Way up North
I won't be blogging much this week. I'm headed up to the North Country to retrieve most of my possessions from a storage warehouse. Hopefully they'll have the roads plowed out by now --
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Sunday, April 25, 2004
The case of the disappearing article
Oregon librarian Tony Greiner delves into the reasons why a Time sidebar article about American policy in Iraq mysteriously disappeared from the online version of the magazine.
"The concentration of print media outlets into a few corporate hands remains cause for concern. Would this column appear here if Library Journal were owned by Time-Warner? It is vital that larger libraries continue to keep and use printed indexes and copies of the historical record.
"Marylaine Block urged libraries to take responsibility for the preservation of electronic information (BackTalk, LJ 12/03, p. 81). She's right. But we all need to do our part. A progressive colleague of mine prints and files important Internet documents. 'If you want a permanent record,' she says, 'you better use a permanent medium.'"
Oregon librarian Tony Greiner delves into the reasons why a Time sidebar article about American policy in Iraq mysteriously disappeared from the online version of the magazine.
"The concentration of print media outlets into a few corporate hands remains cause for concern. Would this column appear here if Library Journal were owned by Time-Warner? It is vital that larger libraries continue to keep and use printed indexes and copies of the historical record.
"Marylaine Block urged libraries to take responsibility for the preservation of electronic information (BackTalk, LJ 12/03, p. 81). She's right. But we all need to do our part. A progressive colleague of mine prints and files important Internet documents. 'If you want a permanent record,' she says, 'you better use a permanent medium.'"
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Blogworthy stuff I wish I'd thought of first
Book-Kitten today (er, yesterday) posted a very amusing excerpt from Neil Gaiman's Nebula Award acceptance speech. Sadly, I'd gotten out of the habit of reading Gaiman's blog/journal, so I missed it.
It appears she's also been posting (or trying to post) a poem-a-day in honor of National Poetry Month. Wish I'd thought of that about a month ago....
Anyway, here's my somewhat belated poem-of-the-day for Friday, April 23rd:
Sonnet Reversed
Rupert Brooke
Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights
Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.
Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!
Soon they returned, and, after strange adventures,
Settled at Balham by the end of June.
Their money was in Can. Pacs. B. Debentures,
And in Antofagastas. Still he went
Cityward daily; still she did abide
At home. And both were really quite content
With work and social pleasures. Then they died.
They left three children (besides George, who drank):
The eldest Jane, who married Mr Bell,
William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,
And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.
Book-Kitten today (er, yesterday) posted a very amusing excerpt from Neil Gaiman's Nebula Award acceptance speech. Sadly, I'd gotten out of the habit of reading Gaiman's blog/journal, so I missed it.
It appears she's also been posting (or trying to post) a poem-a-day in honor of National Poetry Month. Wish I'd thought of that about a month ago....
Anyway, here's my somewhat belated poem-of-the-day for Friday, April 23rd:
Sonnet Reversed
Rupert Brooke
Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights
Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.
Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!
Soon they returned, and, after strange adventures,
Settled at Balham by the end of June.
Their money was in Can. Pacs. B. Debentures,
And in Antofagastas. Still he went
Cityward daily; still she did abide
At home. And both were really quite content
With work and social pleasures. Then they died.
They left three children (besides George, who drank):
The eldest Jane, who married Mr Bell,
William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,
And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.
Friday, April 23, 2004
Not many comments lately....
Guess it's time to post more links about sex and violence. (Neither link 100% work-safe, although anyone looking for pr0n will probably be disappointed.)
(Thanks to www.librarian.net for the stolen links.)
Guess it's time to post more links about sex and violence. (Neither link 100% work-safe, although anyone looking for pr0n will probably be disappointed.)
(Thanks to www.librarian.net for the stolen links.)
Tomorrow's a busy day....
I'll be getting some sun for the first time in recent history, as the Ann Arbor Book Festival takes over University Street in A-Squared from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. That allows time for dinner in a local restaurant or brewpub before heading over to the Thirteenth Annual Smithee Awards on the U. of Michigan campus. (From IMDB's mini-biography: "Smithee was born in 1967, the same year he directed his first picture....)
Sunday, the U. of Michigan Union is host to this year's edition of what the IOBA Standard last year called "The Classiest Book Fair in the Midwest."
I'm beginning to appreciate that there are advantages to living near a "big college town".
I'll be getting some sun for the first time in recent history, as the Ann Arbor Book Festival takes over University Street in A-Squared from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. That allows time for dinner in a local restaurant or brewpub before heading over to the Thirteenth Annual Smithee Awards on the U. of Michigan campus. (From IMDB's mini-biography: "Smithee was born in 1967, the same year he directed his first picture....)
Sunday, the U. of Michigan Union is host to this year's edition of what the IOBA Standard last year called "The Classiest Book Fair in the Midwest."
I'm beginning to appreciate that there are advantages to living near a "big college town".
Freadom
In a past posting about the American Library Association's shameful silence about Cuba's repression of librarians, booksellers and writers, I criticized Jessamyn West for being silent likewise. That is no longer true. I recently found out through her blog about a new group called Freadom. From their website: "FREADOM is a loose coalition of librarians and library supporters. We support the freedom to read, everywhere. We also support librarians who advocate for the freedom to read."
Karen G. Schneider, LII webmaven, Free Range Librarian, and ALA Councilor who proposed the amendment calling for the imprisoned librarians' release at the ALA's midwinter conference is also involved, as is Steve Marquardt, a perennial voice of reason from the Midwest. Their project for April is a letter-writing campaign on behalf of the independent librarians imprisoned by the Cuban government. Bravo. That's one letter-writing campaign I'll join. Even if it accomplishes little in immediate terms, it's a way to act on a principle I value.
Meanwhile, the little cadre of neo-Stalinists who have roadblocked the ALA from speaking out in defense of its purported principles are becoming ever more shrill and incoherent, as in this letter, in which Mark Rosenzweig splutters wildly, not about the substance of the issue, but about the fact that American Libraries permitted Schneider to publish an editorial explaining her views in the April issue of that journal. He also resorts to the old, old character-assassination tactic of trying to smear one's critics through misinformation, in this case, by asserting that Nat Hentoff, the Village Voice's longtime oracular defender of free speech, is famous only for being an "anti-abortion-rights activist."
There's a very old, jokey cliche among lawyers: When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When neither is on your side, pound on the table. The relatively small faction in the ALA that is determined to defend the Cuban dictator at all costs has long since passed beyond the first two stages, and is well into the stage of pounding on the table with Nikita Khrushchev's outworn shoe. Perhaps their stranglehold on that organization will fail as the Orwellian hypocrisy of their position becomes apparent in the glare of public exposure.
In the meanwhile, librarians and others who believe that intellectual freedom is properly the right of all human beings, everywhere, have a way to bypass the ALA Council's roadblock.
Editorial note, 4/25: corrected American Libraries citation from February to April.
In a past posting about the American Library Association's shameful silence about Cuba's repression of librarians, booksellers and writers, I criticized Jessamyn West for being silent likewise. That is no longer true. I recently found out through her blog about a new group called Freadom. From their website: "FREADOM is a loose coalition of librarians and library supporters. We support the freedom to read, everywhere. We also support librarians who advocate for the freedom to read."
Karen G. Schneider, LII webmaven, Free Range Librarian, and ALA Councilor who proposed the amendment calling for the imprisoned librarians' release at the ALA's midwinter conference is also involved, as is Steve Marquardt, a perennial voice of reason from the Midwest. Their project for April is a letter-writing campaign on behalf of the independent librarians imprisoned by the Cuban government. Bravo. That's one letter-writing campaign I'll join. Even if it accomplishes little in immediate terms, it's a way to act on a principle I value.
Meanwhile, the little cadre of neo-Stalinists who have roadblocked the ALA from speaking out in defense of its purported principles are becoming ever more shrill and incoherent, as in this letter, in which Mark Rosenzweig splutters wildly, not about the substance of the issue, but about the fact that American Libraries permitted Schneider to publish an editorial explaining her views in the April issue of that journal. He also resorts to the old, old character-assassination tactic of trying to smear one's critics through misinformation, in this case, by asserting that Nat Hentoff, the Village Voice's longtime oracular defender of free speech, is famous only for being an "anti-abortion-rights activist."
There's a very old, jokey cliche among lawyers: When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When neither is on your side, pound on the table. The relatively small faction in the ALA that is determined to defend the Cuban dictator at all costs has long since passed beyond the first two stages, and is well into the stage of pounding on the table with Nikita Khrushchev's outworn shoe. Perhaps their stranglehold on that organization will fail as the Orwellian hypocrisy of their position becomes apparent in the glare of public exposure.
In the meanwhile, librarians and others who believe that intellectual freedom is properly the right of all human beings, everywhere, have a way to bypass the ALA Council's roadblock.
Editorial note, 4/25: corrected American Libraries citation from February to April.
"I'd best head to the library. Research beckons."
Pablo and perhaps others will appreciate the existence of the refereed critical journal Slayage : the On-line International Journal of Buffy Studies. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the first issue included an article analyzing the importance of information and research in the exploits of Buffy and the Scoobys. After all, library writer and consultant GraceAnne DeCandido did refer to Giles as "our great sage and sex symbol" in her seminal article on "Giles : Hero Librarian."
The Image and Role of the Librarian
Giles may have had the highest profile of any librarian in pop culture in recent years, but he's not the only one. I recently enjoyed browsing through Haworth Press's book The Image and Role of the Librarian, which was also published as issue number 78 of The Reference Librarian. Particularly interesting essays:
Jungian/Myers-Briggs Personality Types of Librarians in Films by Jeanine Williamson (Marian the Librarian, from The Music Man, is an ISFJ, Mary from Party Girl is an ESTP, and the most common personality types in movie librarians are ISFJ, ISTJ, and INFP, according to Williamson. In contrast, a survey of real librarians found that ISTJ, INTJ, and INTP were the top three. NT's rule!)
Looking at the Male Librarian Stereotype, by Thad E. Dickson
The Long, Strange Trip of Barbara Gordon : Images of Librarians in Comic Books, by Doug Highsmith.
Excerpted form the latter article:
1. "The Library of Souls" (Batman)/ art: Jim Aparo; script: Peter Milligan; colorish: Adrienne Roy; letterer: Jim Apara. 22 p. in Detective Comics, no. 643 (Apr. 1992).
SUMMARY: A murderer, who can "read people like a book," establishes the occupation of each victim and leaves the bodies in jackets with three-digit numbers on them. One victim is found in a library, and Batman notices the Dewey numbers on the books. He guesses that the killer is a librarian, though the librarian explaining the clasification system to him disagrees: "That's a defamation of character. Librarians are gentle, bookish souls." But Batman is correct....
