Archive for December, 2003

Product Recalls by Government Agencies

Friday, December 19th, 2003

Pardon me while I feature a useful Web site: When I first saw the recalls.gov URL, political recalls came to mind. It’s about time there was an easy way for consumers to learn about products recalled by government agencies. Through this site, the USDA, NHTSA, EPA, FDA, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and United States Coast Guard [...]

Observatory of the Information Society

Friday, December 19th, 2003

This Web site from the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) focuses on the international Information Age and the Information Society and includes reports about online governance, libraries, the digital divide, and e-commerce. The site is available in multiple languages and allows users to select material by region and topic. Featured in the [...]

Zimbabwe’s Daily News Can Publish Again … Or Can It?

Friday, December 19th, 2003

The Zimbabwe government, which tries to control the media in that country, banned The Daily News a few months ago. A court recently ruled that the newspaper can publish again. Update 5:30 pm: An Associated Press wire story reports that police have shut the newspaper down in defiance of the court order. The Zimbabwe government [...]

Cool Stuff in the Boston Chapter Bulletin

Friday, December 19th, 2003

The latest newsletter of the Special Libraries Association-Boston Chapter, the Bulletin, has some great articles. There’s a review of Steven Cohen’s blogging workshop in November, which also plugs the Berkman Center’s Thursday evening meetings. Those who lament that there’s no easy way to learn about candidates for positions on the national level of the organization [...]

Webcast, IRC Channel, & Wiki for Tonight’s Blog Group

Thursday, December 18th, 2003

The blog meetings are getting more sophisticated. The last three have been Webcast. Someone set up an IRC channel. And now there’s a Wiki. Oh, ye people in remote locations, please join us.

Keeping Found Things Found

Thursday, December 18th, 2003

The Keeping Found Things Found research project at the University of Washington’s Information School takes the problem of information retrieval one step further by examining how people save, reaccess, and reuse items they’ve already found. Their current focus is on how people do this with regards to information they’ve found on the Web. Some of [...]

The Cluttered Internet

Thursday, December 18th, 2003

In London’s technology e-zine The Register, a writer laments the lack of utility he thinks the Internet has after ten years of growth and development and praises librarians because of their abilities to do things technology can’t. “If you’re in doubt, befriend a librarian, and from the resulting dialog, you’ll learn to start asking good [...]

Yea. Front Line Voices

Wednesday, December 17th, 2003

A post from Front Line Voices hit my aggregator for the first time today. I subscribed a while ago and hadn’t seen anything, so I was worried about technical issues. Hurry up and read it before it rolls off shortly. It’s at the bottom now. (Hey Sergeant, why don’t you blog? What about your brother?)

Bed Bed Bed

Wednesday, December 17th, 2003

I want it on the record that I supported the librarian stereotype of someone who buys books by going out tonight and buying myself They Might Be Giants’ Bed Bed Bed. I’m also honoring v’s children’s book theme by blogging about it. For you people who are upset that I bought books because bookstores compete [...]

Joint Library Very Successful

Wednesday, December 17th, 2003

The December 4th Black Issues in Higher Education reports that the nation’s first library combining public and university libraries is much more successful than planners thought it would be. San Jose State University and the city decided to combine two libraries to make them better than what they could be individually. Visitor and circulation numbers [...]