Library Juice 4:27

Library Juice 4:27 - August 1, 2001

Contents:

Untelling the truth: Will libraries assist?
The Canadian Library Association on GATS (and other related items)
"The Future of the Public Library" on the air
News stories appearing in the July 30 American Libraries Online
adobe elcomsoft sklyarov etc
Funny Flash Cartoon
French National Bibliography online
Thought police patrolling Toledo
Lemurlove!
"Libraries are for socialist welfare scum"
Fascists sabotaging libraries
EI and CPTech Letter to DOC re .us
The Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development
Being an Anomaly: Male Librarians
The Glossarist
Seed Savers Exchange
Amusing searches from July

Quote for the week:
"They know the information and how to use it. They know about us kids
and how to teach us to use it, too! We need school librarians! Please
do whatever you can to protect their positions in our schools."
Derek Maraszek, age 13.
[ found on http://librarian.net/ ]

Personal Homepage of the Week: Kristina M. Spurgin
http://www.le-champignon.net/
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1. Untelling the truth: Will libraries assist?

Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 14:54:26 -0500
From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Cc: plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu
By now most librarians must be aware of the fact that the US government has
called for the 're-call'of a book the State Department had just published
and begun distributing and which is already being stocked by hundreds of
libraries accross the nation. The book which details the long-denied key
role of the US in a coup against the indendent government of Indonesia's
first-ever popularly -elected President, Sukarno, in which the USA
instigated and supported the massacre of close to one million
(1,000,000) people in Indonesia 'suspected' of being Communists or
subverversives or sympathizers of such. (For a prior scholarly account
written while the US still denied its role in this bloody affair and
actively supressed all incriminating documentation of a three-stage
strategy it developed leading to the installation of a military
dictatorship, see the article by Peter Dale Scottin Pacific Affairs
http://www.pir.org/scott.html ).
My question is: will libraries which have received or ordered this book
allow themselves to be complicit in the UNTELLING of the story of the US
responsibility for the Indonesian massacre and military dictatorship,
because the State Department has decided the release of the book was
"ill-timed"(something to do with the fact that the new President of
Indonesia is the daughter of the US deposed George Wahington of Indonesia,
Sukarno)?
Would it be possible for the Excecutive Board, the Executive Director, the
President of ALA, the OIF, to issue a recommendation that American
libraries NOt cooperate with any program for the removal of this book from
libraries, the return of these volumes, the cancellation of orders, and
more positively issue a statement that libraries are not in thebusiness of
controlling information by government dictat, nor in the supression of a
document which finaly makes accessible the proof of long-alleged US State
Department, CIA, Armed Forces etc involvement in one of the great debacles
of the late 2Oth Century?
I urge the leadership of the association to issue an appropriate analysis
and practical guidance in this matter in conformity withour commitments to
freedom of information, the right of access to goverment documentation,
intellectual freedom, and opposition to censorship, especially government
censorship, and the government -ordered removal of material.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Mark C. Rosenzweig
ALA Councilor at large
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[ALACOUN:6297] RE: Untelling the truth: will libraries assist?
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 13:25:20 -0700
From: jimcasey[at]lib.oak-lawn.il.us
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Cc: plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu, iskra[at]earthlink.net,
jimcasey[at]lib.oak-lawn.il.us
I agree that ALA should take a stand firmly on the
side of open access to government information --- particularly
evidence and interpretations of
historical events of this past Century which
may show United States policy in an unfavorable
light.
"Those who don't know their own history are often
condemned to repeat it." We need to make sure that
those who are studying our history in colleges and
high schools will have the opportunity to be
exposed to all relevant information about the events
and pressures which led U.S. leaders of the time to undertake
aggressions. This study, even if it does
point out U.S. violations and crimes, should not
be allowed by Librarians to be officially
quashed. Better that we accept accusations of
injustice and allow the World to see our warts,
than to attempt to hide from unflattering versions
of what happened. If there are extenuating
circumstances and/or justifications for U.S.
actions in Indonesia or Chile or in Viet Nam, let
other historians and scholars bring them to light.
I personally believe that those who were convinced
of the existence of a "Communist conspiracy" in the
early-mid 1960s were doing what they believed was
right and necessary to "save the World". That
generation had experienced the cost of appeasement
(Munich) and fears which we shouldn't now look upon
with contempt from the comfort of hindsight. (Even
Lincoln abused Constitutional Rights massively to
achieve what he believed was a greater good.) How
the facts are to be interpreted by scholars of now
and the future may help us to weigh the moral and
human dynamics so that fears can be confronted and
gross injustices may be avoided in the future.
