Library Juice 4:25 - July 18, 2001

Contents:

1. A Librarian at Every Table
2. Redefining a Profession
3. Mary Minow's filtering policy webcast
4. Support PubSCIENCE
5. Gretchen Wronka Wins Sandy Berman Social Responsibility Award 2001
6. ALA: Cornerstone or headstone of democracy? --McCarthy & libraries
7. Open Source for Librarians - query
8. Let us really promote the development of the Mexican public libraries
9. Animated History of Books
10. SparkMatch profile: "Librarian"
11. Why are librarians so sexy?

Quote for the week:

"It would be a serious intellectual mistake to confuse information that
functions as entertainment with actual, or knowledge-based, information.
It would be a mistake as well to simply ignore the cognitive implications
of information processing as entertainment.  Real information, such as who
controls wealth and property in the United States, why prison building
outdistances school construction, or comparative rates of upward and
downward mobility, is as difficult to locate as it ever was and must be
culled from the kinds of books and journals not featured and sometimes not
even carried by the megabookstore at the strip mall or reported on by
television features."

Joseph Urgo, _In the Age of Distraction_, University of Mississippi Press,
2000

Personal Home Page of the Week: Sharyn November
http://www.sharyn.org/

________________________________________________________________________top

1. A Librarian at Every Table

http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/a-librarian-at-every-table/

Librarians have an important role to play in building community in
neighborhoods, towns, cities, counties, states and the nation. People have
great faith in libraries as fair and trusted institutions and in librarians
as the honest and diligent keepers and disseminators of the human record.

There are many demands on librarians today to integrate new technologies in
service of a digital future. Sometimes we feel that these demands pull us
from the traditional values that inform our daily work. This website is a
resource to demonstrate the value of librarianship in the community
building movement.

The central focus of this website and the LIBRARIAN-AT-EVERY-TABLE mailing
list is to identify new tables at which librarians might take a place.

In A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building (American
Library Association Editions, 2000) and in the ongoing column, "Community
Building," that is a regular feature of the American Library Association
journal, Reference and User Services Quarterly, basic tenets of the
Community Building movement are explored as they relate to library
development and library service. These form the context for the information
that appears on this website and that will be sent out on the
LIBRARIAN-AT-EVERY-TABLE mailing list.

About Kathleen de la Peña McCook

Kathleen de la Peña McCook is a Professor of Library and Information
Science, University of South Florida. Please e-mail comments to
kmccook[at]tampabay.rr.com
________________________________________________________________________top

2. Redefining a Profession

By Richard A. Danner

This bibliographic essay looks at disintermediation in the library
profession, especially in the legal specialty.  It has 194 references,
making it a good resource for a student who wants to get to work on
this issue.  Thanks to Blake at LISNews.com for digging it up.

http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/danner/callweb.htm
________________________________________________________________________top

3. Mary Minow's filtering policy webcast

If you missed Mary Minow's live webcast on filtering policy update last
week, it is now archived on the web for your review:

http://archive.mshow.com/47718

The program is about 2 hours long. You will need either RealPlayer or
Windows Media Player installed on your computer; this free software can be
load via the link above.

Thanks,
Dan Theobald
________________________________________________________________________top

4. Support PubSCIENCE

ALAWON - American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 10, Number 53
July 5, 2001

In this issue:
[1] ACTION ALERT: PubSCIENCE THREATENED BY FY2002 APPROPRIATIONS

Library supporters are asked to contact the Senators on the Appropriations
Subcommittee (listed below) and ask them to FULLY FUND PubSCIENCE in the
Department of Energy FY2002 Appropriations bill.

PubSCIENCE, an extremely important Department of Energy database, is
threatened with a cut in FY2002 budget proposals in H.R. 2311, the 2002
Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. Elimination of this
service denies no-fee public access to an important database for government
funded research and development reports, citations, and even some full
articles.

It is not in the public good to cut or eliminate this service which
denies scientists, engineers, students, researchers and many others access
to publicly-funded research and information not available elsewhere.
Thirty-five publishers have provided access to over 1200 journals through
PubSCIENCE.

