WMD Report

Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction: http://www.wmd.gov/report/

mea culpa, women's history month

i'm such a slacker. i neglected to mention that march is national women's history month. at least i remembered before april...

buy me, i'm cheap

blogshares thinks i'm worth money. probably thinks you're worth money too.

i think it's time for some meditation and tea, because i'm thinking about seven different things at any given moment and i'm not getting paid for any of them.

jybe.com

this is so cool: http://www.jybe.com/index.html

it lets you co-browse the internet with people, and it's free. i can't wait to try it out on some of my unsuspecting (well i guess not anymore) friends and family! not to mention coworkers...

from tame the web

charlotte bronte, that randy bitch

this article is FANTASTIC: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1445404,00.html
i may have to read jane eyre again, just because of it.

from bookslut

no worries about "netspeak"

so say the linguists:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2270&e=8&u=/krwashbureau/_bc_cpt_netspeak_wa

from slashdot

persistent vegetative state

donate yours today!

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/25/persistent_vegetativ.html

sometimes i hate technology

most days i can multitask up a storm. i'm a compulsive reader. i eat blogs for breakfast. the computer is my bestest friend.

but then i have days like today. i feel this incredible internet rage boiling up, and i just want to throw my computer out the-- well, i would say window but i don't have any windows in my office. today i don't care about DRM or podcasting or the ipod shuffle or what the government of a place with no vowels says about blogging...

i want to go climb a tree.

National Poetry Month

april is the 10th annual national poetry month: http://www.poets.org/npm/

world poetry day

today is world poetry day

the FDLP & the GPO

the gist of that article i posted the other day is this:

"The [GPO's] plan's 'new model' for the FDLP includes providing FDLP libraries "access" to documents, but says nothing about depositing digital publications in depository libraries. It speaks of providing search tools and "training to depository librarians to enable them to better serve their clients in locating and using Federal information" but nothing about managing digital collections. It says that FDLP libraries will be able to "substitute available electronic documents for printed documents" but again avoids saying that it will distribute or deposit such documents.24 In the GPO plan, digital materials will be in a "Digital Publication Content system" which it describes as "a complete FDLP digital information collection."25 ...These omissions are either severe oversights or intentional changes in policy. If they are changes in policy, then this, coupled with the drastic reductions in printed publications,26 means that GPO will no longer be depositing documents in depository libraries."

the GPO wants to develop one big centralized database to house government publications (which will all be published in electronic formats), which will be controlled by the government and offered to "customers" on a subscription basis, and STOP DEPOSITING DOCUMENTS IN FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES. this means that the only access to information that has been freely and publically available since the 1800s will now (if the GPO takes this route) no longer be free, and locally-focused goverment documents collections will no longer exist.

plus, as the authors of this document point out, it is "much easier to quietly remove a single digital copy from a government controlled web server" than it is to recall it from a federal depository library.

this is a truly appalling development.

say WHAT now?

"Want a job? Kick the habit: Montco considers a no-smoker hiring rule."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/montgomery_county/11104979.htm

bats!

there's a goth day at disney land! that is so cool!

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/15/goth_day_at_disneyla.html

scouse

i must agree that the only response to the liverpool accent is: "...huh?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/international/europe/15liverpool.html?ex=1111554000&en=f2d8f4c31b6f5e99&ei=5070

more information on "gormangate"

if you've been following the fallout from the ignorant comments made by michael gorman, ala president-elect, about blogs and "blog people," you might be interested in this latest development. american libraries, the mouthpiece of the ala, has posted this inadequate response to the uproar: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA510393

and, the response to the response in librarian blogger circles is as such: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2005/03/lj_paragrahs_re.html

and again with the shock and awe.

"Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html

(mentioned as an aside today by Free Range Librarian)

oh shocking.

the government wants to charge us AGAIN for documents we've already paid for with our taxes. why am i not surprised? [EDIT: this article doesn't go so far as to say that the gpo will start charging for documents that have historically been provided to the public for free, however they do say this: "While recognizing that it cannot rely solely on Congress for funds it nevertheless plans to increase the scope of its role without any long-term guarantee of adequate funding." which leads me to believe that charging for documents is what they really want to do and they're just gonna be passive aggressive about it.]
http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/jj/fdlp/

"Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program
by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo
[Article to appear in Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005, http://www.esevier.com/locate/jacalib]

ABSTRACT:
Rapid technological change has caused some to question the need for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). We argue that the traditional roles of FDLP libraries in selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to and services for government information are more important than ever in the digital age."

viva la gender anarchy!

talk about a kickass thesis project... i'm jealous!
http://a.parsons.edu/~amelia/thesisSite/index.html

what do librarians do in their spare time?

watch oclc worldcat grow: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/grow.htm

wireless internet

it took me all afternoon and part of the evening, but yesterday i set up wireless internet in our new abode. we got the cable internet turned on, and then, since i already had a cable modem, i went out and bought a router and an adapter. it took forever to figure out how to get it all to work together, but once i discovered that it's a bad idea to attempt to install routers and things wirelessly, it all went a lot smoother. of course, that meant that i had to buy a REALLY long ethernet cable around 9pm... but whatever. the only bummer is that it's only connecting at 54 Mbps wirelessly instead of 100 Mbps like it was with the ethernet cable.

y100rocks.com

i came back from vacation to find that my favorite radio station, the one i had listened to for the past ten years, the only "alternative" radio station in the area, y100 was dead. in its place was some ghastly "urban" station (the SAME "urban" station, i might add, that had swallowed up the radio station i listened to ten years ago, promting my switch to y100). the djs that got fired have started up this website: http://www.y100rocks.com/. they have a petition and all sorts of protesty stuff, and they're broadcasting online. they're trying to start a movement to get the station put back on the air. i'm actually kind of liking this version of the station better than the legitimate one... now i can listen to them at work!

i know it's not unusual for musical movements to die off, and honestly i didn't even like most of the stuff they played. but it's still sad, if only because i listened for so long it's like a long-time neighbor has moved to the congo and been eaten by a lion (hm. are there lions in the congo? *note to self: verify veracity of silly analogy*).

plus they had the only morning show i could stomach! i guess i better start drinking caffeine in the mornings, cuz their morning show was the only thing keeping me awake on my hour-long drive to work, and i don't think blinding rage is a healthy substitute...

open access bibliography

this is an incredible 129-page bibliography of open access materials, including books, conference papers, debates, editorials, e-prints, journal and magazine articles, news articles and more: http://info.lib.uh.edu/cwb/oab.pdf

NYTimes.com: LexisNexis Says Thieves May Have Taken Data on Consumers

ay caramba.

March 9, 2005
LexisNexis Says Thieves May Have Taken Data on Consumers
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
The LexisNexis Group, a major compiler of legal and consumer information, said that about 30,000 of its records may have fallen into the hands of thieves.

hey look at this weird guy

monkey's uncle

postmodern language association

alternative source citations: http://www.pmla.org/altsource.html

happy international women's day

happy international women's day

weird, rad, and so, so wrong...

don't blink or you'll miss it! (sorry, i couldn't resist): http://blinkorama.blogspot.com/

did those puppets just say what i think they just said?: http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/rainbow_tv_episode.html

i'm ba-ack!

ever seen a superlambbanana? well you should. it's about 16 feet tall, cadmium yellow, and it's...well, it's a lamb with a banana butt. and it travels around liverpool. totally rocks. pictures forthcoming.

today my mom IM'd me and said that since she's still sick after a week of feeling yucky she was going to call the doctor. then she IM'd me again to tell me that the receptionist at the dr's office was being snotty about there are no appointments available until monday and how usually people who need to be seen immediately call early in the day. my mom replied that she had been sleeping earlier in the day. so then the woman says, "so, do you want the monday appointment?" and my mom says, "no, i'll go crawl into a corner somewhere and die, instead" and hung up.

i heart my mom.