Acme to move T1 line 

On Monday, March 4th at 4:30 pm EST, we will be moving our T1 line to a more secure location. We expect this to only disrupt service for a short time. Allow up to 1 hour for this change over to take place and please accept our apologies, in advance, for any inconvenience.

Librarians and Publishers 

Librarians and Publishers Find Common Ground in Joint Working Group by Deanna B. Marcum

...With a commitment to work together more effectively on behalf of the user community, the AAP Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division has joined with CLIR to create a Working Group of Librarians and Publishers. The first meeting of the group, held in New York City on January 31, 2002, was devoted to identifying common concerns and developing a problem-solving strategy. [read more]

USA Patriot Act and The Library 

The Patriot Act: Last Refuge of a Scoundrel by Karen G. Schneider

ìPatriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.î
--Samuel Johnson

First of all, Iím a hawk. I believe we should be in Afghanistan, Iíd like to see bin Laden oh, say, six feet under, and behind my bifocals, this middle-aged veteran cheers her colleagues in the armed forces defending our nation.

However, the USA Patriot Act (AL, Jan., p. 20) is treason pure and simple, and you need to know how and why, because it presents particularly pernicious issues for the users who rely on your Internet services.

The Patriot Act is not antiterrorism legislation; itís antispeech legislation, and is no more a direct response to the September 11 attacks than the Childrenís Internet Protection Act is a direct result of sincere concern by members of Congress about the safety of minors. The cold, cynical reality is that the Patriot Act is a bloated hodgepodge of speech-chilling law that lurked in congressional corridors not only before September 11 but in large part before the Bush administration. It was hustled into reality in the post-9/11 environment so quickly, secretively, and undemocratically that our Bill of Rights had been clocked with a one-two punch well before any of us realized it was under attack. [read more]

From ALA--Alert: USA PATRIOT Act

SSSCA 

From Library Juice--SSSCA? What Now?!

The SSSCA is the "Security Systems Standards and Certification Act," and it is scheduled to be introduced in congress soon by Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. It's being pushed by the record industry as a copy-prevention guarantee. What the bill would do, most significantly, would be to make it an offense to make or sell any kind of computer equipment that doesn't have built in copy protection technology (which, logically, would be an abridgement of our fair use rights). [read more]