Everyone is capable of evil! To deny that is to
deny our humanity.
If history has taught us anything, it is that
concealing the truth is destructive. ALA
should stand firmly in defense of free access
to historical information and interpretations.
James B. Casey -- Councilor-At-Large.
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[ALACOUN:6299] Re: Untelling the truth: will libraries assist?
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 16:06:40 -0700
From: jimcasey[at]lib.oak-lawn.il.us
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Link to further information:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/606334.asp#BODY
The title of the work is rather inoccuous
"United States Foreign Relations, 1964-68,
Vol. 27. Malaysia-Singapore, Indonesia,
Philippines"
Jim Casey
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[ALACOUN:6298] Re: Untelling the truth: will libraries assist?
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:55:55 -0600
From: "Bernadine Abbott Hoduski" <ber[at]initco.net>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Hi, As GDOORT Councilor I have forwarded this information to GODORT and the
Subcommittee on Government Information of the COL asking that they work
together to investigate this matter and draft a letter for the signature of
ALA president. I urge depository libraries, if you have received this
document, not to withdraw it. Bernadine Abbott Hoduski GODORT Councilor
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Re: citation for State Dept. book?
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 10:30:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Tsang <dtsang[at]lib.uci.edu>
To: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net>
Cc: Paul Lefrak <ftlpaul[at]yahoo.com>,
<alaoif[at]snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net>, <srrtac-l[at]ala>,
<org[at]snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net>, <plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu>,
<alacoun[at]snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net>
The entire volume on Indonesia, Malaysia-Singapore and Philippines is on
the web at: http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB52
Some of the links don't seem to work well. That National Security Archive
site identifies it as Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968,
volume 26.
The other volume was the one totally blocked from release.
dan
Daniel C. Tsang
Bibliographer for Asian American Studies,
Economics and Politics
Machine-Readable Data Files Librarian
Lecturer, School of Social Sciences
380 Main Library
University of California
PO Box 19557
Irvine CA 92623-9557
USA
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another source
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 22:48:34 -0400
From: kmccook[at]tampabay.rr.com
To: plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu
another source on the gov. docs recall
http://www.thespleen.com/politics/xspleennation/index.php?artID=339
Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Professor
kmccook[at]tampabay.rr.com
University of South Florida, Library & Information Science
A-LIBRARIAN-AT-EVERY-TABLE
http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/a-librarian-at-every-table/
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2. The Canadian Library Association on GATS (and other related items)
An Assessment of the Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services
on Policy, Programs and Law Concerning Public Sector Libraries
The Canadian Library Association (CLA), in partnership with the British
Columbia Library Association, the Canadian Association of Research
Libraries, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Library
Association of Alberta, the National Library of Canada, the Ontario Library
Association, the Saskatchewan Library Association, the Manitoba Library
Association, and Industry Canada, has completed an assessment of the impact
of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on policy, programs
and law concering public sector libraries.
The study, written by Steven Shrybman, a well-known expert on
international trade agreements, gives clear indication that libraries need
to be concerned about the impact that GATS can have on them in the future.
Steven will present the findings of his study during the Thursday morning
plenary session at the CLA Conference. He will be speaking on a panel which
also includes Janette Mark, Director of Trade and Investment Policy in the
federal department of Canadian Heritage and Brian Campbell, Vancouver
Public Library.
To view the report you will require Adobe Acrobat version 4.0 or greater.
http://www.cla.ca/resources/gats.htm
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"Why Not Globalization"
By Stephen Talbott
It's obvious enough that globalization won't buy you much if the societies
and places you "globalize" are by that very process denatured, devalued,
deprived of their local savor. You end up with global relations that are
relations of same to same, in which case there isn't much reason to relate.
When all the emphasis is on universal connectivity and none is on deepening
the distinctive contributions of the people and institutions you are
connecting, then everything loses its individual character - which is much
the same as losing its existence. You perfect a global syntax for
interaction, but there's no one left you'd care to interact with, no one
who offers anything different from the homogenized culture that already
surrounds you.
