Library Juice 5:20 - May 23, 2002

Contents:

1. Mitch Freedman responds to Karen Schneider re: De-Bermanification
2. CONTEXT
3. Libraries for Latinos? Not in Santa Ana
4. OMB versus GPO
5. Building the Electronic Commons Democracy Collaborative
6. Koha
7. ProQuest adds to Alt-Presswatch database
8. Sex, the Internet, and Educational Reform
9. CPPA, COPA, CIPA: Which Is Which?
10. Ethical decision-making and Internet research
11. Association of Internet Researchers - AOIR
12. "Factual Error Found on Internet"
13. Letter from Denise Kleinman to George Lucas

Quote for the week:

"I thank God there are no free schools nor
printing; and I hope we shall not have [them] these
[next] hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world,
and printing has divulged them and libels against the
best government. God keep us from both!"

By The British Royal Governor of the Colony of
Virginia, 1671

Source: Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World. Science
as a Candle in the Dark. New York: Ballantine Books,
Chapter 21: The Path to Freedom, 1997, p. 356

Homepage of the week: Megan Palasciano
http://www.librarychick.com/index.html

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1. Mitch Freedman responds to Karen Schneider re: De-Bermanification

Mitch Freedman's comments in response to Karen Schneider's message to the
SJSU SLIS email list, reprinted in last week's issue of Library Juice, at
http://libr.org/Juice/issues/vol5/LJ_5.19.html#13

Mitch wrote:
My comments are interspersed with Karen Schneider's. Mine are preceded
with ***.

KGS:
Sandy Berman exhibited great leadership with his alternative subject
headings, and he can take credit for shaming LC into many much-needed
changes.

However, there is another side to this discussion that the Library Juice
article does not address: what is the negative impact of using
non-standard subject headings?

Unfortunately (and some catalogers got a bit upset when I said this on
another list) if interoperability is important, LCSH is a necessary
evil. It's not as if the Hennepin authority files became adopted by
many catalogs; that didn't happen--and more's the pity; I think that's
due to the routine lack of attention paid to cataloging from other types
of library professionals.

***MJF

Simply, interoperability is not an issue whatsoever, and it makes no
difference whether one library or 100,000 libraries used HCL headings.
The use of HCL subject headings in no way precludes interoperability.

First, ISBN's are independent of terminology--with an ISBN, any catalog
can be searched.

Second, Berman's HCL catalog was overwhelmingly LC subjects and names.
He just used many more of them per record than LC did. So the
standardization of LC jargon pervaded the HCL catalog and would thus
ensure that the patron had a much better chance of finding a record if
he/she used an LC name/subject to search--there were more instances of
them.

Third, and most importantly, in searching a catalog, there was more of a
chance that a record would be found at HCL than in a "pure" (i.e.
deficient) LC MARC record because:

1. The innovated HCL term was much more likely to be used in
   contemporary culture -- one old example changed by LC years after HCL
   changed it: LC: electronic calculating machines HCL: computers.
2. With authority control and cross-reference structures, all searches
   on LC outmoded or defective terminology would still be found--e.g.
   "Eskimos" would bring up "Inuit."

The overarching point is that the interoperability of systems has to do
with record structure and system design and accessibility for external
searches, not the content of the records.

And when it comes to content, as noted above, the ISBN is jargon neutral
and is in all records irrespective of the modification/non-modification
of content; and the HCL content is in the context of a system that
through authority control transparently links the LC form to the
improved Bermanized form of heading, thus providing access across
slavishly adhered to LC-based systems and HCL's--which is the precious
interoperability so highly valued by the writer.

KGS:
So if you are planning to do more than be a
single, isolated catalog, the arcane, bizarre language of LC becomes
important. The memo from HCL, cited below, makes this clear.