Lucien, the Librarian of The Dreaming, gets a favorable mention, although Highsmith seems mildly dissatisfied with Lucien's apparent lack of a formal graduate degree.
Since Buffy's off the air and the Sandman series ceased, we seem to have a lack of pop-culture librarian role models. Perhaps this show, about "a young man who discovers that the basement of the New York Public Library is loaded with mythical objects like the Ark or the Golden Fleece" and who must therefore "protect the sacred artifacts from the forces of evil" will adequately fill the gap. Or perhaps not.
Pablo and perhaps others will appreciate the existence of the refereed critical journal Slayage : the On-line International Journal of Buffy Studies. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the first issue included an article analyzing the importance of information and research in the exploits of Buffy and the Scoobys. After all, library writer and consultant GraceAnne DeCandido did refer to Giles as "our great sage and sex symbol" in her seminal article on "Giles : Hero Librarian."
The Image and Role of the Librarian
Giles may have had the highest profile of any librarian in pop culture in recent years, but he's not the only one. I recently enjoyed browsing through Haworth Press's book The Image and Role of the Librarian, which was also published as issue number 78 of The Reference Librarian. Particularly interesting essays:
Jungian/Myers-Briggs Personality Types of Librarians in Films by Jeanine Williamson (Marian the Librarian, from The Music Man, is an ISFJ, Mary from Party Girl is an ESTP, and the most common personality types in movie librarians are ISFJ, ISTJ, and INFP, according to Williamson. In contrast, a survey of real librarians found that ISTJ, INTJ, and INTP were the top three. NT's rule!)
Looking at the Male Librarian Stereotype, by Thad E. Dickson
The Long, Strange Trip of Barbara Gordon : Images of Librarians in Comic Books, by Doug Highsmith.
Excerpted form the latter article:
1. "The Library of Souls" (Batman)/ art: Jim Aparo; script: Peter Milligan; colorish: Adrienne Roy; letterer: Jim Apara. 22 p. in Detective Comics, no. 643 (Apr. 1992).
SUMMARY: A murderer, who can "read people like a book," establishes the occupation of each victim and leaves the bodies in jackets with three-digit numbers on them. One victim is found in a library, and Batman notices the Dewey numbers on the books. He guesses that the killer is a librarian, though the librarian explaining the clasification system to him disagrees: "That's a defamation of character. Librarians are gentle, bookish souls." But Batman is correct....
Lucien, the Librarian of The Dreaming, gets a favorable mention, although Highsmith seems mildly dissatisfied with Lucien's apparent lack of a formal graduate degree.
Since Buffy's off the air and the Sandman series ceased, we seem to have a lack of pop-culture librarian role models. Perhaps this show, about "a young man who discovers that the basement of the New York Public Library is loaded with mythical objects like the Ark or the Golden Fleece" and who must therefore "protect the sacred artifacts from the forces of evil" will adequately fill the gap. Or perhaps not.
How did I miss this story?
After all, it involves railroads, history, intellectual property law, archives, and apparently, satire. And it was even discussed on Slashdot!
Yale University's LawMeme recently ran a couple of stories about what it calls the "Worst ToS Ever", the absurd website user agreement found on the website of the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Quoth LawMeme: "The legalese is an astonishing 21,000 words long, and gives every sign of having been professionally drafted by a competent lawyer with severe OCD...."
To be fair, the Museum, in its reply, does characterize this outburst of legalistic logorrhea as a "functional parody". Now it's certainly true that there's a lot to parody in intellectual property law nowadays, from absurdly over-reaching end-user-licence-agreements (EULAs), to what Ed Foster calls "patent absurdity", to attempts by companies like .. ahem... the Union Pacific Railroad to collect licensing fees for modelers' and historians' use of logos of long-ago-absorbed companies like the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Texas & Pacific, et al, which UP does not currently use and has no apparent plan to ever use for any business purpose other than, well, collecting licensing fees.
The scary thing is, even Yale law students can't tell a parody from the real thing nowadays.
After all, it involves railroads, history, intellectual property law, archives, and apparently, satire. And it was even discussed on Slashdot!
Yale University's LawMeme recently ran a couple of stories about what it calls the "Worst ToS Ever", the absurd website user agreement found on the website of the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Quoth LawMeme: "The legalese is an astonishing 21,000 words long, and gives every sign of having been professionally drafted by a competent lawyer with severe OCD...."
To be fair, the Museum, in its reply, does characterize this outburst of legalistic logorrhea as a "functional parody". Now it's certainly true that there's a lot to parody in intellectual property law nowadays, from absurdly over-reaching end-user-licence-agreements (EULAs), to what Ed Foster calls "patent absurdity", to attempts by companies like .. ahem... the Union Pacific Railroad to collect licensing fees for modelers' and historians' use of logos of long-ago-absorbed companies like the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Texas & Pacific, et al, which UP does not currently use and has no apparent plan to ever use for any business purpose other than, well, collecting licensing fees.
The scary thing is, even Yale law students can't tell a parody from the real thing nowadays.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Gmail
Google's much-touted e'mail service is live in beta-test mode, at least for people with Blogger accounts.
Google's track record as a company suggests that it will be well done and relatively devoid of Evil(TM), but there's been some uneasy chatter among privacy advocates about the potential privacy problems involved in having *all* your personal e'mail correspondence permanently archived and indexed by a third party, especially one which also has access to your Google-searches and, in the case of Blogger account-holders, weblog archives. Brad Templeton, Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, comments on those issues here. And of course there's wildly erratic discussion at Slashdot, as usual.
Google's much-touted e'mail service is live in beta-test mode, at least for people with Blogger accounts.
Google's track record as a company suggests that it will be well done and relatively devoid of Evil(TM), but there's been some uneasy chatter among privacy advocates about the potential privacy problems involved in having *all* your personal e'mail correspondence permanently archived and indexed by a third party, especially one which also has access to your Google-searches and, in the case of Blogger account-holders, weblog archives. Brad Templeton, Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, comments on those issues here. And of course there's wildly erratic discussion at Slashdot, as usual.
Is it discriminatory for libraries to have a "Christian Fiction" bookshelf?
An interesting, if somewhat lengthy, ongoing discussion at the Fiction-L list.
As for myself, I prefer the one-big-collection method of shelving fiction. Heck, I'd stick the poetry and drama and essays-on-unrelated-topics-by-a-single-author into the same shelves, too, and just alphabetize them all by author. For good measure, throw in the books of criticism on a single author, too. Stick 'em right next to the books they comment on. Simpler that way. If it's absolutely necessary for library users to only look at one kind of book, use nifty colorful spine stickers or lists by genre.
Yeah, yeah. I know. "Too academic." (rolls eyes.)
An interesting, if somewhat lengthy, ongoing discussion at the Fiction-L list.
As for myself, I prefer the one-big-collection method of shelving fiction. Heck, I'd stick the poetry and drama and essays-on-unrelated-topics-by-a-single-author into the same shelves, too, and just alphabetize them all by author. For good measure, throw in the books of criticism on a single author, too. Stick 'em right next to the books they comment on. Simpler that way. If it's absolutely necessary for library users to only look at one kind of book, use nifty colorful spine stickers or lists by genre.
Yeah, yeah. I know. "Too academic." (rolls eyes.)
Guns? Landmines? Or poison gas? Decisions, decisions....
Jessamyn West over at www.librarian.net posted a link to this modest proposal for dealing with those irritating library patrons who think reference books are for their use and benefit.
Jessamyn West over at www.librarian.net posted a link to this modest proposal for dealing with those irritating library patrons who think reference books are for their use and benefit.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Guess who's back in print?
From Amazon's description of Naked Came the Stranger: (Note that book cover as shown is not 100% work-safe!)
"In 1969, a group of reporters at Long Island Newsday decided to have some fun. They were appalled at the poor writing in the then-current bestsellers by Jacqueline Susann, Irving Wallace and Harold Robbins. They decided to have a contest to see who could write on an even lower level of tawdriness.... [T]wenty-four seasoned newsmen and newswomen each wrote one chapter. Fifteen chapters were selected.... The book was presented to a publisher as being written by a 'demure Long Island housewife who thought she could write as well as J. Susann'....
"[T]he book became an international bestseller."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Seattle Weekly describes it thus:
"In 1966, appalled by the best sellers of Jacqueline Susann and others, [editor Mike McGrady] challenged his colleagues at Newsday, where he was a distinguished editor and writer, to perpetrate a book so mindlessly crass it could not fail. 'There will be an unremitting emphasis on sex,' he warned. 'Also, true excellence in writing will be quickly blue-penciled into oblivion....'
"Those ?60s pranksters were not looking to advance their own careers by duping their editors with too-good-to-be-true copy; they were simply trying to spoof the world of crap novels by out-crapping them?and they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. "
I'm tempted to buy a copy just so I'll have it handy to brandish in the air whenever I hear the phrase "Give 'em what they want." (See this editorial if that reference is unclear.) But then I'd be in the same position as the unfortunate reviewer at Bookslut who realized too late the horrible doom which she had brought upon herself:
"I asked to review Naked Came the Stranger by "Penelope Ashe" because the concept, as described, seemed like an awful lot of fun.... But when I tore open the envelope containing the book, I realized that in the end, the joke was on me -- because I was going to have to read the damn thing. And about three chapters in, it became pretty clear why everyone drank so much in the '60s."
An after thought: it will be interesting, and perhaps frightening, to see what advertisements Blogger puts at the head of this page after I post a message in which the words "naked" and "sex" appear a half-dozen times.
In unrelated news....
The Reader's Shelf readers-advisory column in the February 1, 2004 issue of Library Journal includes, under the headline of "A Fine Romance : Good Reads for Men", the following recommendation:
"For the man who likes a bit of spice with his romance, John Norman's 25-book series The Chronicles of Gor offers a twist of fantasy, out-of-this-world adventure, and lots of kinky sex. Tarl Cabot is brought up on Earth but finds himself on the planet Gor, where he rescues women from dungeons and dragons, then enslaves them, often falling in love with them along the way...."
In looking through the discussion from the Fiction-L listserv which the columnist apparently mined for this column, I found an actual, and fairly typical, quote from one of Norman's books:
Dancer of Gor by John Norman
"Doreen Williamson appeared to be a quiet shy librarian, but in the dark of the library, after hours, she would practice, semi-nude, her secret studies in belly-dancing. Until, one fateful night, the slavers from Gor kidnapped her."
Dang! Why don't I have any library co-workers like that?!?
