Library Juice 3:5 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 3:5 - February 2, 2000 Contents: 1. Entrepreneurial libraries 2. Hear It Again/Libraries and Their Ashes 3. Blocked by CyberPatrol: www.thelibraryshop.com 4. Song Yongyi released and back in USA 5. Gary Price website update 6. SearchEdu.com and SearchGov.com 7. Women in the History of American Librarianship 8. Racial and Ethnic Diversity Among Librarians: A Status Report 9. Phony/Malicious MLK site 10. EnVironmental Education oNline - EVEN 11. free!way 12. Study Circle on Political Librarianship (Mexico) 13. Email Copyright Tutorial available free to ALA members 14. John Pateman letter calling for a democratization of IFLA 15. The Library as an Agency of Culture (call for papers) 16. LIBER: REVISTA DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA 17. LAURENTIUS 3/99 18. Etoys Finally Drops Lawsuit, Pays Court Costs 19. Burnt out guy at the library 20. FishBase Quote for the week: "Every day computers are making people easier to use." -Unknown Homepage of the week: Ken Thompson's Home Page http://www.pform.org/ken/ _____________________________________________________________________________top 1. Entrepreneurial libraries Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 12:17:02 +1300 From: "Alistair Kwun" <a.kwun[at]auckland.ac.nz> To: "New Librarians" <newlib-l[at]usc.edu> Subject: [website] entrepreneurial libraries Check this out!! -- Alistair http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/entre/ _____________________________________________________________________________top 2. Hear It Again/Libraries and Their Ashes A Ted Hughes Poem, "Hear It Again," and an article by Alberto Manguel, "Libraries and Their Ashes," in the Index On Censorship http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/299/hughesmanguel.html _____________________________________________________________________________top 3. Blocked by CyberPatrol: http://www.thelibraryshop.com What? That's right, Maybe I should say it again: Blocked by CyberPatrol: http://www.thelibraryshop.com I ran into the block surfing with the filter on at the reference desk at the Campbell branch of the Santa Clara County Library on Saturday. Go figure. -Rory _____________________________________________________________________________top 4. Song Yongyi released and back in USA On January 28, 2000, the People's Republic of China released College Librarian Yongyi Song. In an official statement from the Chinese Embassy in USA, authorities say they "have treated his case with leniency according to law and decided not to pursue his criminal responsibility." After more than five months of detention on suspicion of gathering state secrets Mr. Song arrived in the USA on Saturday the 29th. Contrary to reports from Beijing, he said that he had "refused'' to confess and that "all those charges are very ridiculous''. He stated, that the documents he was accused of taking were widely available during the Cultural Revolution. On January 19, 2000, the IFLA / FAIFE Committee wrote a letter to the Premier of the People's Republic of China in regard to the arrest of Mr. Song. The FAIFE reaction to the arrest of Song Yongyi in China can be found at: http://www.faife.dk/news/china0001.htm. Further information on the latest development, including media reports, can be found at at the Dickinson College web site: http://www.dickinson.edu/action/#new FAIFE (Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression) is the instrument of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to promote intellectual freedom and the vital mission of libraries as gateways to knowledge and ideas. FAIFE advocates intellectual freedom in all aspects related to libraries and librarianship. FAIFE was launched in 1997 and consists of a Committee and an Office. The Committee has 29 members nominated by national library associations from almost all parts of the world. IFLA / FAIFE Office c/o Copenhagen Department of Culture Islands Brygge 37 DK 2300 Copenhagen S. Denmark Phone +45-33 66 46 37 or +45-33 66 46 27 Mobile: +45 20 26 77 30 Fax +45-33 66 70 64 E-mail: faife[at]ifla.org Web site: http://www.faife.dk _____________________________________________________________________________top 5. Gary Price website update >===== Original Message From Gary Price <gprice[at]gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> ===== It has been about 2 months since my last message and since that time the web reference compilations I organize have continued to grow. Perhaps the biggest growth areas have been the two "breaking news" compilations. NewsCenter http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/newscenter.htm Text based news from a variety of sources. A great deal of business and industry news. and Current Awareness using Web Accessible Audio and Video http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/audio.htm Listen and watch breaking news from around the globe. Also, more and more conference keynote speeches and academic