LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Censorship interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:53:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.librarystuff.net/2010/03/10/google-china-censorship-talks-to-yield-results-%e2%80%98soon/ Bloomberg – “Google Inc., in talks with China after saying it will stop censoring Internet search results there, said the discussions will yield results soon. “We decided not to publicize our dealings with China,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said today at a media conference in Abu Dhabi. “We’re in active talks with the Chinese government and we have no specific timetable, but something will happen soon.” More here (Source: Library Stuff) Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:00:45 +0100 825305 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/Opzft0zHepo/fiction-non-fiction-kapuscinski Every writer of reportage ought to learn from the Kapuscinski controversy. Creative non-fiction is a slippery slopeHad he lived a few years longer, Ryszard Kapuscinski might well have won the Nobel prize for literature. Although these things are shrouded in Vatican-like secrecy, I bet that he was on the Swedish Academy's rolling shortlist. Journalists in many countries would then have hailed him as the first "non-fiction" writer to win it since Winston Churchill in 1953. Now a huge row has broken out in his native Poland over a new book which suggests that his non-fiction was not so non-fictional, after all. This row has already blown round the world, because Kapuscinski's name is a global byword for a certain kind of literary-political reportage.I have just read the book, which is called (in Polish) Kapuscinski Non-Fiction. Its author is the journalist Artur Domoslawski, to whom Kapuscinski had been model, mentor and friend, and it has been criticised on several grounds. These include his handling of the travelling writer's allegedly numerous love affairs, which I do find insensitive, and of his communist past and occasional contacts with the secret police, which I think Domoslawski handles well.More broadly, the book is condemned as being a denunciation of a former mentor. Kapuscinski's widow calls it "patricide". This is not how I see it. I find that the author tries to be fair, allowing many different voices to speak. He captures the Ryszard I knew, starting with a brilliant evocation of his warm, nut-brown, disarming smile. Literally disarming in Ryszard's case, because that almost pantomime-humble smile got him through many a dangerous confrontation with armed men, in Africa and elsewhere. But this book is the protracted cry of a worried and even a disappointed disciple – one who, in his nearly three-year journey of investigation, found things that deeply disturbed him. ... Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:04:00 +0100 825225 http://www.librarystuff.net/2010/03/10/murdoch-to-arabs-censorship-is-counterproductive/ AP – “Rupert Murdoch on Tuesday challenged tight controls on media in the Middle East, calling censorship counterproductive and urging Arab leaders to allow their citizens the freedom to unleash their creativity…”In the face of an inconvenient story, it can be tempting to resort to censorship or civil or criminal laws to try to bury it. This is not only a problem here,” Murdoch said. “In the long run, this is counterproductive.” (Source: Library Stuff) Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:00:01 +0100 825308 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Students_should_be_able_to_enjoy_wide_range_of_books_not_--- Daily Illini - In late January, a small Virginia town's headlines exclaimed its public school system was pulling an "explicit text" from the curricul (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:27 +0100 825130 http://www.librarystuff.net/2010/03/09/students-should-be-able-to-enjoy-wide-range-of-books-not-censorship/ Daily Illini – “In late January, a small Virginia town’s headlines exclaimed its public school system was pulling an “explicit text” from the curriculum of its schools. The book was criticized for its “sexually suggestive references” and comments of a “homosexual nature.” Countless other schools nationwide have pulled the same book off school and public library shelves for being “too depressing.” Even the Alabama State Textbook Committee tried to reject the book in 1983 because it was “a real downer.” Imagine my surprise when the picture accompanying the story about what must have been an undoubtedly graphic and morbidly depressing piece of literature was that of a smiling 12-year-old Anne Frank. Though the “explicit text” was temporarily reinstalled into circulation after international uproar, the usage of this particular edition will be reviewed before deciding whether it will return to the hands of students this fall.” (Source: Library Stuff) Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:00:17 +0100 824949 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=-_Filmoteca_and_Academia_Day_1_SuRGe The rest of my day at the Filmoteca involved perusing books about censorship of franquismo. The Filmoteca closed at 2:30, so I headed to the library (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:00:40 +0100 824785 http://lisnews.org/world_without_public_libraries On the whole, I'm not much of a book reader. Most of my reading is done online; I read a handful of books every year, mostly non-fiction, based on various whims. Right now, I'm reading The World Without Us, a captivating exploration about how the world would revert (or not revert) back to a pre-human emergence. Some of these things have been dramatized into a series on the History Channel by a different name, providing the added element of CGI to show how buildings would collapse, infrastructure would fail, nature reclaims the suburbs, and how all that would remain for future archeologists is our stainless steel cookware. For the scientist in me, it's fascinating to see everything humans have made becoming undone by the natural forces of this world. So, in touching upon the premise of the book, I thought, "What would the world be like without libraries?" How would our demise come? Unlike the book, which asks the reader to suspend disbelief and accept the total sudden disappearance of humankind, I cannot propose nor fathom asking the same for libraries. In attempting to avoid hyperbole, I think the mechanisms of the library’s demise have already proven themselves present. It will not come through lack of innovation or adoption of technology or practices; our relevance and willingness to change in this digital information age has certainly been established. No, the end will come as it has for some libraries over the past two years: through budget cuts. Funding for all library types (public, academic, school, and special) has hung in the balance for the last couple of years after budgets tighten and communities and companies look to trim their expenditures. You need go no further than typing in the words “library budget” in a Google News search to see the current toll that is being exacted.  One problem, as I see it, is that the library as a community service does not fit nicely into any government spending niche. ... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:47:19 +0100 824748 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=FREE_March_2010_CE_Events_%AB_Virginia_Library_Association_Blog Legal issues on a variety of situations facing libraries on the ground,. from privacy to censorship to meeting rooms, are constantly changing. What i (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:25 +0100 824431 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/03/07/implications-of-china-v-google-standoff-to-canada/ As many of our readers surely know, Google has been reassessing whether to continue its operations in China following a series of hacking incidents that allegedly originated from that country. Prof. Ronald Deibert of UofT revealed today that the hackers also attempted to access Google directories, which was not widely reported when the story first broke.  Deibert is one of the experts Google is consulting with on how to respond to the incidents. Despite the The Investigative Powers of the 21st Century Act (IP21C) that was tabled before the prorogue, Deibert claims that cyberspace generally operates in a policy vacuum in Canada. His recent paper with the Canadian International Council, China’s Cyberspace Control Strategy: An Overview and Consideration of Issues for Canadian Policy, states, Like many other countries, Canada depends on economic exchange with China, and is home to a large and growing Chinese diaspora community that can be vocal critics of China’s human rights policies. It is also the home of some of the leading research and development projects on Internet censorship, surveillance and information warfare that, at times, are antagonistically linked to China. He proposes that Canada: (1) Take a leadership position in promoting a global, multilateral agenda around arms control in cyberspace. The present state-based cyber security agenda is almost entirely absent of voices or forums dedicated to creating norms of mutual restraint, confidence building and information sharing. (2) Take a more active interest in the role played by Canadian companies which support China’s vast censorship and surveillance regime. ... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:50:43 +0100 824446 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/VbFVnOL5bgE/2604-pandia-search-engine-news-wrap-up-march-7.html Here is our weekly wrap-up of Internet search and search engine industry oriented headlines. Google Buys Online Collaboration Operator DocVerse Something good is about to happen with Google’s cloud computing service – that is interoperability with Microsoft Office files (SE Journal March 3 2010) The five-minute guide to Google Squared Arrange data from the web in a neat spreadsheet (techradar March 6 2010) Google Launches Gesture Search for Android To use the search, you write a letter across the screen. (SE Watch March 5 2010) Google Kills SearchWiki, Replaces It With Starred Results The ability to re-order, remove, and comment on search results has been replaced by a scaled-down version (SE Land March 3 1010) SMX West 2010 Live Blogging Recap Keri Morgret of Strike Models and Brian Ussery of Beu Blog spent a tremendous amount of time and energy live blogging the event. (March 5 2010) Bing & Yahoo Soon To Support Canonical Tag At SMX West on Thursday, reps from both search engines said they’re in the process of supporting rel=canonical right now. (SE Land March 5 2010) YouTube adds automatic subtitles for the deaf Latest speech recognition breakthrough for the hard of hearing (techradar march 5 2010) Peter Norvig offers an insider’s look at Google Research during SMX West A list of new products from Google (SE Watch March 3 2010) Google’s Norvig: PageRank Is Overhyped Speaking at SMX WestGoogle’s Director of Research said that PageRank is overhyped and probably needs a new name (SE Land March 3 2010) Google’s Proposal For Crawling AJAX URLs is Live The documentation is live on Google Code (SE Land March 3 2010) Yahoo CEO Bartz Says Would Have Sold Yahoo, Mocks Facebook Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz stated she would have sold Yahoo at $36 when Microsoft was offering (SE Watch March 2 2010) Google Italy ruling might very well turn out to be a blessing Its time to finally get the law straightened out. ... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:55:22 +0100 824920 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Success_Stories_It39s_tough_to_remove_labels_but_it39s_not_--- And yes, requiring parental permission is a form of censorship. In fact, in the case Counts v. Cedarville School District, a U.S. District Court has (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:00:32 +0100 824298 http://vivabibliotecaviva.blogspot.com/2010/03/estudos-sobre-mulher-na-ciencia-da.html Adjabeng, A.,  "Las bibliotecas como recurso para Acrecentar y Apoyar el Desarrollo Económico para la Mujer".  IFLA Council and General Conference, No. 70, 2004. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/037s_trans-Adjabeng.pdfDescriptores: Mujeres/Bibliotecas/Aspecto económico/Aspecto social/Discriminaión socialResumen: Los asuntos que se centran en la mujer han asumido una dimensión más profunda. Muchas actividades se han llevado a cabo para alarmar a los gobiernos, a organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, instituciones políticas, sociales y económicas sobre los problemas de la mujer en general. Una de dichas actividades la Década para la Mujer de las Naciones Unidas 1975-1985, un periodo creado por las Naciones Unidas para crear una amplia conciencia en todo el mundo sobre los asuntos centrados en la mujer. Adjabeng, A.,  "Libraries as a source of relevant information to support and enhance economic development for women".  IFLA Council and General Conference, No. 70, 2004. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/037e-Adjabeng.pdfDescriptores: Mujeres/Bibliotecas/Aspecto económico/Aspecto social/Discriminaión socialResumen: Issues concerning women have assumed a wider dimension. Many activities have been carried out to alert governments, governmental and non-governmental organizations, political, social and economic and academic institutions about the problems of women in general. One of such activities was The United Nations Decade for Women 1975-1985, a period set aside by the United Nations to create a widespread awareness in the whole world on issues concerning women. Alfaya Lamas, E., Fernández Mariño, P., and Villaverde Solar, D.,  "Análisis de datos mediante observación documental en las noticias de prensa sobre misoginia".  