make an operation like ours work. One of our greatest assets has been the network of activists, musicians, counterculture folks, professionals ans small business people that former director Joe Courter has cultivated in his twenty-plus years of living and working around town. People are what the struggle for freedom that fuels projects like the CMC is all about, and Joe has taught many of us at the CMC by his example that almost anything is possible, even on a shoestring budget, when you keep the positive, productive connections between people at the forefront of all your work. Cynics often say of business and politics in our society, "It's not what you do, it's who you know." Looking back on the many powerful examples of organizing and community-building that I have seen in five years of participation at the Civic Media Center, I have to say that the work of folks like Joe and the CMC volunteers continually reminds me that in grassroots community organizing, it's who you know and what you do. Although there are many sides to the Center these days, from public forum to punk rock music hall, the library remains at the core of the Center's mission. We are continually working to improve the collection's organization and accessibility. One of our greatest achievements within the last two years has been the implementation of a program in which our collection is being added to the local public library's electronic database. The library is the financial base of the project as well. The truly brilliant aspect of the original Civic Media Center design was to create the lending library as a kind of "information cooperative," in which use of the collection was supported by paid memberships available for a $10 to $20 sliding-scale yearly donation. This membership aspect has allowed the Center to have a concrete record of its community base of support in both the financial and practical senses. Our membership database functions as an organizing tool as well. By sending out newsletters that include updates on the Center's functioning and a list of planned events, we are able to bring people back again and again to share information with them and get their input and participation in local political and cultural happenings that we host here and at other sites around town. By keeping detailed records of how much and how regularly folks are willing to pay for their memberships (some of our supporters pay monthly , quarterly, etc.) we are able to know who we can tap for emergency spot donations when funds are short. Periodic membership renewal drives by phone and mail accomplish the same goal in a more measured, sustainable fashion. The building of our fundraising programs has been a long, slow process that is affected by many factors, including things like the number and frequency of public events held at the Center within a given period, changes in volunteer staffing, and the availability of other community resources such as large music halls. It is important for folks considering a similar endeavor to understand that the Center was very lucky to enjoy an initial fundraising push that consisted of very substantial out-of-pocket donations from local supporters, in particular Charles Willett, who funded the first year of operations almost solely out of his own money. For folks in communities where radical media may not enjoy such a solid base of support, it is important to consider the option of going for large grants to supply the initial start-up costs. However, we at the CMC have followed the advice of our comrades in other organizations whose experience has taught them that too much reliance on fickle grant money can prove disastrous to a grassroots organization. Our advice, based our experience: build your roots up strong in the soil of your community! If you do your work well and provide services your community needs, the nourishment that flows in through those roots will sustain you and allow you to grow. In addition to our membership program, which provides us with a fairly stable base flow of income, we hold benefit concerts at local clubs, collect voluntary donations at meetings, discussions, poetry readings, art openings, and music shows held at the Center, and engage in service exchange projects such as providing volunteers to staff parking services at a local music festival in exchange for a cut of the fees. The triumph of the CMC is that in all our fundraising endeavors we have only relied on one small grant which we received from the Resist! Foundation for a new copy machine. We are truly a grassroots, community-supported project. The progressive community in Gainesville has come to see us as an invaluable resource, and that appreciation is reflected in the fact that we are able to consistently collect enough money to pay for operations, and have even increased the modest pay for the Coordinator's position. Sometimes we even have a little left over at the end of the month! The Civic Media Center is a heroic grassroots achievement. To the coalition of liberals, radicals and counterculture folks who hold it together and keep it going, the Center represents our little community's contribution to the next wave of popular resistance to corporate greed and government abuse of power�that is, organizing around access to information and the use of alternative information as a launching point for direct action on issues that affect the everyday lives of people here in our community and around the world. We hear it said time and again by folks who visit the Center: "I wish my town had a CMC" or "Gosh, every town oughtta have a place like this!" ___________________________________________________________________________top 14. Hermenaut: "Irish Bars and Nothingness" I am very excited about Hermenaut, "the journal of heady philosophy." What it is is a very fat, very