Library Juice 5:12 - March 28, 2002

Contents:

1. CIPA Information
2. DECLARATION OF THE NICENESS OF LIBRARIES
3. ALA Resolution in favor of torture
4. Two new anticensorware reports
5. Filtering companies' religious connections
6. SSSCA becomes CBDTPA
7. Wisconsin madness
8. War Times
9. A selection of Don Wood's recent IF postings
10. "Keeping Anarchy In Order" - article about Julie Herrada
11. Audio of Michael Moore speech in which he flatters librarians
12. Patriot Registration Form
13. Search Engine bias?
14. More weblogs
15. Amusing searches

Quote for the week:

"Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be
convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is
suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the
criteria for national leadership should therefore be a
talent for understanding, encouraging, and making
constructive use of vigorous criticism."

- Carl Sagan, "The Public Enemy," in Billions
and Billions. Thoughts of Life and Death at the Brink
of the Millenium. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998, p. 189.

Homepage for the week: Seth Finkelstein
http://www.sethf.com

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1. CIPA Information

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:54:22 -0600
From: "Don Wood" <dwood[at]ala.org>
To: Intellectual Freedom Action News <ifaction[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: dwood[at]ala.org

For regular updates on the progress of the CIPA challenge, currently
scheduled to run through Thursday, April 4, please consult
http://www.ala.org/cipa.

If you are interested in media coverage of the trial, tools and talking
points to use in your library, and other related information, consult
the CIPA Press Kit at http://www.ala.org/pio/presskits/cipa/index.html

--------

CIPA Legal Defense: The Trial Has Begun: Please Help
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 12:27:37 -0800 (PST)
From: "Don Wood" <dwood[at]ala.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu>
Reply to: dwood[at]ala.org

March 27, 2002

To: Our Colleagues

From: Office for Intellectual Freedom and ALA Development Office

The American Library Association (ALA) opened its challenge to the
Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) on Monday, March 25, in the
District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Almost one year ago, on March 20, 2001, the American Library
Association (ALA) filed suit to challenge the Children's Internet
Protection Act (CIPA). This Act requires public libraries that receive
federal funding to install and enforce the use of blocking software on
all computers with Internet access.

ALA filed suit, not only because of the flawed nature of filtering
software, but also because CIPA violates the First Amendment and hinders
the ability of libraries to fulfill their responsibility to provide
access to information.

For the most current information on the legal challenge, please visit
http://www.ala.org/cipa

During this difficult time, librarians must continue to be at the
forefront of efforts to preserve and promote access to information and
free expression, not an easy task anywhere, any time.

In this light, we need your help today.

In order to meet funding needs for this legal challenge, ALA launched
its campaign to raise $1.3 million for the CIPA Legal Fund. Thanks to
many ALA member libraries, divisions, chapters, affiliates, and others,
we are nearly halfway to our fund-raising goal.

Please visit http://www.ala.org/cipa/cipalegalfund.html to make your
gift to the CIPA Legal Fund and join ALA in our fight to protect
intellectual freedom and equity of access. Please consider a
contribution that will express your personal commitment to keeping
Americas libraries safe from censorship.

By defending intellectual freedom, even during times of uncertainty,
librarians help to ensure that intellectual freedom will remain one of
our most treasured freedoms.

See also

What You Can Do To Oppose CIPA
http://www.ala.org/cipa/whatyoucandocipa.html

--------

NEWS
For Immediate Release
Contact: Larra Clark, 312-280-5043
March 27, 2002
ALA presents expert testimony on filter failures at CIPA trial
http://www.ala.org/pio/presskits/cipa/cipatrial.html

--------

Photos from the courthouse today:
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/cipa-trial-spring02.html

Politech archive on CIPA (the federal filtering law in question):
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cipa

-Declan McCulagh

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2. DECLARATION OF THE NICENESS OF LIBRARIES