***MJF: The issue is whether the library wants to slavishly adhere to LC
MARC and not make an investment in better cataloging and thereby better
service to its users. Accepting whatever LC does--as Karen so aptly
puts it, "arcane, bizarre language of LC"--is an administrative judgment
based on the perception that if LC is followed unquestioningly, money
will be saved in the cataloging process and that the consonance with
national practice is something to cherish. All things being equal, it
is simpler to just accept LC--just as it is simpler to accept anything
without questioning it--but it does not make for particularly good
service for the user..

KGS:
It would be great if library systems could afford to have LC and local
controlled vocabularies, or LC and Hennepin... but most libraries
don't have the kind of budgets to make this possible. I don't know
what the budget situation is in Minnesota, but if it's like every other
state right now, tighten your seatbelts because it's going to be a bumpy
year.

***MJF: Undoubtedly the budget situation in Minnesota is like it is
everywhere else. The difference is that HCL, while Berman was running
the catalog dept, was getting $100,000 in royalties from NoveList for
its cataloging records. In other words, Berman's work paid for itself,
and the cost consideration--one made repeatedly, not just by Karen, is a
red herring. HCL will lose (if it hasn't already lost) this $100,000
because the unique value of the HCL cataloging has been eliminated.

***MJF: In a broader context, the same justification for inadequate
cataloging, i.e. economizing by not reviewing LC and thereby eliminating
one or more MLS catalogers, is being used in numerous library venues to
replace reference librarians with non-MLS information assistants. This
is all part of the larger trend to save money by deprofessionalizing
library work. Nobody cared with cataloging because too few librarians
appreciate the value of a good catalog--but as with the German clergyman
who said in regard to their finally coming for him, there was no one to
defend him because they had already taken all of the Jews, Communists,
Catholics, etc., the deprofessionalization now includes non-librarians
as head of great university libraries and what used to be known as
library schools.

KGS:
I also feel the language of the petition puts potential signers in an
awkward place. Is the point to argue that the subject headings "play a
vital role in encouraging change in this area of librarianship"? Or
is it to complain that the library's rationale for making this decision
is "specious, narrow-minded, and unconvincing?"

Even if this were true, is this the rationale language of influence?

***MJF: Berman's headings did "play a vital role in encouraging change
in this area of librarianship." Getting LC to change so many of its
homophobic, misogynist, colonialist, outdated, "arcane and bizarre
language," and otherwise deficient jargon, meant that LC changed so many
of these deficient headings for everyone. Thus all of the other
libraries that followed LC would get an improved product from LC; one
that was not so judgmental and demeaning, for example, to native peoples
in Africa, North America, and elsewhere.

***MJF: Karen's question re the petitioners' rejection of HCL's
rationale as being "specious, narrow-minded, and unconvincing?" may not
be the "rationale (sic) language of influence," but it does seem to make
the point. I've found that all too often the critics of a given policy
are held to a much higher standard than the policymaker.

***MJF: From my reading of the various HCL statements, I think that the
petition may use strong language, but that it is not inaccurate in its
overall rejection of HCL's various rationalizations for its change in
policy.

KGS:
Finally, Hennepin's administration also announced last month that they
will indeed make the authority files available for scholarly and
research purposes (as they promptly told me, as well, when I wrote them
before they made the announcement--all I had to do was ask). To
encourage them to ensure these files are preserved, I would sign a
separate petition, neutrally worded.

***MJF: Karen's support of what HCL already decided to do undoubtedly is
welcome. Whether or not HCL originally planned to make the authority
file available is a separate matter that may not be so easily
discernible--and indeed, we probably will not know whether that decision
was influenced by the petition and earlier pressures put on the HCL
administration and Board, as well as Hennepin County's administration
and Board of Commissioners.

***MJF: The critical point not mentioned in Karen's message is that
making the authority file available by itself, that is, without the
linked bibliographic records, will be of considerably less value. To
fully appreciate the headings used by Berman-HCL, it is crucial to see
how they were applied, i.e. what were the books that they were assigned
to?

