The title of the 2009 institute is “The Right to Information Access”.

The United States Constitution codifies the right to free expression. But what rights have we to access the results of free expression?

“Libraries,” states the American Library Association, “help ensure that Americans can access the information they need – regardless of age, education, ethnicity, language, income, physical limitations or geographic barriers – as the digital world continues to evolve.” But two decades of rapid developments in information technologies have revealed a contradiction: it is easier than ever to disseminate information and to receive it, but it is also easier to control and monitor access to that information.

You can learn more and find links to view the webcast on this web page.

This event wil feature the following people:

+ John Willinsky, (keynote speaker) Professor of Education, Stanford University, Founder of the Public Knowledge Project and author of The Access Principle: the Case for Open Access. (MIT, 2005).

+ Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyright, US Copyright Office. Author of The General Guide to the Copyright Act of 1976.

+ John Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School . Co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Basic Books, 2008) and Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008).

+ Clifford Lynch, Director, Coalition of Networked Information, and member of the National Digital Strategy Advisory Board of the Library of Congress , Microsoft’s Technical Computing Science Advisory Board , the board of the New Media Consortium , and the Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access.

If you can’t view the event live it will remain available on the web page once it concludes.

Source: Penn State University Libraries
Hat Tip: CNI

The Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School has released a report identifying major barriers to broadband adoption among senior citizens and people with disabilities, and across the telemedicine, energy, education, and government sectors. This report was prepared in coordination with staff of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative (OBI) for use in the development of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.
…
ACLP Director Charles M. Davidson said “The report provides the FCC with a comprehensive analysis of major barriers to broadband adoption among under-adopting demographic groups and sectors of the economy. Our hope is that this report will be used as a starting point for further discussions regarding ways to maximize the adoption rate across every demographic group and sector.”

+ Full Report (PDF; 1.7 MB)

Here’s a link to the table of contents.

The part of the book containing essays on the future of scholarly publishing will likely be of greatest interest to ResourceShelf readers. It contains an introduction along with six essays written by a who’s who in scholarly publishing and information retrieval. What follows are direct links to each essay (PDF):

+ Introduction by Lee Dirks

+ Jim Gray’s fourth paradigm and the construction of the scientific record by Clifford Lynch

+ Text in a data-centric world Paul Ginsparg

+ All aboard: toward a machine-friendly scholarly communication system by Herbert Van de Sompel, Carl Lagoze

+ The future of data policy by Anne Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Kylie Pappalardo

+ I have seen the paradigm shift, and it is us by John Wilbanks

+ From web 2.0 to the global database by Timo Hannay

Access the Complete Table of Contents for All Four Parts of the Book

Source: Microsoft Research

Now, Mr. Malamud is involved a new project, Law.gov.

He explains what it’s all about in a new O’Reilly Radar blog post. He even mentions a role for librarians in the post.

Public.Resource.Org is very pleased to announce that we’re going to be working with a distinguished group of colleagues from across the country to create a solid business plan, technical specs, and enabling legislation for the federal government to create Law.Gov. We envision Law.Gov as a distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States. More details on the effort are available on our Law.Gov page.

[Snip]

The idea for Law.Gov seems to be getting a good reception in Washington, D.C. Senator Lieberman, writing on behalf of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the committee responsible for the E-Government Act, has already accepted our request to submit our report to the Committee. Additional formal requests to submit the completed report are outstanding.

[Snip]

Law.Gov is a big challenge for the legal world, and some of the best thinkers in that world have joined us as co-conveners…[Our emphasis] There are challenges for librarians as well, such as compiling a full listing of all materials that should be in the repository.

[Snip]

The factor that made this coalesce was the recent Government 2.0 Summit put on by Tim O’Reilly. I gave a talk at that summit about the need to put primary legal materials on-line, and it was gratifying to hear the Deputy CTO of the United States, in his closing keynote, highlight that as one of the issues which he thought the White House should help make real through their “moral authority and convening power.”