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has voted to cut
funding for the Technical Information Management program citing unfair
competition with the private companies wanting to develop and sell such a
service. Pressure must be applied to the Senate to retain funding for this
unique and critical program in the Department of Energy.

ACTION ALERT:
Please contact Senators listed below and ask them to support full funding
for PubSCIENCE. A sample letter follows at the end of this e-mail message.

Robert Byrd (D-WV) - Chairman
Ted Stevens (R-AK) - Ranking Member
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Diane Feinstein (D-CA)
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Robert Bennet (R-UT)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Herbert Kohl (D-WI)

[2] ALA SENDS LETTER SUPPORTING FULL FUNDING FOR PubSCIENCE

ALA Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff sent a letter on
July 3, 2001, to all the Senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee
clearly stating ALA's support for full funding for PubSCIENCE. The letter
reads as follows:

Dear Senator:

The American Library Association (ALA) strongly advocates for the public's
right to equal, ready and equitable access to information, especially
information created by the government.

ALA believes that an important part of the Department of Energy's mandate
is to provide for the accessibility and dissemination of scientific
knowledge that was created as the result of government- sponsored R & D.
The PubSCIENCE service saves the user time- consuming research of web sites
and allows access to journal information at any time by directly linking to
the publisher's site to obtain the full text.

The American Library Association supports fully funding the Department of
Energy's Technical Information Management program, at the $8.97 million
level for FY2002. This level is necessary to ensure the work that makes
PubSCIENCE and other Department of Energy information resources available
to the public.

Your continued support for this economical way of making important science
information easily accessible to all will be appreciated by your
constituents and scientists everywhere.

Sincerely,
Emily Sheketoff
Executive Director, ALA Washington Office

Following is another sample letter to Senators on the Appropriations
Subcommittee.

Dear Senator xxxxxx,

I urge you to vote for full funding for the Technical Information
Management program, part of H.R. 2311, the 2002 Energy and Water
Development Appropriations bill. This program funds the important resource
PubSCIENCE. To ensure free public access to government sponsored physical
science research, the Technical Information Management program must be
fully funded.

The PubSCIENCE database contains citations and in some cases, links to
articles in scientific journals. Researchers in government and industry as
well as librarians, educators, students and the scientific public use this
database. For-profit and not- for-profit journal publishers have
volunteered their information, free of charge, to be disseminated through
PubSCIENCE. Researchers can search articles in 1,250 journals from 35
publishers.

PubSCIENCE focuses on journals in which Department of Energy researchers
report their scientific discoveries. Much of the research in PubSCIENCE is
produced with federal funds, and PubSCIENCE provides access to government
sponsored research and development, originally paid for by the American
taxpayers.

PubSCIENCE was developed to provide free access to taxpayer funded
research and development programs sponsored by the Federal government. The
House Appropriations Committee cut funding for the Technical Information
Management program out of concern that the program is duplicating services
already available from the private sector. However, given that the research
is paid for by the taxpayers, it is essential that the public and
researchers be able find it through a free resource like PubSCIENCE, not a
private sector for pay resource.

I urge you to vote for full funding for the Technical Information
Management program, which will support free access to publicly funded
scientific research and development.

ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library
Association, Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe
ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc[at]ala.org. To
unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc[at]ala.org.
ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.

ALA Washington Office
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW #403
Washington, D.C. 20004-1701
alawash[at]alawash.org
________________________________________________________________________top

5. Gretchen Wronka Wins Sandy Berman Social Responsibility Award 2001

June 8, 2001

Gretchen Wronka, Youth Services Coordinator for the Hennepin County
Library system, has been awarded the 2001 Sanford Berman Social
Responsibility Award for energy, innovation and passion in bringing
children their parents, caregivers and libraries - traditionally or
outside of the buildings - together.

The award was created to honor Sanford Berman, who served as head
cataloger in the Hennepin County Library system for 26 years. It is
presented annually by AFSCME Local 2864 (librarians) and 2822 (associate
librarians and support staff) to an employee who has made a unique and
valuable contribution to humanity through his/her work in Hennepin
County Library.