1. Libraries are nice.
2. Librarians are nice.
3. The gentility of library staff sets an example for the library's
   patrons, in the library and in life. Thus, the niceness of libraries works
   toward a decrease in general nastiness.
4. Libraries support, in the strongest terms, the right of library users
   to be nice in all situations. This right shall be defended with all of our
   niceness.
5. The sacred library ethic of niceness shall guide us in developing
   collection development policies that are nice. Our nice patrons desire
   collections that provide a full range of niceness on issues of the day.
6. Vendors are nice, and we should be nice to them back and always invite
   them to our birthday parties.
7. Despite the salutary effect of the niceness of libraries upon society,
   many things remain nasty. Examples of nasty things are: politics,
   arguments, smelly people who walk into the library and say they can't pay
   their overdue fines, people who oppose our brave war against evil, people
   who want to read our nice President's, private, personal, official
   documents, and many things too nasty to mention. Such nasty things, not
   being nice, are properly considered "non-library issues."
8. Librarians who raise "non-library issues" at tea parties and other
   places where librarians are nice, such as national conferences, are
   themselves nasty and therefore perhaps not really librarians after all. The
   proper response to such people is to shun them, in a characteristically
   nice way, so that they will realize their nastiness and either reform or be
   weeded out of the carefully trimmed lawn of librarianship via their
   refusal to take the Oath of Niceness.
9. Remember: The untroubled brow, the calm solicitude of librarianship is
   a balm to those who come to the library for nice reading
   recommendations and information about lawn care and other nice things.
   Maintaining that niceness is a community service and, quite simply, a
   professional duty. For if niceness were not our guiding light as
   librarians, what on earth would be?

By Rory Litwin and Mark Rosenzweig

(This declaration has been sent to First Lady Laura Bush for endorsement,
but she has yet to reply.)
________________________________________________________________________top

3. ALA Resolution in favor of torture

Whereas torture has been declared by the US Goverment Administration a
legtimate means of obtaining information under certain circumstances

and

Whereas the ALA is by policy committed to the free flow of information and
the use of the most efficient and effective means of obtaining information
for its patrons

and

Whereas the Congress of the United States has as its historically-mandated
library the Library of Congress in Washington DC and seeks through it and
all other means of information gathering the resources necessary to its
deliberations

and

Whereas the American people have the right to know, which under certain
circumstances can best be served by the prudent application of torture to
detainees under interrogation, a right assured by the Library Bill of
Rights

Therefore,

Be it resolved that ALA supports the judicious and efficient use of
torture by qualified information professionals in the obtaining of answers
to reference inquiries when considered necesssary and

be it also resolved that the establishment of an Office of Interrogation
Technology, based in the Library of Congress, be proposed -- although with
no proviso that it be managed by a librarian

and finally be it resolved that ALA, in keeping member-librarians at the
forefront of information provision, supports the establishment of ALA
certification programs under its new 501(c)6 --the new APA -- in torture
technology, so that librarians around the country be afforded the
opportunity for profesional advancement through enhanced skills not
otherwise obtainable in the hopes that librarians will be seen to play a
leading role throughout the nation in the efffective, efficient provision
of needed information in the conduct of the country's affairs.

Moved by His Excellency Marcalonius C. Rosenzweig III
Seconded by Dr. Rortimer B. Litwin, Esquire
________________________________________________________________________top

4. Two new anticensorware reports

Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 00:48:39 -0500
From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf[at]sethf.com>
To: rory[at]libr.org

[You mought be interested in these anticensorware reports]

Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 10:17:11 -0500
From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf[at]sethf.com>
To: Seth Finkelstein's InfoThought list <infothought[at]sethf.com>
Subject: New Anticensorware Report: BESS vs Image Search Engines

Available at: http://sethf.com/anticensorware/bess/image.php
BESS vs Image Search Engines

Abstract: This report investigates how N2H2's censorware treats
several image search engines. N2H2/BESS turns out to blacklist popular
general image searching sites as "Pornography". The cached images held
by such sites are probably the cause. This is discussed as a deep
dilemma of censorware, where general search facilities may be
considered as tainted if they contain any cached forbidden material.

