As
information goes online, it is ironically more likely it will be hard to
access. Changes in intellectual property law and new restrictions built
into technology threaten the balance described in the constitution between
private interests and public needs. The Free Expression Policy Project has
a new report on the challenges of maintaining The
Information Commons.
May
2004
Blogoversity of
Minnesota
The University of Minnesota libraries have discovered the
potential of blogs - and want students and faculty to use these free-form,
personal and opinionated ways of conversing online, a form of expression
that also got a great deal of attention at this year's
CCCC conference for writing teachers. The U of M is providing this service in
order to promote the formation of "communities of interest" and to find
out how these conversations engage people and ideas. Check out a Chronicle
story on "scholars who
blog."
You
think information
commons are a hip new thing? The site of the library
of Alexandria, and a complex of lecture halls may have been found by a
team of archeologists. For an intriguing new take on how libraries can be
designed for learning, see Scott Bennett's
report published by CLIR.
Two Web
sites from the ALA's Social Responsibilities Round Table offer alternative
news sources on Haiti and the war in Iraq.
April
2004
Here's
a Website for book lovers. The British Library has launched an amazing digital
collection of rare books. With each book, you can "turn the pages" by
clicking and dragging, and you can use a zoom tool to look closer. Among
the volumes included is the gorgous Lindisfarne Gospels. May require
downloading Shockwave to your computer.
The 9-11 Commission has a Website
where you can find transcripts, audio, and video archives of commission
hearings.
The
Project for Excellence in Journalism at Columbia Unviveristy's Graduate
School of Journalism has issued a new report, The State of the News
Media, 2004, assessing trends in newspaper reporting, television,
radio, magazines, and atlernative sources of news. Its analysis of
content, audience, economics, ownership, and public attitudes are in turns
enlightening - and frightening.
March
2004
The Christian
Science Monitor has a good article on the closing of Northeastern
University Press and on what this troubling trend means for all of us. An
Association of American University Presses Web site, Books For
Understanding offers some excellent resources for topics on our minds
- all published by university presses.
The
Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression maintains a database on the
subject of censorship. The Beacon for Freedom of
Expression lists censored works and publications about censorship
internationally. Truly an impressive resource. Tusen takk,
Norway!
There
has been much discussion of the ways that intellectual property law may be
inhibiting the free flow of ideas. Author Lawrence Lessig is ready to put
his money where his mouth is. His new book, Free Culture: How Big
Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control
Creativity, is available free on the Internet. It's also available for
sale from Penguin - a publishing house owned by Pearson, one of
those Big Media conglomerates. Chances are, the publicity generated by his
making the book available on the Internet won't hurt sales.
Scholars want access to the knowledge they produce, but libraries
don't have enough money to ransom it back. We've prepared some background
information on the crisis in scholarly communications.
You
can't copyright facts - but database aggregators want to change that.
Check out this Wired
story to see what the unintended consequences might be.
February
2004
Can you
say "Borgesian"?
The treasury department is cracking down on editors.
According to a story
in The New York Times, they "may face grave legal consequences for
editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground
that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy." Bizarrely enough,
publishing camera-ready work is okay. Update: On April 6th,
2004,the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the Tresury
Department has ruled that scholarly articles from authors in countries
under trade embargoes can be edited after all. Apparently, after
publishers explained what's involved in editing peer-reviewed papers,
government officials decided it doesn't substantially enhance the
information in the manuscripts. Though editors might find that somewhat
unappreciative of their hard work, they're happy to be able to publish
without fear of criminal prosecution.
Libraries and computer scientists had a war and Google won,
according to a February 14th piece
in the Washington Post. A war? Why weren't we
invited? In fact, since
the public library is where Americans who can't afford the toll on the
information superhighway get online, it seems more accurate to call it the
peacable kingdom - though, to be sure, many old timers wish it were a
little less noisy.
PEN,
the American Bookseller's Association, and the American Library
Association have teamed up to support an amendment to the Patriot Act -
specifically section 215 that deals with bookstore and library records. To
read more about it, sign a petition, and/or contact Congress, go to the Campaign for Reader Privacy
website. Or sign the petitions available at both the Bookmark and the
library.
Have
Laptop, Will Travel: The New York
Times offers a nice profile of Words Without Borders, a
Web-based "online magazine for international literature." Each issue
features a national literature with translations. This month: "A tradition
of experimentation, a musical sense of language, and political bite--these
seem to characterize the astonishingly rich literature of Argentina." Or
chose your own region to explore.
Want to
keep up with campaign coverage? Take a seat at the Campaign Desk, a blog maintained by
the Columbia Journalism Review. It covers media, issues, and
angles, from spin to cheap shots. To find out who owns the news outlets
providing the spin, take a look at CJR's Who Owns What.
It's
Black History month and the Internet offers lots of resources. The Library
of Congress has made ten unpublished
plays by Zora Hele Hurston available through their American Memory
digital library. Or visit Harlem,
1900-1940 through an online exhibit from the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture. Find more resources through the World Wide
Virtual Library guide to African-American
history.
January
2004
Where
do Americans get their campaign news? Check out this Pew Interent
& American Life report on
the fragmented political news universe.
December
2003
Google
has discovered something astonishing - some information isn't on the Web.
In a move similar to Amazon's
"Search Inside" feature, Google is developing a "Google Print" option.
According to Michael Cader of Publisher's Lunch, "the goal seems
to be to truly 'Google' book content, or as much as they can get their
hands on. The company is talking to publishers about officially launching
in the first or second quarter of next year." Like Google News, it will delve into books,
using its search engine to sort and seek. Though their site hasn't yet
gone public, they have already answered some Frequently Asked
Questions.
J.M.
Coetzee, an author who prefers to stay out of the public eye, doesn't
usually travel to pick up his many awards, but he did go to Sweden to give
his Nobel
Address this month. True to form, Coetzee offers something original;
the address is unlike anything in the genre of acceptance
speeches.
This
fall, The New York Times switched their customized news alert
service from free to fee; many thousands of users said thanks, but no
thanks. Now Google News offers
something similar--a free news
alert service that delivers the news you ask for straight to your
e-mail box.
November
2003
Now
that "to google" is a verb, try Google Alert, a service that
searches the Web for you constantly and obsessively, sending the results
of up to five saved searches to your E-mail account whenever new sites are
found that match your requests.
October
2003
MINITEX
has a report on the
future of resource sharing among libraries on its Web site. One
surprising area of growth: more library users are requesting books,
suggesting once again that reports of the death of the book are greatly
exaggerated.
Amazon has launched a "search inside" feature that allows for full-text
searches of 120,000 books, with more on the way. The launch surprised book
buyers and authors of searchable books alike. Wired
praised it with all the blind ardor of the intial infatuation with
E-books. The Author's Guild
has offered a critique, pointing out that as far as their lawyers can
tell, it violates authors' contracts, but was pleased when printing of
book pages was made more difficult. Many users have found the search
engine sadly deficient. But the market thought it was a great idea: the
day after launch, shares of Amazon stock were
up.