Wronka's career in HCL started more than 25 years ago when she was hired
as children's librarian at the Southdale Area Library. She has kept her
focus on children throughout the years, but has gone beyond the
traditional library walls to be a leader in local and national
initiatives. She has sparked countl3ess collaborative ideas with her
enthusiasm, partnering with community groups, schools, Hennepin County
departments, the University of Minnesota Consortium for Children, Youth
and Families and others.

Wronka realized that the public library is part of the community
infrastructure that supports early learning and literacy development.
She has written - and helped others - write many grants to initiate new
programs for families not served through traditional means. One example
is a program at the adult Correctional Facility in Plymouth, where
librarians and volunteers present workshops for inmates on the pleasure
and importance of reading to their children. Another example is Great
Transitions, a collaborative project between the Minneapolis Public
Library, Hennepin County Juvenile Corrections, the Hennepin county Home
School and the Epsilon Program of the Hopkins School District. Through
this grand-funded project incarcerated young people are involved in a
variety of literacy based programs.

Wronka has been involved in a number of other Outreach initiatives,
including training workshops for child care providers, development of
the Hennepin County Library Children's Readmobile program, Mail-a-Book,
promoting summer reading for children in the Title 1 program, and
programs for improved library service and access to stud3ent in several
District 287 schools

To make all this happen has required steadfast energy and a talent for
working effectively with others, and participating in several arenas.
She has been a model for other library staff, and can still be found on
occasion presenting storytimes everywhere from low-income apartments and
clinics, churches, community centers, to libraries.

In the words of a colleague who nominated her, "You will find Gretchen
today where she has always been, out in front, taking the next step in
forging community partnerships, tugging her colleagues with her,
mentoring us, coaxing us, encouraging us to stretch into community work,
to broaden the definition of what libraries are and can be for all
people."

For more info contact Lynn Stetler 952.847.8569
________________________________________________________________________top

6. ALA: Cornerstone or headstone of democracy? --McCarthy & libraries

Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 16:28:11 -0400
From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net>
To: alacoun[at]ala.org, member-forum[at]ala.org, plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu,
srrtac-l[at]ala.org
Cc: iskra[at]earthlink.net

Dear colleagues

How easy it is to forget that libraries have sometimes been not the
cornerstone of democracy and liberty but the headstone and librarians
the gravediggers.

As we pat ourselves on the back , let's not forget how easy it is to
regress to servile custodianship of the status quo or, worse, agents of
enforcement of information control.

To what might I be referring? This, for instance...

In 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy sent aides Roy Cohn & G. David Schine
on a tour of U.S. libraries in Europe to ferret out so-called
subversive books. McCarthy's boys found 300 Hammett detective stories
there. Questioned by Cohn in front of the House Un-American Activities
Committee, Hammett would not say whether he was a Communist, when he
wrote the books, nor whether royalties ended up in party coffers.
Hammett frustrated the committee with these ambiguous words:

"If I were fighting Communism, I don't think I would do it by giving
people any books at all."

In March 1953, McCarthy then called Hammett again to testify before the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Hammett took the fifth and went
to prison.

McCarthy's target was what he believed were all anti-American books in
libraries.

His researchers looked into the Overseas Library Program and discovered
30,000 books by "communists pro-communists, former communists and
anti-anti-communists." After the publication of this list, these books
were dutifully removed by librarians from the library shelves.

Lesson? I raise this historical issue to suggest that ALA's own
patently undemocratic internal practices and procedures, exhibited with
such appaling sang froid at the three ALA Council meetings at this just
completed Conference in SF, at  the stage managed pseudo-Membership
meetings there which violated the policy manual's own definitions of
the principal purposes of such gatherings, the lack of accountability
exhibited in the Marriott affair in which members and visitors were put
into such an awkward position by ALA without any sign of contrition or
even official recognition that a corrigible error had been allowed to
stand... all this, and more, shows an internal weakness which
undermines our "on paper"commitments to Intellectual Freedom, Free
Speech, Diversity of Opinion, the rights of minorities.. in short,
ACTUAL democracy.