--
Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf[at]sethf.com http://sethf.com
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought list - http://sethf.com/infothought/
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 14:08:47 -0500
From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf[at]sethf.com>
To: Seth Finkelstein's InfoThought list <infothought[at]sethf.com>
Subject: IT: New Report: Pre-Slipped Slope - censorware vs Wayback archive

New anticensorware report from Seth Finkelstein:
Available at: http://sethf.com/anticensorware/general/slip.php

The Pre-Slipped Slope - censorware vs the Wayback Machine web archive

Abstract: This report examines how various censorware programs blacklist
an extensive (100 Terabytes) web-site archive called the "Wayback Machine".
The control requirements of censorware lead to considering this
archive site as a "Loophole" or "proxy avoidance systems". The
censorware slippery-slope logic (or flying leap off a sharp cliff)
leading to suppressing such a digital library is discussed.

The Wayback Machine is at http://web.archive.org/

--
Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf[at]sethf.com http://sethf.com
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought list - http://sethf.com/infothought/
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html
________________________________________________________________________top

5. Filtering companies' religious connections

RESPONSIBLE NETIZEN

"Filtering Software: The Religious Connection." reviews the
relationships of eight filtering companies whose products are
currently being used in U.S. public schools, or that are
marketing their products for use in public schools. This report
reviews the relationships of eight filtering software companies
with conservative religious organizations. Some of the
filtering companies are providing filtering services to
conservative religious ISPs that are representing to their
users that the service filters in accord with conservative
religious values. Some of the filtering companies appear
to have partnership relationships with conservative religious
organizations.

http://netizen.uoregon.edu/documents/religious2.html
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6. SSSCA becomes CBDTPA

In a clever attempt to mentally exhaust the bill's opponents, the
entertainment industry has reintroduced its hated SSSCA bill as CBDTPA,
which stands for "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act."

Here is info:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51245,00.html

Copy Protection Bill Introduced
By Declan McCullagh (declan[at]wired.com)

3:20 p.m. March 21, 2002 PST
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Fritz Hollings has fired the first shot in the next
legal battle over Internet piracy.

The Democratic senator from South Carolina finally has introduced his
copy protection legislation, ending over six months of anticipation
and sharpening what has become a heated debate between Hollywood and
Silicon Valley.

The bill, called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television
Promotion Act (CBDTPA), prohibits the sale of any kind of electronic
device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be
set by the federal government.

Translation: Future MP3 players, PCs, and handheld computers will no
longer let you make all the copies you want.

"A lack of security has enabled significant copyright piracy which
drains America's content industries to the tune of billions of dollars
every year," Hollings, the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce
committee, said in a statement on Thursday.

[...]

--------

FC: Text of Sen. Hollings' revised SSSCA, now called the CBDTPA
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 18:52:30 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan[at]well.com>
To: politech[at]politechbot.com
Reply to: declan[at]well.com

I've placed the text of the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television
Promotion Act (CBDTPA) here:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/

Here's Sen. Fritz Hollings' (D-SC) statement and press release:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/hollings.cbdtpa.release.032102.html

Wired News article on the CBDTPA:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51245,00.html

Here are the statements from supporters and opponents:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/mpaa.cbdtpa.release.032102.html
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/riaa.cbdtpa.release.032102.html
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/bsa.cspp.iti.release.032102.html

Politech archive on SSSCA (now, of course, called the CBDTPA):
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sssca

-Declan

--------

As a bonus, here's a section-by-section summary of the bill:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html

And a collection of info on the Consumer Broadband and Digital
Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA):
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/

--------

FC: CBDTPA bans everything from two-line BASIC programs to PCs
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 23:00:02 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan[at]well.com>
To: politech[at]politechbot.com
Reply to: declan[at]well.com

Just in case folks haven't figured out how sweeping the Hollings-Feinstein
bill, aka CBDTPA is, well, keep reading.