Globalization, then, to be meaningful, already includes within itself the
necessity for a strengthened movement toward localization. Local
communities must gain ever greater powers of self-definition in order to
hold the balance against the leveling tendencies of globalization, and by
doing this they make globalization worthwhile.
So much for globalization as a self-sufficient ideal. But we can look at
localization in the same way. While a local community can provide richly
textured contexts worth saving, it's the very nature of context to be
unbounded, to open outward without rigid limit. In ecological terms, every
habitat is bound up with its neighboring habitats, and so on ever outward.
So localization implies an openness to the globe. This is demonstrated by
the fact that the people struggling most heroically to preserve their own,
locally rooted lives today are being forced to recognize and do battle
against an array of global institutions. They become true global citizens
precisely because they love the places where they live....
http://www.netfuture.org/ni/ic/ic5/global.html
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GATS: The End of Democracy?
Richard Sanders investigates the forces behind its unseemly haste.
Printed in the Australian Financial Review, 15th June 2001.
(Some paragraphs omitted from the published version for space reasons
have been re-included in [square brackets])
"The liberty of democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth
of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than that of the
state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an
individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt's warning of the fascist threat is as urgent today
as it was in the 1930s, particularly since the public is blissfully
unaware of the stealthy corporate assault on democracy occurring right
now. We are witnessing the economic colonisation of the world by corporate
interests. This is achieved through "free" trade agreements designed to
run the world on economic rationalist lines.
Cont'd at
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/Sanders.html
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3. "The Future of the Public Library" on the air
The NPR show "The Connection" had an hour long segment on "The Future of
the Public Library," which is archived on the web for you to listen to, at:
http://www.theconnection.org/archive/2001/07/0718b.shtml
"As the dust settles from the information explosion, what was a whispering
amongst the public library stacks is becoming loud and clear.
"People's needs are changing, they have other places to go for information
and for books. Bibliophiles are as likely to be found sipping lattes at
Barnes and Noble as standing in line at the circulation desk. Some city
hall bean counters now earnestly suggest that Internet terminals at the
post office could suffice for the public's research needs, and that the
dusty old stacks and wooden chairs of the reading room should go the way of
the card catalogue.
"Yet somehow, public libraries are fighting back, reinventing themselves by
reaching out to their communities and becoming places where people can log
on, check out, listen in and speak up."
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4. News stories appearing in the July 30 American Libraries Online
<http://www.ala.org/alonline/>;

Also read our coverage of the ALA Annual Conference at
www.ala.org/alonline/news/ac01.html ***

Court Denies Justice Department Bid to Dismiss CIPA Suit
EFF Works to Free Russian Programmer
ABA to Consider UCITA Opposition
RIF Reauthorized by Congress; Approval of Funds Is Pending
Ward's Words Hamper Florida "Born to Read" Program
LC Acquires Historic World Map
Sno-Isle Trustees Approve Filters for Minors
$4.2-million Gates Gift Distributed to British Libraries
American Libraries' Web site also features the latest "Internet
Librarian" columns by Karen Schneider; "Technically Speaking" by
David Dorman; AL's "Career Leads" job ads; listings of conferences,
continuing-education courses, exhibitions, and other events from AL's
"Datebook"; and Tables of Contents for the current year.
Do you have a comment to make about anything appearing in American
Libraries? The editors encourage signed e-mail letters on recent
content or matters of general interest to the library profession in
the Reader Forum section. Send 250 words or less to
americanlibraries[at]ala.org .
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5. adobe elcomsoft sklyarov etc
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 20:18:11 -0700
From: Rory Litwin <rlitwin[at]earthlink.net>
To: rlitwin[at]earthlink.net
A good place to get the skinny on the Adobe PDF ElcomSoft Sklyarov
copyright battle is Plant PDF - "A world of Adobe Acrobat pdf news, tools
tips and resources." You would expect it to be very Adobe-loyal, but they
don't appear to be taking sides.
The whole thing has to do with a security flaw in the pdf format as applied
to E-Books. Dmitry Sklyarov found a way through and publicized the
problem, and was summarily arrested for copyright violation under the DMCA.
He is awaiting trial, as I understand it.
See http://www.planetpdf.com
(Or is it Skylarov? -Ed.)
