Library News

Feds Order Public Libraries to destroy law books!

The attorney general for the US Federal Government has issued this order… “The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library. The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).” See this Link for more details. They have rescinded the order but the fact that the issued such an order in the first place is truly chilling.

Friday’s Cute Link

One of my favorite places to get my cute fix is Katamari’s page. Katamari is the world’s cutest and most blobular Scottish Fold kitty. Total cute with the occasional lolkatamari post.

New Zealand Libraries

In honor of Debbie Pennino, I thought I’d share a recent “library news” story that I came across: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10497791. Around Auckland, library users have expressed a greater desire to access resources from other branches in their area. (There’s also a fun bonus map of New Zealand’s regions!)

Privacy? No more …

One thing libraries take seriously is the privacy of their users. We go to great lengths to ensure that what you’re reading is for your eyes only. That’s why this article is so disturbing: http://www.eff.org/issues/printers. In an effort to stop counterfeiters, the Secret Service has persuaded some laser printer manufactures to encode printed pages with identifying information that could be used to track the printer and the person who used it. Sure, we can all agree that counterfeiting is a crime, and it certainly needs to be prosecuted, but isn’t this going too far? What do you think? Should be libraries be doing something about this?

Handing the Web Back to the Experts?

Here is an interesting Newsweek article suggesting that the Internet is beginning to move back away from the Web-2.0 phenomenon of user-generated content. (Just when some of us are getting excited about adopting Web 2.0 features!) The article explores the idea that Web users may now be more interested in seeking out expert opinions and reliable knowledge online. What do you think — what is the place of user-generated content versus expert knowledge on the Web?