Much More in the Complete Article

Source: O’Reilly Radar

Not long ago, I asked a respected cancer researcher if he could send me raw data from a trial he had recently published. He refused. Sharing data would make the study team members “uncomfortable,” he said, as I might use this to “cast doubt” on their results.

I’d heard this before: as a statistician who designs and analyzes cancer studies, I regularly ask other researchers to provide additional information or raw data. Sometimes I want to use the data to test out a new idea or method of statistical analysis. And knowing exactly what happened in past studies can help me design better research for the future. Occasionally, however, there are statistical analyses I could run that might make an immediate and important impact on the lives of cancer patients.
…
Given the enormous physical, emotional and financial toll of cancer, one might expect researchers to promote the free and open exchange of information. The patients who volunteer for cancer trials often suffer through painful procedures and harsh experimental treatments in the hope of hastening a cure. The data they provide ought to belong to all of us. Yet cancer researchers typically treat it as their personal property.

Source: New York Times

A growing number of states are using legislation as a means of enabling the use of electronic or open-source textbooks. This ECS StateNote examines the differences between e-textbooks and open-source textbooks and takes a look at related action in several states.

See also: Exemplary State Online Resources for Students, Career Explorers and Adult Learners (PDF; 60 KB)

Source: Education Commission of the States

President Obama issued a directive to all Federal agencies calling for greater transparency, public participation, and collaboration. In response to this Directive, and in keeping with the work that has already been done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to encourage public input and provide science-based health resources and science information to the public, NIH posts this Request for Information (RFI) to offer a new public input opportunity. [Our Emphasis] The RFI will provide insight and better understanding of the health information needs and information-seeking behaviors of NIH health consumer audiences. Information gathered will assist the agency in developing and disseminating health, medical, and scientific information to a broader variety of audiences. The agency anticipates using new outreach strategies and tools, from community level outlets to Internet-based social media. Members of the public as well as organizations are invited and encouraged to participate in this public input opportunity.

[Snip]

The Request for Information (RFI) serves as a vehicle to obtain public comments on how NIH can best address communication challenges and requirements for the 21st century in the face of increased demands and shrinking resources. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information aimed at helping the NIH strengthen short- and long-term communications strategies while identifying cost-effective, meritorious, innovative, and legally sanctioned methods and outlets for disseminating health information to the public. Specifically, the RFI seeks information on the following:
+ The current state and range of health information-seeking behaviors and trends;
+ The range of health information of interest to the public;
+ How the public accesses and uses health information; and
+ The barriers that might impede NIH’s ability to communicate with health consumers.

Responses will be accepted through December 30, 2009. Please limit responses to the maximum number of words indicated for each response.

The complete RFI with a complete set of directions will be posted here in the next few days.

Source: Federal Register / National Institutes of Health
Hat Tip: M.Z.

From the Blog Post:

1) “My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”

One of the most popular intellectual freedom programs in years, this panel discussion was sponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Association of American Publishers, and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Speakers: Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. Moderated by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

2) “Privacy in an Era of Change”

An engrossing conversation about the status of privacy under the new administration. Cosponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and the ALA Washington Office. Speakers: Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; David Sobel, Senior Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Craig Wacker, program officer for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative.

3) “Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”

Sex ed advocate Marty Klein discusses the importance of having sexual information available to all library users. Sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.

4) “Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”

Librarians and library supporters from West Bend, Wisconsin share their perspective on the protracted censorship challenges going on in their community at this issues briefing session, sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Freedom to Read Foundation.

Source: OIF Blog

See Also: Banned Books Week Begins this Saturday. ResourceShelf has assembled and continues to update a growing compilation of web-based resources. You can find the compilation here.

Banned Books Week (BBW): Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where the freedom to express oneself and the freedom to choose what opinions and viewpoints to consume are both met. As the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:

Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Resources

+ Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008

+ List: Banned and Challenged Classics

+ List: Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

+ List: Frequently challenged books of the 21st century
Includes where and why the title was banned.

Background Information from 2001 to 2008

Over the past eight years, American libraries were faced with 3,736 challenges.