***MJF: Both files must be made available, and made available in a way
that everyone, who chooses to, may access them in a simple standardized
way. It is not clear at this point from the published statements that I
have seen whether this is the case.

mitch
Maurice J. Freedman
Director, Westchester Library System

"Freedman, Jenna" wrote:

> http://libr.org/Juice/issues/vol5/LJ_5.19.html#13

--
mitch
Maurice J. Freedman, MLS, PhD
ALA President-Elect
www.mjfreedman.org
Director, Westchester (NY) Library System
410 Saw Mill River Road
Ardsley, NY 10502
Voice: 914-674-3600 x223; Fax: 914-674-4193
All communications regarding the U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D Librarian
should be sent to <editor[at]unabashedlibrarian.com>
**************************************************************

"I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places..."
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2. CONTEXT

CONTEXT is a quarterly publication intended to create a historical and
cultural context in which to read modern and contemporary literature. It is
distributed free of charge to bookstores, universities, and libraries
throughout the country, and its contents are posted online. The goal of
CONTEXT is to encourage the development of a literary community.

CONTEXT is partially funded by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's
Digest Fund and the Illinois Arts Council. Distribution of copies to
Chicago public libraries and bookstores is made possible through a grant
from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/
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3. Libraries for Latinos? Not in Santa Ana

A half-editorial, half-reporting, all reading report

By Bruce Jensen
Orange County Latino

...The way Santa Ana Public Library does a disservice to its community is
nothing unusual. The rationale, too, is familiar and has a lot to do with
who librarians are, and aren't. "I don't speak English," Pablo Picasso is
supposed to have said, "but that does not mean that English doesn't exist."
A wildly unbalanced collection that slights the languages people are
speaking outside reflects a library's desire to make those people stop
existing-at least, they won't be darkening the library's door.

Library dinosaurs still haven't picked up the clue: any business that
ignores and insults its biggest customer base might as well soap the
windows. Though libraries don't have to satisfy stockholders, the unspoken
truth is that without real community support they invariably languish in
another kind of bankruptcy.

My interview? It began well, with a language test. The first question was
about library philosophy, and without thinking about it I uncorked a rollo
that would've had Fidel Castro gasping for breath. On an on I went, about
libraries' important role in helping newcomers adjust to the surroundings,
their responsibility to furnish comprehensible information about health and
law and opportunities, about the library as the richest egalitarian source
of entertainment and facts and diversion that we have going, the one place
where we're all welcome regardless of what's in our pockets that day. That
means (I continued, starting to get warmed up) that the library has a duty
to tailor its offerings to the folks moving in and milling around outside;
it's irresponsible to keep serving the same old faces the same old way

The interlocutor wrote a high score on her sheet and looked me in the eye:
don't be nervous about the rest of the interview, she said: "They need
librarians like you."

Thus buoyed, I walked in to face the Human Resources guy and the mid-level
librarian who were my real interview panel. Way too confident, and still
in a philosophical mood, I treated the interview like a collegial
conversation. I subtly criticized some of what I'd observed at the
libraries and speculated about other ways of doing things. Not the
smartest approach; the order of the day was meek, non-boat-rocking
subservience. Gradually I woke up that I had genially talked myself
straight out of a job.....

more at:

http://www.oclatino.net/issues/2002/features/Jensen.html
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4. OMB versus GPO

[ALACOUN:7253] OMB versus GPO: the printers perspective
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:47:04 -0600
From: "Bernadine Abbott Hoduski" <ber[at]initco.net>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: ber[at]initco.net

Hi Council members,
It might be helpful in understanding the OMB memorandum telling government
agencies that they no longer have to print through GPO to hear the side of
the printers who contract for government printing through GPO.
Executive attempts to avoid using GPO are a recurring event. Why should
librarians care? We should care because a decentralized procurement
operation will lead to more information unknown and therefore potentially
unavailable to the public and to the libraries committed to providing
reference and backup services for that information.
GPO librarians use the information available through the production and
procurement services as both a way to ride the print orders for copies of
publications, but as way to catalog government information in many formats
so the public knows what exists. GPO librarians also use the tangible
formats as a way of tracking down online information, cataloging it and
providing the urls so librarians and the public can access that
information.
This is still a multi format world and many government agencies have their
information produced in several formats for the convenience of their
internal users as well as their public users.
I will forward several other sources of information about the issue in
separate messages. I hope that all Council members will review the
information and if you represent a unit of ALA or a state chapter will
inform them of why this issue is important not just to depository libraries
but to all libraries that access the free GPO Access System, which includes
the online Monthly Catalog of US Government Publications. Bernadine Abbott
Hoduski, GODORT Councilor
-----Original Message-----
Subject: FW: Printing Industry of American report