The Gor books are in fact popular "spicy" adventure books, and they do have their fans, but their author's frequently reiterations of his philosophy of gender relations mean that a librarian might find that recommending them as "romances" is a bit dicey. Depends on the patron's tastes, I suppose....
Another afterthought: Those Blogger advertisements may have just gotten even more "interesting"!
From Amazon's description of Naked Came the Stranger: (Note that book cover as shown is not 100% work-safe!)
"In 1969, a group of reporters at Long Island Newsday decided to have some fun. They were appalled at the poor writing in the then-current bestsellers by Jacqueline Susann, Irving Wallace and Harold Robbins. They decided to have a contest to see who could write on an even lower level of tawdriness.... [T]wenty-four seasoned newsmen and newswomen each wrote one chapter. Fifteen chapters were selected.... The book was presented to a publisher as being written by a 'demure Long Island housewife who thought she could write as well as J. Susann'....
"[T]he book became an international bestseller."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Seattle Weekly describes it thus:
"In 1966, appalled by the best sellers of Jacqueline Susann and others, [editor Mike McGrady] challenged his colleagues at Newsday, where he was a distinguished editor and writer, to perpetrate a book so mindlessly crass it could not fail. 'There will be an unremitting emphasis on sex,' he warned. 'Also, true excellence in writing will be quickly blue-penciled into oblivion....'
"Those ?60s pranksters were not looking to advance their own careers by duping their editors with too-good-to-be-true copy; they were simply trying to spoof the world of crap novels by out-crapping them?and they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. "
I'm tempted to buy a copy just so I'll have it handy to brandish in the air whenever I hear the phrase "Give 'em what they want." (See this editorial if that reference is unclear.) But then I'd be in the same position as the unfortunate reviewer at Bookslut who realized too late the horrible doom which she had brought upon herself:
"I asked to review Naked Came the Stranger by "Penelope Ashe" because the concept, as described, seemed like an awful lot of fun.... But when I tore open the envelope containing the book, I realized that in the end, the joke was on me -- because I was going to have to read the damn thing. And about three chapters in, it became pretty clear why everyone drank so much in the '60s."
An after thought: it will be interesting, and perhaps frightening, to see what advertisements Blogger puts at the head of this page after I post a message in which the words "naked" and "sex" appear a half-dozen times.
In unrelated news....
The Reader's Shelf readers-advisory column in the February 1, 2004 issue of Library Journal includes, under the headline of "A Fine Romance : Good Reads for Men", the following recommendation:
"For the man who likes a bit of spice with his romance, John Norman's 25-book series The Chronicles of Gor offers a twist of fantasy, out-of-this-world adventure, and lots of kinky sex. Tarl Cabot is brought up on Earth but finds himself on the planet Gor, where he rescues women from dungeons and dragons, then enslaves them, often falling in love with them along the way...."
In looking through the discussion from the Fiction-L listserv which the columnist apparently mined for this column, I found an actual, and fairly typical, quote from one of Norman's books:
Dancer of Gor by John Norman
"Doreen Williamson appeared to be a quiet shy librarian, but in the dark of the library, after hours, she would practice, semi-nude, her secret studies in belly-dancing. Until, one fateful night, the slavers from Gor kidnapped her."
Dang! Why don't I have any library co-workers like that?!?
The Gor books are in fact popular "spicy" adventure books, and they do have their fans, but their author's frequently reiterations of his philosophy of gender relations mean that a librarian might find that recommending them as "romances" is a bit dicey. Depends on the patron's tastes, I suppose....
Another afterthought: Those Blogger advertisements may have just gotten even more "interesting"!
That was then, this is now....
Marcus Epstein has an interesting editorial at www.lewrockwell.com about "The National Review flip-flop."
Marcus Epstein has an interesting editorial at www.lewrockwell.com about "The National Review flip-flop."
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
On the lighter side (in a manner of speaking)
Discovered while researching Gothic literature: the Goth-o-Matic Poetry Generator will help you Create Your Own Darkly Gothic Poem. Here we go:
Darkness Descends
the night falls with a silent sigh, soulless are we.
the understanding for which you lust
flares once, then dies,
smothered by a velvet ebon nothingness.
all hope must sicken and die.
your heart desires no more.
how could you fail to believe?
angels surround us, crying,
save us from ourselves.
Discovered while researching Gothic literature: the Goth-o-Matic Poetry Generator will help you Create Your Own Darkly Gothic Poem. Here we go:
Darkness Descends
the night falls with a silent sigh, soulless are we.
the understanding for which you lust
flares once, then dies,
smothered by a velvet ebon nothingness.
all hope must sicken and die.
your heart desires no more.
how could you fail to believe?
angels surround us, crying,
save us from ourselves.
Monday, April 19, 2004
Stuff that caught my attention today:
From Matthew Rossi's oddly-named weblog, by way of the Library Underground mailing list: Fanaticism is the ultimate enemy of mankind.
From the June1, 1987 issue of Library Journal, where I was diligently tracking down an article about the theory and practice of collection weeding: the information that the American Library Association was once given the honor of naming a US government-owned merchant ship in honor of its services to American soldiers in World War I. A name-the-ship contest was conducted in pages of Library Journal in 1920. Sadly, the world would never be graced with the U.S.S. Bookworm or the U.S.S. Open Book, as the ALA's Executive Board settled on the stunningly unimaginative U.S.S. ALA instead. More sadly, the ship, after going through a series of name changes as described on this page (see "Lapwing"), was torpedoed by a U-boat on October 9, 1942, with the loss of five crew. Somehow I can't see the US government naming a ship after the ALA nowadays, unless it were one of these.
From Justin Raimondo's most recent column at www.antiwar.com, indications that Bush the Elder may have counselled his son against charging into Iraq.
And finally, at the risk of offending my few female readers, the employment "news" that none dare report.
Added query, 4/20: If anyone has read The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty, I would like to know if the article linked to above is a fair representation of its content. Local libraries don't have it yet, so I won't get a chance to read it for a little while.
From Matthew Rossi's oddly-named weblog, by way of the Library Underground mailing list: Fanaticism is the ultimate enemy of mankind.
From the June1, 1987 issue of Library Journal, where I was diligently tracking down an article about the theory and practice of collection weeding: the information that the American Library Association was once given the honor of naming a US government-owned merchant ship in honor of its services to American soldiers in World War I. A name-the-ship contest was conducted in pages of Library Journal in 1920. Sadly, the world would never be graced with the U.S.S. Bookworm or the U.S.S. Open Book, as the ALA's Executive Board settled on the stunningly unimaginative U.S.S. ALA instead. More sadly, the ship, after going through a series of name changes as described on this page (see "Lapwing"), was torpedoed by a U-boat on October 9, 1942, with the loss of five crew. Somehow I can't see the US government naming a ship after the ALA nowadays, unless it were one of these.
From Justin Raimondo's most recent column at www.antiwar.com, indications that Bush the Elder may have counselled his son against charging into Iraq.
And finally, at the risk of offending my few female readers, the employment "news" that none dare report.
Added query, 4/20: If anyone has read The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty, I would like to know if the article linked to above is a fair representation of its content. Local libraries don't have it yet, so I won't get a chance to read it for a little while.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Meanwhile on the other side of the world,
While we in North America natter on about intellectual property feuds, gay marriage, and political elections -- as important as those are -- it's well to remember that there are places in the world where much more basic concerns rule the day. Concerns like "will I be shot today?"
For those of us in the U.S., who have just finished grumpily paying our annual tax bills or figuring out how much of our confiscated income the government is willing to return to us, it's worth remembering that the present-day chaos and violence in Iraq are mostly the product of our wallets.
Congratulations on your purchase. Come back again, sir....
Editorial note, 4/21. For reasons discussed in more detail in the comments, I have moved the picture link from the last word of the previous paragraph to the end of this paragraph instead. I believe that the picture does say something significant about the costs of President Bush's decisions, but it deserves more thoughtfulness and gravitas than I gave it in that offhandedly bitter sarcastic comment. It can be found here, and should be considered as one artist's way of illuminating the human cost of the Iraq war.
While we in North America natter on about intellectual property feuds, gay marriage, and political elections -- as important as those are -- it's well to remember that there are places in the world where much more basic concerns rule the day. Concerns like "will I be shot today?"
For those of us in the U.S., who have just finished grumpily paying our annual tax bills or figuring out how much of our confiscated income the government is willing to return to us, it's worth remembering that the present-day chaos and violence in Iraq are mostly the product of our wallets.
Congratulations on your purchase. Come back again, sir....
Editorial note, 4/21. For reasons discussed in more detail in the comments, I have moved the picture link from the last word of the previous paragraph to the end of this paragraph instead. I believe that the picture does say something significant about the costs of President Bush's decisions, but it deserves more thoughtfulness and gravitas than I gave it in that offhandedly bitter sarcastic comment. It can be found here, and should be considered as one artist's way of illuminating the human cost of the Iraq war.
Free Anne!
Let's hope that this month's news from Canada is a harbinger of a more sensible age to come.
A bill to extend copyright protection for the works of authors who died between 1930 and 1949 has been dropped by the government. The bill was apparently motivated by the heirs of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Anne of Green Gables books, who died in 1949 and whose unpublished works entered the public domain in 2003. Like the Disney megacorporation in the U.S., the Montgomery estate is in possession of a very lucrative collection of works from the past, and wishes to protect and extend its monopoly profits perpetually through legislation rather than through continued, present-day creativity. Unfortunately for them, it sounds as if Canada is moving in the opposite direction to the U.S.'s slow-motion lurch into perpetual copyright monopoly:
"Under the 1997 amendments, copyrights of published works enter the public domain 50 years after the writer's death.
For unpublished works, the law limited the rights of the author's estate to 50 years after his or her death plus a six-year window for the estate to either publish or communicate an intention to do so. Before 1997, an estate had perpetual copyright for posthumous unpublished writings." -- Globe and Mail, April 1, 2004, p. R1
Hurrah to Canada for saying, "no more." Now let's import some of that common sense south of the border. (Thanks to Lawrence Lessig's blog for the link to this CBC news story, and to the Globe & Mail for providing more details.)
Let's hope that this month's news from Canada is a harbinger of a more sensible age to come.
A bill to extend copyright protection for the works of authors who died between 1930 and 1949 has been dropped by the government. The bill was apparently motivated by the heirs of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Anne of Green Gables books, who died in 1949 and whose unpublished works entered the public domain in 2003. Like the Disney megacorporation in the U.S., the Montgomery estate is in possession of a very lucrative collection of works from the past, and wishes to protect and extend its monopoly profits perpetually through legislation rather than through continued, present-day creativity. Unfortunately for them, it sounds as if Canada is moving in the opposite direction to the U.S.'s slow-motion lurch into perpetual copyright monopoly:
"Under the 1997 amendments, copyrights of published works enter the public domain 50 years after the writer's death.