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
more:
ARTISTS, SCIENTISTS PROTEST U.S. COPYRIGHT ARREST
Issue: Copyright
Following the arrest of the Russian Dmitry Skylarov on charges of violating
a controversial new copyright law, about 100 artists, computer scientists
and programmers and free speech advocates gathered to protest his arrest
under enforcement of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The law
prohibits creating or distributing technology that can get around copyright
protections, and critics say the law is being used by the government to give
copyright holders and publishers more privileges at the expense of free
speech rights. Skylarov, who is the first to be arrested under enforcement
of the regulation, was charged with violating the law by writing a program
that allows people to circumvent copyright controls in Adobe Systems Inc.'s
eBook Reader, and copy and read digital books on computers other than the
one used to buy the e-books. A lawyer with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation Robin Gross said that the law violates the "fair use" provision
of existing copyright law, which allows people to copy and re-use limited
amounts of copyrighted material for artistic and educational purposes. The
Digital Millennium Copyright Act is ``poisoning the atmosphere for the
exchange of free ideas,'' said novelist Philippe Tapon. ``I'm interested in
freedom of speech and trying to redress the balance between copyright
holders to control information and the lack of the individual's right to
challenge that.''
[SOURCE: San Joes Mercury, AUTHOR: Elinor Mills Abreu (Reuters)]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1375304l.htm)
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6. Funny Flash Cartoon
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 15:28:53 -0700
From: Blake Carver <bcarver[at]LISNEWS.COM>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu
The Cartoon Netwrk has a rather funny cartoon called "Overdue"
Filmed on location with the men and women of library enforcement.
Check it out, its quite funny:
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/wpt/shorts/shorts_viewer.html?0011_sht.swf
[Flash required]
------------
Blake Carver
LISNews.com
Librarian and Information Science News
http://www.lisnews.com
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7. French National Bibliography online
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 13:21:05 +0200
From: FABRICE.BLONDEAU[at]BNF.FR
To: IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA
The French National Bibliography is now available on the Web
http://bibliographienationale.bnf.fr
The French National Bibliography, Books and Serials, is now
available for free access on the Web site of the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
This publication describes books and serials published, printed or
distributed in France and received by the Bibliothèque Nationale de
France through legal deposit.
It contains a list of records sorted by a thematic and alphabetical
classification author/title: a list of books and official publications,
a list of serials.
- Books
Bimonthly publication
About 50,000 new titles or new editions annually
- Serials
Monthly publication Around 5,000 new titles a year: newspapers, journals,
yearbooks and monographic series
Searches are available by browsing the pages or by selecting a topic
included in one of the thematic index:
- Books Indexes: author (personal authors; corporate authors); titles
(general; official publications; scholarly books; books for children);
printers;
publishers; RAMEAU subjects.
- Serials Indexes: serial titles (general; journals; yearbooks;
monographic
series); corporate authors; subjects.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information
E-mail: depot.legal.livres[at]bnf.fr
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8. Thought police patrolling Toledo
It began when our family's au pair, Sebastian Schmidt, set out from our
home in Cleveland to visit friends in Detroit. He was traveling by
Greyhound and had to change buses in Toledo, Ohio. And that was where it
happened.
As he got off the bus in Toledo, weighed down by a huge green backpack,
something fell from his hands. It was a sheaf of eight pages he had torn
from a magazine to read on the long ride. He stooped down to gather up the
fallen pages. As he stood up, he saw a policeman in a blue uniform standing
over him.
The policeman, a patrolman, insisted that Sebastian show him the pages.
Sebastian claims the officer was anything but friendly. It was Sebastian's
first encounter with an American policeman and he was nervous and afraid.
He comes from a small town called Poessnik in what was once East Germany, a
place where police were once truly to be feared.
... Sebastian attempted to say that the materials were not pornographic,
that they came from a serious magazine. They had been torn from the pages
of Esquire magazine, from an article titled "How a Woman Ages." There were
no pictures of buttocks or breasts, although the woman featured in the
photos did cover herself up with her arms in one or two of the
black-and-white shots. (If anyone was a scofflaw, it was my wife, for the
Esquire subscription was hers.) ...
...If Sebastian were seen reading such materials in public again, warned
the officer, he would be arrested....
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/07/26/thought_police/index.html
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9. Lemurlove!