>
>
>> check out the printing industry's report on the OMB memo at
>> http://members.whattheythink.com/gporeport.html
>

--------

[ALACOUN:7254] Fw: OMB memoranda on GPO
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:56:44 -0600
From: "Bernadine Abbott Hoduski" <ber[at]initco.net>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: ber[at]initco.net

Hi Council, If you are interested in reading the OMB memorandum go to the
following site. Many librarians attending the legislative day in D.C.
picked up paper copies of the memo and many of them raised the issue with
their Congressional delegation. You may want to talk to members of your
own
state delegation as to the response they received.
The issuance of the memo the Friday before hundreds of librarians arrived
for leglislative day reminded me of the Russian Moscow coup attempters
attempting a coup when 600 IFLA librarians were in town. Information gets
out quickly and to the right people when information people have warning
that a coup is in the works. Issuing this memo when one Public Printer is
leaving and another is waiting to be formally nominated and confirmed
probably struck OMB as perfect timing but they did not count on the
librarians being in town. Bernadine Abbott Hoduski GODORT Councilor
-----Original Message-----
From: William Sleeman <wsleeman[at]umaryland.edu>
To: GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU <GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: OMB memoranda on GPO

>
>The OMB memo is now available.
>
>Bill Sleeman
>
>http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/index.html
>

--------

[ALACOUN:7256] Fw: GPO article in today's Roll Call
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 14:05:57 -0600
From: "Bernadine Abbott Hoduski" <ber[at]initco.net>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: ber[at]initco.net

Hi Council, Roll Call is the newspaper that everybody who works for
Congress reads. The Public Printer has responded that he will respond to
the OMB memorandum in the public comment part of the process. Librarians
can also comment on this memorandum. The Public Printer at the Senate
Appropriations hearing in front of Chairman Durbin (Senator from Illinois)
stated that he would not file a law suit but would comment on the
memorandum and would reserve other actions for later. The Senator asked
him for detailed information on how this would affect the workforce at GPO
and the revenue stream. GPO does not receive appropriated funds for
executive branch work. That work is paid for by Executive Branch funds.
GPO staff salaries for this work is also paid for out of fees collected to
procure the printing for the rest of the government. Appropriated funds
are used for Congressional printing and for the public access programs,
such as depository libraries, cataloging, international exchange program
and by-law distribution. Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, GODORT

Councilor-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Manning <JMANNING[at]crs.loc.gov>
To: GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU <GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Date: Thursday, May 09, 2002 11:50 AM
Subject: GPO article in today's Roll Call

The May 9th edition of Roll Call newspaper has an article about GPO and the
new OMB memo on printing
privatization:http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2002/05/news0509f.html
"GPO Won't Challenge Printing Rules"

--------

[ALACOUN:7269] Fw: Re OMB memo: a letter to my members of Congress
Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 14:53:09 -0600
From: "Bernadine Abbott Hoduski" <ber[at]initco.net>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: ber[at]initco.net

Hi Council, The following well thought out letter from Jim Shaw, a federal
depository librarian might be of interest to you and your units. Bernadine
Abbott Hoduski, GODORT Councilor
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Shaw <jshaw[at]mail.unomaha.edu>
To: GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU <GOVDOC-L[at]LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Date: Monday, May 06, 2002 3:42 PM
Subject: Re OMB memo: a letter to my members of Congress

Colleagues:

Below is the text of a letter I am sending to the
two Nebraska Senators and the Representative
of our Congressional District. OMB Memorandum
M-02-07 strikes me as being a major challenge
for the FDLP. I encourage you to contact your
Congressional delegation, too.