The CBDTPA says that if I were to write and sell this BASIC program...

10 INPUT A$
20 PRINT A$

...after the regulations take effect, I would be guilty of a federal
felony. That's up to five years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine.
Distributing my two-line application without charging for it, either via
handing out floppies or by posting it on a website would be at least a
civil offense and, depending on the circumstances, a crime as well.

It's no joke. CBDTPA regulates "any hardware or software that reproduces
copyrighted works in digital form." My program above does that, especially
if my BASIC interpreter permits arbitrarily long strings.

The business end of the CBDTPA says that "a manufacturer, importer, or
seller" of such software cannot "sell, or offer for sale, in interstate
commerce, or cause to be transported in, or in a manner affecting,
interstate commerce" their code unless it "includes and utilizes standard
security technologies that adhere to the security system standards adopted
under section 3."

The FCC gets to invent those. But I can't see how my two-line program is
going to incorporate such standards. If I'm using C, must I "#include
<sys/copycheck.h>?" In Perl, will I "use Parse::DRMVerify?" If so, who at
the FCC will ensure that these modules are available for the languages I'm
using? (It is true that folks at the FCC are smarter than the folks in
Congress, though that is not saying much. FCC staff will try to make the
standards workable. But the CBDTPA gives them -- and the public -- precious
little wiggle room.)

By design, programming languages are terribly flexible. The only way to
prevent software from removing do-not-copy bits from digital content would
be for Congress to ban the programmable PC. And replace it, perhaps, with
WebTV television-top boxes.

In case you're curious, the felony penalties kick in when you try to sell
your post-ban BASIC program -- not to mention any commercial software --
and perhaps even if you're a free software developer hoping to gain
reputation capital from your code.

They say that violators "shall be fined not more than $500,000 or
imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense; and
shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10
years, or both, for any subsequent offense."
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1204.html)

Yes, this is silly. No, it is probably (I hope) not what senators Hollings
and Feinstein and their colleagues intended. Yet it is what the text of the
bill says. And this is after the good senators had seven months of
correspodnence from computer scientists and industry representatives
worried about the scope of the legislation after it was widely circulated
in August 2001.

Don't believe me? Read it for yourself:

Text of CBDTPA:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/

Politech archive on the CBDTPA:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cbdtpa

-Declan

--------

Hollings, Valenti, and the American Techniban
Richard Forno
25 March 2002
rforno[at]infowarrior.org

Summary: Discussion of the latest (and controversial) piece of
entertainment-industry legislation designed to screw the law-abiding
citizens of the Net.

http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2002-03.html

________________________________________________________________________top

7. Wisconsin madness

[PUBLIB] Fee OR Free OR Boolean logicians
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 12:13:23 -0800 (PST)
From: "Thomas J. Hennen Jr." <thennen[at]haplr-index.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu>
Reply to: thennen[at]haplr-index.com

Greetings,

I wonder today about the term free in so many of our public libraries'
titles in these post 911 times.  How long will we keep that "free public
library" title?  Will the 211 of information seekers give way to our 911
panic?  Will it be fee instead of free all across this free nation soon? I
pray not, but fear as much.

Seattle, home of award winning library director Deb Jacobs and Microsoft, is
developing plans for staff furloughs to deal with budget cuts even as the
state library is threatened with closure.
http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/2002/020325.html#washstate

New York is reeling from 911-budget cutting.
http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/2002/020218.html

But here in Wisconsin we seem to have it worst. If you can top our woes,
please tell.  Misery loves company, as ever.