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 08:21:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris Zammarelli <perniciouslib[at]yahoo.com>
To: Library Underground <libraryunderground[at]topica.com>
Howdy everyone,
Just to let you know, Jen (my happily soon-to-be wife)
and I have purchased Lemurlove.com, so there's been
some URL changes:
Caterblog: http://www.lemurlove.com/caterblog/
High-Decibel Library: http://www.lemurlove.com/hdl/
L.A.C.K.: http://www.lemurlove.com/lack/
Iron Chef Drinking Game:
http://www.lemurlove.com/ironchef/
On a side note, Blogger has been a real pain in the
ass as far as me changing L.A.C.K.'s template.
Specifically, I've unable to add Library Underground
to the links section because the damned thing never
saves my changes. What this means in the short run is
I'm looking for another place to host L.A.C.K., but I
don't know when, in the long run, that will be.
Incidentally, if you're interested in posting stuff to
L.A.C.K., please let me know.
Toodles,
Chris
(Bad Llama...)
=====
Me? I'm a shrill czar.
http://www.conk.com/zed/
"People say, "You must have been the class clown." And I say, "No, I
wasn't." But I sat next to the class clown, and I studied him." - Dr. Pearl
(Eugene Levy), "Waiting for Guffman"
---
Editor's note: L.A.C.K. is "Librarians Are Corrupting Kids," a fun
satirical weblog.
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10. "Libraries are for socialist welfare scum"
Who says that Library Juice doesn't present a full range of perspectives?
Here is a message from Hans Wienhold, sent to the newsgroup
soc.libraries.talk, about how libraries "are for socialist welfare scum."
From: Hans Wienhold <hansw[at]freewebemail.com>
Date: 07/24/01 11:05 pm
Groups: soc.libraries.talk
Libraries are for socialist welfare scum
All public libraries are socialist institutions and
invariably are sites of wholesale theft of intellectual property that
is being sanctioned by a corrupt, evil state.
Respect for Intellectual Freedom demands tht all state run libraries
be shut down immediately as they are a site of ongoing and wholesale
theft of intellectual property.
The contents of these dishonerable, immoral and illegal institutions
must be
returned to the authors or other financial interest holders or
shredded or burned so that the theft of the intellectual property
contained within the library walls will not continue.
Libraries will only be legitimate when they are taken out of the
hands of the state and only when the authors and or publishers of the
works within
have WILLINGLY donated their works, and then ONLY upon condition that
those works be distributed in strict accordance to whatever written
agreements or stipulations that may have been made with the rights
holders.
Among the Libertarian community it is often noted that the primary
use of public libraries is provide sleeping quarters for unemployed
bums and welfare slobs, and other parasites who are unworthy of
existance who are looking for another handout from the nanny state.
These people are intellectual property thieves at best and often
simply vermin worthy only of extermination.
Libraries exist as a method of wealth transfer and rights violation
like every other form of government corruption of the marketplace.
They exist as a result of government fiat, stealing wealth from
intellectual property holders and transfurring that wealth to low
income vermin, and do so with money stolen from the public.
The simple truth is that Libraries are nothing more than an immoral
and illegal form of welfare.
---
Love Freedom? Vote Libertarian
http://members.tripod.com/wiendog/index.html
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11. Fascists sabotaging libraries
By Nadia Jamal, Urban Affairs Writer, SMH.com
Right-wing fanatics are targeting Sydney libraries, leaving swastika
stickers and contact numbers for extremist groups in the books, a law firm
has warned.
But libraries are horrified by the "Hitlerish"' tactics the firm has
suggested to stop the practice.
Gadens Lawyers sounds the alarm in a newsletter to local governments and
clients, saying the racist literature may breach Federal and NSW race
discrimination and race vilification laws.
At least two libraries have been affected, Gadens says, but declines to
identify them.
The firm has advised councils that "reasonable" steps must be taken to
manage exposure to such material, including a review of:
Procedures for visitor access, which may mean that bags and packages are
searched before people are allowed into libraries;
Surveillance;
Procedures for book returns;
Procedures for random book checks.
If these measures did not stop offensive material being inserted, other
options included installing video surveillance and introducing a bag and
parcels system similar to that in the State Library and the Art Gallery of
NSW....
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0107/28/national/national15.html
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12. EI and CPTech Letter to DOC re .us
Manon Anne Ress
Essential Information
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036
July 27, 2001
The Honorable Donald L. Evans
Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20230
Dear Secretary Evans:
Essential Information and the Consumer Project on Technology are
Washington, DC-based non-profit organizations founded by Ralph Nader.
