Banned Books Week

Today marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, September 20-27. From now through the 27th, I'm going to try to post one link a day dealing with a banned book or some other interesting censorship-related tidbit. Why not begin with the American Library Association's Banned Books Week page, and especially their list of the 100 most frequently challenged books? See any friends on the hit list?

Oh, the thrill of it all!

Ref Grunt is one of the funniest blogs I've ever seen. Also one of the saddest. I have lived this blog. If you have ever hungered for the glamorous life of a reference librarian, take a look.

Dang, dang, dang.

Librarian uber-blogger Jessamyn West beat me to the punch by blogcasting a link to the current issue of Library Juice, which contains excerpts from an ongoing dialogue between several American Library Association head honchos about whether the ALA should sever ties with its current legal counsel, the law firm of Jenner and Block. Jenner and Block also represents the Recording Industry Association of America, which may pose conflicts of interest, since the ALA and the RIAA seem destined to clash over fair use, "digital rights management", and other intellectual-property issues.

Oh well. If you don't subscribe to Library Juice or read Ms. West's blog, you heard about it here.

A Small Prayer

I spent the first part of today (Friday) looking for an alternative (read: cheaper) place to live, and the second part at the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society's annual convention in Gladstone, Michigan. While driving home and idly twirling the radio dial, I came across something called the "Gospel Opportunities Radio Network". (GORN?) The soaring, triumphant voices of the echo-enhanced choir and their synth-brass accompaniment seemed like an ironic soundtrack to my life, much like Brian cheerfully singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" while being executed, or Alex and his droogs committing mayhem to the bouncy strains of "Singin' in the Rain". And so I drove a while through the dark pine woods in the sort of meditative state that is inspired by headlights, highway lines, and long, deserted roads, all the while habitually listening for any telltale signs that my 18 year and 200,000 mile old pickup truck was preparing to throw off a belt, blow a seal, or otherwise self-destruct in some creative way.

And then The Voice came on. I could almost hear his shellacked hair and polyester suit as he intoned the following words in a fake-folky tone: "You know, folks, prayer is like room service, with everything charged to the Big Credit Card in the Sky!"

How long, O Lord, will the false prophets of Prosperity Theology infest the land, teaching people that You are merely a Big Credit Card in the Sky, or a Celestial Cash Register that will spew out whatever they desire if they are "Holy enough", send the right amount of bribe or protection money to the right denominational leader, or speak the right magic spell and call it a prayer? That You work for them, rather than the other way 'round? And that those who don't have shiny cars and big houses in fashionable communities are that way because You are righteously "punishing" them?

How long, Lord, how long?

Oh, and please forgive me for thinking that The Door is pretty damn funny, especially that article about the Prayer of Lamech.

An incremental victory

Louise at The Librarian's Rant brought it to my attention that, in response to political pressure from Congressman Bernie Sanders and other critics of the so-called "PATRIOT" Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft has agreed to supply information about how often Section 215 of the Act has been used to secretly rummage through library and bookstore records.

This is a Good Thing, assuming that the information supplied is complete and accurate. Accountability is an essential part of a functioning democracy, and one of the "PATRIOT" Act's most egregrious flaws is its emphasis on governmental secrecy and unaccountability, as exemplified by the Justice Department's refusal to supply Congress or American citizens with any information about how its various provisions were being used. But I hope this isn't just a sop thrown to the unexpectedly outspoken librarian lobby to keep them quiet while the Justice Department continues to use other provisions of the Act to push beyond the boundaries of the Constitution.

(I would have posted links to THOMAS's text of the "PATRIOT" Act, but THOMAS seems to be offline, possibly due to the hurricane currently raging through eastern Virginia. Damn hurricanes.)

Celebrity Death Match: Hollywood v. The Internet!

Those wacky, fun-loving Hollywood lobbyists and their representatives in Washington are at it again. House bill HR 2885, introduced on July 24 of this year, seeks to prohibit distribution of peer-to-peer file trading software. It's to protect the children, dontcha know. From THOMAS, the official website for US Congressional legislative information:

A BILL
To prohibit the distribution of peer-to-peer file trading software in interstate commerce.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography Act of 2003'.