Wisconsin's State Assembly wants to backtrack on 130 years of history and
make our libraries not free but rather fee based.  Our Governor has urged it
so, calling a reporter an SOB for merely asking about the impact of proposed
cuts on libraries. See the excellent American Libraries coverage of
Wisconsin library budget woes at:
http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/2002/020325.html#feeban
http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/2002/020304.html#wiscbudget

Or in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel at:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/mar02/28877.asp
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb02/23663.asp

For 130 years Wisconsin followed the lead of library pioneering states like
New Hampshire and New York in enshrining a statement that libraries would be
"free for the use of their inhabitants." We got through wars and
depressions, but our ancestors did not waver in believing that public
libraries are a public good.

I am told we will be the ONLY state in the nation in such a state if this
legislation is sustained.  Can it be true?  I know that there are many
states, like Illinois, that allow for charging for fee cards to
municipalities without libraries, but are there any states that have utterly
abolished the concept of tax supported library services?

For today, that not so datcalmguy,

Thomas J. Hennen Jr.
thennen[at]haplr-index.com
http://www.haplr-index.com
Voice: 262-886-1625
Fax: 262-886-5424
6014 Spring Street
Racine, WI   53406

"Share knowledge, seek wisdom."

--------

[Fwd: Privatization of Wisconsin Libraries]
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 16:46:57 -0500
From: Ann Sparanese <sparanese[at]englewoodlibrary.org>
To: "srrtac-l[at]ala.org" <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Cc: PLGNet-L List <PLGNet-L[at]listproc.sjsu.edu>
Reply to: sparanese[at]englewoodlibrary.org

Here's an interesting piece I received from a friend in Wisconsin. I
wrote to the author, Paul Nelson, who is the director of the Middleton
Library to get permission to repost, which he gave. (I had to take out a
lot of those little =20s and >s in weird places to make it readable
again.)

>Yesterday the Legislative Fiscal Bureau made available its "2001-03
Budget Reform Bill Comparative Summary of Budget Recommendations". It is
available at the following URL:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lfb/2001-03BudgetAdjustment/governor_JFC_ARC.pdf

I'm sure you will all be outraged by the following recommendation,
put forth by the Assembly Republican Caucus, found on page 205. "Repeal
the current law requirement that municipal libraries, consolidated county
libraries and county library services shall be free for the use of
inhabitants of the municipality or county by which it is established and
maintained, subject to reasonable regulations prescribed by the
library's board."

No doubt about it. Assembly Republicans want to do away with free public
library service in the state of Wisconsin. Obviously, it is highly
unlikely that this recommendation will move forward, but the fact that it
was even offered is absolutely mindboggling to me. I think we can make a
lot of hay out of this blunder.

I'd suggest a number of follow-ups.
> 1. Alert your library patrons to this outrageous recommendation.
> 2. Encourage them to share their thoughts with their elected
officials in the Assembly. (The general message to Republicans: what
are you thinking?-- followed by a statement or two as to why libraries
are a
vital service. To Democrats: Look what the Republicans want to do to our
public libraries! -- with thanks for their continued support of
libraries.)
> 3. Make sure that letters are written to your local newspaper. Have
particularly articulate spokesperson in your area write an op-ed
piece. In fact, if you have a good contact at your paper, call him or
her right now with a tip about this story waiting to be written.=20

> This is just a start. Please offer your suggestions as we expand the
campaign to preserve free public library service in Wisconsin.
I've already talked to Spencer Black's office, as the Assembly
Democrats are putting together their own version of the budget repair
bill. I
told them that the Republicans have given them the perfect sound bite:
The
Republicans want to deep-six our public libraries.

> Paul Nelson
> WLA LDL Chair

>Paul Nelson
>Director, Middleton Public Library
>phone: 608/836-5131=20
>fax: 608/836-5724=20
>email: pen[at]scls.lib.wi.us=20
>Check out our home page at http://www.scls.lib.wi.us/middleton/
________________________________________________________________________top

8. War Times

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 18:32:01 -0700
From: "Mary Ann Meyers" <ljmmam[at]hypermall.net>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Reply to: srrtac-l[at]ala.org

Download first free copy (English or Spanish) here:

http://www.war-times.org/index.html

The terrorist attacks of September 11 marked the beginning of a new and
frightening period in our history. Thousands of people died that day, and
their families along with the country as a whole are still struggling to
recover. But President Bush's response of "permanent war against terrorism
at home and abroad" has further endangered the lives and liberties of
millions of people everywhere.