Banish complacency that all is well as long as ALA appears vigilant on
this or that issue! The rotting structure and sick ethos of the
association  makes it vulnerable to once agian, "overlooking" if not
"overseeing" something like the bibliocide of the McCarthy era.

Mark Rosenzweig
Councilor at large
________________________________________________________________________top

7. Open Source for Librarians

(Richard Poynder - 2001-06-20)

[from oss4lib-discuss]

Richard writes: "I'm currently working on something on open source, and am
looking for some views/experiences from librarians. I would, therefore, be
grateful for any responses from librarians to this posting. The kind of
things I am interested in are the relevance of open source to librarians,
any experiences of using open source (good or bad), hints and tips on using
it, and details of any particularly good open source products for
librarians. Also, any comments on the current "debate" between Microsoft
and the open source community gratefully received!  -Richard Poynder,
Freelance Journalist, richard.poynder at journalist.co.uk/ or
www.richardpoynder.com .
________________________________________________________________________top

8. Let us really promote the development of the Mexican public libraries

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~zmmuela/mexpublib.htm

By: Zapopan Martin Muela Meza
Mexican Fulbright Grantee
Student of Master in Library and Information Science

State University of New York at Buffalo
3118 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214-1354 USA

zapopanmuela[at]yahoo.com
zmmuela[at]acsu.buffalo.edu
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~zmmuela/resume.htm

Paper presented in the First National Conference
of Public Libraries and Document Centers of
Mexico. Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, June 11-13, 2001

Abstract:
This work deals with the social and economical
inequality and how it is automatically traduced in a
inequality of who has and has not information and the
technologies to access it. A fundamental
transformation has to take place in the way all
stakeholders play their right job in the development:
government, librarians' guild, corporate sector, and
international organizations. It presents a proposal to
show alternatives toward the research and
implementation of a policy socially equitable of the
development of the Mexican public libraries where the
strong social and political participation of
librarians' alone or united in guilds will play the
leading role.

LET US REALLY PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEXICAN
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
By: Zapopan Martin Muela Meza

"Books are the key to understand the world and
participate in a democratic society. (...)  Literacy
is the way that leads from slavery to freedom. There
are many types of slavery and many types of freedom.
But reading keeps being the way.  -- Carl Sagan. (1)

Introduction

We must warn our reader that this paper is not the
result of a parametric research, it is rather based on
a bibliographic review in order to synthesize concepts
and ideas in a clear, simple and critical proposal that
really tries to collaborate in the development of the
Mexican public libraries.

This work deals with the social and economical
inequality and how it is automatically traduced in a
inequality of who has and has not information and the
technologies to access it. The fact that we recognize
the problem from its roots, that is, that we state it as
it is, it gives us a clear vision to look for fundamental
solutions and not
superficial ones.

A fundamental transformation has to take place in the
way that librarians:

- Conceive libraries.

- Act within and in favor of them.

- Commit ourselves in benefit of its patrons.

Therefore, this work presents a proposal to show
alternatives toward the research and implementation of
a policy socially equitable of the development of the
Mexican public libraries.

Current situation

A total of 11, 200 libraries serve 97 million
of people, the total of México's population. (2) That
is 1 library --academic, or public, or corporate, or
school-- per each 8, 700 inhabitants.

The National Network of Public Libraries (Red
Nacional de Bibliotecas Publicas--RNBP) of Mexico
counts with a total of 6, 100 libraries. (3) That is 1
public library per each 16,000 inhabitants.

The 2001 budget for the RNBP is 115 million of pesos
($ 12,234,042.55 US dollars, at a 9.40 pesos per one
dollar). (4) That is, $ 19,000.00 pesos per library
($ 2,000.00 US dollars). While only in the state of
New York, the 2001-2002 library budget is 95 million
of US dollars, where 20 million are to build new public
libraries. (5)

The percentage of people who has Internet access in Mexico
is 3 %. That is, the digital divide (brecha digital) is:
3 % of people have Internet access and 97 % have not. (6)
On the other hand, in the United States 98 % of the public
schools have Internet access, where school libraries have
access too. (7)

Factors for the development

The development of public libraries like all the
libraries in general has to do with the funds they get.
That is the main factor, but also with values of the
librarians, specially from the ones who play a
leading role. These are: social and political
commitment, initiative, creativity, dedication to
promote and to enrich the poor side of libraries, that
is, the public libraries.