Jornadas Españolas de Documentación, No. 11, 2009, pp. 298-301 . http://www.fesabid. ... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100 825058 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=VA_School_Officials_Deny_Banning_Anne_Frank39s_Diary_-_2242010_--- By Shanti Menon -- School Library Journal, 2/24/2010. Quiet Culpeper County, VA, was thrown into a national uproar last month over allegations that t (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:00:37 +0100 824073 http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2010/03/afghanistan-backs-away-from-attempted.html It began last October with a ban by the U.S. military on embedded press photographing or filming soldiers killed in action. The story is here at the National Press Photographers Association website in an article by Donald R. Winslow dated October 14, 2009 for the News Photographer magazine. ...the U.S. military command in Bagram on Wednesday confirmed that is has [sic] banned journalists who are embedded with their forces in eastern Afghanistan from videotaping or photographing soldiers who are killed in action.U.S. Army Master Sgt. Thomas Clementson, a spokesman for Regional Command East, told News Photographer magazine tonight that commanders in Afghanistan are "trying to strike a balance" with the new policy.The change in the embed rules about photographing KIAs comes only a few weeks after a Pentagon uproar – raised chiefly by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates – after the Associated Press distributed a picture of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard when he was mortally wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade that was fired against him by insurgents during a battle in Afghanistan's Helmand province. (snip)"The comments relating to imagery of wounded service members and service members killed in action are a change to provide clarification of previous rules," the Master Sgt. told News Photographer. "Media have multiple ways to cover the war in Afghanistan and embedding is only one of the choices available. The press retains the option to report independently or as a media embed with military forces. When a reporter chooses to embed they are given unique and intimate access to our service members in a combat zone, which requires certain limits and rules be established to facilitate coverage and protect our forces. There are cases however, when protecting the privacy of our service members and propriety take precedence over media access," Clementson said. ... Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100 824190 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/GhiFur-3RQc/ian-mcewan-solar The novelist explains to Nicholas Wroe why he's chosen to grapple with climate change in his new book, SolarJust inside the front door of Ian McEwan's London home, the one in the shadow of the BT Tower made famous in his novel Saturday, is the obligatory recycling box full of paper, plastic and glass. "Of course we recycle," he laughs. "Who doesn't? And I'm all in favour of cutting 10% off our carbon. And of domestic solar panels. Anything that slows our consumption is useful. But ultimately I don't really think the bottle bank is going to get us out of this. And being virtuous is not going to get us out of it either. Civilisation is going to need another energy source."McEwan's own view – having been persuaded by thinkers such as Stewart Brand, and despite his own long-held suspicions of the industry – is that nuclear energy is probably our best bet in the medium term. Michael Beard, Nobel prize-winning physicist, glutton and the protagonist of McEwan's latest novel, Solar, has an even more technologically complex solution. His work in the field of artificial photosynthesis as a way of harnessing the sun's power has made him rich and famous. Beard got his Nobel for "modifying Einstein's photovoltaics", and McEwan enthusiastically explains that the bleeding-edge science in the book is real, if some way from practical application. "If you go to America the amount of ingenuity being deployed, and the private capital – until this present recession – being invested in nanotechnology and solar energy is astonishing."For McEwan science is the road not taken, and he talks slightly enviously about his geneticist son's work and training. At the age of 16 he "agonised" at school over the arts or science route. "My maths was actually pretty mediocre, but I did love science and eventually even 'got' calculus, although I always felt if I so much as sneezed I would probably lose it again. ... Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:08:11 +0100 823792 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=udjibbom_the_goatwhore_plot_thickens_or_more_in_censorship_news the goatwhore plot thickens; or, more in censorship news so today i checked on the status of my library holds again - i was actually doing it in a wo (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:00:35 +0100 823669 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/03/04/new-report-opennet-initiative-investigates-filtering-of-microsofts-bing-in-arab-countries/ The New ONI Bulletin is Titled: Sex, Social Mores, and Keyword Filtering: Microsoft Bing in the “Arabian Countries” From the Overview: Microsoft recently added a new layer of complexity to the ongoing debate regarding the filtering and censorship practices of U.S. search engines via its own search engine, Bing. ONI testing reveals liberal filtering by Bing in one of the most censored regions in the world: the Arab countries. Microsoft’s Bing, which tailors its search engine to serve different countries and regions and offers its services in 41 languages, has a filtering system at the keyword level for users in several countries. 1 Users in the Arab countries2—or, as termed by Microsoft—“Arabian countries”—are prevented from conducting certain search queries in both English and Arabic. ONI testing reveals that Microsoft filters Arabic and English keywords that could yield sex- or LGBT-related images and content. Access the Complete ONI Bulletin Sources: OpenNet Initiative (Harvard, U. of Toronto, Cambridge, Oxford) Berkman Center at Harvard Law (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:20:01 +0100 823497 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryGarden/~3/6Z7QNefzNQI/ Posted by Emily Knox Not long ago a participant on a listserv that I am on asked if she should consider getting a Ph.D. in library science. The answers were swift and almost all were negative–the poster should get a Ph.D. in anything but library science. Although it’s hard to believe now, this was something I considered before starting my Ph.D. program. Would I be boxing myself in if I studied library science? Should I get a doctorate in an area that is primarily identified by a professional master’s degree? I told that poster that she should get a Ph.D. in an area that interests her. Ph.D.s take so much time and commitment that it is difficult to finish if you start one in an area that doesn’t interest you. According to the Council for Graduate Schools, the average completion rate for all Ph.D.s hovers at around 50%. My area of interest, intellectual freedom and censorship, is a classic field within the library and information science. If this area were part of another discipline, I would be in another department. However, what has been most surprising to me throughout my coursework at Rutgers is how much I love studying libraries. I enjoy thinking about them, researching them, and having arguments with my fellow students about their status in society. Even the information science classes weren’t as bad as I had anticipated since they broadened my understanding of how people interact with data/information/knowledge in the world. I find it disheartening that other librarians think research in our field is only necessary for teaching other librarians and has nothing to say to the wider academic community. We must encourage research in LIS in order to have a stronger voice in academia and to boost the status of libraries throughout the world. If we don’t believe that a doctorate in LIS is as worthwhile as one in another area, who will? (Source: Library Garden) Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:21:37 +0100 825149 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_Once_a_Censor_Always_a_Censor While censorship of library books is, to those of us who value libraries highly, especially barbaric, censorship itself knows no boundaries. The unde (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:00:33 +0100 823318 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/DeFH3c_3jXI/a-week-without-books She reads in bed, on the bus, while cooking dinner. So what happened when she went cold turkey?Going to the loo without a book! It is a profound shock. Instead of reading, I stare at the walls and notice that there are still two empty nails on which I meant – a year ago – to hang pictures. Also, I notice the dust on the floor and the cobwebs on the ceiling. I sense that I will be doing a lot more housework than usual this week.Going to bed is bizarre. If there is one time of day I always, always read, it is in bed before I go to sleep. On the first night of my week without books, I download Being Human on the iPlayer and give my nail polish some quality attention. But when the programme finishes and I try to shut my eyes, my head is buzzing. My eyes keep bouncing open again. Boing. Boing. Boing.I decided to try giving up books for a week because I have come to the point where I wonder if they are holding me back. On the whole, the world seems to think that books are always a good thing, that you can never get too much of them. People admit to being bookworms in the same way they admit to being "just too tidy really", or "a bit of a workaholic". But if you are a compulsive reader like me, who reads walking down the road, and while she's making her children's dinner, and on the loo and in the bath and in bed and on the bus, and at every other possible second of the day, and if what you're reading is mostly . . . well . . . pulp, then sometimes you end up feeling as if books are eating you up instead of the other way round. Sure, there's a smattering of literature and high art-type stuff in there, but mostly it is whatever I have fished off the shelf at my nearest Oxfam that morning – detective stories, romances, horror, sci fi . . . any kind of fiction that I can gulp down in large enough, quick enough bites.I am usually reading three, sometimes four books, with a pile of books waiting in case I run out. ... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:00:01 +0100 823252 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/03/03/as-the-internet-replaces-print-publishing-urge-to-unpublish-means-censoring-history/ From the Article: Once upon a time, news stories were entombed in newspaper “morgues” and rarely saw the dusty light of day. Now the news never dies. Millions of people can search the archives online — an amazing benefit unless, perhaps, you’re someone who was actually in the news. In a recent survey (PDF) of 110 news organizations, the Toronto Star found that increasingly, publishers are fielding regular requests from anxious and embarrassed readers to “unpublish” information, sometimes months or years after it first appeared online. [Snip] On a much broader scale, “unpublishing” is the wholesale loss of content that can occur when an online journal or Web archive is sold or goes bankrupt, or the software needed to read it becomes obsolete. It’s expensive to transfer records from an old server to a newer, faster version that operates with different formats and programs. A floppy disk has a half-life of about five years. “It’s not clear who’s responsible to archive digital material,” said Stanley Katz, director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. “Some of the stuff’s going to go away altogether. We are likely to lose whole subsets of it. If we keep renewing everything, we can keep it going. But the question is whether there is money and commitment enough to keep it going. The odds are that money will be applied selectively. “ Access the Complete Article Source: AlterNet (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:07:30 +0100 823163 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Off_the_censorship_list_since_2006_39Catcher_in_the_Rye39_is_--- According to the American Library Association, "The Catcher in the Rye" was the 10th most frequently challenged book from 1990 to 2005. It has been o (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:00:27 +0100 822948 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/03/02/what-to-do-with-last-train-from-hiroshima I’m sure libraries across the country are asking this same question. My library purchased Last Train from Hiroshima, but haven’t put it out yet because we’re divided over how to handle it. Based on revelations in the New York Times and Washington Post, I’m opposed to just shelving this book in non-fiction. There are a lot of requests for it, so I do want to make it available for people to read, but I would like to include a note of some kind stating there are significant known inaccuracies in the book. One argument is that it’s not a library’s place to censor books, and if people want to read it we should provide access. However, we do censor resources and information simply by the act of selection, and by choosing which websites to link to based on their factual accuracy and reliability. Mainly I want to protect school kids and other unknowing people from taking portions of this book as fact - which is what the library is confirming by shelving it in non-fiction. But so far, neither the Charles Pellegrino (author) nor the Henry Holt (publisher) has issued