For unpublished works, the law limited the rights of the author's estate to 50 years after his or her death plus a six-year window for the estate to either publish or communicate an intention to do so. Before 1997, an estate had perpetual copyright for posthumous unpublished writings." -- Globe and Mail, April 1, 2004, p. R1
Hurrah to Canada for saying, "no more." Now let's import some of that common sense south of the border. (Thanks to Lawrence Lessig's blog for the link to this CBC news story, and to the Globe & Mail for providing more details.)
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Meanwhile, on the job front
Bad news and good news. On the one hand, the local public library has informed me that I'm not quite good enough to be one of their part-time substitute librarians. On the other hand, I've had a couple of telephone interviews lately, one for a director's position in a public library back up in da U.P., and one for a state university library job in a city which is also home to the world's premiere collection of J.R.R. Tolkien's personal papers, historical records of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (better known as the Milwaukee Road), and an incredible treasure-trove of Great Lakes shipping records. (I wish the public libraries I've dealt with had such a constructive attitude toward historical materials.)
As an added lagniappe, a place I'll call Adirondack State University -- a liberal arts state university in far upstate New York -- has called to arrange a telephone interview next week. Wish me luck. It's becoming easier and easier to be cynical and frustrated about the library job market, especially when I look at these figures from the ALA's annual conferences for the past couple of decades. It looks like last year's Toronto conference was the most dismal in history, and the trend of declining numbers indicates that it wasn't just because of SARSophobia.
Bad news and good news. On the one hand, the local public library has informed me that I'm not quite good enough to be one of their part-time substitute librarians. On the other hand, I've had a couple of telephone interviews lately, one for a director's position in a public library back up in da U.P., and one for a state university library job in a city which is also home to the world's premiere collection of J.R.R. Tolkien's personal papers, historical records of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (better known as the Milwaukee Road), and an incredible treasure-trove of Great Lakes shipping records. (I wish the public libraries I've dealt with had such a constructive attitude toward historical materials.)
As an added lagniappe, a place I'll call Adirondack State University -- a liberal arts state university in far upstate New York -- has called to arrange a telephone interview next week. Wish me luck. It's becoming easier and easier to be cynical and frustrated about the library job market, especially when I look at these figures from the ALA's annual conferences for the past couple of decades. It looks like last year's Toronto conference was the most dismal in history, and the trend of declining numbers indicates that it wasn't just because of SARSophobia.
AWOL
No, that's not a reference to my own failure to post to the weblog for the past couple of days. You don't really expect that kind of self-criticism from such a clearly opinionated source, do you?
It's a reference to this story from the Village Voice, which describes two US Army personnel who have headed for Canada rather than be deployed to Iraq, and will face a Canadian immigration inquiry board in the near future.
I must say that I have less sympathy for them now, in these days of voluntary, professional military service, than I would if the draft were still in effect. They weren't forced into the military; they chose to enter it, knowing full well that violence and danger are inherent parts of military service. Jeffry House, their attorney, apparently plans to argue that they deserted the Army and seek refuge in Canada because their assignment to Iraq would violate international law:
Essentially, House will be putting the war itself on trial by contending that the U.S. wants to send these young men to jail—or worse—for choosing to comply with international law. "Rather than do something unthinkable or horrible as soldiers," House says, "they came to Canada. That's a huge step."
I do find it curious that one of them apparently signed up before reaching the legal age of majority, since the article reports that his father had to sign the enlistment papers. This of course raises the question, to me, of whether said papers can represent a binding agreement, but of course I Am Not A Lawyer.
No, that's not a reference to my own failure to post to the weblog for the past couple of days. You don't really expect that kind of self-criticism from such a clearly opinionated source, do you?
It's a reference to this story from the Village Voice, which describes two US Army personnel who have headed for Canada rather than be deployed to Iraq, and will face a Canadian immigration inquiry board in the near future.
I must say that I have less sympathy for them now, in these days of voluntary, professional military service, than I would if the draft were still in effect. They weren't forced into the military; they chose to enter it, knowing full well that violence and danger are inherent parts of military service. Jeffry House, their attorney, apparently plans to argue that they deserted the Army and seek refuge in Canada because their assignment to Iraq would violate international law:
Essentially, House will be putting the war itself on trial by contending that the U.S. wants to send these young men to jail—or worse—for choosing to comply with international law. "Rather than do something unthinkable or horrible as soldiers," House says, "they came to Canada. That's a huge step."
I do find it curious that one of them apparently signed up before reaching the legal age of majority, since the article reports that his father had to sign the enlistment papers. This of course raises the question, to me, of whether said papers can represent a binding agreement, but of course I Am Not A Lawyer.
On the lighter side
From the New Yorker comes this commentary on the history of jokes, especially the dirty ones.
The author's query into the subject, like so many of my own extracurricular intellectual explorations, began with picking up a discarded secondhand book. Found any good discarded secondhand web pages lately?
From the New Yorker comes this commentary on the history of jokes, especially the dirty ones.
The author's query into the subject, like so many of my own extracurricular intellectual explorations, began with picking up a discarded secondhand book. Found any good discarded secondhand web pages lately?
Coming soon: [Your Name Here] Weekly
Thanks to S. for mentioning this upcoming publicity stunt from Reason magazine. (Also discussed at Slashdot.) It appears that their June issue will feature on the cover a satellite photograph of each subscriber's home address, along with "four cover pages of intensely personalized information, a demonstration of bleeding-edge technology that may one day allow for mass-customized and hyper-individualized print publications."
What a concept! Felix Folio... The Carlos Courier ... The Fiend Files... Pablo Parade... The Trebor Tribune....
I find this interesting not because of the satellite photographs, which after all are readily available to any person or business who knows a mailing address and has access to websites like this, but because the ability to customize the magazine's interior content on a copy-by-copy basis could herald yet more Balkanization of the world of news and views. Already, by selecting only certain news sources to view or read, it's fairly easy to "set ones preferences" to only see news that is congenial to ones' own beliefs, and people from different self-selected "worlds" of information have difficulty communicating with each other even on those rare occasions with they wish to do so. And yet a print-magazine subscriber, or a viewer of broadcast news, cannot quite isolate himself entirely from uncongenial viewpoints because of the "granularity" of the traditional media.
If you get a copy of National Review or browse its website because it supports Bush's policies in the Middle East, you may also get an editorial from William F. Buckley that advocates relaxing marijuana laws, or a blistering denunciation of Bush's proposed immigration reforms (Mark Krikorian, "Amnesty Again". NR, Jan. 28, 2004, pp 28-31). (The latter article, interestingly, is not available on the NR website -- is Mr. Krikorian exercising his intellectual property rights, or does the NR staff wish to keep those Beyond the Pale of its print subscription list from finding and linking to such criticism during an election year?)
By the same token, if you get a copy of The New Republic because it bashes right-wing media types, you may also come across a review that criticizes a "liberal" news source like Al Franken's program on AirAmerica as "boring".
What will the world be like, I wonder, when all information, down to the level of individual articles and editorials, can be filtered, even in printed media, to a flatteringly homogenous blend of agreement with one's demonstrated or assumed beliefs and marketing demographic? Will it become all the more difficult to believe that anyone could sincerely or intelligently disagree with your dearly-held prejudices?
How on earth will libraries deal with this, if every copy of a magazine sent to a subscriber is custom-tailored to that subscriber?
One of the reasons I subscribe to a variety of political magazines is to keep myself honest and at least somewhat informed by actually reading what both right-wingers and left-wingers have to say about themselves, not just what those who think like me say about them on websites that I frequent. I wonder how a marketing department -- or a government agency -- would interpret that pattern of subscriptions and other demographic information? And how will it affect my thinking if all of them start "custom-tailoring" the magazines they deliver to my mailbox in order to match what they think I want to hear? Will I have to start swapping my copy of NR with Trebor's in order to find out what right-wingers are REALLY thinking?
Thanks to S. for mentioning this upcoming publicity stunt from Reason magazine. (Also discussed at Slashdot.) It appears that their June issue will feature on the cover a satellite photograph of each subscriber's home address, along with "four cover pages of intensely personalized information, a demonstration of bleeding-edge technology that may one day allow for mass-customized and hyper-individualized print publications."
What a concept! Felix Folio... The Carlos Courier ... The Fiend Files... Pablo Parade... The Trebor Tribune....
I find this interesting not because of the satellite photographs, which after all are readily available to any person or business who knows a mailing address and has access to websites like this, but because the ability to customize the magazine's interior content on a copy-by-copy basis could herald yet more Balkanization of the world of news and views. Already, by selecting only certain news sources to view or read, it's fairly easy to "set ones preferences" to only see news that is congenial to ones' own beliefs, and people from different self-selected "worlds" of information have difficulty communicating with each other even on those rare occasions with they wish to do so. And yet a print-magazine subscriber, or a viewer of broadcast news, cannot quite isolate himself entirely from uncongenial viewpoints because of the "granularity" of the traditional media.
If you get a copy of National Review or browse its website because it supports Bush's policies in the Middle East, you may also get an editorial from William F. Buckley that advocates relaxing marijuana laws, or a blistering denunciation of Bush's proposed immigration reforms (Mark Krikorian, "Amnesty Again". NR, Jan. 28, 2004, pp 28-31). (The latter article, interestingly, is not available on the NR website -- is Mr. Krikorian exercising his intellectual property rights, or does the NR staff wish to keep those Beyond the Pale of its print subscription list from finding and linking to such criticism during an election year?)
By the same token, if you get a copy of The New Republic because it bashes right-wing media types, you may also come across a review that criticizes a "liberal" news source like Al Franken's program on AirAmerica as "boring".
What will the world be like, I wonder, when all information, down to the level of individual articles and editorials, can be filtered, even in printed media, to a flatteringly homogenous blend of agreement with one's demonstrated or assumed beliefs and marketing demographic? Will it become all the more difficult to believe that anyone could sincerely or intelligently disagree with your dearly-held prejudices?
How on earth will libraries deal with this, if every copy of a magazine sent to a subscriber is custom-tailored to that subscriber?
One of the reasons I subscribe to a variety of political magazines is to keep myself honest and at least somewhat informed by actually reading what both right-wingers and left-wingers have to say about themselves, not just what those who think like me say about them on websites that I frequent. I wonder how a marketing department -- or a government agency -- would interpret that pattern of subscriptions and other demographic information? And how will it affect my thinking if all of them start "custom-tailoring" the magazines they deliver to my mailbox in order to match what they think I want to hear? Will I have to start swapping my copy of NR with Trebor's in order to find out what right-wingers are REALLY thinking?