* 1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
* 1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”;
* 720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
* 458 challenges due to “violence”
* 269 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

1,176 of these challenges (approximately 31%) were in classrooms; 37% were in classrooms; 24% (or 909) took place in public libraries. There were less than 75 challenges to college classes; and only 36 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 51%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (11% and 6% respectively)

+ List: The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade
++ 1990-1999

+ List: Frequently Challenged Books by Year
Look for the links on the left-hand side of this page. Top 10 lists for 2001-2008 are available.

+ List: Most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century

+ List: Most Frequently Challenged Authors of Color List

+ Challenges to library materials
Includes definitions, “to clarify terminology associated with challenges.”

+ Number of Challenges by Year, Reason, Institution, & Initiator (1990 – 2008)

+ School Library Media Centers and Intellectual Freedom (via ALA)

+ Banned Books Week and the Freedom of the Press: Using a research collection for campus outreach (via ACRL News)
An article by Melissa A. Hubbard, a rare book librarian at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

+ Library Bill of Rights

++ Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

+++ Questions and Answers: Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

+ Ideas and Resources
++ Clip Art and Badges
++ BBW Proclamation
++ Activity Ideas for Banned Books Week

+ ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom

+ ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee

Source: Office of Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association

+ See Also: BannedBooksWeek.org
++Book Censorship Map

+ See Also: Resources from the Association of American Publishers (AAP)
++ Freedom to Read Briefs 2008/2009 (PDF)
++ Materials from Various Publishers

+ See Also: Banned Books Week Handbook (American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression)

See Also: Anti-Censorship Center (National Council of Teachers of English, NCTE)
++ NCTE Position Statements on Censorship and Intellectual Freedom

Videos

4 New Videos (from ALA Annual Conference 2009) Now Available from the Office of Intellectual Freedom. You can access direct links and summaries to them via this ResourceShelf post. The video programs are titled:
+ “My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”
+ “Privacy in an Era of Change”
+ “Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”
+ “Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”

Press

+ Our View – A good week to read a few banned books (via Iowa City Press-Citizen, 9/25/2009)

+ Opinion: Finding Censorship Where There Is None (via Wall Street Journal, 9/25/2009)

+ Advocates Protest Censorship For Banned Books Week: ‘Read-Out’ By Banned Or Challenged Authors Set For Saturday In Chicago (CBS 2-Chicago, 9/25/2009)

+ Passages From ‘Banned Books’ to Be Read Aloud (The Ledger, Lakeland, FL, 9/21/2009)

+ Norman parent’s questions stop author’s visit to school (The Daily Oklahoman, 9/22/2009)

+ Banned Books Week adopts author’s anti-censorship poem as manifesto (The Guardian, 9/24/2009)

+ Even Banned Books Week has its detractors (surprise?) (Comic Book Resources)

+ Banned Books Week: Still Needed in the U.S. (via The Huffington Post)

+ Maya Angelou shares thoughts on Banned Book Week (via Press-Enterprise)

Manuals

+ California Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual

+ Colorado Association of Libraries, Intellectual Freedom Manual

+ Florida Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual

+ Kansas Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual

+ Louisiana Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)

+ Maryland Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)

+ New York Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual

+ Virginia Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
||| PDF Version

+ South Dakota Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)

+ Utah Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual And Action Guide

The head of the Federal Communications Commission will propose new rules to prevent Internet providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web traffic, a move that could set off a battle with phone and cable companies that don’t want the government telling them how to run their networks.

In a speech Monday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to outline proposals for new rules that would require Internet providers to treat all legal Web traffic equally, according to people familiar with the proposal. The rules would also be extended to include wireless arms of giants like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. as well as cable providers like Comcast Corp.

See Also: What is Net Neutrality?

Source: Wall Street Journal

The recently released “Next Steps” planning communication from the European Commission (EC) gives Europeana (www.europena.eu)a just praise as a showcase for European cultural artifacts. But it calls for much more collaboration to increase content, find digital rights solutions, and establish sustainable funding. The EC is asking for comments from individuals and organizations to guide the future development of its prime i2010 digital libraries project.