presentations are coming online. It's amazing how much is available and how useful it can be. **Note the new page of major market U.S./Canada newsradio and television newscasts. http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/majmkt.htm ------------------------------------------------------ Here are the urls for the other compilations. direct search Specialized Searchable Databases direct search is composed of 3 pages. Main Page http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/direct.htm Direct Search-State Page http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/state.htm Direct Search-Bibliograhies http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/bibs.htm Direct Search-Bibliograhies, Library Catalogs, Librarian Tools http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/bibs.htm ------------------------------------------------ Price's List of Lists http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm Business and Industry rankings accessible "on the www". ----- Speech and Transcript Center http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/speech.htm Read full transcripts of speeches from business and government leaders. ----------------------------- Congressional Research Service WWW Accesssible Reports http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/crs.htm While far from complete MANY CRS reports are available in full-text. --------------------------------- Thanks for your continued support. cheers, gary Gary D. Price, MLIS George Washington University Virginia Campus Library Gelman Library Ashburn, VA and Washington, D.C. gprice[at]gwu.edu 703-726-8235 703-726-8237 (fax) _____________________________________________________________________________top 6. SearchEdu.com http://www.searchedu.com/ SearchGov.com http://www.searchgov.com/ Launched on January 14 by MaxBot.com, the creators of SearchGov and SearchMil (reviewed in the January 12, 2000 _Scout Report_), this new search engine claims to index over 20 million pages in the .edu domain. Like Google and its other search engines, SearchEdu caches the versions of pages that its robots find and offers a simple keyword search interface and ranked returns that include brief excerpts from the site and links to the site or the cached version. At SearchEdu, users can also try their query in other MaxBot search engines and alternative reference sources such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. Additional resources include reference links, resources for calculations and conversions, and a (sadly outdated) metapage of links to colleges and universities. [MD] > From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ _____________________________________________________________________________top 7. Women in the History of American Librarianship http://www.pe.net/~ellerbee/wom_lib.html Purpose I created this page as part of a project at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Library and Information Science in June, 1996. After almost a year of study, I had read about Cutter, Otlet, and Dewey, but I couldn't name a single woman who had contributed to librarianship. This page is the result of my search for women in the history of librarianship. It is an effort to make the information easily available to others, be it for research purposes or for professional inspiration. Currently, I am working compiling a bio-bibliography on all of the women in the list. Selection Criteria After examining the initial research, certain librarians caught my interest. I chose the women for this page in a purely subjective manner. All of the women listed at the bottom of the page are worthy of interest and further study, but it is not practical to mount all of the biographies on this web page. Generally speaking, these women worked in the field for a great part of their career, rather than in the business-end or the academic-end of librarianship. Because I will be working in the field, I found these women more inspirational. In addition, I chose women who were active in the profession: creators of associations, active members of committees; communicators to others in the field via lecturing or publishing. Finally, I admired women who moved beyond the field and its internal interests, women who used libraries and librarianship as a stepping-stone to participating in, and improving, the world. Caution: You will not find detailed information on where the librarians were born or what their mother's religion was. You will find impressions of personality, character, and professional accomplishments. I remind the reader that this information represents only a beginning, to gather information on these women. It is far from being comprehensive. E-mail Lisa Bartle at: ellerbee[at]wcoil.com View Resume. Text - Copyright © 1996-99 Lisa Bartle Last Revised - 12/23/1999 13:39:44. _____________________________________________________________________________top 8. Racial and Ethnic Diversity Among Librarians: A Status Report Sandra Balderrama wrote: If you haven't