Economic

We do not need to be experts in economy to realize
that the economic factor is determinant in the development
of a nation; also is determinant for the development
of public libraries.

Political participation

It is very important the political participation of
the public librarians who earn 10 to 300 US dollars
per month (100 to 3, 000 pesos) and from those who
have helped all the time since their creation that
public libraries keep alive. Undoubtedly it is plausible
the participation of the professional librarians by
themselves and associated in the Mexican Library Association
(AMBAC--Asociacion Mexicana de Bibliotecarios, A.C.), the
National Association of Professional Librarians (CNB-- Colegio
Nacional de Bibliotecarios) and others that surely
with their participation finally achieved to see in writing
the first General Law of Libraries (Ley General de
Bibliotecas) 1988. (8)

Values

The values of the public librarians are definitively
one of the most important factors toward the
development of their libraries since they deeply
demonstrate:

- Spirit to service community.

- Social commitment.

- Creativity.

- Imagination.

Participants in the development:

- The Mexican federal, state and municipal government.

- The librarians as a group.

Agents who stop development:

- The social organization of the Mexican public institutions.

- The professional librarians (with B.A., or MLS or Ph.D.
degrees) are not filling the directing positions. It is the
government which decides the policies and standards which
must rule the operations in all public libraries, and
unfortunately most of the time government lacks of
preparation or library training.

- Lack of social and political commitment of the librarians
as a social group.

The few librarians who have a B.A., masters or
doctorate degree prefer to work in  any other milieu
except in the public libraries, and this is understandable for
the low salaries these offer.

The librarians as a social group is repellent to
politics (and we are not talking about to be follower
of any political party), there is no tradition of political
struggle of the library side, the politics every librarian
must be morally willing to participate on if she or he loves
to serve information patrons.

- Government officials unaware of the library reality.

The unawareness by the government officials it is
understood by the wrong policies they make, for
instance the proposal to tax books with the Value
Added Tax (IVA--Impuesto al Valor Agregado). (9)
If Mexico's population is in the position number 107
in the world as the country where people less read,
taxing books will not be a good measure at all to
promote reading among people or the development of
public libraries. (10)

Although there have been lately good intentions in the
municipal government of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México,
for example the major Felipe de Jesús Cantú, who is in
charge of the management of all the public libraries of
this municipality, has started an important initiative:
to introduce Internet access in 72 public libraries thanks
to a donation of 72 computers with their respective
Internet connection by the Internet provider Terra Lycos
de Mexico. (11) This is an interesting proposal, but has
to be complemented with other automation activities like
the bibliographic catalog that throughout the 6,100
libraries of the RNBP is still made of cards.

To introduce Internet access would also have sense "if
these media would be used to strengthen the civil
society, to give vitality to the small communities,
the barrios, to women, to the  sexual minorities, to
everything that needs to be developed in Latin America,
then, they would be worthwhile and not only to communicate
faster." (12)

Private universities non participants

As part of their mystic all universities have a very
important function, which is give social service to
community. But the public universities, that is, the poor
side of the Mexican higher education system, are the ones
who really have played a leading library role in the
country, examples like Autonomous National University
of Mexico (UNAM), Autonomous University of Colima and some
others that thanks to their research and applications
have maintained cooperation projects with the public
libraries.

But... what happen with the private universities
leaders in many areas and that nevertheless do not
have a serious approach towards the public libraries,
neither interest to support them with their technology and
knowledge.

Insensible corporate sector

It is needed the cooperation and support of the
Mexican corporate sector (i.e. corporations like
Telmex, Cemex, Vitro, Cydsa, and other rich ones from Fortune
500) whose owners or presidents or CEOs it is very
probable they have attended universities in the United
States, therefore they must know of the importance
that is given to libraries by the librarians as a group,
the government, diverse organizations, and of course
by the corporate sector of that country.

