Intersect Alert, February 21, 2006

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From: Michele McGinnis (mm@kk.org)
Date: Tue Feb 21 2006 - 13:41:51 PST


Message-Id: <a0623090ec01fa91c6448@[192.168.0.5]>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:41:51 -0800
From: Michele McGinnis <mm@kk.org>
Subject: Intersect Alert, February 21, 2006

Michele's recent blog posts at Free Government Information

Secret reclassification of US documents
http://freegovinfo.info/node/415

Library stuff

ALA Featured on Horowitz's anti-left site Discover the Network

Opposes the Patriot Act
Refuses to defend Cuban librarians imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship
Characterizes anti-terrorism measures as assaults on civil liberties
Is pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel

Pride of place
After 10 years on the margins, Western's gay library finds a home in
the heart of campus.
The sign on the front desk reads "Queeries." The office has a giant
window in the shape of a Q. Green walls and purple carpets greet
students.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2006/02/15/1443225-sun.html

What if Wal-Mart Ran a Library?
The giant retailer Wal-Mart is used here as a metaphor for
large-scale industrial processes that are being brought to bear on
many industries in the evolving global economy, but by and large not
on academic institutions and libraries in particular. It is
anticipated that the application of such processes will reshape the
world of libraries as we know them, with an increasing division
between the support of undergraduate education and the requirements
of research faculty. While there will be significant opposition to
the introduction of such processes, especially because of the
resulting disruption of the lives of academic librarians and their
institutions, inasmuch as the decisions to make these changes are
driven by increasing economic pressures and will be made by
authorities above librarians in the institutional hierarchy, the
Wal-Martization of the academic library is inevitable.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;view=text;rgn=main;idno=3336451.0009.104

Welcome to Surfers Anonymous
There are three main ways to surf the Web anonymously. All of them
work on the same principle of running a "proxy server."... All of
this information is as useful in corporate and legal environments as
it is in the consumer world.
http://www.law.com/jsp/ltn/pubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1139393112080

Orwellian

Audible's "Don't Read" Campaign Raises ALA Hackles
[Hmm, and I thought satire was protected under copyright law,
although I guess ALA thinks this constitutes trademark infringement.
Good grief and shame on ALA. MM]
The new advertising campaign for Audible, which provides downloadable
audiobooks and other content, bears the message "Don't Read," which
the company and its ad agency consider "a satirical homage to the
American Library Association's 'Read' public service announcement
posters." Not everyone at the ALA is so flattered. Last week, ALA
executive director Keith Fiels announced on the mailing list, "We are
in the process of sending them a polite but firm cease and desist
letter."
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6298172.html

California Enacts Resolution Critical of PATRIOT Act
On Thursday, February 16, the California Senate voted 23-10 in favor
of Senate Joint Resolution 10 relative to the USA PATRIOT Act, making
California the 404th government entity and the largest of eight
states to have done so.
http://www.bordc.org

Text of CA Resolution
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sjr_10_bill_20050418_introduced.html

Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description
Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls
library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of
all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement:
The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602066.html?sub=AR

**Counter Copyright: Please feel free to pass along in part or in its
entirety, giving credit or not. MM**

-- 


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