The rest of the bill is considerably more entertaining than any comedy I've seen lately. It includes such amazing logical deductions as this:

(6) The availability of peer-to-peer systems as a distribution mechanism for child pornography may lead to further sexual abuse of children, because the production of child pornography is intrinsically related to sexual abuse of children.

I guess the parts of the bill that prohibit postal service, the printing press, cameras, film, and Internet use in general will be forthcoming later, right, guys? After all, they're "distribution mechanisms for child pornography".

The RIAA has stated its support for the bill. Some of its members' bloviations on the subject have been almost as amusing as the bill itself. For example:

"As a guy in the record industry and as a parent, I am shocked that these services are being used to lure children to stuff that is really ugly," said Andrew Lack, the chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment. (from an interview with a newspaper which has removed itself from civilized discourse, quoted here.)

Um, let's see: a record executive is shocked... shocked!... to find that sexualized images of youngsters are being distributed. ("Your winnings, sir.....")

As usual, the discussion at Slashdot ranges from Informative to Flamebait. To be honest, in reading the text of the bill, I can't see precisely where the bill explicitly outlaws peer-to-peer software, although it states that this is its purpose and mandates a long and ridiculously burdensome list of requirements, including age-verification and the development of "do-not-install beacons" which would prevent computers from installing p2p software if so desired by parents, employers, manufacturers, etc. Hmmm... can you think of any reason why the RIAA might want mandatory collection of identifying information about p2p users?

Perhaps someone with more legal expertise could see more than I do.

The bill is sponsored by Joe Pitt (Republicrat representing the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America) and, in a stunning display of party unity, 14 other representatives, all Republicrats representing the RIAA and MPAA. Check here to see if any of them are nominally supposed to be representing you instead. Whether or not your "representative" is one of the sponsors, let 'em know what you think of this bill. Pay attention to how they vote, and vote accordingly to what they do, not what they say in their slick, expensive pre-election propaganda next year.

Can you say Congresswhores, kiddies? I thought you could.

A phrase which unfortunately does not apply to me:

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habeas.

(Discussed recently on the Stumpers listserv.)

Note for skywatchers in northern latitudes:

The gse-aa listserv, based at the University of Alaska, sent out the following alert today:

Passage of Earth through the solar wind neutral sheet on the 16th
produced some auroral activity seen in the northern tier of states in
the US and in Northern Europe now (1900 UT). There should be
continued activity tonight (9/17), and on the 18th, tapering off by
the weekend.

If you're in a northern clime and happen to be outdoors tonight or tomorrow night, Keep Looking Up. (Insert deedily-deedily-deedily Jack Horkheimer theme music here.)

Home again home again

Back from Westover late Sunday.

The countryside around Westover College and the surrounding town is pretty, with hills and forests and some fair-sized mountains visible in the distance, but to my midwestern-raised eyes, it seemed oddly disquieting. The hills (considerably steeper and closer together than the Ozarks, the hills of central Texas, or the Huron Mountains of northern Michigan) always seemed to be just a little too close, blocking out just a little too much of the sky, and the vegetation seemed almost jungle-like in its profusion, as if anything that stood still for a moment too long risked being overrun by vines and creepers.

Westover is a private and religiously-supported college, with a traditional and beautiful campus of red-brick Southern-colonial buildings around a tree-shaded campus. It would be a beautiful place to work, and the library, though small, has some pleasantly modern and populist touches, such as a good-sized CD collection of both classical and contemporary music and a leased browsing collection of current fiction, to go with the more traditional scholarly tomes and Internet terminals. The college is part of a consortium that makes it possible for it to have a good selection of electronic indexes and databases, although a different and smaller selection than I'm accustomed to.

Although religiously-affiliated, the college is politically more centrist than the much larger and much newer university on the other side of town. That's not saying much, though, considering that said university-across-town is run by Jerry Falwell.

Whether the interview went well or not, I can't say. I enjoyed talking with the library staff, and thought that I answered their questions reasonably well. The presentation went well, other than some momentary difficulty in getting J-STOR's cranky search interface to give useful search results in the demonstration. The head of the college library, however, seemed peculiarly insistent on reminding me that Westover is in a very conservative area, as if I couldn't notice for myself the two dozen Baptist churches I drove past on the way in from the airport. He also went out of his way to "casually" mention that the contract of an adjunct faculty member who had criticized the war in Iraq had not been renewed.

