“Oh Jessamyn, you are such a fashion plate, I am sure you must know how to make some of those styling book earrings that every hip librarian is wearing lately, don’t you?”
“Well no, but a wiki can show you how.”
Author: jessamyn
wordpress 2.5 upgrade complete
Hi. I’ve just updated to WordPress 2.5 and while I find the admin interface horrible, the web site seems to look okay. This upgrade fixes some pretty nasty vulnerabilities that the 2.3-ish version of WordPress had. Do yourself a favor and take the time to update. If you notice anything gone kablooey about the blog post-update, please leave a comment here or drop me an email. Thanks!
Librarians notice “abortion” stop word, take action
“The world’s largest database on reproductive health, POPLINE, has been blocking searches using the term “abortion” since late February. The block was removed Friday afternoon…. The search block was discovered by medical librarians doing routine searches.” More on this story from Wired. Johns Hopkins who hosts the database made a strongly worded statement against the blocking of this term.
As near as I can tell, a few things happened in a row. USAID, who funds the database, complained about finding items in the database that did not “fit the criteria” of what the database was created for, items that were apparently pro-abortion in some way. From the Wired article
Sandra Jordan, director of communications in USAID’s office of population and reproductive health, could not identify the documents that prompted her office’s complaint, but said the publications were one-sided in favor of abortion rights. “We are part of the Bush administration, so we have to make sure that all parts of the story are told,” says Jordan. “The administration’s policy is definitely anti-abortion, and the administration does not see abortion as a part of family planning policy.”
The database administrators then dealt with the complaints by making searches for the term “abortion” come up blank, effectively making abortion a stop word in the database. Loriene Roy the president of ALA released a statement supporting Johns Hopkins removing the term from the stop word list.
I find this whole incident exceptionally creepy. While I’m pleased that the outcome was ultimately favorable to open access, the demonstration of the chilling effect of complaints about an information resource and the perhaps well-meaning but utlimately censorious actions of the database administrators is concerning. [thanks sven!]
a few quick talks from this weekend
I went down to Massachusetts to do a few short talks. They were all very different and most were somewhat reworked versions of talks I’ve done before. I also went to a MetaFilter meetup and had BLTs with Casey. Thanks to everyone who hosted me while I was down in MA. Here are links to the presentations I did.
- Teaching Tech in Libraries for an in-service day at Cambridge Public Library
- OPACs – The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good
for an information technology class at Simmons West that I was a guest at - Small Libraries and the Digital Divide & why it matters, a lot my contribution to an excellent panel about the Digital Divide that featured me, Pay Oyler a Simmons prof who went to train librarians in Vietnam, and Susan O’Connor who runs the Timothy Smith Network in Roxbury MA which I will post more about in another separate post.
Now I’m back to a week of teaching adult education classes and ripping plastic off the windows which I am sure will bring about a new ice age.
Digital Divide event at Simmons, Monday April 7th
If you’re in the Boston area on Monday you might be interested in the Digital Divide panel and discussion happening at Simmons College at 3 pm. I’ll be there talking about the rural digital divide along with two other panelists — Susan O’Connor and Pat Oyler — who will be discussing urban and international digital divide issues. It’s open to the public and if you haven’t been to the Simmons campus lately it’s worth a look.