War Times is being produced to help broaden and deepen the fight against the
Bush program by compiling information and analysis, and putting them into
the hands of large numbers of readers. We are planning for it to be a free,
mass produced, biweekly, and nationally distributed tabloid-sized newspaper.
It will be a valuable outreach and education tool for organizers on the
ground and an entryway for new people into the peace and justice movement.
________________________________________________________________________top

9. A selection of Don Wood's recent IF postings

-----

Book Banning in the 21st Century
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12677

The Children's Internet Protection Act mandates that all public schools
and libraries using federal funds for Internet use must install a filtering
system by this July or risk losing the aid altogether.

-----

WHITE HOUSE CALLS FOR WEB SITE REVIEW

In a March 19 memo, the White House called on officials to review all
federal Web sites for "sensitive but not classified" materials that should
be removed from the public view.

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO69514,00.html

-----

Resisting Bush's War
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12477

An inspiring speech from Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the leader of the
Progressive Caucus, openly repudiating President Bush's war rationale,
"axis of evil" comments and the Patriot Act.

-----

IFLA/FAIFE World Report: Libraries and Intellectual Freedom
http://www.faife.dk/report/assist.htm

"IFLA/FAIFE urges colleagues and supporters of intellectual freedom to
forward information on the status of libraries, librarianship and
intellectual freedom in their country or region to the IFLA/FAIFE Office
in Copenhagen."

-----

Knowledge sharing on the Net goes on trial in the States
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20020315_internet.shtml

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the oldest and most respected
advocate of freedom of expression rights on the Net which has provided
legal counselling to the Morpheus Network, issued a statement declaring
its intention to carry the case through to the jury trial decreed last
week for October by US District Court Judge Stephen Wilson in Los
Angeles."

-----

Sarah Jones vs. FCC
http://www.yourrevolutionisbanned.com/

"Attorneys for poet and performance artist Sarah Jones ... filed a
lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) challenging
a ruling that one of Jones' works is "indecent." In the wake of the
ruling and a threatened fine against a non-commercial educational radio
station in Portland, Oregon that aired the work, other stations are
refusing to air the piece. The work entitled "Your Revolution" is a
protest against the degrading treatment of women in popular culture. The
complaint was filed by prominent New York-based media law firm Frankfurt
Garbus Kurnit Klein & Selz, P.C. and attorneys with People For the
American Way Foundation."

-----

Safe and Free in Times of Crisis
http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/index.html

"Six months after September 11, much has fundamentally changed in
America," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU.
"Perhaps the most disturbing change is the government's apparent
dismissal of the idea that our society can and must be both safe and free."

-----

TAPPING OFFICIALS' SECRETS
http://www.reporterscommittee.org/tapping2001/index.cgi

"TAPPING OFFICIALS' SECRETS is a complete compendium of information on
every state's open records and open meetings laws. Each state's section
is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare
laws in various states. If you're a new user of this guide, be sure to
read the Introductory Note and User's Guide."

-----

Florida newspapers unite to stress need for open government
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=15856

"Concerned about legislative efforts to restrict access to public
records, more than half of Florida's daily newspapers published
editorials yesterday stressing the importance of maintaining an open
government."

-----

Terrorism and the Domestic War on "Terrorism"
http://www.fair.org/issues-news/terrorism.html

-----

This is not just a war on terrorism
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/fri/opinion/news_1e8twight.html

By Charlotte Twight

March 8, 2002

"In the name of catching terrorists, the federal government is rapidly
establishing program after program to monitor law-abiding American
citizens. Long-standing wish lists of government officials and special
interests for expanded government surveillance of ordinary Americans are
being trotted out daily, wrapped in fine-sounding phrases."