seen already: Check out "Racial and Ethnic Diversity Among Librarians: A Status Report" at http://www.ala.org/alaorg/ors/racethnc.html This arcile by Mary Jo Lynch, Director, Officer for Research and Statistics at ALA...also appeared in the Nov. 1998 issue of American LIbraries. _____________________________________________________________________________top 9. Phony/Malicious MLK site From: Laverne Simoneaux <lsimoneaux[at]selu.edu> BI-L subscribers: The following is a post forwarded to me by a composition instructor at my university. It offers information about an MLK site which from the outside looks benign, but as you explore the site further brings up information sponsored by the hate group, Stormfront. For our purposes, this site gives us an great example of a site that from the outside and from the normal criteria for Web evaluation looks to be pro-MLK; but upon further exploration, we truly find that this site is a means to promote this hate group's agenda. You may want to include this in future lessons on web evaluation. Rock and Rollingly yours, Laverne >From My colleague Dan Butcher (originally from Nick Carbone, Writers' Center Director CSU Writers' Center (http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/WritingCenter)) In Salon.com, Lee Hubbard has a piece about a website, (http://www.martinlutherking.org), that on the surface looks to be a pro-King site, but that in reality is an anti-King site put on line by a hate group. The Salon article is available at (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/01/24/mlk). For those whose students regularly do research online, the site can be problematic. It uses, for example, government documents, giving it a ring of authenticity and fact. The article reports that site is maintained by Stormfront; "the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks hate groups, Stormfront is at the epicenter of the white supremacy movement on the Web." Hubbard speculates: "This new practice of mislabeling sites could mean an attempt by hate groups to sneak past Web filters. Or it could be a way to stealthily go after young people whose parents and teachers try to monitor what they read on the Web." I think this practice has some important implications. Here are few: 1. As WWW pages become easier to create, and as websites on evaluating sites continue to grow, there will develop, even more than now, a greater sense of what makes a website credible. A good degree of that will be based on surface features--see various checklist approaches to evaluating websites that focus prominently on these. However, as these checklists and surface features grow, more people will be able to use them to disguise content that would normally be suspect. 2. Given one, research evaluation will need to be more context-dependent and content-focused. It always already should be this, but now I think we'll have to emphasize it more than we might have in the past. 3. One way to help create a greater sense of context and content focus is to take the "research as conversation with a field of knowledge" metaphor that we use when we write and make it real for students by having them engage in conversations as they research so that alternate views and competing ideas can help them to test what they are reading and writing. Obviously the WWW can help extend such conversations beyond the classroom. I know there's no earth-shattering news--nothing new to this group--here, but thought the article offered a timely reminder as the semester begins. Laverne Simoneaux User Education Librarian Sims Memorial Library Southeastern Louisiana University SLU 10896 Hammond, Louisiana 70402 Phone:504-549-3965; Fax: 504-549-3995 lsimoneaux[at]selu.edu _____________________________________________________________________________top 10. EnVironmental Education oNline - EVEN EVEN is intended to serve college students and faculty as a resource of environmental information and as a tool to equip users to understand scholarly communication and master essential library research skills. The draft site has just been completed. Your comments are sought during the review period of spring 2000. http://eastlib.east.asu.edu/Reference/even/ Bill Johnson, Science Librarian ----- From ResPool Research Network - http://rtiess.tripod.com/respool.htm _____________________________________________________________________________top 11. free!way The Freedom Forum is putting up a new feature on its free! web site at http://www.freedomforum.org. It is called the free!way and is designed to serve as a "mall" where our visitors may go to find out about other web sites that have similar content dealing with First Amendment issues and developments. http://www.freedomforum.org/freeway/ ______________ Don Wood American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom http://www.ala.org/oif.html _____________________________________________________________________________top 12. Study Circle on Political Librarianship (Mexico) PLG members at the ALA mid-winter 2000 