rory on blogs

Rory has an essay worth reading on the blog people thing. Of particular note are two points. His quote “Library Juice is not a blog, but I will wear a “blog person” button if you send me one.” points to a certain sort of solidarity that can be useful in library and blogging communities alike. Secondly, he mentions the “blogging craze” whereby every new group with a web site decides that site must be a blog. There are many ways to put information on the web and we shouldn’t forget the Right Tool for the Right Job maxim. Blogging has brought many reluctant technology users into the world of quickly and effortlesssly shared information, let’s not bludgeon them with the term and then confuse them and mutate it to shove it in places it doesn’t belong.

[blogs] have become the default format for any new website, regardless of the appropriateness of a centrally chronological organizing principle. These days, any time a group is organized they set up a blog, as though all they can imagine offering via the web is their latest news and links. I think a blog is a logical part of a larger website, but often small organizations miss the boat when they make it their primary presence, with a single scanty page, linked only from the blog, telling us “about the organization” when information concerning the rganization could easily make up a site of its own and deserves prominence and accessibility.

Has the PATRIOT Act been used or not?

The USA PATRIOT Act is never far from my mind. An ALA Councilor has urged the ALA to sign on with a bipartisan group called Patriots to Resore Checks and Balances. Congressman Bernie Sanders is still working on his bill to repeal Section 215, and someone sent me this Newsweek article which, contrary to conventional wisdom and current “on the record” statements, has Ashcroft’s aids claiming that Section 215 was responsible for a terrorism-related arrest. Meanwhile, many provisions sunset in just eight months.

learn this term: DRM

About half the people at my second talk and very few at my first talk knew what Digital Rights Management (DRM) was. Since librarians will be dealing with more products with increasing amounts of DRM, it’s a good term to get cozy with, carry a few examples in your toolkit, etc. The DRM blog is a good place to start learning as is EFF’s DRM section. My favorite examples, phrased in the form of patron questions:
“This DVD won’t play on my computer without me having an Internet connection and installing special software. Why?”
“I paid for a song using the iTunes store but now I can’t move that song to a different computer. Why?”
“I can’t play music I’ve legally downloaded from the Internet in open source format on my iPod. Why?” [note: not strictly a DRM issue]
“Is it really illegal for me to use my screenreader software to listen to the ebook I’ve cheked out? Why? “