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
An interesting item for sale....
The former Mineral Range Railroad depot in Calumet, Mich., appears to be listed for sale on eBay. Anyone got a spare couple of hundred thousand dollars and a business plan?
The former Mineral Range Railroad depot in Calumet, Mich., appears to be listed for sale on eBay. Anyone got a spare couple of hundred thousand dollars and a business plan?
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Die! Die! Die, disco, die!
The Henry Ford Museum reportedly has lots of interesting things to visit and see: an IMAX theater, the massive River Rouge factory that made assembly-line production part of American life, the only surviving Dymaxion house, and Greenfield Village, where they're recently reconstructed a 19th-century locomotive roundhouse to go with the steam-powered railroad.
This is not one of them.
"Get your groove on" this summer at Henry Ford Museum. Throw on your bell-bottoms and boogie on down to the Museum for the Experience Music Project's first major museum exploration of the rich, complex world of disco....
Umm..... no.
The Henry Ford Museum reportedly has lots of interesting things to visit and see: an IMAX theater, the massive River Rouge factory that made assembly-line production part of American life, the only surviving Dymaxion house, and Greenfield Village, where they're recently reconstructed a 19th-century locomotive roundhouse to go with the steam-powered railroad.
This is not one of them.
"Get your groove on" this summer at Henry Ford Museum. Throw on your bell-bottoms and boogie on down to the Museum for the Experience Music Project's first major museum exploration of the rich, complex world of disco....
Umm..... no.
A brave new day dawns
... as I have just installed and started using the Mozilla Firefox internet browser on one of the two computers I use regularly. So far the only problem I've noted is that it doesn't seem to be compatible with one component of the virtual- or "chat" -reference software the library uses. That's fine with me, since I don't like the "co-browsing" or "URL-Pushing" feature anyway.
The main reason the Firefox browser sounded interesting was because of it's built-in popup-blocking characteristics. I'll see what I think in a few days.
... as I have just installed and started using the Mozilla Firefox internet browser on one of the two computers I use regularly. So far the only problem I've noted is that it doesn't seem to be compatible with one component of the virtual- or "chat" -reference software the library uses. That's fine with me, since I don't like the "co-browsing" or "URL-Pushing" feature anyway.
The main reason the Firefox browser sounded interesting was because of it's built-in popup-blocking characteristics. I'll see what I think in a few days.
Why do college students use public libraries?
The Spring 2004 issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly contains an interesting article by U. of Oklahoma Engineering Librarian Karen Antell on this topic. Unfortunately, as Jason Griffey has pointed out, the American Library Association and its affiliated periodicals such as RUSQ seem more interested in demanding open access from other publishers than in supplying it themselves, and the article is not available online.
Since the crossover use of public libraries by college students and its flipside, the use of college libraries by non-college students, is of interest to me, I'll take the liberty of summarizing some of the article's findings.
The top reasons cited by the students who were surveyed about their use of public libraries can be paraphrased as follows:
(1) Public library staff are more helpful.
(2) Public library is easier to use.
Two reasons tied for third place:
(3) Subjective appeal of public library.
(3) Public library (appeals to / accomodates) children.
It sounds like college libraries have some P.R. work to do. (The last-named reason, the public library's appeal to children, seems to be relevant to students who have childcare responsibilities and need to combine personal research time with keeping the kiddies occupied -- something which seems beyond the scope of academic library service.)
Other reasons cited included surprisingly frequent statements like "The public library has more materials that are useful to me", "the public library has more materials for pleasure reading", "the campus library's materials are often unavailable", and "the campus library is too big/too confusing".
The first would seem to indicate that the college library's materials selection practices may be out of touch with the students' actual needs. (Too many faculty demands for abstruse material, perhaps?). The second seems reasonable, although I'd suggest that the line between pleasure and "educational" materials is a vague one, especially in the humanities where fiction, film, etc., can be the subject (or the vehicle) of serious intellectual inquiry. The latter two statements seem to indicate that the college library needs to do some work with inventory control, simplify the physical layout, and make the electronic gateways less confusing. ("Huron State", for example, has over half its collection in an inaccessible storage area, which wouldn't be a major problem except that the user interface for retrieving items from storage is so nightmarishly nonintuitive that it's a wonder to me any non-librarians ever figure it out.)
Arnell found that previous studies, especially one by the late revered Marvin Scilken, had taken the approach of trying to push college students out of the public libraries and "back where they belong". Similarly, I've seen state-supported university libraries that refused to permit non-students to use any electronic resources -- and were meanwhile rapidly eliminating all non-electronic means of access to their collections. Such approaches seem shortsighted and unjustifiable to me, since both public and academic libraries in most cases draw funds from the population as a whole. College students pay local city and county taxes just like everyone else, including property tax (indirectly, through their landlords.) Funds from state and local taxes directly or indirectly subsidize most colleges and universities, especially those which are explicitly "state" institutions of higher education. Certainly they will need to have different priorities in acquiring materials. But why shouldn't a college student be able to use a public library copy of, say, The Great Gatsby that his rent money and local taxes helped to buy? And why shouldn't an attorney, businessman, or other professional whose taxes are supporting a nearby state university be able to use its library's resources for his needs?
The Spring 2004 issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly contains an interesting article by U. of Oklahoma Engineering Librarian Karen Antell on this topic. Unfortunately, as Jason Griffey has pointed out, the American Library Association and its affiliated periodicals such as RUSQ seem more interested in demanding open access from other publishers than in supplying it themselves, and the article is not available online.
Since the crossover use of public libraries by college students and its flipside, the use of college libraries by non-college students, is of interest to me, I'll take the liberty of summarizing some of the article's findings.
The top reasons cited by the students who were surveyed about their use of public libraries can be paraphrased as follows:
(1) Public library staff are more helpful.
(2) Public library is easier to use.
Two reasons tied for third place:
(3) Subjective appeal of public library.
(3) Public library (appeals to / accomodates) children.
It sounds like college libraries have some P.R. work to do. (The last-named reason, the public library's appeal to children, seems to be relevant to students who have childcare responsibilities and need to combine personal research time with keeping the kiddies occupied -- something which seems beyond the scope of academic library service.)
Other reasons cited included surprisingly frequent statements like "The public library has more materials that are useful to me", "the public library has more materials for pleasure reading", "the campus library's materials are often unavailable", and "the campus library is too big/too confusing".
The first would seem to indicate that the college library's materials selection practices may be out of touch with the students' actual needs. (Too many faculty demands for abstruse material, perhaps?). The second seems reasonable, although I'd suggest that the line between pleasure and "educational" materials is a vague one, especially in the humanities where fiction, film, etc., can be the subject (or the vehicle) of serious intellectual inquiry. The latter two statements seem to indicate that the college library needs to do some work with inventory control, simplify the physical layout, and make the electronic gateways less confusing. ("Huron State", for example, has over half its collection in an inaccessible storage area, which wouldn't be a major problem except that the user interface for retrieving items from storage is so nightmarishly nonintuitive that it's a wonder to me any non-librarians ever figure it out.)
Arnell found that previous studies, especially one by the late revered Marvin Scilken, had taken the approach of trying to push college students out of the public libraries and "back where they belong". Similarly, I've seen state-supported university libraries that refused to permit non-students to use any electronic resources -- and were meanwhile rapidly eliminating all non-electronic means of access to their collections. Such approaches seem shortsighted and unjustifiable to me, since both public and academic libraries in most cases draw funds from the population as a whole. College students pay local city and county taxes just like everyone else, including property tax (indirectly, through their landlords.) Funds from state and local taxes directly or indirectly subsidize most colleges and universities, especially those which are explicitly "state" institutions of higher education. Certainly they will need to have different priorities in acquiring materials. But why shouldn't a college student be able to use a public library copy of, say, The Great Gatsby that his rent money and local taxes helped to buy? And why shouldn't an attorney, businessman, or other professional whose taxes are supporting a nearby state university be able to use its library's resources for his needs?
Fun with typos
I hope SIRSI does a better job of debugging their library software than they did with the lead sentence of this news release:
"Laura Bush, Fist Lady of the United States, recently enjoyed the Rancho Mirage Pubic Library...."
Link ripped from www.librarian.net.
I hope SIRSI does a better job of debugging their library software than they did with the lead sentence of this news release:
"Laura Bush, Fist Lady of the United States, recently enjoyed the Rancho Mirage Pubic Library...."
Link ripped from www.librarian.net.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Nice save!
I've had some awkward job interviews, but nothing like this. Amazingly, she got the job, at least according to the anonymous and self-described "fictional hiring partner" writing the blog.
Whether the tale be truth or fiction, this deponent knoweth not. But it's a good story.
I've had some awkward job interviews, but nothing like this. Amazingly, she got the job, at least according to the anonymous and self-described "fictional hiring partner" writing the blog.
Whether the tale be truth or fiction, this deponent knoweth not. But it's a good story.
Seen on the wall of a bar in Milledgeville, Georgia:
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." -- Ernest Hemingway.
The Columbia World of Quotations confirms the existence of the statement, but attributes it instead to Charles Scribner, Jr., Hemingway's publisher. Either way, it's good advice.
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." -- Ernest Hemingway.
The Columbia World of Quotations confirms the existence of the statement, but attributes it instead to Charles Scribner, Jr., Hemingway's publisher. Either way, it's good advice.
Love those long-winded book titles!
While browsing in an "antique mall" (i.e., consignment secondhand store) recently, I came across a book by Emanuel Swedenborg with the following interesting title. (Slashes indicate linebreaks, and boldface indicates oversize type).
The Delights of Wisdom / pertaining to / Conjugal Love / after which follow / The Pleasures of Insanity / pertaining to / Scortatory Love / by / Emanuel Swedenborg / A swede.
Scortatory -- for those of you who were wondering -- means ‘Pertaining to or consisting in, fornication or lewdness’, and is formed from the Latin word 'scortator', which means 'to associate with harlots'. The English translation of Swedenborg's title, first printed in 1794, is the first known use of the word in the English language.
(I love the Oxford English Dictionary! But not conjugally, since that apparently leads to the Pleasures of Insanity.)
While browsing in an "antique mall" (i.e., consignment secondhand store) recently, I came across a book by Emanuel Swedenborg with the following interesting title. (Slashes indicate linebreaks, and boldface indicates oversize type).