-----

The Twelfth Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
http://www.cfp2002.org/

"The Twelfth Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy is to be
held in San Francisco in April 2002. The conference organizers are
requesting proposals for panel topics. Any member of the public can
suggest a topic on issues including global activitism; technology and
monopoly; voting technology and democracy; technology and weapons; ICANN
and Internet governance; borders and censorship; digital divide;
biometric systems; consumer privacy; wireless privacy and security;
hacktivism; intellectual property and intellectual freedom; digital
rights management and privacy; public records and private lives. CFP
organizers are also soliciting papers on Digital Rights Management (DRM)
technologies and the Fair Use doctrine."

See also

Draft Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights on Privacy
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/draftprivacyinterpretation.html

-----

[IFACTION:2715] Executive Order 13233
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 16:24:09 -0600
From: "Don Wood" <dwood[at]ala.org>
To: Intellectual Freedom Action News <ifaction[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: dwood[at]ala.org

As the release below explains, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)
is strongly encouraging librarians to create displays and exhibits
highlighting the detrimental effects of Executive Order 13233, which
restricts access to presidential records. Please spread the word among
your committees and in your states!

If you develop an exhibit or know of someone else who has developed
one, please let OIF know.

Thanks.

ALA raises red flag on recent Bush executive order
http://www.ala.org/news/v8n3/executiveorder.html

"A new executive order issued by President George W. Bush restricts
access to the records of former presidents. The Office for
Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA) and The
Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) urge librarians to alert their patrons
and the public about this effort to close the public record."

For how librarians can help, see also

Executive Order 13233
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/executiveorder13233.html

Ongoing List of Historical Works That Would Have Been Affected by
Executive Order 13233
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/historicalworks.html

-----

The ALA IFC is developing a Questions and Answers on Privacy and
Confidentiality to answer questions raised in comments to date on the
draft Interpetation on privacy. The latest Q&A (updated 3/6/02), which
will be continually expanded with new questions and answers, is
available online at

http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/privacyqanda.html

-----

Publishers Seek to Overturn Bush Executive Order on Presidential Papers
http://www.publishers.org/press/index.htm

"The U.S. book publishing industry today urged a federal court to
nullify President Bush's executive order limiting access to presidential
papers and to order the National Archives to administer the Presidential
Records Act of 1978 as Congress intended."

-----

Don Wood deserves a big round of applause for consistently communicating to
librarians the urgency of civil liberties concerns post-Sept. 11th, 2001.
I am very glad that someone who is so on top of these issues is the Program
Officer in ALA's Communications Office. Here's his sig:

Don Wood
Program Officer/Communications
American Library Association
Office for Intellectual Freedom
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
1-800-545-2433, ext. 4225
Fax: 312-280-4227
dwood[at]ala.org
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/
http://www.ala.org/cipa/cipalegalfund.html
intellectual freedom [at] your library
Free People Read Freely®

"Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek
and receive information from all points of view without restriction.
It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which
any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and
disseminate ideas."--Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/intellectualfreedomandcensorship.html

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10. "Keeping Anarchy In Order" - article about Julie Herrada

"Open to the public, the Labadie is a magnet for scholars who study
anarchist history, liberation movements, socialism, communism and radical
literature on both the extreme left and right. But more than its unusual
and sometimes controversial content, the Labadie is a keeper and maker of
history, an archive of lives just waiting to be rediscovered and reanimated
by today's patrons.

....

"Herrada continues to diversify the collection's holdings on both the left
and right ends of the political spectrum, but she sees significant
differences between the anti-government, anarchist movements that seek to
break down barriers between people, and the anti-government, isolationist
militia groups. The Labadie, she says, "is still more for left-minded
people to do research than for documenting racist material."