It is so evident that the Mexican corporate sector has
all the time supported more the creation and
development of cultural projects like museums, ballets,
etc., but has not given support to really promote the
development of public libraries. They do not know or
pretend not to know that the public libraries are to
education and the social and economical development of
people what water is to fish.

Absence of international organisms

Although international organisms like UNESCO have a
well know tradition to collaborate in the development
of public libraries in the developing countries, it is so
evident that they are absent in Mexico.

Let us take a look of a remarkable example. In late
2000 the Organization of the States of the American
Continents (OEA--Organizacion de los Estados
Americanos), the Inter American Agency for Cooperation
and Development (AICD--Agencia Interamericana para la
Cooperacion y el Desarrollo), Microsoft Corporation and
that Technological Institute of Higher Studies of
Monterrey (ITESM --Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey, also called Tec de Monterrey)
began the creation of an educational portal via the
Web of Internet to offer distance education programs
in Latin American and speed up the educational
development of the countries members of OEA. (13) But
it would be interesting to find out who is going to
have access to these programs , since if in Mexico only
a 3% of population has Internet access, it is so evident
that these projects will only benefit certain types of
elite corporations and organizations.

When the international  organisms choose private
universities non participants in the public library
development for their projects of development, simply
they are also absent and at the same time they are
decisively stating or promoting the widening of the
information and digital divides instead of reduce them.

What to do?

These are some initiatives that librarians could carry on:

Convert AMBAC and/or CNB in a great and unique
national union borrowing some features of the
American Library Association.

By doing so the scientific people of libraries and
information could determine the standards and policies
to regulate the Mexican library life, specially the
public libraries.

Some of the points to standardize could be:
   a) To secure professional training of all the
librarians in the current public libraries and the
ones to come.
   b) To watch for direction and higher positions
be filled by professional librarians.
   c) To look for competitive salaries for all
librarians.
   d) To create awareness of the importance of
libraries to the development of México.
   e) To reform the General Law of Libraries in
the part of management of public libraries (chapters 1
through 11).

To fight for the government at all levels --with
a real participation of public, private, corporate
sector and international organizations-- under the
surveillance of AMBAC and/or CNB or another library
organizations, favor public librarians with some
of these initiatives:

   a) To give them scholarships to be members of
AMBAC.
   b) To give them funds to ensure a higher number
of public librarians attend the annual conference of
AMBAC.
   c) To create a fixed plan where salaries raise
constantly.

d) To create or reinforce the chapters of AMBAC or
CNB according to the background of librarians in all
the 31 states or regions.
   e) To create the Mexico's National Day of Library
Legislation.

The AMBAC and/or CNB or other library organizations
must fight for the creation of the National Day of
Library Legislation which would be the legal base in which
AMBAC and/or CNB or others should determine the budget
to be spent on public libraries, based on scientific
library studies and international standards. By doing
so the library development would be ruled by data extracted
from reality and not from divagations.

Only in this way, the professional librarians as a
social group will take care of a real and sustained
library development.

To adopt a social and political commitment.

Librarians should restate our library mission, which
should have always in mind to serve library patrons
and the welfare of ourselves too. This could only be
achieved by adopting a renovated social and political
commitment.

Part of the political library agenda should include:

   a) To know the senators and congressmen or
congresswomen of our electoral districts at a local
and federal levels that resulted elected.
   b) To write them letters and invitations to the
libraries on the importance that they support the
public libraries under their jurisdiction on charge.
   c) To do the same with majors, governors and
the president of the republic himself, on an
individual basis as well as in a union.
   d) This could be a progressive politics of
librarians: to demand for our rights as workers of
libraries and for a real development of libraries.

The professional librarians as a group (AMBAC and/or
CNB or others) should unite efforts with the academic
library sector and to create more library science programs
in all states of Mexico where librarians could get the adequate
education.

The professional librarians as a social group
(AMBAC and/or  CNB or others) should look after for the General
Library Law to be respected in the part of the National Library
System and really promote that the corporate sector really
cooperate in the integration of their bibliographic systems
in the aforementioned system. (See chapters 12 through 16).