The Delights of Wisdom / pertaining to / Conjugal Love / after which follow / The Pleasures of Insanity / pertaining to / Scortatory Love / by / Emanuel Swedenborg / A swede.
Scortatory -- for those of you who were wondering -- means ‘Pertaining to or consisting in, fornication or lewdness’, and is formed from the Latin word 'scortator', which means 'to associate with harlots'. The English translation of Swedenborg's title, first printed in 1794, is the first known use of the word in the English language.
(I love the Oxford English Dictionary! But not conjugally, since that apparently leads to the Pleasures of Insanity.)
Who are your customers?
The Public Library Geographic Database may be of interest to those in the U.S. who wish to know the demographics of their public library's users.
(Link taken from March/April 2004 issue of Public Libraries, in which two of the PLGD's staff shamelessly plug their efforts.)
The Public Library Geographic Database may be of interest to those in the U.S. who wish to know the demographics of their public library's users.
(Link taken from March/April 2004 issue of Public Libraries, in which two of the PLGD's staff shamelessly plug their efforts.)
E-voting follies
This story from Wired News is a damning summary of the maniacal, singleminded bureaucratic push for unverifiable "e-voting". Excerpts:
Harris discovered that she could enter the vote database using Microsoft Access -- a standard program often bundled with Microsoft Office -- and change votes without leaving a trace. Diebold hadn't password-protected the file or secured the audit log, so anyone with access to the tabulation program during an election -- Diebold employees, election staff or even hackers if the county server were connected to a phone line -- could change votes and alter the log to erase the evidence....
(Diebold's response to this discovery, as is well known, was to use legal mechanisms like the DMCA to try to forbid dissemination of this information. Meanwhile they showed absolutely zero interest in correcting the "accidental" security flaws. Meanwhile, the chairman of the company confidently promised that he would "deliver Ohio" to his political buddies.)
In addition to glitches, there are concerns about the people behind the machines. A few voting company employees have been implicated in bribery or kickback schemes involving election officials. And there are concerns about the partisan loyalties of voting executives -- Diebold's chief executive, for example, is a top fund-raiser for President Bush....
...So one day on a whim, after completing her publicity calls, Harris typed the words "stock ownership" and the name Election Systems & Software into a search engine and pulled up a slew of articles. Reading the oldest ones first because that's where companies "give information that they haven't yet thought to hide," she uncovered some startling facts.
Up until 1995, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel had been chairman of ES&S (then called American Information Systems) before quitting the company in March of that year two weeks before launching his Senate bid. ES&S, based in Omaha, Nebraska, manufactured the only voting machines used in the state in his election the following year. According to Neil Erickson, Nebraska's deputy secretary of state for elections, the machines counted 85 percent of votes in Hagel's race; the remaining votes were counted by hand.
Hagel, a first-time candidate who had lived out of the state for 20 years, came from behind to win two major upsets in that election: first in the primary race against a fellow Republican, then in the general race against Democrat Ben Nelson, the state's popular former governor. Nelson began the race with a 65 percent to 18 percent lead in the polls, but Hagel won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the state's first Republican senator since 1972....
It's long been a cliche for political cynics to say that one person's vote doesn't count. With the help of insecure and unverifiable voting machines controlled by political partisans, that may become the literal truth except for the one person who controls the voting software.
More from www.blackboxvoting.com, including a link to a startling article from the New York Times: Florida as the next Florida
Excerpts:
As Floridians went to the polls last Tuesday, Glenda Hood, Katherine Harris's successor as secretary of state, assured the nation that Florida's voting system would not break down this year the way it did in 2000. Florida now has "the very best" technology available, she declared on CNN. "And I do feel that it's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not." Hours later, results in Bay County showed that with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Richard Gephardt, who long before had pulled out of the presidential race, was beating John Kerry by two to one. "I'm devastated," the county's top election official said, promising a recount of his county's 19,000 votes.
Florida's official line is that its machines are so carefully tested, nothing can go wrong. But things already have gone wrong. In a January election in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the victory margin was 12 votes, but the machines recorded more than 130 blank ballots. It is simply not believable that 130 people showed up to cast a nonvote, in an election with only one race on the ballot. The runner-up wanted a recount, but since the machines do not produce a paper record, there was nothing to recount. [emphasis added.]
In 2002, in the primary race for governor between Janet Reno and Bill McBride, electronic voting problems were so widespread they cast doubt on the outcome. Many Miami-Dade County votes were not counted on election night because machines were shut down improperly. One precinct with over 1,000 eligible voters recorded no votes, despite a 33 percent turnout statewide. Election workers spent days hunting for lost votes, while Floridians waited, in an uncomfortable replay of 2000, to see whether Mr. McBride's victory margin, which had dwindled to less than 10,000, would hold up....
The 2004 election may make the 2000 Florida fiasco look like a toddler's tantrum if this is any indication. On the other hand, perhaps the vote-riggers will get their act together well enough to hide their tracks. Unless those pesky voters kick up enough of a political storm to force the election officials to provide verifiable, permanent, and re-countable hard copy ballots.
This story from Wired News is a damning summary of the maniacal, singleminded bureaucratic push for unverifiable "e-voting". Excerpts:
Harris discovered that she could enter the vote database using Microsoft Access -- a standard program often bundled with Microsoft Office -- and change votes without leaving a trace. Diebold hadn't password-protected the file or secured the audit log, so anyone with access to the tabulation program during an election -- Diebold employees, election staff or even hackers if the county server were connected to a phone line -- could change votes and alter the log to erase the evidence....
(Diebold's response to this discovery, as is well known, was to use legal mechanisms like the DMCA to try to forbid dissemination of this information. Meanwhile they showed absolutely zero interest in correcting the "accidental" security flaws. Meanwhile, the chairman of the company confidently promised that he would "deliver Ohio" to his political buddies.)
In addition to glitches, there are concerns about the people behind the machines. A few voting company employees have been implicated in bribery or kickback schemes involving election officials. And there are concerns about the partisan loyalties of voting executives -- Diebold's chief executive, for example, is a top fund-raiser for President Bush....
...So one day on a whim, after completing her publicity calls, Harris typed the words "stock ownership" and the name Election Systems & Software into a search engine and pulled up a slew of articles. Reading the oldest ones first because that's where companies "give information that they haven't yet thought to hide," she uncovered some startling facts.
Up until 1995, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel had been chairman of ES&S (then called American Information Systems) before quitting the company in March of that year two weeks before launching his Senate bid. ES&S, based in Omaha, Nebraska, manufactured the only voting machines used in the state in his election the following year. According to Neil Erickson, Nebraska's deputy secretary of state for elections, the machines counted 85 percent of votes in Hagel's race; the remaining votes were counted by hand.
Hagel, a first-time candidate who had lived out of the state for 20 years, came from behind to win two major upsets in that election: first in the primary race against a fellow Republican, then in the general race against Democrat Ben Nelson, the state's popular former governor. Nelson began the race with a 65 percent to 18 percent lead in the polls, but Hagel won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the state's first Republican senator since 1972....
It's long been a cliche for political cynics to say that one person's vote doesn't count. With the help of insecure and unverifiable voting machines controlled by political partisans, that may become the literal truth except for the one person who controls the voting software.
More from www.blackboxvoting.com, including a link to a startling article from the New York Times: Florida as the next Florida
Excerpts:
As Floridians went to the polls last Tuesday, Glenda Hood, Katherine Harris's successor as secretary of state, assured the nation that Florida's voting system would not break down this year the way it did in 2000. Florida now has "the very best" technology available, she declared on CNN. "And I do feel that it's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not." Hours later, results in Bay County showed that with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Richard Gephardt, who long before had pulled out of the presidential race, was beating John Kerry by two to one. "I'm devastated," the county's top election official said, promising a recount of his county's 19,000 votes.
Florida's official line is that its machines are so carefully tested, nothing can go wrong. But things already have gone wrong. In a January election in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the victory margin was 12 votes, but the machines recorded more than 130 blank ballots. It is simply not believable that 130 people showed up to cast a nonvote, in an election with only one race on the ballot. The runner-up wanted a recount, but since the machines do not produce a paper record, there was nothing to recount. [emphasis added.]
In 2002, in the primary race for governor between Janet Reno and Bill McBride, electronic voting problems were so widespread they cast doubt on the outcome. Many Miami-Dade County votes were not counted on election night because machines were shut down improperly. One precinct with over 1,000 eligible voters recorded no votes, despite a 33 percent turnout statewide. Election workers spent days hunting for lost votes, while Floridians waited, in an uncomfortable replay of 2000, to see whether Mr. McBride's victory margin, which had dwindled to less than 10,000, would hold up....
The 2004 election may make the 2000 Florida fiasco look like a toddler's tantrum if this is any indication. On the other hand, perhaps the vote-riggers will get their act together well enough to hide their tracks. Unless those pesky voters kick up enough of a political storm to force the election officials to provide verifiable, permanent, and re-countable hard copy ballots.
I am not alone...
... in using the term "fatwa" in a specialized, and perhaps too narrow, way. Arts & Letters Daily this morning pointed me to a National Journal article about the New York Times' ombudsman Daniel Okrent which contains the following phrase: "I hear that Okrent is already unpopular at The Times, that various angry staffers have issued fatwas."
The article is also interesting reading for those who are cynical about the New York Times or journalism in general.
... in using the term "fatwa" in a specialized, and perhaps too narrow, way. Arts & Letters Daily this morning pointed me to a National Journal article about the New York Times' ombudsman Daniel Okrent which contains the following phrase: "I hear that Okrent is already unpopular at The Times, that various angry staffers have issued fatwas."
The article is also interesting reading for those who are cynical about the New York Times or journalism in general.
Thursday, April 08, 2004
One last intellectual theft of the evening:
Since every one of my postings today has begun with a link ripped from somewhere else, it's entirely appropriate to close the day by doing so once again. Thanks to Fiend for the link to this survey of blogging behavior, which provides some interesting food for thought regarding anonymity, liability, and the degree to which bloggers discuss personal or private material and occasionally have reason to regret it.
And so to bed.
Since every one of my postings today has begun with a link ripped from somewhere else, it's entirely appropriate to close the day by doing so once again. Thanks to Fiend for the link to this survey of blogging behavior, which provides some interesting food for thought regarding anonymity, liability, and the degree to which bloggers discuss personal or private material and occasionally have reason to regret it.
And so to bed.
Where's E.K. Hornbeck when you need him?
The county that gave us the Scopes Monkey Trial and a 2002 lawsuit about whether public schools should include Bible Education Ministry in the curriculum is at it again:
Associated Press, March 17, 2004: DAYTON, Tenn. — Rhea County [Tennessee] commissioners unanimously voted to ask state lawmakers to introduce legislation amending Tennessee's criminal code so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.
