by Stina McClintock
Last Wednesday, I was sitting in my house watching the snow come down and wondering about important things like, “is Kim Kardashian the highest paid reality star in America? If so, who is number 2?”
Ever intellectually curious (yep, that’s what I’m calling it) I wandered over to the Google and saw a big black bar over the logo on the splash page. It was then that I silently thanked the weather gods for the snow because I realized that January 18th was the day that websites were going “dark” in order to protest SOPA/PIPA. By going dark, these sites were illustrating just how debilitating the passage of SOPA/PIPA would be to those who deal in the business of information. Continue reading 'A Pirate’s Life for Me'»
by Robyn Hagle
Darcy Kirk, as 2011-2012 AALL President, created a Futures Summit Planning Committee to develop an agenda for and plan a two-day Futures Summit, which was held in November 2011. Attendees of the Summit explored issues regarding communication, member engagement, leadership development, mentoring, generational differences, and ongoing changes in the profession of law librarianship.
In December 2011, Darcy appointed a Futures Summit Report Drafting Group to continue the implementation phase of the Summit. The committee was charged with drafting an executive summary report of the Summit and recommendations for consideration and adoption by the AALL Executive Board. I have been serving as the chair of that group.
The Drafting Group spent December 2011 and January 2012 reviewing transcription notes and survey responses from the Summit. Reoccurring ideas and suggestions were tracked, tallied and later distilled into workable action items, organized by a set of four overarching goals. A final version of the report will be submitted to the Executive Board and posted to AALLNet in late January. Please be on the lookout for the final report. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
The LLOPS Blog has been quiet this week in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261 & the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA), S.968. The massive Internet protest was no small endeavor and sent shocks all the way to Capitol Hill. The fight against these bills is really just beginning and we are lucky enough to have AALL championing legislative causes. Check out the AALL Legislative Action Center to find out more.
by Kristine Lloyd
Call me a Luddite, but personally I tend to agree with Nicholson Baker’s diatribe against e-books. They’re just weird, but again I’m willing to admit that this attitude threatens my already dismal ranking on the cool-o-meter. Despite my opinions e-books are here to stay and they are boosting library usage all over the country.
Digital book distributor Overdrive reported that library e-book checkouts have seen an increase of over 200% in 2011. The fact is e-books are getting patrons back into the library. The American Library Association has even launched a blog that is all about e-content, named aptly E-Content. While still in its nascent stages, the blog promises to update readers on all issues related to e-content, including the controversial privacy debate. Lexis and West have jumped on the bandwagon. West even provides an option for renting casebooks on ereaders. This is a new product outlet that vendors can’t afford to ignore and neither can we. Continue reading 'The E-Reader Revolution'»
by Kristine Lloyd
I love to move. Most people find it onerous to pack up their pianos, taxidermied mammals, tea sets, Beanie Baby collections and other various and sundry items. As they near the bitter end, fueled by frustration and migraines, most people just start throwing stuff in the random junk box, no newspaper wrapping—nothing. Wait: is that just me? Continue reading 'How to Put Books on Shelves'»
by Philippe Cloutier
With another January upon us Public Domain works that may have been, if not for current Copyright Law, are 1955 works. Creativity, art, access, imagination, commercialism, and so much more could have taken advantage of the following [list from Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain]:
- Rudolf Flesch’s Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About It
- J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King, the final installment in his Lord of Rings trilogy
- The Family of Man, Edward Steichen’s book of photographs showing the diversity and universality of human experience
- Michihiko Hachiya’s Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 8–September 30, 1945, translated by Warner Wells, md
- Evelyn Waugh’s Officers and Gentlemen, the second book in his Sword of Honour trilogy
- The first English translation of Thomas Mann’s last novel, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years (1954), by Denver Lindley
- C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth volume his The Chronicles of Narnia
- Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
- Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee’s play about the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” Inherit the Wind Continue reading '1976 Strikes Again'»
by Philippe Cloutier
Human civilization as we know it has been able to flourish and prosper thanks in large part to reading. The ability to relay experience and knowledge from one to another over generations has proved its worth from Babylonia to the Age of Reason and so on. Our development as a species paired with reading makes it come with little surprise that we demand the printed word (or digitally scribed text) in order to better our brains. As the United States’ global educational ratings tank, a dearth of reading is easiest to blame. Continue reading 'Resolve to Read'»
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