Our organizations are involved in a number of projects concerning the
Internet and E-commerce, much of which is documented on the CPTech web
page at http://www.cptech.org.
We are writing to express our concerns regarding the Department of
Commerce's Request for Quotation (RFQ) [SB1335-01-Q-0740] for services
to establish centralized management and coordination of the .us
top-level domain (usTLD), to propose specific policies regarding the
management of .us, and to join others in requesting an extension of the
July 27, 2001 deadline for applications of the future management of the
..us TLD.
Today the US national domain, .us, is used almost exclusively for state
and local governments, schools and libraries. It is a resource
rightfully regarded by the Internet community as a national and public
space, rather than simply another profit opportunity for speculators.
However, because it is also a potentially lucrative business, the
re-delegation of .us has attracted those more interested in profits than
the public good.
We believe the current RFQ poses threats to free speech, as well as
privacy - issues that may not trouble some commercial concerns, but
which do concern the people who use the Internet.
The ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is not appropriate
for .us TLD registrants. Many UDRP panels are international and take
positions that are contrary to US public policy, particularly as it
relates to the US First Amendment, but also with respect to US
traditions in trade mark policy, as they relate, for example, to the use
of generic names. We have outlined a number of such opinions at
http://www.cptech.org/ecom/icann/domaindisputes/
domaindisputes.html. For example, consider the opinion in
Kwasizabantu.org, where the UDRP panel said:
"The admitted nature of the use of the domain names ...
includes
alternative views and indeed critical views concerning ...
[KwaSizabantu] and its activities. The Panel holds such activity amounts
to tarnishing the activities associated with the trademark or service
mark "KwaSizabantu" ... Therefore, ... [Rost] does not establish any
rights or legitimate interests ..."
Certainly in the USA, offering critical views is still considered a
legitimate interest.
Regarding privacy policies, we ask that the registry for .us develop the
least restrictive privacy methods for protecting copyright interests.
This is quite important, as one expects the expanded .us domain space to
include a much greater scope for personal use, and there is already
significant pressure from the E-commerce sector to strip everyone of
every notion of privacy that one cannot just leave this up to the whims
of the registry. To the degree that the registry is required to provide
information on domain name owners, it should chose the method that does
the least violence to personal privacy.
Also, there are important policy issues concerning the economics of the
domain space - in particular, how domain name users will be protected
from exorbitant pricing. Another important issue is how to fairly manage
any surpluses that are likely to be available, once .us is rescued from
its incredibly poor current management scheme.
First of all, it is important to raise our concerns that the government
and ICANN have both deliberately created a false scarcity in domain name
space, to benefit a handful of Internet registries. As you know, the
Internet Top Level Domain (TDL) space is extremely limited, given what
is technologically possible. This is typically justified by a range of
insincere and easily refutable claims that this scarcity is somehow
needed to maintain Internet stability. As everyone is well aware, the
current artificial scarcity has been designed to create rents for the
handful of businesses that control the existing Internet domain name
space. Clearly the one firm that has benefited the most, to the tune
of billions in stock market valuation, is Verisign, which now controls
the registry for .com, .net and .org, while managing other registries.
One major objective of the .us re-delegation would be to ensure that
someone other than Verisign runs, manages and operates .us, so that
there is more competition.
We would hope that the .us TLD, the official US country code, be managed
by a non-profit Registry that would not have the incentive to charge
high prices for domain names. However, if a profit making firm is given
this resource, the government needs to regulate or limit the prices, or
explain why people are paying a commercial entity large fees to use the
..us domain. These registration fees are real money, and we resent
having to pay high prices for something that the seller does not create
or add value to.
There may be alternative methods of making this whole system less of a
rip off. For example, the plan could be to have an unlimited number of
second level domains auctioned off, with the proceeds going into a fund,
to be spent according to the wishes of the end user domain name
holders. For example, everyone with a third level domain .us, in this
system, could vote on how the surplus could be spent, in an electronic
referendum, which would be populist, fair, and not subject to the
typical favoritism that so often is associated with ICANN.
Second, it would also make sense to provide the not-for-profit sector
with some of the second level domains, for particular public uses and
civil society sectors. For example, union.us could go to the unions,
charity.us, lib.us, museum.us or others could be given to umbrella
groups that could manage the pricing and allocation of domains for
relevant constituencies. This would be better than a centralized system
run by some socially clueless technology firm.