conference met with a representative of a group which wishes to establish a PLG-like group in Mexico. We are happy to present below a translation of their mission statement. We look forward to joint work and mutal support in the future! Mark Rosenzweig co-editor, Progressive Librarian Mission In Mexico, libraries and information centers are generally institutions which have been created and developed, not on an original, indigenous model, but in imitation of library practices from the First World countries. Regretably, on the other hand, libraries here have often been used for government/political purposes and to promote official political campaigns. These are among the principal reasons why Mexican libraries don't have an appropriate plan for development. We are conscious of the fact that libraries and information centers have been created without a clear commitment to the social classes they must serve. We also think that libraries here have become one of the resources globalization has usedto reinforce its power. Since library education in Mexico is based on a technical and management perspective, Mexican librarians don't realize the importance of linking librarianship with work in politics, sociology and other fields. Librarians participation and resistance against unilateral decisions is scarcely visible. Recognizing that democratic libraries and information centers can contribute to the transformation of social structures, our group is founded to promote the real particpation of the Mexican library community in the political and social aspects of libraraianship as well as contributing to the support of social movements and of non-govermental groups that fight for a Mexico with justice and social equity. Founders: Felipe Meneses Tello (felipe[at]math.unam.mx) Julia Gonzalez Valencia (jgonza[at]uiacia.bib.uia.mx) Celso Martinez Muncio (celsmtz[at]copitl.uam.mx) Martin Vera Cabanas (mvera69[at]yahoo.com) (afm[at]afmac.org.mx) _____________________________________________________________________________top 13. Email Copyright Tutorial available free to ALA members in February/March http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn9002.html _____________________________________________________________________________top 14. John Pateman letter calling for a democratization of IFLA 28 January 2000 Dear Editor (of IFLA Journal), I welcome the debate on IFLA at LA Council and the calls for greater involvement. I particularly welcome the additional funding "to help people to get involved with IFLA's work over the next four years". Yet, on the same page (LAR p76) it is stated that "priority for financial assistance (to attend IFLA conferences) will be given to Chair's or Secretaries of IFLA sections, members invited to give papers and also to members of IFLA Section Standing Committees". If you are not a member of the exclusive IFLA club how do you get in? I have applied for assistance to attend IFLA conferences each year since 1994 and have been rejected every times. This is despite my public interest in international affairs, motions to LA AGM on South Africa, Cuba etc. I will be applying again to go to this year's IFLA conference in Jerusalem, even though Palestinian Librarians that I have spoken to are understandably angry about what they see as an insensitive and naive political decision. It will effectively bar those unable to get permits as well as Arab representatives from states that do not have peace with Israel. Arab Library Associations have consequently decided to hold an alternative conference. Looking forward to 2002 when the IFLA conference will be held in Glasgow, Information for Social Change has approached the organisers to see if a programme for progressive library organisations can be arranged. Something similar was hosted recently by the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. Anyone who is interested in helping me to organise a radical and alternative programme for IFLA 2002 should contact me on 0181 545 3770. Yours sincerely, John Pateman Head of Libraries & Heritage _____________________________________________________________________________top 15. The Library as an Agency of Culture (call for papers) ( Apologies for cross-postings; recipients should feel free to forward this message to listserves of other interested scholarly communities) At the beginning of the 21st century there are more public libraries in the United States than McDonald's restaurants. In 1998 Americans visited libraries three times as often as they attended movie theatres. That same year more children participated in summer reading programs than Little League baseball. Although scholarship on libraries has told us much about the user in the life of the library, it has told us considerably less about the library in the life of the user. How much do we really know about the place of these ubiquitous institutions in American society and culture? How should we analyze the role of libraries in the modern "information age"? For the Summer, 2001, issue of