Supposedly, they'll make their decision in a week or two. We'll see.

Wish me luck

Not much time to blog today, since I'm packing for an interview trip to "Westover College". I don't know whether I'll be able to post messages while travelling. If not, hasta la vista, bay-bee, until Sunday.

Attention Wodehouse fans:

Blandings Castle has been found!

Biff, Pow, Shush Redux

It seems that other librarians have noticed and commented unfavorably on the Librarian Action Figure and her Amazing Push-Button Shushing Action. Despite my slightly snarky previous comments on this, I wonder whether those who object so strenuously have any constructive alternatives to offer, or are just reinforcing the stereotype of librarians as cranky, literal-minded sourpusses who can't take a joke. It's hard to think of suitable action-figure features for librarians, since most of the tasks they perform are considerably more complex and abstract than, say, launching plastic thunderbolts, or bopping bad guys upside the head with improbably-proportioned fists, and thus difficult to replicate in a toy. Computer keyboards or reference books scaled to match a five-inch high figure would be pretty useless. Shredding miniature library circulation records, disabling internet filters, or waving copies of the Constitution in John Ashcroft's face would be difficult to reproduce in plastic, as well as being unpopular with the Powers That Be.

Perhaps they'd prefer the projectile hair bun?

Rant of the Day: Library Internet filtering

K. brought to my attention the situation in the Ottawa, Ontario, public library, where a union representing library staff has filed a lawsuit to force use of Internet filters on library computers, arguing that it creates a hostile workplace environment when library staff see obnoxious images and websites accessed by people using uncensored Internet terminals. American librarians may well note the similarity to a recent lawsuit involving the Minneapolis Public Library.

I wonder -- does this mean that if I am mortally offended by websites run by, say, Planned Parenthood, or the Mormon Church, I can insist the library not permit them to be displayed, on the ground that seeing them creates a hostile environment for me? And what about books, including illustrated books and magazines, that portray things which I or other library staff find obnoxious? Can librarians summarily toss all those stupid Dr. Atkins diet books, Jackson Pollock's ugly paintings, and "Doctor" Schlessingers' self-righteous moralizing tracts in the trash because they offend... well, somebody?

This is just the latest clash between two competing and incongruent views of libraries.

One seeks to make libraries nice, safe sanctuaries from controversy and from everything that they regard as unpleasant or undesirable, a place where suburban mommies can safely dump the kiddies for free day care while they go shopping. A place where no one will ever find anything that might disturb their delicate sensibilities. Holders of this view are neither exclusively conservative nor liberal; in fact, the argument from percieved "workplace hostility" is lifted directly from the playbook of traditionally liberal-friendly sexual-harassment lawsuits, not from the moralistic Right's playbook of blue laws and obscenity statutes.

The other views libraries as gateways into the world of information and ideas, and acknowledges that such access inevitably means access to controversial, unfamiliar and sometimes ugly and obnoxious ideas and images. It believes that such access is essential for democracy or education to function properly, or for freedom of speech, press, religion, etc., to exist. And it recognizes that, given the power to censor, the advocates of censorship will not stop with banning squicky sex stuff. Peacefire, an anti-censorship website, provides ample examples of censorware banning political websites or advocacy groups, including, most arrogantly, sites like Peacefire that criticize filtering software. (The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation also have useful anti-censorship resources.)

In other words, it's perceived security versus liberty, just like the ongoing debate over the Patriot Act and related matters. And it's exacerbated by a refusal to acknowledge any difference between library usage by children and adults.

Neither side is willing to settle for a rational middle ground that would allow parents to designate a level of filtering to be applied to their children's Internet access, but preserve uncensored access for adults. Each insists on demanding all-out victory, the American Library Association demanding total unfiltered Internet access for children regardless of parental wishes, and the censors (N2H2, Focus on the Family, "Doctor" Laura, et al) demanding the power to pre-emptively ban adult citizens' access to anything and everything that they deem unpleasant. The ALA's insistence on recognizing no difference between adults and children is politically foolish, and difficult to defend in light of traditional parental prerogatives over children; the censors' insistence on controlling adults' as well as childrens' access shows their real motive, which is not to protect children, but to control what people are permitted to think.