I consider myself only marginally familiar with
OMB. Could someone more experience
suggest a person there to whom it would
be best to address a similar letter?

Thanks much.

Jim
---------------------
James T. Shaw
Government Documents Librarian
University Library
University of Nebraska at Omaha
6001 Dodge Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68182-0237
Voice: 402-554-2225
Fax: 402-554-3215
E-mail: jshaw[at]mail.unomaha.edu

Late last week the Office of Management and Budget issued
Memorandum M-02-07, which stipulates that Executive departments
and agencies bypass the Government Printing Office when seeking
bids for the printing of their documents. OMB contends that bypassing
the GPO will result in significant savings, as the departments and
agencies will avoid fees paid to the GPO for its services. As the GPO
ultimately contracts out most federal printing, this is not a simple case
of the federal government doing what would better be done by private
industry.

The GPO serves a very important, if often overlooked, function as it
coordinates federal printing, because routing federal printing through
the GPO helps insure that citizens know what their government is
doing. As GPO runs print jobs or contracts them to private printers,
it "rides" the orders to create additional copies of documents that are
sent to as many as 1,300 libraries around the country via the Federal
Depository Library Program. Copies are also made available for
purchase through the regional GPO bookstores and the GPO Internet site.

If agencies bypass the GPO, I expect that many documents will
effectively disappear from the public domain. Without the GPO
to track documents and insure that copies are distributed to libraries,
citizens will lose access to them. The GPO catalog database records
the existence of documents and directs citizens to them. Many federal
depository libraries add the GPO records to their own catalogs,
thereby making federal documents just as accessible to citizens as
other library materials.

Some have argued that the Internet makes my concerns obsolete,
but my long experience in managing a federal documents collection
and in assisting citizens using it has taught me otherwise. I am grateful
for the Internet versions of federal documents, as they do increase
accessibility. However, federal documents often disappear from the
Internet when departments and agencies reorganize their Websites.
In some cases only the most recent edition of a document is made
available on the Internet and older editions are removed. This creates
serious problems for those who want to track the trajectories of
statistics and policies over time. The issues surrounding archival access
to Internet documents are many and complex, and perhaps in time
they will be resolved. However, we would be penny wise and pound
foolish to open a great black hole in the documentary record by
disabling the Federal Depository Library Program.

I oversee the federal depository collections in the University Library
of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. We joined the Federal
Depository Library Program in 1939, and anyone may visit us and
examine census reports extending back to 1790, a complete set of
the Foreign Relations of the United States, and a complete run
of the Congressional Record. The University Library has invested
almost $1,000,000 in the past 20 years to augment and fill gaps in
our depository collections. We are very serious in our role as an
information resource for all citizens, and we are willing to add our
local financial support to the collections provided to us by the GPO.
We would never be able to afford to buy, even if we managed to
identify them, documents printed independently by every
conceivable Executive department and agency.

I would very much appreciate your investigating the OMB
memorandum and its implications. To many observers it may
seem a small, inconsequential piece of administrative boilerplate;
unfortunately, its effects could truly haunt all of us in the future.

Sincerely,

James T. Shaw
Professor and Government Documents Librarian
University Library
University of Nebraska at Omaha

--------

ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 11, Number 42 May 16, 2002

In This Issue: Update on GPO

Active discussion is occurring in DC and elsewhere on OMB Memorandum
M-02-07, "Procurement of Printing and Duplicating Through the
Government Printing Office," As these discussions ensue, we will
share information that we think you might find of use and interest.

Some basic information includes: Section 501 of Title 44 of the
United States Code generally requires Federal agencies of the
executive branch to use GPO for their printing and printing
procurement needs. OMB Memorandum M- 02-07, "Procurement of Printing
and Duplicating Through the Government Printing Office," is an
attempt to allow executive branch agencies to produce or procure
their own printing without being required to come to GPO for these
services.