AMERICAN STUDIES, we seek papers that analyze the American library as an agency of culture. We welcome papers that bring new methodological, theoretical, geographic, and cultural perspectives to the American library in its past and present forms, and that evaluate in new ways the cultural agencies performed by libraries in American life, including: - concepts of the library - libraries as contested sites for the production, storage, and dissimination of "cultural capital" (private and public libraries, archives, bookmobiles, the USIA, special collections, etc.) - the social and psychological history of reading facilitated by libraries - the material history of libraries (design, architecture, furniture, impact of new technology, etc.) - the library's interface with particular communities (prisons, hospitals, churches, factories, etc.) - the organization and sociology of knowledge (librarianship and the professions, catalog and classification systems, etc.) - the use and appropriation of libraries by particular populations (Asian, Hispanic, African and Native Americans, children, homeless, immigrants, workers, women, gays and lesbians, etc.) - the representation of librarians in literature, film, television, the arts, etc. Submissions should: conform to style conventions found in AMERICAN STUDIES; not exceed 6,000 words (excluding endnotes); and be accompanied by a 100-word abstract. Authors are asked not to put their names on the manuscript. All inquires should be addressed to issue editors. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 1, 2001. Send ONE copy of the manuscript to EACH of the issue editors: Wayne A. Wiegand, Professor Thomas August, Assistant Professor School of Library and Info. Studies Dept. of English, 207 Lind Hall University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Minnesota Madison, WI 53706 Minneapolis, MN 55455 wwiegand[at]facstaff.wisc.edu augst002[at]tc.umn.edu and TWO copies and a COMPUTER DISK COPY to: Editors, AMERICAN STUDIES 2120 Wescoe Hall University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas 66045 amerstud[at]ukans.edu _____________________________________________________________________________top 16. LIBER: REVISTA DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA INFORMA A LA COMUNIDAD BIBLIOTECARIA DE LA PUBLICACION DE NUEVO NUMERO. NUEVA EPOCA, VOLUMEN 1. NUMERO 3, SEPTIEMBRE-DICIEMBRE 1999 CONTENIDO EDITORIAL ARTICULOS IMPACTO DE LOS RESULTADOS DE LA CONGRUENCIA EXTERNA EN EL CURRICULUM DE LA ESCUELA DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA E INFORMACION DE LA UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE SAN LUIS POTOSI ROSA MARIA MARTINEZ RIDER EL PAPEL DE LA BIBLIOTECA EN LA CONSERVACION DE LA TRADICION ORAL ARIEL RODRIGUEZ GARCIA NOTAS LOS BIBLITOECARIOS EN NEZAHUALCOYOTL: ENCUENTRO ANA LILIA FIGUEROA SANCHEZ, MARIA CONCEPCION LOERA ROSADO, ARTURO ORTIZ NEGRETE "FUENTES DE INFORMACION EN CIENIAS SOCIALES Y HUMANIDADES" PRESENTACION DEL LIBRO DEL MTRO. ARIO GARZA MERCADO. ADOLFO MIR ARAUJO, JOSE LUIS MENDEZ ENTREVISTA ENTREVISTA A LOS ESTUDIANTES MEXICANOS DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA QUE ASISTIERON A LA CONFERENCIA ANUAL DE LA TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 1999 SERVICIOS BIBLIOTECARIOS Y DE INFORMACION BIBLOTECA DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES RESE#AS BIBLOTECA DIGITAL Y ORDEN DOCUMENTAL RAMIRO LAFUENTE LOPEZ LAS HUMANIDADES EN WEB Y EN CD-ROM ELSA BARBERENA BLASQUEZ, ARACELI NOGUEZ ORTIZ NOTICIAS EVENTOS Para informes de la revista enviar correO electronico a: liber[at]servidor.unam.mx Asimismo los invitamos a que envien sus colaboraciones a nuestro correo electronico U oficinas. Atentamente JUAN JOSE CALVA GONZALEZ EDITOR GENERAL LIBER REVISTA DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA ASOCIACION MEXICANA DE BIBLIOTECARIOS, A.C. Angel Urraza 817-A Col. Del Valle 03100 Mexico, D.F. tel. 575 33 96 tel. fax. 575 11 35 e-mail: liber[at]servidor.unam.mx http://www.ambac.org.mx/Publicaciones/liber/liber.htm LIBER REVISTA DE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA es de distribucion gratuita para los socios de AMBAC (vigentes). _____________________________________________________________________________top 17. LAURENTIUS 3/99 Contents (English translation in brackets): RAFAEL CAPURRO: - Ethische Perspektiven bibliothekarischen Handelns (S. 121) (Ethical perspectives on the dealings of librarians) - FAIFE fuer ungehinderten Zugang zur Information und Menschenrechte in Kuba ... (S. 122) (FAIFE for unlimited access to information and human rights in Cuba) - ... und im Iran (S. 124) (and in Iran) - Verbrechen beim Schreiben (S. 124) (Crimes during writing) - Meiningen/Karlsruhe: Staatsanwalt gegen Comic-Verleger (S. 126) (State prosecutor versus comics-opublisher) RAIMUND DEHMLOW: - Nazi-Raubkunst in deutschen Bibliotheken - endlich ein Thema!? (S. 128) (Nazi-spoils in German libraries - at last an issue!) - Grundsaetze der Washingtoner Konferenz in Bezug auf