Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

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Web based criminal justice issues cannot be addressed in a rational manner without also the establishment and ongoing maintenance of a trusted and resilient information and communications infrastructure. Realizing the paramount importance of these objectives the Obama administration has been engaging in a mumber related activities including President Obama’s recent call for the creation of a cybersecurity coordinator who will orchestrate and integrate federal cybersecurity policies and agendas, and the release by the White House of a Report: Cyberspace Policy Review: Assuring a Trusted and Resilient Information Infrasturcture

These measures could not be more timely. The increasing rate that information on the web is being compromised in many ways including identity theft, willful distortion of information,and illegal wiretapping to name a few. Other organizations such as the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) have long been concerned with issues related to the continuing integrity or authenticity of information on the web and are actively engaged in developing recommendations and helping others understand the importance of achieving and maintaining information authenticity of the web but additional help and support is needed. It is therefore most encouraging to see indications that the Obama administration is interested in taking an active role in addressing these and related issues.

The following are links to documents and articles discussing recent cybersecurity initiatives of the Obama administration.

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To help those who are interested in information beyond that available in the popular news media regarding Judge Sotomayor we have assembeled two background documents, two of Judge Sotomayor’s opinions, one from 2002 and another from 2008. Also included is a completed copy of the questionnaire of Judge Sotoamyor prepared for and delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee. All judicial candidates such as Sonia Sotomayor are required to complete and submit a questionnaire as part of the confirmation process. You can view these documents from the links below. The links contain brief title descriptions of the respective materials:

Background on Judge Sonie Sotomayor Prepared by the White House, May 2009

Vote Summary on the Nomination of

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“The Webby Awards is thrilled to announce that Sir Tim Berners-Lee is scheduled to attend the 13th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 8, where he will be honored with a Webby Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his enormous contribution to the world of Internet technology and communications. Widely known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee created the first versions of the technologies — including HTML, URL, and HTTP — that turned the Internet into a mass medium. Since he invented the Web twenty years ago, Berners-Lee has remained its most active and passionate advocate, working tirelessly to ensure that it remains open, free, and a tool for helping humankind…”

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Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption and One Woman’s Fight to Restore Justice to All by Sunny Schwartz, with David Boodell Scribner, 204 pp., $24.00

Reviewed by Helen Epstein in a forthcoming issue of The New York Review of Books (Volume 56 Number 9 June 11, 2009).

Here is an excerpt from that review:

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Brian R. Leiter the John P. Wilson Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values at the University of Chicago has conducted a poll to determine who people think were the most important legal thinkers in american law in the past century. There were 180 votes cast. Professor Leiter has post the top 25 on his blog, Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports. When looking at the list don’t forget to scroll down and read the comments which are also thought provoking. As one would expect on such a list there are always questions about why so-and-so was or was not included.

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In Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Online News, Keith Perine writes: “…Obama, speaking with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a backdrop, defended his order to close the detainee prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and outlined several tenets of his own counterterrorism strategy. The president tried to reframe the complex problem of how to treat the Guantánamo detainees as one that requires pragmatism above politics and bipartisan deliberation over partisan attacks.

“As president, I refuse to allow this problem to fester. I refuse to pass it on to somebody else,” Obama said, in one of several thinly veiled digs at the George W. Bush administration. ‘It is my responsibility to solve the problem. Our security interests will not permit us to delay. Our courts won’t allow it. And neither should our conscience.’ ” To see the entire article, including an account of a rebuttal speech by former Vice President Cheney, delivered from the American Enterprise Institute, click here.

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Late in October 2008 rumors were circulating around the lbrary community that OCLC was in the process of updating its Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records These rumors proved true; OCLC published its new policy on Sunday November 2, 2008. The reaction to these changes was sufficiently “swift and harsh” that on November 19, 2008 OCLC removed the original updated version and released a second updated version on November 19. Since that time reaction has continued to be animated, resulting in a continuing series of meetings, proposed changes, commentaries etc.

What is the present status of this discussion? To help answer that question Phyllis Post, who attended the May 2009 OCLC Members Council Meeting where a presentation was made by OCLC, has provided a brief but most helpful update which I received as an e-mail. With the permission of Phyllis I am posting her message below:

Colleagues,

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