Also new in 2006: it’s now a federal crime to send someone an annoying e-mail anonymously. I’d pay to hear a few FBI agents talking about how’d they go about enforcing this one. I doubt it would stand any realu judicial scritiny (or, I hope it wouldn’t) but it could just be seen as the…
None of these (late again!) tidbits have anything strictly to do with library science, library management, library work, reference work, or other facets of Libraryland’s inner workings (when will I learn to be on topic with this stuff?) but they all have to do with library-related stuff that I think about from time to time.…
I know, I’m a day late (again). I came back from vacation yesterday to dive right into integrating our new electronic journal list from our new serials vendor into our catalog, which process includes verifying the back files of each title and making sure that the overlapping databases (our general link resolver, whatever we get…
Found this on Slashdot.org today: " Metadata in Vista Could Be Too Helpful." In part: "Windows Vista will improve search functionality on a PC by letting users tag files with metadata, but those tags could cause unwanted and embarrassing information disclosure, Gartner analysts have warned. Search and organization capabilities are among the primary features of…
Another fast update from the other day: Charles H. Featherstone writes this in response to the fact that all reading is apparently now suspect by the lovely folks in the U.S. government. Or, at least all the material that’s worth reading. (Yes, I think Mao’s "Little Red Book" is worth reading. If you care about…
All four of my dedicated readers know that I like to keep track of Google links. Well, this one is from William Anderson writing from the Mises Institute (two words for those who’ve never heard of it: "libertarian economics") on the potential for Google’s despoiling at the hands of anti-trust bearing politicians. His point seems…
I picked this up from Andy, who picked it up from Alan . . . I get som many things from Andy’s site by way of his readers that had I not already listed him on the Economics typelist, I’d be tempted to sneak his wite onto the typelist for Library resources. Good stuff. Like…
The Daily Reckoning has a great tidbit on the history of "Uncle Sam" today, including the fact that there is no copyright on the image used by Army recruiters in World War 1 (government documents generally are not copyrighted, so yeah, that makes sense even though I’ve never really thought much about it. More fool…
It’s been very, very busy around here the past couple of weeks, and I’ve got six projects running concurrently, which means that something has to give and unfortunately, that’s what I write here. Luckily, the most time-intensive project which is a digitization grant I’m working on is due next week, and thing should slow down…
A couple of things caught my eye today. First, I found this article by David H. Holtzman in the Oct. 25 issue of BusinessWeek. It’s called "Share the Knowledge, Expand the Wealth" and makes the case that copyright, while still an incredibly valuable legal protection against intellectual property theft has been badly abused by the…