American librarians, meanwhile, are trying to decide how to react to the US Supreme Court's July decision upholding the so-called "Children's Internet Protection Act", which mandates that any library receiving federal "E-Rate" technology subsidies install internet filters on all library computers, including those used by adults and staff, ostensibly "to protect the children". The midsummer issue of Walt Crawford's Cites & Insights newsletter is must reading on this topic. He analyzes the Court's decision and points out a number of things that librarians and library users should be aware of. Among other things, the Court's reasoning explicitly assumes that librarians are able and willing to promptly disable a filter whenever requested by an adult patron, without delay or intrusive questioning. Any library which fails to do so is operating outside the model endorsed by this case, according to Crawford.

Although I am not a lawyer, I note that although CIPA mandates filters, it does not specify how permissive or restrictive those filters must be, and I see no particular reason why libraries should be obligated to spend public tax money installing censorware which is likely to incorporate political or religious bias. The Court acknowledges that all filters overblock or underblock. Are libraries compelled to err on the side of overblocking? Are there permissive filters being developed which seek to minimize or wholly avoid the blocking of First-Amendment-protected material?

There are unintended financial consequences as well. If filtering software costs as much as or more than the federal subsidy that requires it, it makes the subsidy meaningless and eliminates any positive effect it might have had in making Internet access available to poor or rural libraries.

Decisions, decisions (or, Thoughts on Enumerating Embryonic Poultry.)

Despite the upcoming interview with "Westover College", I find myself intrigued by a few of the library positions I've seen advertised recently. One is at my undergraduate alma mater "Thee University". It would be interesting, I suppose, to return to the scene of my inglorious undergraduate days from the other side of the Great Divide between faculty and students, like some kind of academic Ouroboros chomping into its own hinder parts. I would already have a degree of background knowledge of the area, the local history, and the university that other candidates might take years to acquire, and I would be relatively close to friends and family whom I haven't seen in a long while. On the other hand, I found Thee University's spoken and unspoken rules to be vaguely irritating as an undergraduate, and I'm not sure how wise it would be to take a position where I would be continually surrounded by the kind of conformist-conservatives who I recall as being prevalent there. (As opposed to other kinds of conservatives, who might be quite interesting.)

Another advertised position is at a place I'll call the "University of Midwestia at Oldburg", an engineering-intensive state university located in a very rural area where my father attended yea these many years ago. It's in a pretty part of the country, and its special collections include some of the archives of one of my favorite railroads, with two or three comparably excellent archives on similar subjects located within a half-days' drive. The presence of many, many relatives in the area could be good or bad, though, and my father's recollection of the place is that it had little use for the humanities or social sciences

News flash!

As I was composing this entry, I got a call from a small downstate public library where I had applied, on a whim, for the directorship. Guess I'll be interviewing there later this month, although I find it difficult to believe that I'll be taken terribly seriously, having no managerial experience and a demeanor that a small-town library board might find unusual. But heck, if they're willing to pay for the gas, why not?

Biff! Pow! Shush!

For the benefit of those who haven't seen it already, here's a description of the forthcoming Librarian Action Figure based on the esteem'd Nancy Pearl of the Seattle Public Library. Who says that librarians aren't glamorous role models right up there with GI Joe and Barbie?

Granted, the "amazing push-button shushing action" isn't quite the groundbreaking, stereotype-defying type of feature that I plan to emulate, but it could have been worse. According to this article in the Seattle Times, the other option considered was a projectile hairbun.

Although I respect Ms. Pearl as an excellent librarian and literacy promoter, and enjoy reading her columns in Library Journal and elsewhere, I think I still prefer this Media Librarian Stereotype. And never forget that Batgirl Was a Librarian!

Come up and see my etchings...

This morning the Stumpers-L mailing list, a discussion forum for reference questions that have "stumped" reference librarians, had an interesting question. It seems that the famously insinuating suggestion that a member of the opposite sex "come up and see my etchings" is thought to have originated in the notorious Evelyn Nesbit Thaw affair of the early 1900's, in which Harry Thaw (the husband of showgirl Evelyn) shot Stanford White (one of her past lovers) in spectacularly public fashion during a play. Evelyn, the "Girl in the Red Velvet Swing", is said to have testified in her husband's subsequent murder trial that his actions were justified because White had taken advantage of her after luring her into his home with an invitation to view his etchings.

But did she really say it? Or is it just another urban legend?

