ALA Positions 

Principles for a networked World

Eight years ago, a group of librarians met in Washington to discuss the Internet's potential impact on libraries. Their goal was to prepare a statement of principles to guide libraries in what was already shaping up to be a major policy reassessment in telecommunication and information policy. Printed in draft form, the principles were never fully adopted by ALA. Nevertheless, the draft version proved to be a helpful resource for library policy advocacy.

Possibly the most important and farsighted contribution of that draft statement was the overall message it carried -- that libraries have a huge stake in helping shape the ongoing digital revolution and that their voices should be heard in a wide range of policy debates.

ALA's OITP Advisory Committee and Committee on Legislation decided this year that it was time to revisit and possibly rewrite the principles. After all, eight years is an eternity in digital time. The Internet has grown by orders of magnitude in size and capability in that time. Nearly all libraries now provide their users with access to the Internet (compared to an estimated 10 percent of libraries in 1993.) Indeed, major policy fights have erupted and, as we expected, libraries are in the middle of them all.

We are no longer speculating on a future technology and the role libraries would play. Digital technology is now part of librarians' daily lives. Eight years ago, we were trying to predict what policy issues would emerge. Today most policy issues are better defined and the potential impacts on libraries clearer. [read more]

ResourcesResources> 

AcqWeb's Directory of Publishers and Vendors

Steven Cohen of Library Stuff is now offering an email version, Library Stuff Daily. Sign-up today!

Holiday Family Entertainment Suggestion 

Simple, go see the first installment of the movie epic The Lord of the Rings

Some "Ring" resources:

• The Secret of Tolkien's 'Rings'
• TheOneRing.net
• TolkienMovies.com

What's in a name? 

ac…me n.
Noun: The highest point, as of achievement or development: reached the acme of her career.

Other ACMEs on the Web

Words 

Omniglot: a guide to writing systems

What is an omniglot?
An omniglot is a rare, possibly mythical, book-eating beastie. The word 'omniglot' comes from the Latin omnis (all) and the Greek glotta (tongue) and means 'proficient in all languages' or 'having knowledge of all languages'.

What is the purpose of this site?

• To provide information about all writing systems and the languages they are used to write.

It currently contains details of over 150 different scripts, including a few you'll find nowhere else.
(link via leuschke.org)

Kids Predict the Future 

Libraries of the Future
(link via Library Juice)

Digital Delivery 

Penguin Classics Inks Deal With Ebrary

ebrary, a provider of information distribution and retrieval services, announced that Penguin Classics will distribute its library to new online markets via ebrary's software, ebrarian. Penguin Books is an imprint of Penguin Putnam Inc. [read more]

DMCA 

Court Decisions Tilt DMCA Balance Away From Libraries, Users by K. Matthew Dames

Critics of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act will spend part of this holiday season figuring out how to use the lumps of coal a pair of federal courts tossed them in response to lawsuits that challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 law. [read more]

Digital Technology 

A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections

This Framework is intended for two audiences: first, for people who are working in the context of projects and want to develop good digital collections; and second, for funding organizations and agencies that want to encourage the creation of good digital collections. [read more]

Surrogate or the Real Thing 

The Israel Museum and the Electronic Surrogate by Susan Hazan

If the intrinsic experience of a museum is about its material collections, why would a museum even want an electronic surrogate? [read more]

Bibliotheca Alexandria 

Bibliotheca Alexandrina: The revival of the ancient Library of Alexandria

At the meeting point of the three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe, Egypt has been the cradle of civilizations since ancient times.

The ancient city of Alexandria, one of the glories of antiquity, was at the beginning of the third century B.C. the birthplace of the great plan to build a library: the BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA. But the library, this vast storehouse of learning, was destroyed by a fire which ravaged Alexandria. The Egyptian Government, in close co-operation with UNESCO, has decided to build a new library in Alexandria to endow this part of the world with an important focal point for culture, education and science. [read and see more]

Official website of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

New library 'open to all' by Tariq Hassan-Gordon of the Middle East Times

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina located just a stone's throw from the site of its historical predecessor will be a space for free speech and intellectual debate said the library's director-general, Ismail Serageldin.

"No question is off limits," said Serageldin on December 9 during a speech to the Cairo Foreign Press Association. "We have to have a space of freedom, for free speech. History teaches us that Socrates was given a cup of hemlock but his ideas survived."

Seragaldin, an internationally respected academic who was previously a vice president of the World Bank, may find that his vision for freedom of expression is undermined by the politics of the day. Once the library initiates its cultural programming and book collection, there may be a divergent interpretation of acceptable free speech between the library and the government. [read more]

E-Book News 

Adobe Not Giving Up On E-Book Market by Calvin Reid

Though it has watched a succession of major e-publishing operations go out of business, Adobe , the firm offering Adobe Acrobat and other e-publishing software, remains convinced that e-publishing and e-books will eventually grow into a significant market. [read more]