Under the OMB memorandum, agencies would still be required to supply
GPO with copies of any publications that qualify for inclusion in the
Federal Depository Library Program. Agencies also could still use
GPO for their printing and procurement needs under certain
conditions, but they would no longer be required to do so.

This policy will not take effect immediately. The OMB memorandum
calls for a revision to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the
set of rules under which executive branch agencies obtain goods and
services. OMB has stated that they intend to provide a Notice and
Comment period prior to any final rule change.

Even if OMB's new policy is finalized in a revised FAR, Title 44
still requires that executive branch agencies send their printing and
printing procurement requirements to GPO. Unless the law is changed,
agencies are bound to comply with it.

This is not the first time such a change has been attempted. It was
attempted in 1987 and 1993-94. Congress did not support the change
either time because of concerns about the potential for cost
increases in Federal printing, reduced public access to Government
information through depository libraries, and the impact on GPO and
our ability to carry out our job. These same concerns are being
raised again.

We also direct your attention to the printing industry's report on
the OMB memo at http://members.whattheythink.com/gporeport.html and
the response of Andy Sherman (Director, Office of Congressional and
Public Affairs at GPO), at
http://members.whattheythink.com/home/gpo.cfm

Stay tuned to ALAWON for further GPO developments and contact Patrice
McDermott at pmcdermott[at]alawash.org with your questions or concerns.

******

ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the
American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject
to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or
redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits.
________________________________________________________________________top

5. Building the Electronic Commons Democracy Collaborative, 2002

The Democracy Collaborative has released a report by Peter Levine called
"Building the Electronic Commons." The paper springs out of a January 2000
meeting of Wingspread, that "brought a distinguished group of scholars and
practitioners together to ask: How can new information technologies be used
to build community, enrich public life, educate for citizenship, and
revitalize democracy, rather than fragment community and erode the
commonwealth? Among their recommendations was the creation of a new
national institution called the 'Public Telecommunications Service' (PTS).
Participants were aware that National Public Radio and the Public
Television Service had been conceived at previous Wingspread conferences
that had addressed the failings of telecommunications in earlier decades.
Those who met at Wingspread in January 2000 believed that the new
electronic media, especially the Internet, now required an equally bold
intervention." Capitalizing on the theory of the Internet as a commons, as
developed by professors Yochai Benkler and Lawrence Lessig, this paper
describes how the PTS idea would work within this construct.

http://www.democracycollaborative.org/programs/public/BuildingElectronicCommons.pdf

[From the Center for Arts and Culture Update]
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6. Koha

The following reads like an ad, and it is an ad, but it is an ad for a
free, open source integrated library system.

Need a new library system?

Do you want one that's...

• Free
• Fast
• Internet based
• Fully customizable
• Environmentally friendly (you can recycle those old PCs)
• Giving you the freedom to do it yourself, or work directly with the
  system builders
• Generating a spirit of cooperation and collaboration?

.... koha could be for you!

In the Horowhenua

Koha is running at the Horowhenua Library Trust's sites in Levin, Foxton
and Shannon New Zealand. The team is happy to demonstrate the system in
production if you're in the area at any time.

Online

At http://www.koha.org there are links to the Horowhenua OPAC and a
demonstration database. Please visit, read up about the project, and have
a tour.

At your place

If you have a suitable system you're encouraged to download Koha and test
drive it. People from as far afield as Australia, America, Estonia and
Poland have installed Koha.

Join the community

You're invited to join the Koha mailing list, where we announce new
versions and improvements, and where users and developers support each
other.

Install Koha yourself

Visit http://www.koha.org. It is absolutely FREE to download, install and
customize the software yourself.

Let us install it for you

The Kitapo team is available to consult to libraries in whatever capacity
needed.

Make a difference

We want Koha to be the best library system around, and encourage you to
participate in the development process. There is no fee for using Koha,
but we hope you will contribute your time, ideas, enthusiasm and code, or
even sponsor a new feature.

