MySpace Backlash

An interesting story about how schools and parents are reacting to MySpace. The author contests that the problem of online predators is real, but exaggerated. The more difficult issue is whether parents or schools should monitor and censor what teenagers post to their MySpace profiles. Schools may be overreacting and violating first amendment precedents, which protect student speech unless it "materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others."

"the current library catalog is poorly designed"

UNIVERSITY RELEASES BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICES TASK FORCE REPORT

The University of California has released the final report of its Bibliographic Services Task Force. "Rethinking How We Provide Bibliographic Services for the University of California" will provide valuable insights to others thinking about making their library collections more visible and more easily accessible to their users.

The report begins with the premise that "the current library catalog is poorly designed for the tasks of finding, discovering, and selecting the growing set of resources available in libraries." It lists recommendations for enhancing search and retrieval, “rearchitecting” the OPAC, and adopting new cataloging practices. To read the full report, go to http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf.

From Amigos Now, the weekly newsletter from Amigos.

Library 2.0

Walt Crawford has devoted an entire issue of his Cites and Insights publication to the topic of Library 2.0. I haven't read it yet, but it appears to be worth a gander. He also has a piece on folksonomies in a more recent issue.

Internet Sites for Librarians

The February issue of the Amigos monthly newsletter, Amigos Agenda & OCLC Connection, has an excellent Internet Tips article on Web resources for librarians. Guess what! The very first recommended site is the Librarian's Index to the Internet. Another very useful site is the Internet Public Library's List of Library Blogs.

Why Google deserves fruit baskets, not brickbats

Cory Doctorow, a scifi author I have blogged in the past, has written a superb (IMHO) analysis of why the Google Print library book scanning project is a GOOD thing for authors and publishers, and why they should be supporting it, promoting and embracing it, instead of suing Google. The item is posted on the well-known Boing Boing blog.

Doctorow goes way beyond the issue of the Google library program, however, and near the end of this admittedly lengthy post, talks about the future of books and reading in this multimedia age. Some of what he is saying to authors and publishers can be applied with equal force to libraries, even though we may not like it (nor perhaps agree with it). This, for example:

We need to stop telling people that the Internet isn't as good as books. It makes us look like whiny jerks. We need to stop telling people that they have a moral duty to read. It makes us look like imperious jerks.

We need to act like a money-making industry and spare some attention for what our customers demand: books that are no more clicks away than web-pages.

Online NW Keynote

I've posted my account of the Online NW Keynote speaker to the LITA Blog. Take a look.

Will

Testing

Test, test, test