Websites, Library AdvocacyJanuary 31, 2008 7:20 am
Websites, Library ServicesJanuary 29, 2008 6:04 am
“It is no longer acceptable not to be deeply knowledgeable and engaged with the technology. Technology now doesn’t just support your services, it actually lets you do wholly and totally new things. We have something called Sounds Familiar on our website that’s around dialect in the different regions of the UK. We opened this up to schoolchildren to contribute and to populate the map with their own recordings, and now we’ve had a great Web 2.0 experience but, more importantly, we have a great new even better research resource.”
Dame Lynne Brindley has been the Chief Executive of the British Library since July 2000. She is the first woman and the first information professional to have held the post. Since her appointment Lynne has led a major strategic development and modernisation programme to ensure that the BL remains a relevant, innovative and accessible national institution in the 21st century. The BL provides services that underpin UK competitiveness in research and contributes to innovation and creativity in our knowledge society. The BL reaches out to a wide public, increasingly through its digital services. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List 2008 for services to education.
Have a beta-test mind - just do it!: An interview with the British Library and SLA , January 2008, Written by Lynne Brindley and Janice Lachance, http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/use/2661
Library AdvocacyJanuary 21, 2008 9:49 am
PRESS RELEASE
The Friends of Cuban Libraries
January 10, 2008
Contact: Robert Kent FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel. 718-305-9201
E-mail: kentr50@yahoo.com
Website: ( http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org )
Ben Franklin Dishonored by Philly Conference, Critics Say
As members of the American Library Association gather in Philadelphia for a conference (January 11-16), critics say the ALA is dishonoring the legacy of Benjamin Franklin, the Philadelphia icon of liberty who also founded the first public libraries in colonial America.
According to the Friends of Cuban Libraries, a support group for intellectual freedom in Cuba, key offices in the American Library Association have been taken over by a pro-Castro faction which is ignoring and covering up the persecution of Cuban librarians and the burning of thousands of library books on the island. The ALA often passes resolutions on international affairs, but critics say the ALA has abandoned its principled defense of intellectual freedom for victims of repression in Cuba.
A 2005 secret police raid on a Havana library named in honor of Benjamin Franklin is one example of the repression in Cuba which ALA leaders are ignoring and covering up, claim the Friends of Cuban Libraries.
“If certain ALA leaders think they can gather in Philadelphia and get away with trampling on the legacy of Benjamin Franklin,” declared Robert Kent, the co-chair of the Friends of Cuban Libraries, “then they had better think again. Philadelphians, when they find out what is going on, will not take kindly to a library association which hypocritically claims to defend intellectual freedom while some of its leaders collude with a regime which jails librarians and burns books.”
Since 1998, volunteers in Cuba have founded hundreds of independent libraries in a challenge to government control of information. According to human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, the Cuban government has responded to the island’s independent library movement with a campaign of harassment, police raids, mob assaults, 20-year prison terms for library directors and the burning of library collections.
Cuban court documents taken from the island and published on the Internet indicate that classics such as George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” are among the books burned in Cuba following police raids. The American Library Association has issued three reports on the situation in Cuba, but critics say the ALA has refused to condemn, or to even acknowledge, the Castro government’s repression of librarians or the burning of seized library books.
In the ALA’s only membership poll on Cuba, say the Friends of Cuban Libraries, 76 per cent of respondents voted to condemn the Castro regime, but the ALA leadership refuses to listen to its members on this subject, according to critics of the association.
The island’s independent library movement receives aid from several nations, including the United States. Cuban officials assert that the volunteer librarians are U.S. agents who are trying to overthrow the government. These “absurd” claims are supported by some ALA leaders, according to critics.
Human rights defenders such as Ray Bradbury (the author of “Fahrenheit 451″), Nat Hentoff, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Andrei Codrescu and ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have issued appeals on behalf of Cuba’s independent librarians. Critics say the ALA has either ignored these appeals or has failed to respond substantively to them.
“Benjamin Franklin must be turning in his grave over the ALA’s book burning shenanigans,” declared Robert Kent of the Friends of Cuban Libraries. “The ALA is the world’s oldest library association,” said Kent, “and until recently the ALA honorably defended everyone’s right to read freely. The effective capture of key ALA offices by pro-Castro extremists is a tragedy which needs to be remedied by means of public awareness, beginning with the people of Philadelphia.”
WebsitesJanuary 18, 2008 6:14 am
Creating a free account allows you to:
*Build a personal “My OpenCongress” page to track bills, people, issues, and more
*Become friends with other users and follow their interests
*Vote on bills you support or oppose, and leave comments explaining why
*Participate in building public knowledge about Congress!
Register Here!
Do you think you are too busy to keep track of issues of interest in Congress? I have tried to keep track of a few that were important to me and between locating information and sending off e-mails to my representatives in Congress it can be very time consuming. This new tool will change all of that!
Mindy
UncategorizedJanuary 15, 2008 7:36 pm
I dedicate this to the Administrative team at RLD:
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough”
Mario Andretti
UncategorizedJanuary 10, 2008 5:54 am
“In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.”
© 2007 USPS Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Websites, Library AdvocacyJanuary 9, 2008 9:31 pm
“Ed Balls joined the Prime Minister, children, writers, and reading champions at 10 Downing Street today to launch the National Year of Reading. He called for every employer, school, library, college and local authority to get involved and sign up to the National Year of Reading by logging on to the National Year of Reading website at http://www.yearofreading.org.uk”
From e Gov Monitor Published Tuesday, 8 January, 2008 - 10:35
HOW COOL IS THAT - a whole County launching a Year of Reading!
