“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded nearly US$7 million to fund a pilot program aimed at helping public libraries in seven states get faster Internet connections, the foundation announced Thursday. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded nearly US$7 million to fund a pilot program aimed at helping public libraries in seven states get faster Internet connections, the foundation announced Thursday”. Click to Continue.
_____________________ CIO Insider, December 19, 2008.
Articles Posted in Library Organization and Planning
U.S. News and World Report Names Librarianship as “Best Career” in 2009
Source: AALL: From the Desk of James E. Duggan, December 18, 2008.
Some welcome news is today’s tough economy, U.S. News and & World Report last week named librarianship as a “Best Career 2009.” The overview dispels the image of librarians as “mousy bookworms,” reporting that librarians have become “high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond.” Special librarianship in particular is named the field’s fastest-growing job market.
New York State Archives: E-Mail Policy Guidelines
From: New York State Archives – Region 1 Newsletter, December 2008
The New York State Archives is pleased to announce the release of its email policy development guidelines. These guidelines are intended as a starting point for state agencies and local governments to use for writing policies and procedures that will guide a program for managing email. Given the complexity of managing email, not all agencies will have the same needs and issues. Users should adapt the guidelines to meet their own needs and capabilities, and continue to update their policies on an as-needed basis. If users have questions or comments regarding the guidelines, please contact Ann Marie Przybyla at aprzybyl@mail.nysed.gov, or 518-474-5834.
A copy of the guidelines is available at http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/records/mr_pub85.shtml. If you have problems accessing the guidelines, please contact Sarah Durling at durling@mail.nysed.gov or 518-473-6803.
Libraries Taskforce to Investigate OCLC Policy Change Regarding Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records
According to libraryjournal.com, a libraries taskforce has been formed to investigate the recent OCLC policy changes regarding the use and transfer of WorldCat records.
According to libraryjournal.com:
“Taking a step likely to be welcomed by many in the cataloging community, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) have formed an ad hoc task force to study the recently disseminated OCLC policy governing the use and transfer of WorldCat records.
NBC Report: During Economic Downturn, Library Use “Way Up”While Budgets are Being Cut
According to an NBC report on MSNBC, use of library has gone “way up” during the present economic downturn; circulation is “skyrocketing”. All of this at a time when the budgets of many of these libraries are being cut..
When you go to the above link, be patient, You will first need to listen to a brief commercial before getting to the report about libraries.
GPO Authentication Initiative: Beta Release of Authenticated Congressional Bills
“GPO’s Authentication initiative focuses on the primary objective of assuring users that the information made available by GPO is official and authentic and that trust relationships exist between all participants in electronic transactions. In furthering GPO’s mission to provide permanent public access to authentic U.S. Government publications, GPO is working to afford users further assurance that files are unchanged since GPO authenticated them.
The Beta release of an Authenticated Congressional Bills application provides digitally signed and certified Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files for a sample set of Congressional Bills from the 110th Congress. GPO has signed and certified the House and Senate bills PDF files within this application as part of GPO’s initiative to reassure users that the online documents are official and authentic.
The documents in this database are available as ASCII text and digitally signed and certified Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.”
New York City Bar Association Partners With Google for Records and Briefs Project
From: The New York City Bar Library December 15, 2008.
The New York City Bar has finalized an agreement with Google and LLMC-Digital to digitize the remaining print volumes of Records & Briefs in the City Bar’s collection. This project will preserve court cases from the New York Court of Appeals (1823-1929) and all four departments of the Appellate Division (1896-1940). The project will also include scanning very scarce cases from the Superior and Appellate Term courts in the mid-late 1800’s. The trial transcripts and briefs will be available free of charge from Google and in an enhanced format in the LLMC-Digital database available through the City Bar’s web site (www.nycbar.org ).
The City Bar expects to transfer 1,000 volumes per week to Mountain View, California starting this week. Other New York area libraries may also become involved in this project in order to create a comprehensive online collection of New York Records and Briefs.
Libraries with Thomson West Library Maintenance Agreements (LMAs)
QUESTION:
What are libraries with existing Thomson West Library Maintenance Agreements (LMAs) planning to do when those Agreements come up for renewal? Responses, arranged by type of library are quite varied. All names have been removed to protect privacy but we are especially grateful to the person who both submitted the question originally and compiled the responses below:
RESPONSES:
Publication Announcement: Comparative Criminal Procedure: History, Process and Case Studies
By: Raneta Lawson Mack
“This NEW work from William S. Hein & Co., Inc. will take readers one step further than other texts on the market. Most other comparative works in the area of criminal justice are primarily dedicated to the issue of reforming criminal procedure. This work, on the other hand, forgoes a reform-oriented analysis in favour of clarifying the criminal process in other countries as they exist today. Mack offers readers a deeper look into five international legal systems: France, Russia, Spain, Germany and England. This work is unique and distinctive as it provides readers with a retrospective launching point from which to understand and compare current processes. Comparative Criminal Procedure is not just another criminal procedure casebook!” Continue to brochure.
List Price: $95.00 Published: Buffalo; William S. Hein & Co., Inc.; 2008
ABA Publication Announcement: Science for Lawyers
From the ABA Science and Technology Section:
Science for Lawyers
By Eric York Drogin, Editor