intelligent, well-produced zine that grapples with philosophical topics, always connected to our culture as it is apprehended by its young (30 something) writers. The latest issue is number 15, "Fake Authenticity," and it is 230 pages of great reading. They have a place on a web but nothing but contact information there as yet. (www.hermenaut.com) Here's a very nice statement of what they are about from the last issue, in keeping with the theme of fake authenticity: "Irish Bars and Nothingness" a testimonial by Jean-Paul Sartre In the beginning, there was the Irish Bar (le Bar Irlandais). The Irish Bar had identity, it had substantiality, it was purely and simply what it was: a plenitude of Irish-Barness. There is no such thing as "human nature," just a shared human condition: the anguished awareness of our annihilating thirst, a void which can only be filled at the Irish Bar. However, the Fall of Man was his expulsion from the Irish Bar, and we are today condemned to the nothingness of thirst. The mainstream magazine grows weary of trying to deliver itself from the torment of thirst. Frightened by its vertiginous thirst, it settles for the "Irish Bar." This ersatz Irish Bar--which is what is is not, and which is not what it is--is merely a *decompression* of the Irish Bar. The mainstream magazine permits itself to be pseudo-persuaded of the Irish-Barness of the "Irish Bar," by cynically disarming in advance the very notion of Irish-Barness; by becoming disparagingly indifferent to the very possibility of the Irish Bar. However, although it may repress the truth about the "Irish Bar" in which it drinks, the mainstream magazine remains thirsty; it knows that it is in perpetual flight toward an Irish Bar it can never find. This state of existence can only be called Hell. The zine adopts a different attitude; it accepts as a given the anguish associated with its thirst, its nothingness, its lack of Irish Bar. The zine will not allow itself to be pseudo-convinced of the authenticity of the "Irish Bar"; it remains critical, and holds to those norms and criteria regarding the Irish-Barness of the Irish Bar which the mainstream magazine has abandoned. The zine is less cynical than the mainstream magazine, and remains willing to consider evidence for and against the authenticity of any given "Irish Bar." But this open-mindedness, admirable though it may be in some ways, brings into being a world where there is a place for every impossible belief. There is always a chance, then, that--like the mainstream magazine--the zine will eventually make room for those impossible beliefs against which there is evidence they cannot conceal. Hermenaut rejects the attitude of the mainstream magazine, and does the zine one better: Hermenaut wills its unslakeable thirst, and *affirms* itself as thirst. Hermenaut refuses the quest for the Irish Bar, and devotes itself instead to maintaining the tension of the unattainability of Irish-Barness. In rejecting the notion that the Irish Bar is the source of all authenticity, Hermenaut has disengaged itself from the world of mainstream magazines and zines alike, and lives *liberated* in the authenticity of its thirst. How to subscribe to Hermenaut: Send $20 for 4 issues to: Hermenaut PO Box 141 Allston, MA 02134 The last few issues are also available, and can be bought individually. Issue 11/12 was on Camp and costs $8; issue no. 13 was on Vertigo and can be had for $7, and the great issue no. 14 was on Anorexia and Technology, and goes for $6. The current issue is $6. -Rory ___________________________________________________________________________top 15. Cliche Finder From: "Thomas Pitre" <tpitre[at]tenforward.com> To: "ResPool" <respool[at]listbot.com> Subject: Resource: Cliche finder Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 12:37:58 -0700 ResPool - http://members.tripod.com/~rtiess/respool.htm I love a good cliche more than I love life itself. If you need a cliche for your next dinner party, see: http://www.westegg.com/cliche/ T. Pitre Sequim, WA ========signature starts here==================== Thomas Pitre Associates Thomas Pitre, Ph.D. Sequim, WA USA http://pitreassociates.com email: thomas[at]pitreassociates.com Phone: 360-683-7699 FAX: East Coast (e-Fax) (978) 389-0497 West Coast (Fax Wave) (209) 821-9517 Visit our classes and listings at:: http://pitreassociates.com/onlineone.html ___________________________________________________________________________top 16. "Sex in the Stacks" Article on librarian porn by Candi Strecker http://www.chiprowe.com/articles/library.html ___________________________________________________________________________top 17. Article on Infoshops by Chris Dodge, published in American Libraries http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/infoshop.html ___________________________________________________________________________top 18. comics research bibliography http://www.rpi.edu/~bulloj/comxbib.html Compiled by Michael Rhode and John Bullough, this international bibliography will prove very useful to several constituencies. These include scholars investigating the cultural and political role of comics, students and artists interested in the creative process of comic-drawing, and collectors. The bibliography contains over 5,400 entries on a number of related subjects, including comic books, comic strips, animation, caricature, and cartoons, among others. For ease of use, the bibliography is divided into four large sections: History, Criticism and Education; Features and Reviews; Business and Marketing; and Original Works. Topical bibliographies and an internal keyword search engine are also available. [MD] >From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1999. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________________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 8-Sep-99.