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| Library
Trends and Issues |
Librarian of Congress’s Digital Copyright Ruling Limits
Fair Use
Librarian of Congress James Billington has released his
ruling on the anticircumvention provision of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, allowing only two exceptions to the measure. The
provision, Section 1201(a) of the act, makes it illegal to access copyrighted
works that are protected by technological measures such as passwords or
encryption unless the access is authorized through rules set out by the
Librarian of Congress.
ALA’s Washington Office reports that Billington adopted
the recommendation of Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters to provide
exemptions only for malfunctions and to determine which sites are blocked by
filtering software. The ruling ignores comments submitted by ALA and other
library groups urging fair use exemptions from the act’s new technological
restrictions.
“The Copyright Office has issued a misguided ruling
taking away from students, researchers, teachers, and librarians the
long-standing basic right of fair use to our nation’s digital resources,”
said ALA President Nancy Kranich. “All library users will be impacted.” ALA
says it is considering its options, which include requesting a reconsideration
of the ruling as well as litigation.
Source: ALAOnline
Internet and Libraries
Would you believe that 75% of Internet users also use
public libraries? The reasons: more confidence in the information,
protection of privacy, and helpful assistance. These results are part of a
recent study conducted by the Urban Libraries Council. Another finding in
the report- users feel the Internet is more accessible, as it is open when
needed; this finding indicates that libraries have an opportunity to enhance
services by making traditional services available via the Internet. See the
results
Way to go Ohio Public Libraries!
Congratulations to Ohio's Public Library Community! The Annual HAPLR
ratings, which quantify public library performance through a number of
statistical measures have been released and Ohio is #1.
View the full report: http://www.ala.org/alonline/archive/hennen2000.pdf
Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens - Email
NOLA Regional Library System
|
Parent Permitted to Review School Internet
Use Logs
A New Hampshire court has ruled that a father of four has the right to review
the Internet history logs tracking the site visits of students, faculty, and
staff at the Exeter Region Cooperative and the Exeter school districts. The
November 6 decision by Rockingham Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson states
that online history logs are indeed public information, and that all information
that could identify specific users must be deleted beforehand at the expense of
the person requesting the logs.
The precedent set by such a decision should be
noted by both public schools and libraries as requests for this type of
information may become more common in the future.
Source: ALA Online
|
| From
the Field |
New
Top Level Domain Names Announced
After more than two years of discussion ICANN has approved 7 new
"top level" domain names. Current top level domains such as
.com, .org, and .edu, will be joined by .aero (Air Transportation), .biz
(Business), .coop (Cooperative Businesses), .info (General Information),
.name (Personal and Family Sites) and .pro (Professionals).
Libraries interested in .info domain names will have
to wait until Spring 2001 before they get register their new names.
|
Internet
Use and Access Continue to Increase
Internet usage has crossed the 10-hour mark for U.S. home users, with
people spending 23 percent more time online last month than a year ago.
Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. reported Internet users at home surfed an average
of 10 hours and 4 minutes in October 2000, compared to 8 hours and 13
minutes in October 1999. Internet penetration also continued to rise, with
54 percent of the U.S. population having access to the Web from home.
Internet access peaked in October 2000 with nearly 150 million people
having access, a 32 percent increase over the same time last year.Source:
SiliconValley.com
News from Comdex
For the computer community the annual Comdex show is one of the most
significant events throughout the year. For this reason many vendors
elect to debut new products and technologies at the show. Some of
the hot new technologies introduced this year include.
Gateway
and Microsoft's Web Tablets
Electrically
conductive fabric used to create things like cloth keyboards
Sony's next generation electronic
dog
Personal radar and pulse radio
Digital Paper
Politics and Filtering
According to the anti-filtering organization Peacefire,
two popular filters -- Bess and CyberPatrol -- blocked the web sites of several
Congressional candidates, despite the companies' claim that blocked sites are
reviewed by company staffers. Peacefire did its search with the Full Nudity,
Partial Nudity, and Sexual Acts/Text categories of CyberPatrol enabled. With
Bess, the Typical School Filtering setting blocks all free-hosting services,
which included several candidates' sites.
Source: LJ Digital
Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens - Email
NOLA Regional Library System
|
 |
Why is my
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the Gallery of Mattresses,
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in Peru walking on a highwire stretched over Madonna's bed during a solar
eclipse? hmmm...move over
Freud.
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Items submitted by:
Reflinks Members [email protected]
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