(The following features are still waiting for a sponsor: Z39.50 searching,
MARC Records, Maori translation, Port to NT and IIS.)
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7. ProQuest adds to Alt-Presswatch database

For Juice
Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 17:13:30 -0400
From: gprice <gprice[at]gwu.edu>
To: rlitwin[at]libr.org

Rory:
Hello from D.C.

I just posted this to the VAS&ND and thought it might be of interest as you
compile tonight's LJ.

Online Industry--ProQuest
ProQuest Adds Material From Seven Village Voice Media Publications to
Alt-PressWatch Database
Complete News Release at:
http://www.il.proquest.com/pr/02/20020522.shtml
The seven publications are The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Seattle Weekly,
City Pages (Minneapolis-St. Paul), Cleveland Free Times, OC Weekly (Orange
County, CA), and Nashville Scene. According to the announcement coverage
begins in January, 2002. ProQuest will also add full-text and indexing for
The Village Voice back to the first issue in 1955.

cheers,
gary

Looking for More News, New Sites, Search Tips?
Visit The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk
http://resourceshelf.freepint.com

Gary D. Price, MLIS
Librarian
Gary Price Library Research and Internet Consulting
gary[at]freepint.com
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8. Sex, the Internet, and Educational Reform

From NETFUTURE Issue #132, May 21, 2002
A Publication of The Nature Institute
Editor: Stephen L. Talbott (stevet[at]oreilly.com)
On the Web: http://www.netfuture.org/

"One of the most thorough reports ever produced on protecting children
from Internet pornography has concluded that neither tougher laws nor new
technology alone can solve the problem" -- so the New York Times led off
a story headlined, "No Easy Fixes Are Seen to Curb Sex-Site Access" (May
3, 2002). The mentioned report, "Youth, Pornography, and the Internet",
was issued this month by the National Research Council.

Former U.S. attorney general Dick Thornburgh, chair of the committee that
wrote the report, owned up to the obvious:

It's not nearly as easy for an adult to supervise children who might
seek or be inadvertently exposed to sexually explicit materials online
as it is when such images are available in books or on the family
television set.

In many respects, the authors of the report have simply thrown in the
towel, while trying to sound helpful. They offer this analogy:

Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can
install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these
measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can
do for one's children is to teach them to swim.

Sounds healthy, doesn't it? The only problem is that the analogy doesn't
carry over to the Internet very well. Here, by the authors' admission,
the locks, fences, and alarms can't be made to work in a reliable and
socially acceptable way, and the remaining advice ("teach them to swim")
amounts to this: force these children to become like adults as fast as
possible. (Well, presumably not like all those adults who keep the
massive online pornography industry in business.) In other words, accept
a solution that doesn't apply to the people you were initially concerned
about -- namely, children suffering the lamentable backwardness and
misfortune of still being children.

The problem with the Internet as a classroom tool is that it has been
conceived as a universally accessible, public medium. Very little about
it conduces to the organic emergence of a local, intentional environment
with the sort of character that an intimate, place-based community can
nurture and protect. When a Virginia law made it illegal to send
pornography to children over the Internet, a U.S. District judge threw the
law out on the ground that you cannot effectively deny this material to
children without in practice also denying it to adults.

Why not draw the obvious conclusion instead of walking around in circles
with our hands in our pockets, whistling innocently, and gazing vaguely
skyward as if to way, "Gee, isn't this a terrible puzzle? I wonder where
we'll find an answer?" The real puzzle is why we have so resolutely
turned away from the simple answer that is being shouted at us: the
Internet just doesn't seem to be a good candidate for mediating a child's
education.

Even if this conclusion were not dictated from many other sides, it would
be suggested by the dead end our society seems to have reached regarding
the control of Internet content. Anyone whose ideas about education can
be taken seriously realizes that the child's educational environment needs
to be "child-shaped" -- that is, it needs to be family- and communitybased,
secure, and specially designed to serve children. A medium that
can override all such design aims in unpredictable ways, including the
extreme of pornographic invasion, hardly seems a natural candidate for
classroom use.