Appendix:
Mexican Associations:

Mexican Library Association
(AMBAC: Asociacion Mexicana de Bibliotecarios, A.C.)

President: Nahum Perez, MLS

Physical Address:
Angel Urraza 817-A,
Col. Del Valle
Mexico, D.F.
03100 Mexico

Postal Address:
Apartado postal 27-651
Administracion de correos 27
Mexico, D.F.
06760 Mexico

Telephones:
Voice (51) 55-75-33-96
Voice /fax: (51)55-75-11-35

ambac[at]solar.sar.net

http://www.ambac.org.mx/

National Association of Professional Librarians
(CNB: Colegio Nacional de Bibliotecarios)

President: Lina Escalona Rios, MLS

Postal Address:
Apartado Postal 70-160
Mexico, D.F.
04510 Mexico
Telephone: 52-04-02-90 Fax 55-55-22- 92
E-mail: cnb[at]servidor.unam.mx
http://www.unam.mx/cnb/

American Library Association
50 E. Huron
Chicago, IL 60611
Email: ala[at]ala.org

http://www.ala.org

References:

1. Sagan, Carl. El mundo y sus demonios. La ciencia
   como una luz en la oscuridad. A Demond Haunted
   World. Science as Candle in the Dark. Mexico:
   Editorial Planeta, 1997, p. 385 y 391, chapter "The
   Road of Freedom".
   
2. Bibliotecas: hay una biblioteca para cada 9 mil
   habitantes : "There is a Library per each 9 thousand
   Inhabitants". Mexico, D.F.: El Heraldo de Mexico.
   Junio 4, 2001, p.1, en linea, http://www.infolatina.com.mx ,
   6/6/01.
3. Ibidem
4. Palacios Goya, Cynthia. Analizaran retos de
   bibliotecas. : "Challenges of Libraries are to be
   Analyzed". El Universal, Mexico, D.F., Junio 7, 2001,
   Cultura, p. 1, en linea, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx ,
   6/7/01.
   
5. Martin Welch, Janet. "New Century Libraries Builds
   on the Vision of Books, Bricks and Bytes." The New
   York Library Association Bulletin. Albany, NY: NYLA, Vol.
   49, No. 1, p. 5.
   
6. Figures according with data from Arturo Galvan, CEO
   of Terra Lycos Mexico. See: Facilitara Terra Internet
   a regios. El Norte, Monterrey, N.L. Mayo 18, 2001, en
   línea, http://www.elnorte.com , 6/5/01 and  Sanchez,
   Veronica. Llevan Internet a bibliotecas publicas. El
   Norte, Monterrey, N.L. Mayo 20, 2001, en linea,
   http://www.elnorte.com ,  6/5/01.
   
7. Piden escuelas y bibliotecas de EU mas subsidios
   para Internet. : "US Schools and Libraries ask for
   more Subsides for Internet". El Imparcial, Mexico, D.F.,
   Mayo 20, 2001, en línea, http://www.imparcial.com.mx ,
   6/5/01.
   
8. Mexico. Diario Oficial de la Nacion. Ley General de
   Bibliotecas : General Law of Libraries. Enero 21,
   (See fulltext: http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx/leyinfo/142/13.htm )
   
9. Monsivais, Carlos. IVA a los libros: una propuesta
   desdichada. : Tax to Books: and Unfortunate
   Proposal." El Norte, Monterrey, N.L., Abril 8, 2001,
   en linea, http://www.elnorte.com, 6/5/01.
   Monsivais, Carlos. Las ventajas de no leer.:
   "The Advantages of Not Reading". El Norte, Monterrey,
   N.L. Abril 15, 2001, en linea
   http://www.elnorte.com , 6/5/01.
   
10. "Hay deficit de bibliotecarios en Mexico: Nahum
    Pérez" : "There's a Deficit of Librarians in México:
    Nahum Perez." El Universal. Mexico: Junio 13, 2001, en
    linea, http://www.infolatina.com.mx , 6/13/01.
    