"We need to keep them out of here," said Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the motion.
County Attorney Gary Fritts also was asked by Fugate to find the best way to enact a local law banning homosexuals from living in Rhea County....
Apparently Rhea County still needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, forward into the twentieth century. Fortunately, the county attorney remembered reading about something called the Constitution, and the commissioners took his advice to rescind their motion. But not before providing the more civilized parts of the country with another round of amusement.
(Thanks to AaronIsNotAmused for the link.)
The county that gave us the Scopes Monkey Trial and a 2002 lawsuit about whether public schools should include Bible Education Ministry in the curriculum is at it again:
Associated Press, March 17, 2004: DAYTON, Tenn. — Rhea County [Tennessee] commissioners unanimously voted to ask state lawmakers to introduce legislation amending Tennessee's criminal code so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.
"We need to keep them out of here," said Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the motion.
County Attorney Gary Fritts also was asked by Fugate to find the best way to enact a local law banning homosexuals from living in Rhea County....
Apparently Rhea County still needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, forward into the twentieth century. Fortunately, the county attorney remembered reading about something called the Constitution, and the commissioners took his advice to rescind their motion. But not before providing the more civilized parts of the country with another round of amusement.
(Thanks to AaronIsNotAmused for the link.)
Censorship or selection
Also ripped from the "H20 lib blog": an insightful discussion of the semantic difference between "selection" and "censorship" in the language of LibraryLand.
I'm rather forcibly reminded of the reference supervisor who refused to "select" A Clockwork Orange for the library -- even as a donation! -- or permit it to be requested through interlibrary loan, despite multiple requests, because "young people shouldn't be reading such trash."
Also ripped from the "H20 lib blog": an insightful discussion of the semantic difference between "selection" and "censorship" in the language of LibraryLand.
I'm rather forcibly reminded of the reference supervisor who refused to "select" A Clockwork Orange for the library -- even as a donation! -- or permit it to be requested through interlibrary loan, despite multiple requests, because "young people shouldn't be reading such trash."
Mother Earth News
While browsing the Waterboro Library Weblog (or "h20boro lib blog)" earlier today, I found that all the issues of this interesting magazine from the first issue in January/February 1970 to April/May 2003 are available online. Fascinating stuff. I could browse this archive for weeks, however contrary to the spirit of the magazine that might be.
Articles from the first few issues that caught my attention:
Twin Oaks (Issue #1) A description of one of the more successful experiments in consciously designed communal living. Co-founder Katherine Kinkaid has described Twin Oaks in more detail in her books, but it's useful to read a contemporary account of its early days written by soneone else. Although I personally might find it difficult to live under some of the policies of the Twin Oaks group, it's a fascinating project that still exists today because its founders were practical enough to (1) establish a workable internal economic system based on "labor credits", (2) establish a system of democratic and flexible but effective organization, and (3) use the existing external economy to support themselves by producing both physical and intellectual products that fit within their principles and were desired by the outside world. Of course, it helped that they didn't have to make mortgage payments on the farm!
Mississippi Canoe Trip (Issue #4) I've frequently thought about doing something similar, but I think I'll work up to the Mississippi by stages, rather than just taking off with no prior canoeing experience as this couple did. The Huron River seems to be well thawed out, and the weather's getting nicer....
The Compleat Gentleman Homesteads in the Bush (Issue #5). "[I]f a man doesn't have a set of standards by which to live, he is little better than a savage. As a matter of fact, Saturday in my wilderness home was always special. I planned a good dinner with wine accompanied by one of the more exciting classical records and the Toronto Scottish pipe band on the record player. After the meal — with dishes washed and wolf and falcon fed — I sat in front of the TV set, sipped cold beer (it had been in the river all day) and relaxed . . . in a suit. Just because one lives in the woods is no reason to go completely native."
Trebor and others of sound practical sense may well point out that survival, engineering or business-related advice from idealistic sources should be taken with a grain of salt, or at least confirmed through another source before betting one's life or well-being on its accuracy. For example, it seems that the wood fire-powered refrigerator described in issue #35 has some potential flaws, as pointed out by a rather alarming letter in issue #37. (Unfortunately, Allie Fox's subscription apparently ran out before he read the second letter.)
But what a source of ideas and daydreams.
While browsing the Waterboro Library Weblog (or "h20boro lib blog)" earlier today, I found that all the issues of this interesting magazine from the first issue in January/February 1970 to April/May 2003 are available online. Fascinating stuff. I could browse this archive for weeks, however contrary to the spirit of the magazine that might be.
Articles from the first few issues that caught my attention:
Twin Oaks (Issue #1) A description of one of the more successful experiments in consciously designed communal living. Co-founder Katherine Kinkaid has described Twin Oaks in more detail in her books, but it's useful to read a contemporary account of its early days written by soneone else. Although I personally might find it difficult to live under some of the policies of the Twin Oaks group, it's a fascinating project that still exists today because its founders were practical enough to (1) establish a workable internal economic system based on "labor credits", (2) establish a system of democratic and flexible but effective organization, and (3) use the existing external economy to support themselves by producing both physical and intellectual products that fit within their principles and were desired by the outside world. Of course, it helped that they didn't have to make mortgage payments on the farm!
Mississippi Canoe Trip (Issue #4) I've frequently thought about doing something similar, but I think I'll work up to the Mississippi by stages, rather than just taking off with no prior canoeing experience as this couple did. The Huron River seems to be well thawed out, and the weather's getting nicer....
The Compleat Gentleman Homesteads in the Bush (Issue #5). "[I]f a man doesn't have a set of standards by which to live, he is little better than a savage. As a matter of fact, Saturday in my wilderness home was always special. I planned a good dinner with wine accompanied by one of the more exciting classical records and the Toronto Scottish pipe band on the record player. After the meal — with dishes washed and wolf and falcon fed — I sat in front of the TV set, sipped cold beer (it had been in the river all day) and relaxed . . . in a suit. Just because one lives in the woods is no reason to go completely native."
Trebor and others of sound practical sense may well point out that survival, engineering or business-related advice from idealistic sources should be taken with a grain of salt, or at least confirmed through another source before betting one's life or well-being on its accuracy. For example, it seems that the wood fire-powered refrigerator described in issue #35 has some potential flaws, as pointed out by a rather alarming letter in issue #37. (Unfortunately, Allie Fox's subscription apparently ran out before he read the second letter.)
But what a source of ideas and daydreams.
Would you read it on a train? Would you read it in a plane?
Bookmobiles are very well and good, but as this site indicates, there are many, many different styles of traveling libraries: Bookboats, book-bikes, book-donkeys, book-camels, et cetera. In the U.S., during the Great Depression, the Works Project Administration used many different means to distribute books to remote corners of the country, including most notably the Pack Horse Library Project as described in Kathi Appelt's Down Cut Shin Creek : the Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky.
Of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is that a Book Train might make an interesting HO scale model. There were many U.S. prototypes to follow, and to cite as examples should any niggling nitpicker claim that such things "ain't prototypical". True, most of the railroad library cars were for the use of paying passengers only, but that's just part and parcel of the Gilded Age in America.
For a more altruistically inclined roving cultural artifact on rails, perhaps I could model one of the chapel cars that once plied the rails of North America bringing missionary efforts to remote areas and, in one case, serving as a semi-permanent meeting hall after the Upper Peninsula logging town of Ontonagan burned to the ground in 1896.
Thanks to the ever-eclectic Jessamyn West for the link. The Bookboat webpage is affiliated with the Prince Rupert (B.C., Canada) Public Library and "is intended to help us build support for a waterfront location for a new Prince Rupert Library and Archives." I wish them well.
Bookmobiles are very well and good, but as this site indicates, there are many, many different styles of traveling libraries: Bookboats, book-bikes, book-donkeys, book-camels, et cetera. In the U.S., during the Great Depression, the Works Project Administration used many different means to distribute books to remote corners of the country, including most notably the Pack Horse Library Project as described in Kathi Appelt's Down Cut Shin Creek : the Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky.
Of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is that a Book Train might make an interesting HO scale model. There were many U.S. prototypes to follow, and to cite as examples should any niggling nitpicker claim that such things "ain't prototypical". True, most of the railroad library cars were for the use of paying passengers only, but that's just part and parcel of the Gilded Age in America.
For a more altruistically inclined roving cultural artifact on rails, perhaps I could model one of the chapel cars that once plied the rails of North America bringing missionary efforts to remote areas and, in one case, serving as a semi-permanent meeting hall after the Upper Peninsula logging town of Ontonagan burned to the ground in 1896.
Thanks to the ever-eclectic Jessamyn West for the link. The Bookboat webpage is affiliated with the Prince Rupert (B.C., Canada) Public Library and "is intended to help us build support for a waterfront location for a new Prince Rupert Library and Archives." I wish them well.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
I have mixed feelings....
... about this controversy, in which one of Michigan's largest law schools is suing the American Bar Association for blocking accreditation of two branch campus programs which cater to part-time and weekend students, and which have apparently met all stated ABA accreditation criteria.
On the one hand, I question whether the country needs yet more lawyers, and from a librarian's perspective, I can see how it might be difficult to make truly equal legal resources available at multiple campuses. On the other hand, a law school that is open to people who can't drop everything and attend full time for three years straight is a valuable service to anyone who has to support himself/herself and, perhaps, a family, with a full time job, but has the desire and the ability to "learn how to think like a lawyer".
I have considered trying to earn a second master's degree in order to improve my position on the academic job market, but find that many universities are too snobbish and stuck-up to even consider the possibility of tolerating part-time students. A relative of mine in Austin, Texas, has reported that the University of Texas graduate business school similarly has its nose stuck firmly in the stratosphere. It wants only full-time students who are supported by their parents and don't have to pay their own bills. Apparently people with actual ongoing hands-on business experience aren't classy enough.
My dad earned his law degree by working his tail off in evening and weekend classes while working full time as an engineer to support his family. He says that even at that time there was a noticeable hostility to part-time students, who were apparently perceived as being socially undesirable.
The ABA has refused to publicly comment about its role in this imbroglio, but it's hard to see it as anything but (1) old fashioned snobbishness and (2) turf-protection by existing attorneys who would just as soon not see large numbers of new-minted competitors enter the market.
Editorial note, 4/8: changed "supported by mommy and daddy" to "supported by their parents" in the third paragraph, because the students haven't done anything wrong and making fun of them doesn't accomplish anything.