Sincerely,
Manon Ress
James Love
CC: Joseph L. Widdup, NIST
--
Manon Anne Ress
mress[at]essential.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030
____________________________
Info-policy-notes mailing list
Info-policy-notes[at]lists.essential.org
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/info-policy-notes
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13. The Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development
Now Available!
IFLA Headquarters, The Hague
11 July, 2001
The eagerly-awaited public library guidelines have now appeared in the
IFLA Publications series as The Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO
Guidelines for Development. These guidelines have been framed to provide
assistance to librarians in any situation to develop an effective public
library service meeting the needs of their local community.
Philip Gill , Chair of the IFLA Working Group which prepared these new
guidelines, said: "The publication of these new IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for
Public Libraries, following wide consultation, present librarians worldwide
with standards and guidelines which will help them develop public libraries
relevant to the information age. In this exciting and complex information
world, it is vitally important for those in search of knowledge,
information and creative experience that they succeed. I believe that these
guidelines will help public librarians around the world meet that
challenge."
A distinctive feature of these guidelines is the inclusion of examples of
provision from around the world. They provide snapshots of what is
happening in public libraries in many different countries and a glimpse of
imaginative solutions to specific challenges.
These guidelines are essential reading for everyone involved in the
provision of public libraries. They will become an essential reference
tool for public library development and planning.
The Public Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development /
[International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions]
Prepared by a working group chaired by Philip Gill on behalf of the Section
of Public Libraries. * Munich: Saur, 2001 XVI, 116 p. 21 cm (IFLA
Publications ; 97) ISBN 3-598-21827-3
This publication can be ordered for DEM 98.00 (IFLA Members DEM 73.50), from:
K.G. Saur Verlag GmbH. Tel. +49-89-76902-232
Postfach 70 16 20 Fax +48-89-79602-150/250
81316 MUNICH, Germany E-mail: CustomerService_Saur[at]csi.com
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14. Being an Anomaly: Male Librarians
http://www.marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib107.html
This is an interesting column by Marylaine Block, in her Ex Libris web zine,
about male librarians and their experiences in this profession, that while
not entirely female dominated at the decision-making level, is female
dominated at the cultural level. She interviewed a number of male
librarians who had many interesting observations, some of which may
enlighten, and some of which may annoy. Recommended reading.
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15. The Glossarist
http://www.glossarist.com/
This comprehensive directory offers one-stop glossary shopping, with over
4,500 glossaries, 679 of which have been cataloged into 130 categories.
Visitors may search the directory by keyword or browse for a glossary by
topic (and then category). For example, the Arts and Culture section
includes general glossaries as well as those for animation, cartoons,
architecture, dance, film, fine arts, and five other categories. Some, but
not all of the entries include a brief description. Sample keyword searches
came out fairly well, with four returns for "mythology," four for "baking,"
and eight for "Islam." [MD]
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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16. Seed Savers Exchange - http://www.seedsavers.org/
Seed Savers Exchange is dedicated to preserving
historic varieties of fruits and vegetables through the
distribution of heirloom seed samples. Since their
founding in 1975, members have distributed over
700,000 samples of seed. They also maintain Heritage
Farm where over 18,000 varieties of heirloom
vegetables are grown. One does not have to be a
member to get a free catalog, purchase seed, or obtain
planting advice. Information about the Flower and Herb
Exchange (FHE), a similar organization, is also
available on this Web site. - slr
From Librarians Index to the Internet - http://lii.org/
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17. Amusing searches from July
The following is a list of search engine queries that resulted in hits on
the libr.org site (mostly big, long Library Juice issues), as found in my
log files:
librarianship is a lie
illustrated transgender pregnancy fiction
unable to get a completely random sample
shenendehowa shit
Questia username password
quotes with the word shoe
big roro vessel
library masturbating
protest by being nude in the picture in canadian newspaper
bongs gas masks
how to make gas mas bongs
pictures of jcrew models
origins of 4 20
see up shorts
male porn stars Rory
Prussian needle gun
masturbation with pillows
rory litwin gay
handsome hindu
foot job
gas mask bongs
librarian hate job
guide to make a methodology on benthic algae
martain cookies
technology of preparing pumpkin juice
hairygirl
going to library topless
downloadable word list obscenity
images of 16th century evil porn
questia mortal enemy
library shelving hell
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