11.  Facilitara Terra Internet a regios. El Norte,
    Monterrey, N.L. Mayo 18, 2001, en linea,
    http://www.elnorte.com , 6/5/01 and Sanchez, Veronica.
    Llevan Internet a bibliotecas publicas. El Norte,
    Monterrey, N.L. Mayo 20, 2001, en linea,
    http://www.elnorte.com , 6/5/01.
12. Fuentes, Carlos. El escritor y el tercer mundo :
    "The Writer and the Third World". El Pais.
    Declaraciones a World Media Network.
    http://www.elpais.com.es , 1997 citado por Lopera
    L., Hernando. Las tecnologias de la informacion en
    las bibliotecas publicas. : "Information Technologies
    in the Public Libraries". Revista Interamericana de
    Bibliotecologia. Vol. 21, No.2, p.31-32, December 1998,
    en linea, http://vweb.hwwilsonweb.com , 6/5/01.
13. Valencia, Veronica. Crearan portal educativo para
    America Latina. : "Educational Portal for Latin
    America will be Created". El Norte. Monterrey, N.L.,
    seccion Interfase, enero 15, 2000, p.2A.

________________________________________________________________________top

9. Animated History of Books

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/bookcase/historyofbooks/

        Starts with the cavemen, then moves all the way to the
        present and projections for the future. Choose the "hi
        tech" or "lo tech" version of this visual history. The hi
        tech version requires Macromedia Shockwave Flash and,
        if you want to have the text read to you, the lo tech
        version requires Real Audio. The animated hi tech
        version is an excellent use of Shockwave. You can also
        select specific time periods to view. From the British
        Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

From Librarians' Index to the Internet - http://lii.org/
________________________________________________________________________top

10. SparkMatch profile: "Librarian"

The SparkMatch dating game ( http://www.sparkmatch.com/ ) has a category for
women called "Librarian."  Here's how they describe a certain proportion of
their test-takers:

 "The Librarian"
 Independent Good Sex Taker

 SYNOPSIS

Nice, but naughty. Most of the time, you're a model citizen--hair up,
sweet smile, and all that--but when nobody's looking, hide the children,
because you want to MOUNT. We call you the Librarian in honor of Ms.
Melinda Sipes, taker of a certain student's virginity between the stacks at
Little Rock Central High.

The best thing is that you, like most public employees, don't yet realize
the true potential of your dirtiness. You must have secret little
fantasies. Do they involve you getting passionately served by someone,
often in a place that you shouldn't? Investigate these desires fully.

But you're not all lust. Beneath your sex-driven inner-self there is an
even deeper self (your inner-self's innards), who needs romance and
reciprocation. You might not show your loving side to everyone... but when
you reveal it to that special somebody, he will love you forever.

A few warnings, though. You can be quite selfish--that's often how you
achieve your goals. Give a little more than you take now and then, and
you're less liable to be left on the side of a highway in Utah with your
suitcase at your feet, choking on some guy's exhaust.
________________________________________________________________________top

11. Why are librarians so sexy?

Here is part of the interesting meditation on the subject by David Austin:

"A patron arrives, says, Tell me something. You reach across the desk
and pull him toward you, bear hug him a second and then take him into
your lap, stroke his forehead, whisper facts in his ear. The climate
of Chad is tropical in the south, desert in the north. Source: 1991
CIA World Factbook. Do you love me? Americans consumed 6.2 gallons of
tea per capita in 1989. Source: Statistical Abstract of the United
States. Synecdoche is a literary device meaning the part for the
whole, as in crown heads of Europe. I love you. I could find you
British Parliamentary papers, I could track down a book you only
barely remember reading. Do you love me now? We own that book, we
subscribe to that journal, Elvis Presley's first movie was called Love
Me Tender."

http://www4.ncsu.edu/%7En51ls801/librarians.html

[thanks Jessamyn]
________________________________________________________________________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.  You may send a check payable in US funds
| to Rory Litwin, at PO Box 720511, San Jose, CA  95172
|
| 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.  If you are the author of some
| email in Library Juice which you want removed from
| the web, please write to me and I will remove it.
|
| Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
|
| Rory[at]libr.org rg">Rory[at]libr.org