... about this controversy, in which one of Michigan's largest law schools is suing the American Bar Association for blocking accreditation of two branch campus programs which cater to part-time and weekend students, and which have apparently met all stated ABA accreditation criteria.
On the one hand, I question whether the country needs yet more lawyers, and from a librarian's perspective, I can see how it might be difficult to make truly equal legal resources available at multiple campuses. On the other hand, a law school that is open to people who can't drop everything and attend full time for three years straight is a valuable service to anyone who has to support himself/herself and, perhaps, a family, with a full time job, but has the desire and the ability to "learn how to think like a lawyer".
I have considered trying to earn a second master's degree in order to improve my position on the academic job market, but find that many universities are too snobbish and stuck-up to even consider the possibility of tolerating part-time students. A relative of mine in Austin, Texas, has reported that the University of Texas graduate business school similarly has its nose stuck firmly in the stratosphere. It wants only full-time students who are supported by their parents and don't have to pay their own bills. Apparently people with actual ongoing hands-on business experience aren't classy enough.
My dad earned his law degree by working his tail off in evening and weekend classes while working full time as an engineer to support his family. He says that even at that time there was a noticeable hostility to part-time students, who were apparently perceived as being socially undesirable.
The ABA has refused to publicly comment about its role in this imbroglio, but it's hard to see it as anything but (1) old fashioned snobbishness and (2) turf-protection by existing attorneys who would just as soon not see large numbers of new-minted competitors enter the market.
Editorial note, 4/8: changed "supported by mommy and daddy" to "supported by their parents" in the third paragraph, because the students haven't done anything wrong and making fun of them doesn't accomplish anything.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
On a lighter note:
Jon Carroll of the SF Gate has compiled an impressive record of editorials covering those lovely mondegreens.
Jon Carroll of the SF Gate has compiled an impressive record of editorials covering those lovely mondegreens.
Our valiant protectors
Good news! The Department of Justice is pulling out all the stops, resurrecting long-neglected laws and theories of prosecution, and devoting uncountable man-hours to rooting out shadowy networks of finance and individuals that threaten the very existence of America. 'Round the clock they work diligently, looking for incriminating evidence and ways to arrest those who seek to infiltrate our fair society with the scourge of....
Naked people.
Oh, you thought that terrorists were a bigger problem? I guess you don't hold daily prayer sessions in your taxpayer-funded office, either, you unAmerican freak!
As the Baltimore Sun article indicates, the current standard for "obscenity" prosecutions rests upon "the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller vs. California, which held that something is "obscene" only if an average person applying contemporary community standards finds it patently offensive.
But which community? Hollywood? Denver? Salt Lake City? Dime Box, Texas?
There's a simple solution, known to shady ambulance-chasing lawyers the world 'round, for juries and judges that refuse to give you the verdict you want. Simply go forum-shopping and find a community where the judge & jury will apply their standards to someone else's community:
The department's most closely watched case involves "extreme" porn producer Rob Zicari and his North Hollywood company Extreme Associates. The prolific Zicari is charged with selling five allegedly obscene videotapes, which he now markets as the "Federal Five," that depict simulated rapes and murder....
The case hangs on a strategic move by the Justice Department that could make or break hundreds of future cases. Instead of bringing charges in Hollywood, where Zicari easily defeated a local obscenity ordinance recently in a jury trial, department officials ordered his tapes from Pittsburgh, Pa., and charged him there, hoping for a jury pool less porn-friendly. (From the Baltimore Sun article linked above.)
Now Mr. Zicari's trashy productions are doubtless unpalatable to most people. But apparently the community of Hollywood doesn't consider them legally obscene. No problemo! Just apply some other community's standards that more closely match Mr. Ashcroft's own opinions. The application of this principle to the internet is obvious: whatever Mr. Ashcroft deems personally offensive is to be prosecuted or banned nationwide.
From a 2001 interview with the PBS program Frontline, as quoted in the B. Sun:
"Just about everything on the Internet and almost everything in the video stores and everything in the adult bookstores is still prosecutable illegal obscenity," [Ashcroft] said....
It's incredible that in the age of the internet, with communication of ideas and images between points thousand of miles apart reduced to a matter of mouse-clicks and mere seconds, Mr. Ashcroft intends to apply the most restrictive "community standards" he can find to all communities in the nation, with total disregard for the wishes of the vast bulk of the country. It's quite possible that a jury in East Buckfutt, Idaho, might very well convict someone of obscenity for content that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow in, say, San Francisco. It's quite possible that in some benighted one-horse town, a halfway competent prosecutor could get a jury to ban Charles Darwin as "obscene". The possibilities are endless....
Perhaps he will be equally sympathetic when Saudi Arabia demands -- in accordance with its local "community standards" -- that websites containing the text of the Christian Bible be shut down as "obscene". Or when a politically liberal, atheist community somewhere in the U.S. files suit to ban objectionable religious proseletyzing websites from the Internet. Ya wanna bet?
Good news! The Department of Justice is pulling out all the stops, resurrecting long-neglected laws and theories of prosecution, and devoting uncountable man-hours to rooting out shadowy networks of finance and individuals that threaten the very existence of America. 'Round the clock they work diligently, looking for incriminating evidence and ways to arrest those who seek to infiltrate our fair society with the scourge of....
Naked people.
Oh, you thought that terrorists were a bigger problem? I guess you don't hold daily prayer sessions in your taxpayer-funded office, either, you unAmerican freak!
As the Baltimore Sun article indicates, the current standard for "obscenity" prosecutions rests upon "the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller vs. California, which held that something is "obscene" only if an average person applying contemporary community standards finds it patently offensive.
But which community? Hollywood? Denver? Salt Lake City? Dime Box, Texas?
There's a simple solution, known to shady ambulance-chasing lawyers the world 'round, for juries and judges that refuse to give you the verdict you want. Simply go forum-shopping and find a community where the judge & jury will apply their standards to someone else's community:
The department's most closely watched case involves "extreme" porn producer Rob Zicari and his North Hollywood company Extreme Associates. The prolific Zicari is charged with selling five allegedly obscene videotapes, which he now markets as the "Federal Five," that depict simulated rapes and murder....
The case hangs on a strategic move by the Justice Department that could make or break hundreds of future cases. Instead of bringing charges in Hollywood, where Zicari easily defeated a local obscenity ordinance recently in a jury trial, department officials ordered his tapes from Pittsburgh, Pa., and charged him there, hoping for a jury pool less porn-friendly. (From the Baltimore Sun article linked above.)
Now Mr. Zicari's trashy productions are doubtless unpalatable to most people. But apparently the community of Hollywood doesn't consider them legally obscene. No problemo! Just apply some other community's standards that more closely match Mr. Ashcroft's own opinions. The application of this principle to the internet is obvious: whatever Mr. Ashcroft deems personally offensive is to be prosecuted or banned nationwide.
From a 2001 interview with the PBS program Frontline, as quoted in the B. Sun:
"Just about everything on the Internet and almost everything in the video stores and everything in the adult bookstores is still prosecutable illegal obscenity," [Ashcroft] said....
It's incredible that in the age of the internet, with communication of ideas and images between points thousand of miles apart reduced to a matter of mouse-clicks and mere seconds, Mr. Ashcroft intends to apply the most restrictive "community standards" he can find to all communities in the nation, with total disregard for the wishes of the vast bulk of the country. It's quite possible that a jury in East Buckfutt, Idaho, might very well convict someone of obscenity for content that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow in, say, San Francisco. It's quite possible that in some benighted one-horse town, a halfway competent prosecutor could get a jury to ban Charles Darwin as "obscene". The possibilities are endless....
Perhaps he will be equally sympathetic when Saudi Arabia demands -- in accordance with its local "community standards" -- that websites containing the text of the Christian Bible be shut down as "obscene". Or when a politically liberal, atheist community somewhere in the U.S. files suit to ban objectionable religious proseletyzing websites from the Internet. Ya wanna bet?
Rural retreats
Pursuant to Fiend's recent recreational expedition to a northwoods "Sugar Shack", USAToday reports that less glamorous agricultural businesses are also becoming the objects of "agritourism":
Rural life becoming tourist attraction
My more rural relatives would probably get a laugh from the idea of city folks paying good money for the privilege of picking fruit or looking at cows. On the other hand, I did enjoy my summers at the farm while I was growing up.
Pursuant to Fiend's recent recreational expedition to a northwoods "Sugar Shack", USAToday reports that less glamorous agricultural businesses are also becoming the objects of "agritourism":
Rural life becoming tourist attraction
My more rural relatives would probably get a laugh from the idea of city folks paying good money for the privilege of picking fruit or looking at cows. On the other hand, I did enjoy my summers at the farm while I was growing up.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Alternate alternate realities
The Lord of the Rings as it might have been written by Arthur Conan Doyle... or Ayn Rand... or Dr. Seuss....
The "Jack Vance" version sounds oddly like James Branch Cabell to my ear. Perhaps Carlos could comment on whether this version has captured the true Wodehousian esprit d'Jeeves?
The Lord of the Rings as it might have been written by Arthur Conan Doyle... or Ayn Rand... or Dr. Seuss....
The "Jack Vance" version sounds oddly like James Branch Cabell to my ear. Perhaps Carlos could comment on whether this version has captured the true Wodehousian esprit d'Jeeves?
A breezy ride through hell
"Elena", a biker in the USSR, has posted a truly eerie photostory about riding along the highways and through the ghost towns near the site of the Chernobyl disaster.
(Link taken from The LoneWacko Blog, who seems to have gotten it from Art Bell. Despite the latter's reputation for promoting silly theories about paranormal conspiracies et al, nothing about the photos looks implausible to me. Just grim and scary and haunting.)
"Elena", a biker in the USSR, has posted a truly eerie photostory about riding along the highways and through the ghost towns near the site of the Chernobyl disaster.
(Link taken from The LoneWacko Blog, who seems to have gotten it from Art Bell. Despite the latter's reputation for promoting silly theories about paranormal conspiracies et al, nothing about the photos looks implausible to me. Just grim and scary and haunting.)
Well, I'm back....
... and just in time, as Trebor's threatening to turn the place into a Sex Shoppe in my absence. Bad Trebor. If you want public nudity, go to Canada. Or buy the Librarians Gone Wild videotape. (Latter link courtesy of Library Underground.)
Meanwhile I'll get back to blogging about boring old politics and books and stuff.
... and just in time, as Trebor's threatening to turn the place into a Sex Shoppe in my absence. Bad Trebor. If you want public nudity, go to Canada. Or buy the Librarians Gone Wild videotape. (Latter link courtesy of Library Underground.)
Meanwhile I'll get back to blogging about boring old politics and books and stuff.
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