Kunstwerke, die von den Nazis beschlagnahmt wurden (S. 128) (Principles of the Washington Conference concerning works of art seized by the Nazis) JANUSZ DUNIN-HORKAWICZ: - Deutsch-polnische Bibliothekskontakte (S. 137) (German-Polish Library contacts) IRMELA ROSCHMANN-STELTENKAMP: Broadening horizons and gaining experiences - Anglo-German co-operation in librarianship (S. 140) JÜRGEN FREYTAG: - Japanisches (bibliothekarisches) Allerlei (Teil 2) (S. 144) (Japanese potpurri) - Die Bibliothek verbrannt - Christel Neudeck berichtet aus dem Kosovo (S. 152) (Library burnt down - C.N. reports from Kosovo) - Deutsche Exilliteratur: in Argentinien gerettet (S. 153) (German literature in exile: saved in Argentina) - Woanders gelesen: "Ein Sonnenstrahl" (S. 154) (Read elsewhere: "A ray of sunshine") HORST GEBAUER: - Schatzkammern: Die Reichsstaedtische Bibliothek in Lindau (S. 156) Treasure chambers: The Lindau Town Library) ROSWITHA HOGE: - Nach einem Jahr: die Berufsausbildung zum/zur Fachangestellten für Medien- und Informationsdienste (S. 157) After one year: professional training for assistent in the media and information service CLAUS BERNET: - Der Mausklick zurück ins �Mittelater"? Literatursuche in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (S. 161) (Via mouse-click back to the "Middle Ages"? Literature search at the Berlin State Library) LAURENTIUSTRAENEN (Tears of Saint Laurence) Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Landbauwissenschaften (ZBL), Bonn, kuenftig keine Blaue Liste-Einrichtung mehr (S. 166) (Central Library for the Agrarian Sciences, Bonn, in future no longer a blue list institution) © Von Guetersloh bis Riesa: "Synergieeffekte" im Kommen (S. 166) (From Guetersloh to Riesa: Synergy-effect developing) © Gotha: "Experten" fuer Teilung der Bibliothek (S. 166) (Gotha: "Experts" for division of library) © HEIDI: ein Opfer von y2k (S. 167) (HEIDI: a victim of y2k) © Ladenpreisbindung laengst aufgehoben? (S. 167) (Legal price protection stopped a long time ago?) © Guinea-Bissau: Keine Hilfe erwünscht? (S. 167) (Guinea-Bissau: no help wanted?) © Hugh Brock Library in Zambia gegruendet (S. 168) (Hugh Brock Library founded in Zambia) © SOS in Nanterre (S. 168) © Von wegen "Wir koennen nicht anders" (S. 169) (Re.:"We can't help it") PRO CAPTU LECTORIS, HABENT SUA FATA LIBELLI - BUCHBESPRECHUNG (Book Review) Spaete Nachlese, aber noch nicht zu spaet (NORBERT COBABUS) (S. 169) (Second Selection, late, but not too late) © Aus einem anderen Blickwinkel (FRIEDHILDE KRAUSE) (S. 172) ((From a different perspective) WECHSELFAELLE DES LEBENS (Vicissitudes of life) RENATE GOLLMITZ: - Taetige Buecherliebe. Zum 90. Geburtstag von Horst Kunze am 22. September 1999 (S. 177) (Actice love of books. On the 90th birthday of H.K. on 22 September 1999) For more information see: http://www.germany.net/teilnehmer/100/115158/laurent.htm Raimund Dehmlow - Kirchroeder Str. 44F - D-30625 Hannover Tel./Fax: ++49/5115353374 E-Mail: mailto:dehmlow[at]okay.net http://www.germany.net/teilnehmer/100/115158/rdehmlow.htm _____________________________________________________________________________top 18. Etoys Finally Drops Lawsuit, Pays Court Costs January 26, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ETOYS FINALLY DROPS LAWSUIT, PAYS COURT COSTS Waited a month to make good on promise, just in time for earnings report Contact: mailto:etoyfund[at]rtmark.com More information: http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html, http://rtmark.com/etoy/, http://toywar.com, http://rtmark.com/shell, http://www.etoys.com/cgi-bin/buzz.pl?sku=1012690&store=et (Nazi toy) Four weeks ago, Internet toy giant eToys announced to the press that it was "moving away" from its lawsuit against European art group etoy in response to the torrent of public outrage. As the weeks went by without further action, however, many activists decided that eToys' words had represented a typical corporate ploy to derail opposition, and that the company had no intention of actually dropping the suit. Activists quickly renewed their campaigns against eToys. RTMark initiated two new campaigns to drive eToys' stock price yet further down (it has now sunk well below its opening value of $20 per share, after a high of $67 reached the day the protests began), and a new community platform, http://www.toywar.com, gathered a "toy army" of 1400 activists poised to perform "operations" on command. The strongest attack to date was scheduled to coincide with eToys' earnings announcement on Thursday. Yesterday, just in time, eToys formally dropped its case against etoy "without prejudice"--a phrase that means either party is still free to attack the other. eToys has also formally agreed to pay etoy's court costs and other expenses incurred as a result of the lawsuit. "A precedent has now finally been set in stone," said RTMark spokesperson Ray Thomas. "eToys thought it could act like corporations typically do, but it had no idea how the Internet works. Now e-commerce corporations have a choice: either