an easy-to-print statement to include in the book. As of today, the book is still being promoted on the publisher’s homepage, but the author has addressed the issue in a forum posting linked to from his website. So, what are libraries doing with this book? Shelving it as usual? Not shelving it at all? Including a note inside or on the cover? Putting it in fiction? We still have Million Little Pieces in non-fiction, but I think there’s a difference between a memoir and a book about World War II. (Source: herzogbr.net blog) Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:13:03 +0100 822864 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=SafeLibraries_The_Anything_Goes_ALA_is_Out_of_the_Mainstream_by_--- When it was first announced, the professional library reaction was both swift and negative. Some referred to the decision as an "electronic book burn (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:00:32 +0100 822642 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Wikipedia_founder_Jimmy_Wales_on_internet_censorship__Dirk_--- timtak1 says: February 28th, 2010 at 5:57 pm. Wikipedia censors all the stuff ("the rest of the library") that ends up on Wikia, that makes Mr. Wales (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:00:36 +0100 822335 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/DgKbq_5_6fE/ A couple of recent Apple stories of note. First, a Morgan Stanley analyst predicts Apple will introduce a new iPhone model with lower total cost of ownership (both hardware and service plan price) and new, possibly gesture-based functionality. There are no details or even guesses at what the new price points or functionality might be. Of course, the “new functionality” in general is a no-brainer; Apple always introduces new functionality on its products with each update. And the gesture-based stuff might be seen as a byproduct of whatever new gestures the iPad comes with, I suppose. Needless to say, a lower total cost of ownership would make iPhones even more attractive, and thus put them in even more hands, which therefore means even more screens on which e-books could be read. The other story has to do with the iPad. At Computerworld, Mike Elgan lists fifteen “mysteries” of the iPad—potentially important bits of information we still don’t yet have. While many of them have to do with hardware matters, such as whether there will be new gestures or what the blank button on the keyboard dock is for, there are a few e-book and e-magazine issues, too. For example, Elgan wonders whether Apple’s infamous app store censorship will spread to TV, movies, and magazines, or if it is possible Apple might drop the app store censorship instead. He also wonders if the Kindle iPad app will have the access to newspapers and magazines that the Kindle iPhone app currently does not. And he asks whether some of the Internet content we are used to getting for free might move behind a paywall. These are, of course, good questions—and we may not find the answer for another month. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. var showHover=false; (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:15:00 +0100 822161 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Caligulan_Censorship_Not_quite_hellip_%AB_rogueclassicism Caligulan Censorship? Not quite … 2010 February 27. by rogueclassicist. Whenever some library hosts a thing about censorship and the like, invariabl (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:00:33 +0100 822192 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=News_Censorship_and_Sensitivity_Neither_of_Which_Appears_on_This_--- Then the Library of Congress wants you! Along with several American universities and Linden Lab, creators of the PC game Second Life, the Library wa (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:00:30 +0100 821921 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/y7evlcD-0WU/ A couple of days ago I looked at the implications Apple’s expulsion of explicit apps might have for e-books. But I missed the more immediate implication for e-newspapers and magazines, which are covered in this post on Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog. Brian X. Chen, the writer of the piece, thinks that Apple’s decision should make newspapers and magazines think twice about their plans to develop for the iPad. Chen suggests that it is possible that, if a paper or magazine posts a particularly controversial article, Apple could be pressured into taking down the iPad version of the periodical even if the periodical itself does not intend to give in. He also points out that—unlike books, music, and movies, which can carry “explicit” material in their dedicated iTunes stores—newspapers and magazines will have to go into the App Store, with its inconsistently-applied and arbitrary standards. I’m optimistic that Apple will eventually create a separate section in iTunes for digital newspapers and magazines, giving publishers a platform to distribute their digital content based on a strict, contractual agreement that prevents their content from being arbitrarily removed at Apple’s discretion. Publishers should be waiting until Apple delivers that platform, rather than whipping up iPad apps and subjecting them to the gauntlet of Apple’s approval process. Chen also brings up the suggestion that Apple should loosen its restrictions and allow sites or stores outside of Apple’s App Store to host material that Apple won’t allow in its own store—perhaps with a parental control setting to keep young users from being able to go there. Whatever happens, in a way it is good that Apple is taking these actions now, while the iPad is still in its early stages. Every arbitrary decision Apple makes should send a warning to publishers and developers: if you get in bed with Apple, you never know when Apple might kick you out. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. ... Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:45:00 +0100 821806 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=VA_School_Officials_Deny_Banning_Anne_Frank39s_Diary Quiet Culpeper County, VA, was thrown into a national uproar last month over allegations that the school district banned of a version of Anne Frank's (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:00:39 +0100 821599 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Hideous_Book_Remains_in_Fond_du_Lac_School_Library__American_--- Superintendent Jim Sebert read aloud a letter from Sones in which she supported Wentworth's right to monitor her child's reading but, "As Clare Booth (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:00:27 +0100 821275 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookfindercomJournal/~3/keKi6l7reaU/ebooks-in-north-korea.html Despite being one of the most heavily censored nations on the planet the northern half of the Korean peninsula is dabbling in e-books (Source: BookFinder.com Journal) Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 822943 http://pelhamlibrary.blogspot.com/2010/02/freedom-to-read-week.html In Canada, we are in the middle of Freedom to Read Week. Find out more on the Freedom to Read website. Let us know what you have been doing to recognize this week in the comments. The Freedom to Read kit is available for free download. It features an in-depth history of the censorship of comic books and many other interesting articles. Don't forget to sign up for the Banned Book Challenge, running from now until June 30. (Source: Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books) Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 822755 http://wanderingeyre.com/2010/02/24/out-of-all-the-titles-really/ I could not help thinking as I read this article about a Fond du Lac, WI parent seeking to ban 7 books from the school library that it is a good thing she is not more versed in YA literature. The books she has her knickers in a bunch about are pretty tame! Her list: Ann Brashares’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern, and two Sonia Sones titles, One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies and What My Mother Doesn’t Know. Good thing she has never read any vampire YA. Her head might explode. –Jane, *boom* (Source: A Wandering Eyre) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:20:05 +0100 821550 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/24/france-moves-closer-to-unprecedented-internet-regulation/ From the Article: The lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly, passed the first draft of the bill, known as “Loppsi 2,” on Tuesday. It will now go on for a second reading in the Senate, where it seems likely to pass, thanks to the government’s majority. If the Senate approves the bill, the new law could come into force as early as this summer. The legislation could have far-reaching consequences: Loppsi 2 contains rules that would make France the European country where the Internet is subject to the most censorship, regulation, control and surveillance. The new legislation could in the future force Internet service providers (ISPs) to shut off access to criminal sites, should they be officially instructed to do so. According to the draft legislation, the law “makes it the responsibility of each Internet service provider to ensure that users don’t have access to unsuitable content.” [Snip] The list of banned Web sites would be provided by the Interior Ministry. The approach is very similar to a proposed German Internet law aimed at fighting child pornography, which also foresaw limiting access to certain sites. That legislation was signed into law by German President Horst Köhler on Wednesday — even though the German government had recently decided it no longer wanted to apply the law in its existing form, after massive protests by Internet users. Under the new French legislation, police and security forces would be able to use clandestinely installed software, known in the jargon as a “Trojan horse,” to spy on private computers. Remote access to private computers would be made possible under the supervision of a judge. ... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:00:23 +0100 821163 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/yTXMkPn-6ug/ Ramy Habeeb, established first Arabic language ebook house. Arab publishing market behind western publishing, and its lessons also applicable to other emerging economies. 60,000 titles published every year. Arabic market is the size of the US. Problems: distribution is still very primitive, In Egypt, 80% of books only available within 5 kilometers of publishing house. Censorship is still a problem. Three kinds: on purpose, self censorship and unconscious censorship. No viable OCR solution available in Arabic. International standards are a problem. Nobody uses ISBN numbers. They have them but don’t use them or any other international standard. Industry is ripe to be entered and needs the major players. Mobile phones are everywhere, villages won’t have a library or bookstore, but will have 4 mobile phone stores. Would be an excellent book distribution system. PoD would work wonderfully in Arab countries and also to bring Arab books to the US. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:35:24 +0100 821141 http://www.lisnews.org/dynamiting_safe_harbors One of the Deputy General Counsels at Google posted about the case of three of their employees being found criminally liable by an Italian court for what a third party posted to Google-owned YouTube. British tech publication The Register posted more in the matter. Who is liable for what goes online? Google fears that this would kill the participatory web as it would put platform providers in the unwanted role of censor. The implications for public access computing at libraries is not touched upon yet but the realm of imagination leads to scary destinations. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:04:29 +0100 821703 http://lisnews.org/dynamiting_safe_harbors One of the Deputy General Counsels at Google posted about the case of three of their employees being found criminally liable by an Italian court for what a third party posted to Google-owned YouTube. British tech publication The Register posted more in the matter. Who is liable for what goes online? Google fears that this would kill the participatory web as it would put platform providers in the unwanted role of censor. The implications for public access computing at libraries is not touched upon yet but the realm of imagination leads to scary destinations. (Source: LISNews.org) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:04:29 +0100 821066 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/EqFLCeFrYc8/ Over the last few days, a number of sources have reported on Apple’s decision to remove risqué applications from the app store, including swimsuit and lingerie applications. Over 5,000 applications have been purged in this sweep. Apparently parental restrictions just aren’t restricting enough; Apple exec Phil Schiller claimed Apple had been getting complaints from women about the “degrading” nature of the content. But there are some notable exceptions: apps from Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Victoria’s Secret, and other well-known corporate concerns. (Likewise, a bikini calendar app from the Hooters sports bar currently remains available, though its developer has not heard anything from Apple one way or the other.) Even though a number of the removed apps reportedly do not feature images any racier than the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and the very name Playboy has become a cliché for female nudity, these apps get to stay in the store. (However, Apple has since added back some of the more innocent apps removed in the sweep.) When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said. VentureBeat’s “DigitalBeat” section suggests that the real difference is that a lot of these brands are owned by media conglomerate content partners—Time-Warner, in the case of Sports Illustrated—that own a lot of other content Apple would love to put on its  iPhones and iPads. DigitalBeat also thinks it likely that one of the more important reasons for the cleanup is that Apple wants to position the iPad as an education-friendly device, and an app store full of soft porn apps really doesn’t look good to potential school and family customers. ... Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100 821150 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=LibraryLaw_Blog_Need_your_questions_for_Getting_Grounded_--- I'm working on my next webinar (below) for the California State Library Infopeople Project. Your questions in advance will help me shape the webinar. (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:00:34 +0100 820981 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibrarylawBlog/~3/HRHLMU3zVwE/need-your-questions-for-getting-grounded-webinar-patriot-act-meeting-rooms-censorship.html I'm working on my next webinar (below) for the California State Library Infopeople Project. Your questions in advance will help me shape the webinar. Thanks. Getting Grounded: Legal Issues Facing Libraries Offline in 2010 Legal issues on a variety of situations facing libraries on the ground, from privacy to censorship to meeting rooms, are constantly changing. What is the current status of the Patriot Act and how does it affect your library? Is it time to refresh staff on how to respond to requests for patron records? Want an update on challenges to library materials and how the courts have weighed in? Is your meeting room and exhibit space policy legally viable? Those attending the webinar will: Learn new case law critical to updating your meeting room policies Get an update on PATRIOT Act and how it affects your library Get items to consider when updating your privacy policy Learn about the latest challenges to library materials This one-hour webinar will be of interest to library managers and those that plan to be managers. (Source: LibraryLaw Blog) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:18:27 +0100 821736 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/23/on-web-families-of-victims-entitled-to-privacy/ On Web, families of victims entitled to privacy Recently, several employees of a Florida hospital came under investigation for allegedly snapping and possibly e-mailing pictures of the ravaged body of Stephen Schafer, the Stuart kiteboard surfer who was fatally attacked by sharks on Feb. 3. If they did, they may be in huge trouble. That’s because, late last month, a California appeals court — quietly and with little fanfare — set the stage for far more severe consequences for overtly intrusive Internet postings. Source: St. Petersburg Times (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:27:17 +0100 820969 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Yes_to_Pansy_But_No_to_Bugger_Letters_Show_Censors39_War_on_--- Jamie Andrews, head of modern manuscripts at the British Library, said: "In terms of censorship of representations of homosexuality, it became nearly (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:00:40 +0100 820641 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/23/google-and-china-will-continue-talks-soon/ Jessica Vascellaro Writes in the WSJ: Google Inc. representatives are scheduled to resume discussions in coming days with Chinese officials about the fate of Google’s China business, said people briefed on the matter. The schedule and the status of the talks, which are being picked up after a break for the Chinese New Year holiday, are unclear. Among the range of Google officials handling the talks on the ground is Google policy executive, Ross LaJeunesse, said people familiar with the matter. {Snip} The talks were triggered by Google’s January announcement that it will no longer censor its Chinese search engine, after it discovered it was hit by a cyber attack it traced to the country. Google at the time said it planned to talk to Chinese officials about the extent to which Google could operate an unfiltered search engine in China. Google acknowledged it may have to shut down its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, and potentially its offices in the country. [Access the Complete Article] Source: Wall Street Journal (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:08:40 +0100 820622 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/l5ar3qTa44c/ Remember when we covered the New York Times article about Macmillan’s pricing change, with a quote from author Douglas Preston about the “sense of entitlement” present in readers who want $9.99 e-books? TechDirt has a link to an io9 article talking about the backlash Preston has experienced from those remarks. Readers reacted to being told they were “entitled” about the way one might have expected: with angry one-star reviews on his book Impact (which is being windowed by the publisher, so no e-book is available yet) and lots of angry e-mail. (Of course, given e-book readers’ reactions to windowing so far, he might have gotten a number of those one-star reviews anyway.) Subsequently, Preston posted a short “open letter” on his website, which says more or less that writers don’t have any influence over prices anyway, we just want publishers and retailers to stay in business, and, “From our perspective, the most important element in all this is you, the reader.” So, in other words, it doesn’t matter if you think your readers have a “sense of entitlement” because the pricing isn’t up to you anyway? And gosh, how quickly you’ve decided your readers are important again after calling them “entitled” in the Times. To be fair, in talking with io9 Preston said that he now felt his comments had been “pretty stupid” and that after receiving a lot of angry responses from readers blaming him for his publisher windowing his e-book, “I was frustrated and said some things to the New York Times reporter that did not reflect my actual views on the subject.” But it has been my experience that when a person gets angry and frustrated, he says the things he does really mean but that otherwise wouldn’t make it out past his internal censor. Sounds to me as though Preston simply didn’t expect the level of reaction his comments would provoke, and is now frantically backpedalling as fast as he can. ... Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:24:06 +0100 820612 http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/02/22/3239/ Someday I want to meet the researcher at OnlineCollege. (I harbour a hope that they are a librarian!). Anyway, there is a staff development idea at the end of this post: Online Lectures: 20 Great Talks on the Future of Information Here’s a list of the 20 lectures. Easy links are found here. Freedom of Information * Open-source economics: Yochai Benkler * Future of the Digital Commons * Brewster Kahle builds a free digital library * Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia * The Future of America’s Libraries: David Seaman * Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning * The Promise of Open Media in Iran * Internet Censorship and the Giant Firewall of China: Information Technology * Erik Hersman on reporting crisis via texting * Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth * Transformation: From Newspapers to the New Newsmakers * Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology *Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere * New Technologies Serving Educational Goals Information and the Web * Information Security: Why Cybercriminals are Smiling * The Past, Present and Future of Google * Tyranny of E-mail: The 4,000 Year Journey to Your Inbox * Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web * Blogosphere: Who’s Talking?: So here’s my idea. How many staff do you have? 20, 10, 5, 1? Divide them into groups and split up these lectures across the entire team. Have everyone take on a lecture or two. Think of it like the most anazing conference i the worlkd with this set of great speakers – only you can’t send everyone to the conference and some of the lectures are on at the same time. Sooooo, you have to send the team out to attend as many as possible and report back. Now set up a series of pizza lunches, extended coffee breaks or brown baggers and share. The grop facliitator are the person(s) who listended to the lectures and now they’re transferring the knowledge. See what happens. ... Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:02:08 +0100 820546 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_The_Myth_of_the_Evil_ALA While not quite universal, it has become commonplace among censorship proponents to portray the American Library Association (ALA) as an evil institu (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:00:35 +0100 820472 http://digital-scholarship.com/digitalkoans/2010/02/21/eff-digital-books-and-your-rights-a-checklist-for-readers/ The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released "Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers." Here's an excerpt from the announcement: What questions should consumers ask before buying a digital book or reader? Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published "Digital Books and Your Rights," a checklist for readers considering buying into the digital book marketplace. Over the last few months, the universe of digital books has expanded dramatically, with products like Amazon's Kindle, Google Books, Internet Archive's Text Archive, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and Apple's upcoming iPad poised to revolutionize reading. But while this digital books revolution could make books more accessible than ever before, there are lingering questions about the future of reader privacy, consumers' rights, and potential censorship. EFF's checklist outlines eight categories of questions readers should ask as they evaluate new digital book products and services, including: *Does the service protect your privacy by limiting tracking of you and your reading? *When you pay for a book, do you own the book, or do you just rent or license it? *Is the service censorship resistant? Related Posts "Perspectives on DRM: Between Digital Rights Management and Digital Restrictions Management" "The Long and Winding Road to the Google Books Settlement" Lessig: "For the Love of Culture: Google, Copyright, and Our Future" EFF: "12 Trends to Watch in 2010" "Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace" (Source: DigitalKoans) Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 821044 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalKoans/~3/cVGIlvBqbL8/ The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released "Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers." Here's an excerpt from the announcement: What questions should consumers ask before buying a digital book or reader? Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published "Digital Books and Your Rights," a checklist for readers considering buying into the digital book marketplace. Over the last few months, the universe of digital books has expanded dramatically, with products like Amazon's Kindle, Google Books, Internet Archive's Text Archive, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and Apple's upcoming iPad poised to revolutionize reading. But while this digital books revolution could make books more accessible than ever before, there are lingering questions about the future of reader privacy, consumers' rights, and potential censorship. EFF's checklist outlines eight categories of questions readers should ask as they evaluate new digital book products and services, including: *Does the service protect your privacy by limiting tracking of you and your reading? *When you pay for a book, do you own the book, or do you just rent or license it? *Is the service censorship resistant? Related Posts The Google Books Settlement and the Future of Information Access Conference EFF Raises Concerns over Privacy Issues in Goggle Book Search Sony Offers One Million Public Domain Books for Its Current E-Book Readers EFF Releases Letter to Google about Reader Privacy and Google Book Search Reading Rights Coalition Protests Kindle Read Aloud Limits at Authors Guild (Source: DigitalKoans) Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:04:27 +0100 820730 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/6jC3PM0l7Uc/2522-experts-trace-google-hackers-to-chinese-schools.html The Google/China controversy has got a new chapter. The cyber attacks have been traced back to two Chinese schools. As we reported in January Google practically declared war on the Chinese government after they discovered serious cyber attacks at their own servers. It seems the hackers were after both business information and information on Chinese dissidents. Image: Chinese citizens thanked Google for standing up to Chinese censorship by laying down flowers and notes at the Google China offices. photo credit: myuibe Needless to say, for the Chinese government to get access to the email accounts belonging to the democratic oppositions, would help them unravel the networks of these dissidents. It would be bad for human rights in China and it would be bad for every-one’s trust in Google. In short: It would be bad for business. Google counter attacked. The company declared that they no longer will accept any form of censorship on Google search results in China. If the Chinese do not accept this, Google will leave the country. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China to investigate the attack, turning the case into a battle of nations. The cynic might observe that Google didn’t become the defender of freedom of speech it should have been before its own interests were threatened. We say: better late than never. The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune report that the attacks have been traced back to a Chinese elite university, the Shanghai Jiatong University, and to the the Lanxiang Vocational School, one of them with close ties to the Chinese military. Computer security experts, including investigators from the US National Security Agency, have found that the attacks might have started much earlier than Google has reported — maybe as early as in April 2009. The hackers used a previously unknown flaw in the Internet Explorer web browser to gain access to corporate servers. ... Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:02:36 +0100 820739 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalKoans/~3/TlzRxkX5Lis/ New Open Access Fund [SFU Library’] http://icio.us/uthzl3 # The BOAI is eight http://icio.us/fuf1aq # Google staunchly defends pact to digitize books http://icio.us/f0nywx # Google Argues for Approval of Book Search Settlements http://icio.us/cantx0 # The Google Books Settlement: Second Round Comments http://icio.us/lfxp4s # VU University Amsterdam backs Open Access and copyright for the researchers http://icio.us/2vpfc5 # RoMEO reaches 700 Publishers http://icio.us/sip4ri # Report on new ACRL Image Resources Interest Group (IRIG) http://icio.us/1ejas3 # Fantastic volunteer scanning project with National Archives–great example of crowdsourcing http://icio.us/lqamed # AIDA and repositories http://icio.us/trae3m # JSTOR Events at 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting http://icio.us/tctd0t # Evergreen 1.6.0.1 and OpenSRF 1.2.2 released http://icio.us/xxrckh # Public Knowledge Statement on DoJ Intellectual Property Task Force http://icio.us/a3r235 # Google Book Search by the Numbers http://icio.us/ec44lz # Towards a Toolkit for Implementing Application Profiles http://icio.us/p10j4i # eBooks: Tipping or Vanishing Point?' http://icio.us/wrwhuz # Uncovering User Perceptions of Research Activity Data http://icio.us/r03a0o # Abstract Modelling of Digital Identifiers http://icio.us/gfuea1 # Fedora UK & Ireland / EU Joint User Group Meeting http://icio.us/npbjpr # Subject Repositories: European Collaboration in the International Context http://icio.us/io3cmr # Open-Access Journals Break Barriers to Academic Freedom http://icio.us/jzechc # Open Access and Libraries: Be my guest http://icio.us/3g1on4 # North Carolina State U. Gives Students Free Access to Physics Textbook Online http://icio.us/2e2adf # Culture Trumps Technology: The UC Berkeley Scholarly Communication Report http://icio.us/hux1bg # How to Find Free Public Domain Books from Google Book Search http://icio.us/yvsxvf # Royal Holloway embraces open access policy for all research http://icio. ... Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100 820733 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Askthejudge_-_Elementary_school_censorship_of_library_book_upheld Elementary school censorship of library book upheld. 02.11.10 | No Comments. iVamos a Cuba! (A Visit to Cuba) is a children's book that was on the sh (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:00:33 +0100 820131 http://lovetheliberry.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-i-need-to-look-tough-and-mean.html Obnoxious man (OM): They might name a holiday after me. I made a huge breakthrough. This is major-- I found a cure for autism, but my cure won't be the same as another person's cure. My website got censored. . . . . (he says that almost every day)You're the only one around here who is gentle and sweet. You motivated me, and now who knows how far I'll go.-----Oh, great. I don't recall being any source of motivation for this OM. And, I need to look tough and mean! (Source: Love the Liberry) Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 820896 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Like_A_Bad_Virus_Internet_Censorship_Spreading__Revelations_From_--- From the buy autocad software moment of saving the document in SharePoint Document Library it is not stored in MS CRM - CRM will now store only the l (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:00:34 +0100 819865 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Parents_in_Florida_object_to_Judy_Blume39s_ldquoForeverrdquo_%AB_Blogging_--- By Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship. NCAC, with a little help from our friends, sent a letter urging Sugarloaf School in Summerland (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:00:36 +0100 819540 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/18/google-and-yahoo-raise-doubts-over-planned-net-filters-statement-from-australian-library-and-information-association/ From the Article: Google and Yahoo have joined two Australian organisations calling for a “rethink” of the country’s controversial internet filter plans. The Australian government has announced proposals to introduce a mandatory filter which would block all RC (Refused Classification) content. The groups argue that the subjects covered by RC material are too wide-ranging for a blanket ban. They also warn that the filter will not “effectively protect children”. [Snip] The signatories include the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Inspire Foundation, which encourages young people to get online. ALIA’s Executive Director Sue Hutley said that blanket bans on material through filtering have been “shown to trap legitimate information and adversely affect valid internet access and performance”. Source: BBC See Also: The Complete Statement from ALIA Can Be Found in this Post from Feb. 16th. Australia: Close the Books on Internet Filtering & Core Principles for Effective Action for a Safer Internet (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:22:09 +0100 819392 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/GTapVj68klw/casanova-uncensored-diaries-sold Mystery donor presents 18th-century seducer's 3,700 pages of memoirs to French national libraryFor centuries they exerted the same knee-trembling pull on collectors and curators as their rakishly charming author had on the women of 18th-century Europe. But the international battle to pull off the ultimate literary conquest ended in Paris today as the French national library announced it had acquired the original manuscripts of Giacomo Casanova's memoirs.In what is believed to be the most expensive manuscript sale ever, a mystery donor purchased the 3,700 yellowing pages on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) for a price which has not been made been public but is believed to be in excess of €5m (£4.4m). The papers, transferred to the BNF on Monday in 13 protective boxes, are the uncensored, uncorrected basis of what went on to become the Venetian lothario's legendary Histoire de Ma Vie (Story of My Life).The manuscripts, over which Casanova slaved in the years before his death in 1798, have been seen by a mere handful of experts, having been kept under lock and key for most of the past two centuries and considerably altered to form the versions widely available in print.But they could soon be accessible to the general public. The BNF plans to digitalise them as part of its online library, and to display them in an exhibition next year."This is the most significant purchase the BNF has ever made in terms of monetary value," said Bruno Racine, the library's director, who has worked for the past two years to push through the deal in the utmost secrecy."Casanova's memoirs have become universally known but they have been censored … and even changed. These manuscripts are the authentic and definitive original."Racine would not give any details about the identity of the anonymous sponsor that came forward with the €5.25m requested. ... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:06:22 +0100 819479 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/18/move-over-australia-france-taking-net-censorship-lead/ From the Article: Critics of government-mandated filtering schemes contend that such programs first focus on “child pornography” because it’s such an unobjectionable target for censorship—but once the program is in place, it’s much easier to extend it to more controversial areas, such as copyright protection. At least the French have the decency to admit that this is what’s happening. [Snip] The censorship is ostensibly designed to block child porn sites on the Internet, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already made it clear that he would like to see ISPs play a far greater role in clamping down on the Internet. In a January speech (French PDF) in which Sarkozy styled himself a “patron” of the French arts, he praised the new “three strikes” law his administration championed (and passed into law last year). [Snip] Under Sarkozy, France is moving to a more proactive enforcement model that removes or blocks content at the source, rather than being content to go after lawbreakers. As a consequence, however, France will now have one of the toughest censorship regimes of any robust democracy in the Western hemisphere—though Australia is giving France a good run for its money on the worldwide stage. Journalists in neighboring countries have been quick to pounce. Germany’s Der Spiegel wondered if France was becoming the “Big Brother of Europe” and notes that LOPPSI2 will give “the state unprecedented control over the Internet.” The paper also suggests that the government is pushing the law because elections are coming up soon, and Sarkozy hopes that “fear of criminals will convince voters to come to the polling booths.” Access the Complete Article Source: Ars Technica See Also: French Net Filtering Plan Moves Forward (via IDG News Service) (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:01:02 +0100 819400 http://www.lisnews.org/parent_has_problem_quotpantsquot_books_teens A citizen of the Fond du Lac School District has added more books to a list she wants banned from the schools. The school district has scheduled a reconsideration hearing for 6:30 p.m. today at Fond du Lac High School to hear public comment on Ann Wentworth's request to have the book "One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies" by Sonya Sones taken off the shelves of Fond du Lac school libraries. The popular young adult book is being challenged by Wentworth as inappropriate for students of middle school age. In addition, Wentworth is asking the district to review the following six library books at Theisen Middle School: # "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" by Ann Brashares. # "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Girls in Pants "The Third Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Get Well Soon" by Julie Halpern. # "What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones. Several interested persons have signed up to speak at Thursday's hearing. The district reconsideration committee will be asked to begin scheduling dates to review the other six books in question. Each book will be considered individually, according to the Fond du Lac School District. Fond du Lac Reporter has the story. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:41:45 +0100 819624 http://lisnews.org/parent_has_problem_quotpantsquot_books_teens A citizen of the Fond du Lac School District has added more books to a list she wants banned from the schools. The school district has scheduled a reconsideration hearing for 6:30 p.m. today at Fond du Lac High School to hear public comment on Ann Wentworth's request to have the book "One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies" by Sonya Sones taken off the shelves of Fond du Lac school libraries. The popular young adult book is being challenged by Wentworth as inappropriate for students of middle school age. In addition, Wentworth is asking the district to review the following six library books at Theisen Middle School: # "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" by Ann Brashares. # "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Girls in Pants "The Third Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. # "Get Well Soon" by Julie Halpern. # "What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones. Several interested persons have signed up to speak at Thursday's hearing. The district reconsideration committee will be asked to begin scheduling dates to review the other six books in question. Each book will be considered individually, according to the Fond du Lac School District. Fond du Lac Reporter has the story. (Source: LISNews.org) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:41:45 +0100 819329 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/4Xra3i05Drk/cuba-pedro-juan-gutierrez Pedro Juan Gutiérrez's gritty accounts of Cuban society shocked the regime – but even iconoclasm can grow staleIs it possible, in our slipshod society, for a writer to overstep the mark? A click of the mouse conjures scenes that make Last Exit to Brooklyn look like Anne of Green Gables. Our bookshelves groan under the weight of 'racy' chick-lit novels by writers who share all of Erica Jong's uninhibited sexuality but little of her literary talent. Genuinely transgressive authors have their work cut out. Jean Genet saw his writing as an affront to the norms of post-war France. Henry Miller set out to shock the complacent American bourgeoisie with his heady mix of sex and philosophy. And Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy fell foul of the Irish Censorship of Publications Board. These days, each of these authors would be invited onto the comfy sofas of chat-show studios to regale audiences with saucy anecdotes.If you want to kick against the pricks, it helps to write under an authoritarian regime. In Cuba, 10 years ago, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez launched his literary career with the Dirty Havana Trilogy, a collection of stories revealing the sordid reality of life during the country's "special period", following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was promptly banned by the Castro dictatorship. There is no explicit political theme in Gutiérrez's books – he told the Caribbean Review of Books that he believes politics has no place in literature. Rather, it's the relentless nihilism of his characters' lives that offends Cuba's rulers. The revolution was supposed to produce the "new man", not drifters, pimps, and alcoholics. Gutiérrez's latest novel to be translated into English, Our GG in Havana, published this week by Faber, is a curio. ... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:39:26 +0100 819301 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_Just_Disconnect They recognize that the internet is a huge library in and of itself. They realize that the internet has replaced the street corner and public square (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:00:28 +0100 819245 http://www.lisnews.org/files/DousingFirewalls.pdf Click on "Read More" to see the column as well as to get to the download link for the PDF version.By Stephen Michael Kellat, MSLSHead Writer, Erie Looking ProductionsSometimes I miss trends. When it comes to information science and policy, that is not hard to do. While noted in LISTen 106 that we were not sure where trend lines were going, further news since the release of the episode has helped show where things are going.The notion of a country cutting itself off from what it deems objectionable on the Internet previously was restricted to the People's Republic of China. The efforts of Senator Stephen Conroy in Australia have already shown that even countries outside the Communist sphere can consider the possibility of removing access from the proletariat to things the leadership deems unacceptable. The recent letters by Senator Conroy to Google requesting the removal of access to a few YouTube videos within Australia already show that what was previously deemed dangerous yet fruitless talk can eventually produce action.Librarians often worry about how to surmount barriers like this. Considering the current paradigms of the profession, solutions are likely not obvious. While new technology and talk of “the cloud” may reign, falling back to older technology may provide the easiest solutions.With the lack of any known criteria for how Senator Conroy's ministry may seek the withdrawal of access to a site, LISNews quite frankly stands at risk even while we have a distinct audience presence in Australasia. Having access to LISNews disappear would remove a chunk of the profession within the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules world from part of the realm of cultural discourse. Without any known appeal procedures, Blake would be left with part of the site's audience irretrievably gone. ... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:42:12 +0100 819637 http://lisnews.org/files/DousingFirewalls.pdf Click on "Read More" to see the column as well as to get to the download link for the PDF version.By Stephen Michael Kellat, MSLSHead Writer, Erie Looking ProductionsSometimes I miss trends. When it comes to information science and policy, that is not hard to do. While noted in LISTen 106 that we were not sure where trend lines were going, further news since the release of the episode has helped show where things are going.The notion of a country cutting itself off from what it deems objectionable on the Internet previously was restricted to the People's Republic of China. The efforts of Senator Stephen Conroy in Australia have already shown that even countries outside the Communist sphere can consider the possibility of removing access from the proletariat to things the leadership deems unacceptable. The recent letters by Senator Conroy to Google requesting the removal of access to a few YouTube videos within Australia already show that what was previously deemed dangerous yet fruitless talk can eventually produce action.Librarians often worry about how to surmount barriers like this. Considering the current paradigms of the profession, solutions are likely not obvious. While new technology and talk of “the cloud” may reign, falling back to older technology may provide the easiest solutions.With the lack of any known criteria for how Senator Conroy's ministry may seek the withdrawal of access to a site, LISNews quite frankly stands at risk even while we have a distinct audience presence in Australasia. Having access to LISNews disappear would remove a chunk of the profession within the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules world from part of the realm of cultural discourse. Without any known appeal procedures, Blake would be left with part of the site's audience irretrievably gone. ... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:42:12 +0100 819049 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/17/state-department-fact-sheet-internet-freedom-in-the-21st-century-integrating-new-technologies-into-diplomacy-and-development/ Internet Freedom in the 21st Century: Integrating New Technologies into Diplomacy and Development Five Key Freedoms of the Internet Age + Freedom of Speech: Blogs, emails, text messages have opened up new forums for the exchange of ideas. + Freedom of Worship: The Internet enhances people’s ability to worship as they see fit. + Freedom from Want: Online connections expand people’s knowledge and economic opportunities including locating new markets. + Freedom from Fear: Those who disrupt the free flow of information threaten individual liberties and the world’s economy and civil society. + Freedom to Connect: Connecting with others near and far offers unprecedented opportunities for human cooperation. Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:38:18 +0100 819104 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/YLV8sAHbTis/european-court-turkey-apollinaire-ban Human rights court rules that censorship of 1907 erotic novel The Eleven Thousand Rods 'hindered public access to a work belonging to the European literary heritage'Turkey violated freedom of expression laws and prevented access to Europe's literary heritage when it banned Guillaume Apollinaire's classic French erotic novel The Eleven Thousand Rods, the European court of human rights ruled yesterday.The court found in favour of Turkish publisher Rahmi Akdaş, who complained to it after he was convicted under the Turkish criminal code "for publishing obscene or immoral material liable to arouse and exploit sexual desire among the population" when he released a Turkish translation of Les onze milles verges (The Eleven Thousand Rods) in 1999. The book details the erotic adventures of the debauched Romanian aristocrat Mony Vibescu and his fellow sybarites, containing graphic scenes of intercourse, sadomasochism, paedophilia, necrophilia, coprophilia and vampirism. It was banned in France until 1970 and Apollinaire himself never claimed authorship, fearing prosecution under France's public obscenity statute.Akdaş had argued that the book was fiction, that it used techniques such as exaggeration and metaphor, that it contained no violent overtones "and that the humorous and exaggerated nature of the text was more likely to extinguish sexual desire", but the Turkish courts ordered the destruction of all copies of the book and fined the publisher approximately €1,100. An appeals court later quashed the destruction order, but upheld the conviction.Akdaş subsequently complained to the European Court of Human Rights, saying the ruling violated Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Strasbourg-based court ruled yesterday that although states can interfere to protect morals, Turkey was wrong to do so in this case as more than a century had elapsed since Les onze milles verges was published. ... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:54:43 +0100 819010 http://www.librarystuff.net/2010/02/17/google-weighs-into-internet-filter-debate/ Digital Media – “Google has added it’s voice to the chorus of dissent against the Federal Government’s proposed mandatory internet filters. Google had already baulked at the Communication Minister Stephen Conroy’s assertion that it should do more to censor YouTube videos. However in a posting on Google Australia Blog, the company has outlined a submission it has made to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.” More here (Source: Library Stuff) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:00:40 +0100 819075 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/OpzJegrLKpA/ The EFF has published a checklist for readers who are jumping into the digital book arena. What questions should consumers ask before buying a digital book or reader? Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published “Digital Books and Your Rights,” a checklist for readers considering buying into the digital book marketplace. Over the last few months, the universe of digital books has expanded dramatically, with products like Amazon’s Kindle, Google Books, Internet Archive’s Text Archive, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s upcoming iPad poised to revolutionize reading. But while this digital books revolution could make books more accessible than ever before, there are lingering questions about the future of reader privacy, consumers’ rights, and potential censorship. EFF’s checklist outlines eight categories of ques.tions readers should ask as they evaluate new digital book products and services (via Resource Shelf) Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:20:21 +0100 819087 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=we_move_to_canada_intellectual_freedom_in_the_library_part_1 Complicating it further, a library employee, acting on her own with no authority or consultation, pulled the book from the shelves and expunged the (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:38 +0100 818943 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/16/online-lectures-20-worthwhile-talks-on-the-future-of-information/ They’ve done it again. The team at Onlinecollege.org has once again compiled a great list of resources. This time the list is of 20 lectures (from various years and dates) dealing with the future of information. Here’s a list of the 20 lectures. You’ll find direct links to each lecture on this web page. Freedom of Information These lectures address information accessibility issues, especially those involving open media and the web. + Open-source economics: Yochai Benkler + Future of the Digital Commons + Brewster Kahle builds a free digital library + Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia + The Future of America’s Libraries: David Seaman + Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning + The Promise of Open Media in Iran + Internet Censorship and the Giant Firewall of China: Information Technology Learn more about the technologies being developed to manage information through these lectures. + Erik Hersman on reporting crisis via texting + Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth + Transformation: From Newspapers to the New Newsmakers + Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology + Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere + New Technologies Serving Educational Goals Information and the Web Learn what a big role the Internet will play in the future of information sharing, security and management from these talks .+ Information Security: Why Cybercriminals are Smiling + The Past, Present and Future of Google + Tyranny of E-mail: The 4,000 Year Journey to Your Inbox + Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web + Blogosphere: Who’s Talking?: Source: Onlinecollege.org (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:30:30 +0100 818920 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/16/australia-close-the-books-on-internet-filtering-core-principles-for-effective-action-for-a-safer-internet/ From the Article: The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), has joined with Google, Inspire Foundation and Yahoo to express opposition to the mandatory ISP filter. In a joint statement released to the public, the groups said a mandatory filter would cover too many topics, potentially block content with a strong or educational value, and give people a false sense of security. [Snip] According to ALIA executive director, Sue Hutley, the body has held a position against Internet filtering since the World Wide Web was born. “We’ve been discussing this issue for decades now,” she said. “It really does go back to the core values of libraries and library staff, which is against censorship and freedom of access to information. “It is not for library staff and it is certainly not for anyone in a democracy to determine what is appropriate – it is not up to us to judge.” But despite the long held view, Hutley acknowledged there were boundaries of morality even ALIA agreed should never be crossed. “We definitely want to see a more transparent system of classification of material other than child protection/child pornography,” she said. “We are definitely against illegal materials relating to children.” Hutley called for more freedom in accessing a wide range of topics and said restricting them from general access would hurt both Australian users and researchers. [Snip] “Libraries actually represent 12 million users…they are very well aware of the public’s view against censorship,” she said. “What we’re hoping to do is work with them on a suitable adjustment to the proposed legislation that can mean that we aren’t going to be listed as a country that is undergoing a censorship regime. ... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:51:22 +0100 818751 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_Library_Comfort I was struck by a particularly cogent example of this kind of "moderate" concession to egregious aims during last October's attempt at censorship in (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:00:38 +0100 818770 http://dltj.org/article/interesting-gbs-bits/ Thursday will be a big day in the Google Book Search lawsuit settlement: the parties to the lawsuit, along with the objectors, supporters, and friends-of-the-court, will be in the courtroom of United States District Judge Denny Chin offering oral arguments in the final settlement/fairness hearing. In his order, Judge Chin recognized 26 parties that will speak for up to five minutes each on their positions in the settlement (21 in opposition, 5 in favor). The U.S. Department of Justice will also speak at the hearing. But I think we’re all eagerly awaiting to hear what the judge himself will say about the settlement agreement.In the lead-up to the hearing, Associate Professor James Grimmelmann at the New York Law School has continued his efforts, along with the students from the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, to make the documents and proceedings of the lawsuit accessible and understandable to non-lawyers. In the most recent court filings leading up to Thursday’s hearing are some interesting nuggets.In his posting on the motion for attorneys fees, he notes that “counsel for the author sub-class are asking for the full $30 million in fees and reimbursement of their out-of-pocket costs.” The filing contains information about the number of hours and the billing rate for some of the lawyers working on the case. Some of the stuff is just really interesting, like one filing that included everything from 18 hours by a partner of a firm (who is also a law professor at NYU) at rate of $995/hour to an itemization of 51¢ for long distance calls by the firm related to the case. Whew!More interesting to DLTJ readers would be Grimmelmann’s highlights of Dan Clancy’s declaration in support of the agreement. Dan Clancy is engineering director of the Google Book Search project, so he has a unique insight into the inner workings. ... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:22:04 +0100 818805 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/165HnF-Yq6E/goodreads-block-iran-censorship A dramatic fall in Iranian traffic on the Goodreads book networking site may be the result of government censorshipA sudden, dramatic fall in Iranian traffic on the popular social networking site for book lovers, Goodreads, is being blamed on censorship within the country.The California-based Goodreads, launched in December 2006, has three million members around the world who use the site to compare what they're reading, recommend titles and form book clubs. The site has over 114,000 Iranian members – its largest non-English-speaking group – with 714,626 books on their virtual shelves, but Goodreads reported on 11 February that traffic from Iran had dropped dramatically."For several years, Goodreads has been flying under the radar of the Iranian government, which has a track record of blocking their citizens' access to information on the web... Goodreads has provided an online forum where Iranians participate not only in robust discussions of literature, but also, by natural extension, healthy debates about politics. We have been proud to provide this safe space for honest opinions," wrote community manager Jessica Donaghy on the company's blog. "Last Friday, February 5, 2010, we were saddened to see Goodreads traffic in Iran plummet, which can only mean that Goodreads has joined the ranks of sites blocked by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime."She said the website had been contacted by one Iranian Goodreads member to confirm the news. The member wrote: "Your site is recently been filtered by our horrible govrnmt. pls help us! spread it... books make no harm.""We couldn't agree more. Books make no harm," said Donaghy, pointing to a prescient interview the site conducted with Azar Nafisi last year, in which the Reading Lolita in Tehran author told Goodreads that "people constantly find ways of connecting. ... Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:10:48 +0100 818512 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=blendz39s_politik_spot_US-led_Occupation_authorities_censored_--- ... professor of media history at Waseda University in Tokyo, from a microfilm archive at the National Diet Library. The document was sent from the (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:00:35 +0100 818435 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/caJBGwE49uk/2505-on-google-buzz-and-other-search-engine-news.html It is time for our weekly search engine news wrap-up, and this time we provide you with several articles about the controversial new Google Buzz service. Google Buzz is a new feature of Gmail that lets you broadcast comments, photos and other types of content to your network of friends. Yes, it is very much a Twitter, Facebook kind of thing, and Buzz is clearly one of Google’s attempts at stealing some of the thunder of those two social networks. By integrating Buzz in the Google Gmail service, Google is probably also hoping that it will attract more users to Gmail. Buzz is also part of Google’s attempt at turning Gmail into a sort of personal online content hub. It is already connected to the Google Reader, which allows you to read RSS and Atom feeds without leaving Google. You can use Google Docs to upload and share all kinds of files and documents. Now you can also import your Twitter feed into Buzz. More types of content will follow. Our immediate response was that this is just too much. We do not want all this information in our inbox. We are drowning. Still, we can turn the service off, so that should not be too much of a problem. The main problem with Google Buzz was the way it was set up. In order to help people build a network, Google decided to include your most active email and chat friends in your network by default. Given that many hardly read all the legal yada yada the web sites push at us anymore, this means that Gmail users that accepted Buzz risked broadcasting who they were corresponding with to all the world. A psychiatrist using Gmail might have exposed his patients to his “friends”. As soon as we realized this, we turned Buzz off. Google had made a huge PR blunder, leading to deep mistrust among many Internet savvy users. Fortunately, Google reacted swiftly. Auto-follow is now auto-suggest. Buzz will now suggest people to follow, with the entire list pre-selected. ... Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:58:39 +0100 818677 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Reading_Up_on_Former_Dallas_Public_Libraries_Director_Pioneer_and_--- Reading Up on Former Dallas Public Libraries Director, Pioneer and Anti-Censorship Activist Lillian Moore Bradshaw, Who's Died at 95. Dallas Observer (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:00:36 +0100 818122 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_Has_SafeLibraries_Gone_Too_Far SafeLibraries' attack on the reputations of these individuals was touched off because one of his victims became "President Obama's choice for the Nat (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:00:45 +0100 817862 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=The_Libertarian_Solution__Liberty_Library_-_Citizens_United_A_--- By striking down key provisions the McCain-Feingold legislation, the Supreme Court defended First Amendment rights and weakened a bill designed prima (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:00:28 +0100 817516 http://www.lisnews.org/lot_misplaced_passion_surrounds_anne_frank_diary_fracas A lot of misplaced passion surrounds the Anne Frank diary fracas It was the word “pull” that stirred things up so much. That conjures up the word “ban” which really stirs things up. But what has now become abundantly clear, no Anne Frank books ever were removed from Culpeper schools. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:41:37 +0100 817605 http://lisnews.org/lot_misplaced_passion_surrounds_anne_frank_diary_fracas A lot of misplaced passion surrounds the Anne Frank diary fracas It was the word “pull” that stirred things up so much. That conjures up the word “ban” which really stirs things up. But what has now become abundantly clear, no Anne Frank books ever were removed from Culpeper schools. (Source: LISNews.org) Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:41:37 +0100 817462 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/11/australia-filtering-censoring-google-baulks-at-conroys-call-to-censor-youtube/ From the Article: Google says it will not “voluntarily” comply with the government’s request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad “refused classification” (RC) content rules. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred to Google’s censorship on behalf of the Chinese and Thai governments in making his case for the company to impose censorship locally. Google warns this would lead to the removal of many politically controversial, but harmless, YouTube clips. University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, one of Australia’s top communications experts, said that to comply with Conroy’s request Google “would have to install a filter along the lines of what they actually have in China”. [Snip] This week the Computer Research and Education Association (CORE) put out a statement on behalf of all Australasian computer science lecturers and professors opposing the government’s internet filtering policy. They said the filters would only block a fraction of the unwanted material available on the internet, be inapplicable to many of the current methods of online content distribution and create a false sense of security for parents. CORE said the blacklist could be used by current and future governments to restrict freedom of speech, while those determined to get around the filters and access nasty content could do so with ease. Source: The Age / Sydney Morning Herald (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:03:35 +0100 817387 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_On_the_Taxpayer39s_Dime A common complaint about unrestrained internet access is the claim that taxpayer's are somehow footing the bill for some library patrons to view por (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:00:34 +0100 817151 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Banned_Dictionary_Returned_to_Shelves_-_1312010_-_School_Library_--- ... that we will remove dictionaries from our library especially because these dictionaries are the same ones we use in our spelling bees," Rita Pet (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:00:40 +0100 816787 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship_In_My_School censorship is allowed in schools. The government is NOT telling the schools what to censor or they will lose money. That is a 100% LIE. Local school (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:00:31 +0100 816644 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Library_in_the_News_-_Censorship_Watch As a future librarian, I keep my ear to the ground about what's going on in libraries both in the US and the world at large. Here's an article that c (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:00:40 +0100 816271 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Library_Boy_OpenNet_Initiative_2009_Annual_Report_on_Internet_--- Earlier Library Boy posts about ONI include: Toronto Academics Get Huge Grant to Fight Internet Censorship (February 7, 2006): "The Canadian Broadcas (Source: pligg - all) Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:00:35 +0100 815989 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Censorship-Free_Libraries_Books_Challenged_or_Banned_Resource A great resource for tracking censorship is a set of booklets published by the American Library Association, in cooperation with a number of other or (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:00:46 +0100 815769 http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2010/02/opennet-initiative-2009-annual-report.html The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has released its 2009 Year in Review report that documents instances last year of Internet filtering and censorship initiatives worldwide.ONI is a partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme at Cambridge University, and the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.Earlier Library Boy posts about ONI include:Toronto Academics Get Huge Grant to Fight Internet Censorship (February 7, 2006): "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday that the OpenNet Initiative has received a $3 million U.S. grant from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for an international human rights project whose primary goal is to combat state censorship on the Internet."Helping Citizens in Repressive Societies Get Around Censorship (February 16, 2006): "The blog Slaw has an item today about Psiphon, a tool developed by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab to help people circumvent government Internet restrictions in repressive countries."Internet Filtering Map (June 2, 2006): "ONI has produced an Internet Filtering Map of the world. Clicking on a country of the world and then clicking on its info icon prompts a window to pop up with data on government filtering and/or censorship practices as well as links to additional material."New Global Study on Internet Filtering and Censorship (May 28, 2007): "Earlier this month, it [ONI] released the results of a global study of Internet filtering. The Initiative has also produced many country and region profiles on its website. It looked at techiques used by governments in more than 40 countries to block different types of content in areas such as dissent, free expression, human or minority rights, sex, drugs and hate-speech. ... Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 815910 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/mH9CgsIeU20/american-literature-great-novelists With the death of JD Salinger last week, a remarkable era in US literature came to its end. Mark Lawson reflects on the passing of an unrivalled generationJanuary 27 is becoming a black-letter day in American literature. On that day in 2009, John Updike died and, this year, the first ­anniversary of that loss was marked by the news that JD Salinger was dead. It's an artificial coincidence – of a sort that authors as good as Updike and Salinger would have scorned in their stories – but the deaths in close succession of members of the literary generations born in the 1910s, 20s and 30s do have a symbolic significance. If we add the deaths within four months of 2007 of Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut – members with Salinger of the set of major American writers formed by service in the second world war – it's clear that an era in American literature is coming to a close.There is an obvious temptation to believe that the authors who have recently died form – with others who fought in the war (such as Saul Bellow and Gore Vidal) or were teenagers in America during it (Philip Roth) – the greatest literary generation the country has ever seen or ever will see. This triumphalist but nostalgic position holds that these writers took advantage of their nation's geopolitical power – and a media culture and bookstore customer-base which regarded serious writers ­seriously – to create a superpower of the pen to match the financial and military clout of the US during what became known as the American century.The counter-argument is that this army of old soldiers was very male and masculine and white in its concerns – tempered only by a grudging, late admission to the halls of fame of writers such as Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates – and that the standard narrative of 20th-century American literature is partial and distorted. ... Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:06:11 +0100 815665 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/mj1CRkJZMG8/siri-hustvedt-shaking-woman-interview Siri Hustvedt talks to Sarah CrownIn the summer of 1982, Siri Hustvedt and her husband, the novelist Paul Auster, were on their honeymoon. The pair were walking around a gallery in Paris when Hustvedt felt her arm suddenly jerking up and back, slamming her into a wall. She experienced, briefly, a feeling of absolute euphoria, then a "horrifying" migraine that lasted for a grim year in which she was closeted with a series of doctors, and even briefly hospitalised.In her new book, The Shaking Woman, part-memoir, part-scientific investigation, Hustvedt addresses a personal history that has been marked by both extensive literary output (four novels, two collections of critical essays, poetry) and acute neurological upheaval. Subtitled "A History of My Nerves" (a delicate, fretful word, redolent of smelling salts, which sits well with her pale, attenuated beauty), it opens with Hustvedt giving a memorial address for her father, two and a half years after his death. A seasoned public speaker, "confident, and armed with index cards", she nevertheless found herself "shuddering violently from the neck down . . . as if I were having a seizure". Shocked, she struggled to the end of the speech – at which point the shaking subsided. The incident jolted her so deeply that it led her to reassess a lifetime of tremors and pains. The Shaking Woman is her attempt to make sense of her past, and by doing so to discover who this "shaking woman" is, and why she chose to appear then.Along the way, it also becomes the working-out of a duality. Hustvedt is both the shaking woman of the title, and the thinking woman, the "I" of the book, who attempts to comprehend her. Fortunately, duality is safe territory for her. ... Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:05:46 +0100 815668 http://freegovinfo.info/system/files/Jacobs-iconf2010-notes.pdf Shinjoung and I submitted a panel on the future of govt information for iConference 2010 in Champaign, IL. We had a good far-reaching discussion with Tom Bruce (Cornell Legal Information Institute), Daniel Schuman (Sunlight Foundation) and Cindy Etkin (GPO). Below are my slides and notes. I've also attached the notes and abstract as PDFs. As Tom tweeted, "World's problems: solved." If the other panelists agree, I'll post their notes/slides as well. This is of course an ongoing conversation so please feel free to leave comments, questions, rants etc. --that is all! Jacobs Iconfonference 2010 presentation View more presentations from James Jacobs. 3:45 - 5:15 pm Thursday, February 4, 2010 Roundtable 4 : : Technology Room "Gone today, Here tomorrow: assuring access to government information in the digital age." ShinJoung Yeo, University of Illinois; and James R. Jacobs, Stanford University Panelists: Shinjoung Yeo, Moderator James Jacobs, Stanford University Library Thomas Bruce (Legal Information Institute, Cornell University) Daniel Schuman (Sunlight Foundation policy director) Cindy Etkin (Govt Printing Office) [SLIDE 1: govt documents] Right up front, I'm a librarian and a collaborator in the LOCKSS distributed digital preservation project (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe). I've been in academia/education my whole life as a student, teacher, librarian and technologist. I've been a government information/FDLP librarian since 2002 and currently am serving a 3 year term on the Depository Library Council, the body which informs and advises the Govt Printing Office regarding issues of the Federal Depository Library Program (which Cindy talked about). So my mindset/perspective/bias is from one who assists in the scholarly communication process, one who believes that libraries have a place in the digital information landscape, and one who believes strongly in the idea that access to govt information is a fundamental right. ... Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:02:06 +0100 815492 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/sZZsrdx8j-4/mad-men-true-blood-skins-books What are they reading in Mad Men, The Sopranos, True Blood and Skins - and what does it mean? We read between the linesFurther reading: what titles would you choose for your favourite characters? In the same way that Captain Kirk never took a loo break, the depiction of reading on TV has traditionally been considered anathema. Who turns on their telly to watch someone buried in a book? Remember that moment in Seinfeld when the characters pitch "Jerry", their (anti)-sitcom-within-a-sitcom to NBC? George stresses that one thing the characters will be doing a lot of is reading. "Reading?" shoots back the network exec in disbelief, as shocked as if George had suggested masturbating; reading is, after all, the very antithesis of drama, of getting out and doing stuff. It's an almost morbidly introspective thing for telly folk to be doing and not terribly exciting for the viewer, either, who might be tempted to switch over to the ten pin bowling.Increasingly, however, US drama in particular has been using absorption in books as a "reveal". It has become a rich, allusive seam; complementary – if not necessarily complimentary – to key characters. It also tells us about the broader context in which the drama is taking place, sending out cultural signals, perhaps even sending viewers out to the libraries themselves.Take Mad Men, a positive motherlode of this new tendency: some period series would be content with establishing that it's, say, 1960 with shots of cinema fronts advertising Some Like It Hot, or maybe a snatch of jukebox rock'n'roll. Not Mad Men. Here, it is the literature of the day that defines the aspirations, proclivities and slow-dawning development of its dramatis personae as a new decade dawns. Books define the changing of the times. And so, for example, DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is passed around and excitedly perused by Joan and the secretaries. ... Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:57:44 +0100 815421 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Greenwich_Roundup_020310_No_Hearst_Newspaper_Censorship_Freely_--- Celebrate Chinese New Year in Greenwich (Connecticut Post) Families are invited to celebrate the Year of the Tiger as the Greenwich Library rings in (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:36 +0100 815309 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Icon_Library_-_Picture_China39s_online_censorship Google's recent announcement of their bail out from China brings to the world's attention, (yet again) the hardship and sometimes irrationality of Hu (Source: pligg - all) Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:40 +0100 814930 http://www.lisnews.org/grisham_and_updike_among_authors_banned_texan_jail_authorities Grisham and Updike among authors banned by Texan jail authorities An exhaustive analysis by the Austin American Statesman of five years'-worth of publications whose rejection as unsuitable was appealed by inmates found a host of bestselling and classic titles had been banned from the state's prisons. Books by Nobel laureates Pablo Neruda and Andre Gide, collections of paintings by Picasso and Michelangelo, and bestsellers by James Patterson, Carl Hiaasen and Hunter S Thompson have all failed to pass the prisons' censors. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:19:39 +0100 815391 http://lisnews.org/grisham_and_updike_among_authors_banned_texan_jail_authorities Grisham and Updike among authors banned by Texan jail authorities An exhaustive analysis by the Austin American Statesman of five years'-worth of publications whose rejection as unsuitable was appealed by inmates found a host of bestselling and classic titles had been banned from the state's prisons. Books by Nobel laureates Pablo Neruda and Andre Gide, collections of paintings by Picasso and Michelangelo, and bestsellers by James Patterson, Carl Hiaasen and Hunter S Thompson have all failed to pass the prisons' censors. (Source: LISNews.org) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:19:39 +0100 814887 http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=3048 The Literature Police by Peter D. McDonald. “Indispensable reading if we wish to understand the forces forming and deforming literary production in South Africa during the apartheid years.” – JM Coetzee On the website is the Database: The most complete record to date of decisions the censors made about works that can be identified as belonging to the corpus of South African literature published during the apartheid era, though it also includes some arguably non-literary titles by leading political figures (e.g. essays by Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko). It gives details relating to just over 450 decisions, some of which were reviewed, and is searchable by, among others, author, publisher, date and outcome. It is worth noting that it covers books only. It does not include decisions relating to literary magazines. Website. Peter D. McDonald. Thanks KAW. (Source: Librarian) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:59:59 +0100 815718 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=World39s_Largest_Medical_Library_Censors_Natural_Medicine_Research_%AB World's Largest Medical Library Censors Natural Medicine Research? It sure looks that way. What are they afraid of? That there are some well designed (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:00:35 +0100 814777 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/Cwk_40JAmHE/jd-salinger-obituary-letter Tim Bates writes: In late 1993 I was responsible, as one of the commissioning editors for Penguin Classics, for overseeing the reissue and re-jacketing of JD Salinger's four published books, a task that hadn't been tackled for many years, in part because of the anticipated difficulties with gaining Salinger's approval. We knew he wouldn't allow illustrations or blurbs and that he had strong views on type size and layout.The existing text of The Catcher in the Rye had been heavily edited by Hamish Hamilton in the 1950s: profanities and swearing had been censored, and Caulfield's US colloquialisms had been anglicised. Penguin wanted to correct this, and we planned to base the new editions on the original, unbowdlerized American texts. But all this needed to be agreed with Salinger.With great trepidation, I sent a carefully worded and endlessly redrafted letter to Phyllis Westberg, Salinger's formidable agent at Harold Ober in New York, explaining our plans and enclosing some cover mock-ups. A few weeks went by before the unthinkable happened: I received a fax from New York with a letter from Salinger himself – densely typed on a manual typewriter with, at the top, the date and the word "Cornish", the town in New Hampshire where he lived his reclusive life. The letter was over 1,000 words long and was signed from "Jerry". It felt like a message from God. Salinger precisely outlined his concerns in characteristically conversational and clear, but occasionally old-fashioned, prose – he used the word "behooved". It was immaculately punctuated and error-free.Firstly – "emphatically first" – he wouldn't approve our placing his name above the title of the book – "I'm very much against it," he said. ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:58:49 +0100 814527