As recently as a year ago, a nearby university library held a copy of Evelyn's autobiography, which might reasonably be expected to contain her account of the trial and the events that led up to it. Unfortunately, it seems to have been discarded since then. Library "weeding" enthusiasts and techno-dogmatists who believe that "everything's on the internet", take note. To my knowledge, this book is out of print and nowhere available on the internet. Secondhand copies I found through Bookfinder are priced in the hundreds of dollars. Think before you weed.

There are times when the librarianly struggle to preserve the published and historical record seems doomed to be nothing but a long defeat.

Theology and Tolkien's "Long Defeat"

While Googling for the phrase "long defeat", I came across this interesting article from Crisis Magazine, which describes Tolkien's religious views and how they influenced the creation of Middle Earth. Excellent reading for anyone who's interested in Christianity and fantasy literature, or who wants to contrast Tolkien's authorial intentions with Peter Jackson's ongoing film adaptation.

Comments welcome

Okay folks, the comments link seems to be working. Fire away.

In honor of this auspicious occasion, here's a link to the lyrics of a song that seems appropriate.

(They've) been workin' on the railroad

According to the local free entertainment-and-events monthly, the Houghton County Historical Society, way up in the Keewenaw Peninsula, is building an impressive "train layout" using secondhand rails donated by the LS&I ore-hauling railroad and a collection of rolling stock including a narrow-gauge 0-4-0 tank engine which formerly belonged to the Calumet & Hecla mining railroad. If anyone reading this has entertained thoughts of restoring a steam engine, take a look at their railroad webpage for a sobering description of the work and expense needed to get even a pint-sized steam engine back into action. I think a pilgrimage to Lake Linden might be in my future.

Due to popular demand (Okay, two people... hi Carlos, hi K.), I've revamped the template of this weblog, which was originally created as a one-shot experiment to see how Blogger worked. I had completely forgotten about it until someone asked earlier this week whether I had ever tried blogging. This query led me to delve back into Blogger to try to find the page, and in the process I clicked on a link to Carlos's weblog which I had inserted into the experimental page. His evil spyware recorded the referring link, and next thing I knew he had "outed" the existence of the page.

The current layout may be unoriginal, but at least it's not quite as horrible-looking as the previous iteration. I'm still not quite sure why I thought dark-blue and black was a good color scheme. Perhaps it was because I was playing with the computer late at night in a darkened library after everyone else had gone home, and subconsciously chose a screen display that would be less glaringly visible to campus security officers and other random passers-by who might look in the windows and wonder what that weird guy was doing in the library after hours.

More importantly, the current template is much simpler than the first one I used, which helps immensely in trying to figure out how to edit it by trial and error. The title may change without warning if and when I think of something that I like better. "Hill of Himring" was the result of a moment's whim when I first experimented with Blogger. (Anyone who knows where the name came from can win free karma points, I guess, although only those who already know my e'mail address are eligible to answer, until I start playing with comments fields.)

I may even start posting to it occasionally, whether or not I have anything of importance to say to the World At Large.

Recent news? Let's see. Since my contract with my previous employer ended on June 30th, I've spent part of each day cruising library job-posting websites and mailing or e'mailing resumes. Unfortunately, a recently discovered fondness for Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, a couple of Japanese anime series which the Cartoon Network airs at 1-2 a.m. local time, has exacerbated my tendency to sleep later than Ben Franklin would deem advisable, so this usually doesn't get done until the afternoon.

Today was a bit different. A freind and former library co-worker was visiting This Fair City for a high school reunion, so we got together for a few beers at the freindly local brewpub and a hike to the top of nearby Sugarloaf Mountain. She was kind and considerate and did not call until after 11 a.m., fortunately. There was some mention made of going swimming in Lake Superior tomorrow.

Notable quote: "It's not so bad after you get numb."

Some bad news: about 5:55 this afternoon, one of the places I interviewed in July finally got back in touch with me to notify me that they'd hired someone else for the position. Oh well, there's always the upcoming interview with a place I'll call "Westover College", and another university in the same general area just e'mailed me to query about references, so the farce continues.

This is not a functioning weblog at present. It's a brief one-shot experiment, to which an acquaintance of mine posted a link without querying me first. Perhaps I'll play with it some more in the future, but for now, there's nothing to see, folks, so move along....

Hi K.!