obtain a legal stranglehold on the Internet, so that this kind of defensive reaction is no longer possible, or behave decently towards the humans who use this medium for purposes other than profit." "This is the Brent Spar of e-commerce," said Reinhold Grether, an Internet researcher and a mastermind of the anti-eToys campaigns. "Just as the petroleum industry learned it had to listen to environmentalists, so e-commerce companies have now learned that the Internet doesn't belong to them, and they can't do whatever they want with it." (See http://rtmark.com/shell for more about the Brent Spar, and http://www.hygrid.de/etoyrhiz.html for more comments by Grether.) "eToys will try to paint this as a misunderstanding, as just a simple error that has now been corrected," wrote etoy in a prepared statement. "But this is not what happened. They tried to destroy us, and that got them into very big trouble. They wanted to drop their case 'with prejudice,' because they fear further attacks and trademark battles, but now they see they have no choice at all in the matter. It is a total victory." WHAT NOW? Even though etoy has recovered its domain, the etoy Fund will not be retired, said RTMark spokesperson Thomas. Each project's discussion board will continue to function, and the resources of the etoy Fund pages will continue to be accessible for use and research. "We hope that this campaign continues to serve as a reminder to people of what corporations do when left to their own devices, and as a reminder to corporations of what they cannot do, at least on the Internet," said Thomas. "We also hope people continue expressing their anger at eToys, if they so choose. There are many ways to embarrass and further damage this company--the Nazi figurine eToys advertises (http://www.etoys.com/cgi-bin/buzz.pl?sku=1012690&store=et) could lead to a boycott by Jewish groups, for example." Another immediate option would be a class-action lawsuit by eToys investors, said lawyer and RTMark member Rita Mae Rakoczi. "It could convincingly be argued that eToys, being an Internet company, should have known what it was getting into, and has seriously mismanaged its stockholders' money. If etoy's possession of etoy.com is so dangerous-- as perhaps it really is--why didn't eToys choose a different name for the company when they had the chance? And why did they choose to pursue in an openly hostile manner an art group best known for a piece called the 'Digital Hijack,' which made sophisticated use of technology to playfully attack users' browsers? It wouldn't take an Einstein to predict trouble." "If eToys stumbled into this through sheer stupidity and negligence," Rakoczi continued, "it could be liable to investors for part of the $4 billion in value that's been lost as a consequence. A successful lawsuit could even entail eToys losing its own trademark, which would likely mean the end of the company." RTMark has set up a page containing links to resources on class action lawsuits against corporate managements (http://rtmark.com/etoysclassaction.html). "Things on the Internet don't go away," said etoy in its statement. "'Brick and mortar' corporations do this sort of thing and then bury it--but this will always be there when you search for information on eToys. It will always be very visible what bastards they were. They can never recover from this." The 1400 "Toywar soldiers" mustered by http://www.toywar.com will remain on high alert, according to the platform's operators, and are prepared to spring into action at the slightest indication of further aggression by eToys. "And Network Solutions had better be careful, too," etoy said. "We will not tolerate any delay in the reinstallation of the etoy.com DNS entries." Network Solutions, the company in charge of Internet domains, illegally terminated etoy's e-mail shortly after the November 29 injunction, although no such move was required by the order. (See http://rtmark.com/etoyvaticano.html for another example of illegal behavior by Network Solutions.) BACKGROUND AND TIMELINE (see also http://rtmark.com/etoyline.html) Late last year, eToys attempted to buy etoy.com from European art group etoy, and offered upwards of $500,000 in cash and stock options for the domain. etoy turned down the offer, so on November 29, 1999, eToys obtained a court injunction preventing etoy from operating a website at www.etoy.com, which had been registered before eToys even existed. To obtain the injunction eToys told the judge that etoy.com was confusing customers, and furthermore that it contained pornography and calls to violence. etoy.com had never made any reference to eToys or toys, nor featured anything resembling pornography or calls to violence. During the subsequent weeks, activists attacked eToys by a variety of means that have been widely credited with contributing to the 70% decline in the value of eToys stock--a decline that began the same day as the protests. The Dec. 15-25 Virtual Sit-in crippled the eToys servers, as CNN reported (http://cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/9912/17/mlld.00.html), and prompted eToys to file a restraining order against one of the organizations responsible for it, and to threaten another activist anonymously. Simultaneously, the Disinvest! campaign filled eToys investment boards and other outlets with messages about the situation. Many investors responded by dumping their eToys stock. Even those who refused to see a link between activist attacks and the eToys stock fall were at a loss to explain how it could lose so much money, so consistently, on consistently good financial news. Some suspected foul play by eToys management, and the possibility of a class-action lawsuit was raised. Finally, on December 29, eToys announced it was "moving away" from its lawsuit in response to public outrage. At first, etoy and the activists were delighted, and a formal counterpart to the statement was expected from hour to hour. Then, when nothing happened for days and then weeks, it became clear that eToys' announcement had been an empty verbal concession it had no intention of making concrete--a typical corporate ploy to derail activist momentum. Activists quickly renewed their campaign to damage eToys. Perhaps startled by the endurance of its opponents, and nervous about further attacks and proof of instability during the week it is to announce its quarterly earnings, eToys yesterday--at 15:20 Pacific Standard Time, to be exact--finally backed down on paper, ceding full rights to etoy.com on etoy's terms, without precondition and with payment of court costs and other expenses. RTMark, which is in no way associated with etoy, aims to publicize the widespread corporate abuse of democratic institutions like courts and elections. To this end it solicits and distributes funding for "sabotage projects." Groups of such projects are called "mutual funds" in order to call attention to one way in which large numbers of people come to identify corporate needs as their own. RTMark projects do not normally target specific companies; the etoy Fund projects are an exception. _____________________________________________________________________________top 19. Burnt out guy at the library Gray hair, pale, bony face wears the same gray coat and gray hat every day "Excuse me Miss, is the library open?" "Yes, Sir, the door's open. The library's open. Just walk in." "Thank you Miss, thank you." He babbles a word salad moving his mouth like he's chewing gum Blackened teeth stammer his requests "Japan 1941 World War II Dimond Branch" Every day the same old thing the same old books He xeroxes war photos from years ago burnt out guy frozen in time What the hell happened to him? stockpiling history like obsolete cruise missiles He places a bony hand on the countertop fingernails long and yellow chewing his words like well-worn gum his jaw is slack he has a knack for reeling you in to his needs. No, I don't wanna eat hamburgers with you after the library closes I can barely unfold your wrinkled up bills exchanging them for the silver coins you will drop in the slot printing and printing your war photos of long ago. -Giovanna Capone Some of Ms. Capone's poetry is anthologized in _Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry_ Maria M. Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, & Marua Mazziotti Gillan, editors Paperback - 406 pages (November 1994), Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 014023778X _____________________________________________________________________________top 20. FishBase [.zip] http://www.fishbase.org/ Subtitled "A Global Information System on Fishes," this site does indeed seem to offer everything you ever wanted to know about fishes. The heart of the site is two databases, FishBase and LarvalBase, the first containing information on over 23,000 species (91,000 common names), 41,000 synonyms, 18,000 pictures, and 17,000 references; the latter featuring 400 species, 500 pictures, and 700 references. Both databases can be keyword searched or browsed by common name or scientific name. Entries include family, order, class, English name, distribution, biology, environment, climate zone, and additional information. Entries also offer a number of links for more species-specific data such as synonyms, countries, key facts, pictures, FAO areas, spawning, reproduction, predators, diet composition, and more. The search page for each database features a searchable glossary and reference database, and information by topic. In addition, the main FishBase page offers downloads, a Fish Forum, a biodiversity quiz, and a link to the expanded LarvalBase at the University of Kiel. [MD] > From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ _____________________________________________________________________________top L I B R A R Y J U I C E | http://libr.org/Juice/ | | Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription | fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and | desire to pay. 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