All of which brings me to this. Aren't we about due for a new, multibillion
-dollar educational fad? Well, I happen to have a program in mind
that is neither faddish nor costly. In fact, it would reduce
educational spending by many billions of dollars, simplify the classroom,
remove from teachers the crushing burden and distraction of special
training unrelated to their educational interests, give students much more
time to occupy themselves with educational content, increase teacher pay,
allow for higher teacher-student ratios, and, incidentally, put an end to
the absurdity whereby parents are asked to sign off on legal immunity for
schools that deliberately put children in harm's way.

Think about it. Educators can breathe again. If anyone had realistically
offered such an array of benefits ten years ago -- before the Internet hit
the educational scene with full force -- it would have been considered an
unparalleled gift from heaven. Of course, the gift couldn't have been
offered ten years ago. We needed a decade of collective insanity first.
But now the gift can be offered, it is perfectly realistic, and it
requires only the simplest imaginable reform: take all those computers out
of the classroom and send them back to the manufacturers for recycling.
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9. CPPA, COPA, CIPA: Which Is Which?

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

In the last month, the Supreme Court handed down decisions on the
constitutionality of two laws, one restricting child pornography (the
Child Pornography Prevention Act, or CPPA) and one on Internet content
(the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA). At the same time, the
American Library Association, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and other
plaintiffs were in court challenging the constitutionality of the
Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Because there has been some
confusion about these laws and the legal actions challenging them, OIF
has prepared a brief summary distinguishing them.
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10. Ethical decision-making and Internet research

Recommendations from the aoir ethics working committee

DRAFT

Copyright © 2002 by Charles Ess and the Association of Internet Researchers

Contents:

I. Prologue

II. Questions to ask when undertaking Internet research

III. Case Studies

IV. Resources

V. Addendum: Discussion of contrast between utilitarian and deontological
approaches - as these are reflected in contrasts between the U.S. and
Europe (Scandinavia and the EU) in laws regarding privacy and consumer
protection.

[As this is just a draft, I am not comfortable duplicating any part of it,
but I bring it to your attention because it may be important to some of
you.]

http://aoir.org/reports/ethics.html

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11. Association of Internet Researchers - AOIR

http://aoir.org/

The Association of Internet Researchers is an academic association
dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet
studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and
scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and
existing across academic borders. The association is international in scope.

Internet Research 3.0: NET / WORK / THEORY

Our next international conference is held in Maastricht, the Netherlands,
October 13-16 2002.
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12. "Factual Error Found on Internet"

"LONGMONT, CO - The Information Age was dealt a stunning blow Monday, when a
factual error was discovered on the Internet. The error was found on
TedsUltimateBradyBunch.com, a Brady Bunch fan site that incorrectly listed
the show's debut year as 1968, not 1969."

More: http://www.theonion.com/onion3819/factual_error_found.html
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13. Letter from Denise Kleinman to George Lucas

Dear Mr. Lucas:

I saw your latest Star Wars movie last night, and I feel compelled to
express my disappointment in the way that you portrayed librarians and
archivists. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, did she have to
be an old lady with a bun who bites off Ewan MacGregor's head when he
questions the validity of her database? I don't know when you last set
foot in a library, but those bitties are long gone.

As a young library/information professional who works against that
stereotype everyday, I did not expect you, a person who is regarded as
an imaginative creator, to resort to using such an uptight, repressed
character for this purpose. And I can't believe that she has anything to
do with the whole mythological leitmotif, either.

We're in the midst of the Information Age, George. Librarians are the
present and future information mediators, regardless of what our titles
become. I was glad that you showed the weaknesses of technology (the
fact that the file had been deleted), but please try harder next time to
portray us in a positive light. The library profession appreciates it!

P.S. I'm copying this letter to a bunch of librarian listservs, and you
know we're part of the the GEEK constituency who watch your movies.

Denise Kleinman
S. Burlington VT
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