....

http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/02/Spr02/mt12s02a.html

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11. Audio of Michael Moore speech in which he flatters librarians

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/02-03moore-audio.html
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12. Patriot Registration Form

http://www.whitehouse.org/initiatives/patriot/index.asp

Help the government eliminate terrorism by the process of elimination.
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13. Search Engine bias?

SearchDay
March 11, 2002 - Number 221

By Chris Sherman
Associate Editor, Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/
Copyright (c) 2002 INT Media Group, Inc.

Can you trust search engines to deliver only fair and objective results?
Maybe not, say the authors of a study seeking to measure how bias creeps in
to search engineering.

If we ask a reference librarian a question, we take it for granted that
we'll be offered unbiased help. Librarians know not only how to find
information, but how to assess its quality and authority.

Most of us assume the same is true with search engines. Putting aside the
issue of paid placement (aka advertising) links that appear in most search
results these days, we want to believe that calculated or computed search
results are fair, authoritative, and free from bias.

But are they really? After all, search engines are just computer programs,
and the people who create these programs have opinions and biases of their
own. Not only that, the fundamental concept of identifying the "best"
results for a particular query inherently requires that some sources of
information be given preferential treatment over other sources. We wouldn't
be happy with search results without this filtering and culling.

Two computer scientists from the City College of New York have set out to
define and measure bias in search engines. Initial results of their work
has been published in the Journal of Information Processing and Management.

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd0311-sebias.html

--------

Shaping the Web: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters
Draft: Forthcoming in The Information Society

By Lucas D. Introna, London School of Economics and Helen Nissenbaum,
University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Abstract:

"This article argues that search engines raise not merely technical issues
but also political ones. Our study of search engines suggests that they
systematically exclude (in some cases by design and in some accidentally)
certain sites, and certain types of sites, in favor of others,
systematically give prominence to some at the expense of others. We
argue that such biases, which would lead to a narrowing of the Web's
functioning in society, run counter to the basic architecture of the Web as
well as the values and ideals that have fueled widespread support for its
growth and development. We consider ways of addrsesing the politics of
search engines, raising doubts whether, in particular, the market mechanism
could serve as an acceptable corrective."

http://www.princeton.edu/~helen/engine.pdf
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14. More weblogs

Librarians Anonymous Blog
http://www.librariansanonymous.com/blogger.html

Laura's Space:
"What do librarianship, liberal politics, and the care and feeding of house
rabbits have in common? Read this and see..."
http://radio.weblogs.com/0104926/

H20 boro blog
http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm

For those who are confused, Library Juice is NOT a weblog. Library Juice
likes weblogs and thanks them for the links, but Library Juice is an
electronic serial. It is listed as such in Ulrich's and catalogued as such
by libraries. It comes out on a weekly basis with text content of a
roughly fixed length. It includes links, like a weblog, but lots of text,
unlike a weblog. Weblogs are constantly updated pages containing little
more than annotated links. That is not what Library Juice is.
________________________________________________________________________top

15. Amusing searches

The following searches, mostly from Google, led to pages on libr.org during
the month of March:

the flintstones +critical literacy
librarians mls bullshit
kinky librarians
oh no my dearest polly I cannot marry thee
rory litwin communist
add our link to your anti government website
etymology mouth breather
cheap growth hormone
noam chomsky jew hater
scary shit
future of computing jetsons
gospel space juice
uniform of the future
pictures of gas mask bongs
that's so Sept. 10th
methodology in examining sexually inappropriate behaviors
main points of the bullshit patriot act
michael moore traitor
Full text Swetnams' Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Forward and Unconstant Women
stamp 'em up
what might happen to france
homogenous substance
scoobydoo bank
how to cultivate a submissive woman
millionaires with less than a high school education
whole quote "up to your ass in alligators"
scary shit (again)
how do i write a coherent essay
parentocracy
statistics of lazy people due to technology
total number of filipino femail
reasons not to join the military
which nationality has the largest penis

and...

How long would it take to telephone someone in Saturn from East Lansing,
Michican
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