[Snip]

It’s not just more works that must be added. More equal participation from all member libraries is required, and original-language content must be increased. As of July, France is still the biggest contributor to Europeana, providing 47% of the content, though that is down from the 52% share it had on launch. Germany is next with 15%; the Netherlands and the U.K. each have contributed 8%; Sweden, Finland, and Norway (which is not even an EU member) hover at 4%-5%; and others trail far behind with 1% or less.

A more noticeable problem for many users-and an embarrassing one since Europeana prides itself on offering interfaces in the native language of all its members-is that many national treasures are not there in the original language. If you do a search on Da Vinci, for example, you will find 460 objects in French but only 140 in Italian. Shakespeare is represented with 606 items in French and only 317 in English. The Spanish writer Cervantes has 176 objects in French and just 43 in Spanish. And you might think that the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was really German, with 387 items provided in German and only one in Danish!

The article goes on to discuss:

+ Copyright and Orphan Works
+ The 20th-Century Black Hole and Public Domain
+ Future Funding
+ Commissioner Reding’s Support for Google Books
+ Collaboration Continues

Source: InfoToday NewsBreaks

See Also: Open Rights Group speaks at EU Commissions Google Books Hearing

See Also: Google Tries to Assuage EU Doubters of Its US Books Deal; France Files Objections to Deal

See Also: Germany: Google book deal violates copyright law

See Also: Europeana: Eastern Europe Dawdles in Digital Culture

See Also: Next Steps for Europeana’: Database Doubles in Size But Also Shows EU’s Lack of Common Web Copyright Solution

See Also: ‘EuropeanaConnect’ opens door to Europe’s sound collections

See Also: EU asks publishers for feedback on Google Books

See Also: Resource of the Week: Europeana (From April, 2009)

In the 21st century, workers and students need more diverse skills to compete in a global economy. The Obama Administration has called for the development of 21st century skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity. At the same time the capacity of cultural institutions to engage the public in innovative learning experiences has created a new dynamic for delivering library and museum service. Libraries and museums that adapt to these changes are playing a significant role in delivering 21st century skills to learners of all ages.

As part of its mission to engage libraries and museums, community stakeholders and policy makers at the national, state and local level in a concerted effort to meet the educational, economic, civic, and cultural needs of communities, IMLS is releasing Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills. The website provides a quick online assessment for libraries and museums to evaluate their readiness to engage the public and to deliver 21st century skills, a downloadable pdf of a report and in-depth assessment matrix for library and museum practioners and policy makers.

+ Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills

Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services

In the world according to Vint Cerf, Google’s “chief evangelist” and one of the Internet’s pioneers, broadband will be treated like a utility, with new infrastructure providing maximum benefit to the public and entrepreneurs seeking to harness it.

“It’s not only broadband — it’s broadband access. …That’s important,” Cerf said today at an FCC workshop that will help the agency craft a sweeping national broadband plan to be presented to Congress in February. “If we want to maximize the utility of the broadband investment in the United States, [the Internet] needs to be very widely accessible.”

The forum is one of two dozen the FCC is holding in August and early September.

Source: Congress Daily (via NextGov)

The NLM Special Queries page now includes a link to a new subject page on Electronic Health Records (EHR).

The US Department of Health and Human Services defines an electronic health record as “An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.”

The MEDLINE/PubMed Search & Electronic Health Record Information Resources page offers a PubMed search including subject terms and other keywords. Areas of coverage include implementation, attitudes, beliefs and use, data privacy, health data standards, and consumer access to the EHR and personal health records. This search strategy retrieves literature in many languages and from more than 27,000 PubMed citations, including research from many countries.

Source: NLM Technical Bulletin
Hat Tip: P.W.

Nine years ago — a lifetime in Internet time — the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a policy commonly referred to as “the cookies policy. ” This policy prohibited federal agencies from using certain web-tracking technologies, primarily persistent cookies, unless the agency head provided a waiver. This may sound like arcane, boring policy – but it is really important in the online world.

As Executive Sponsor of the Federal Web Managers Council and Director of USA.gov, I know the importance of this policy issue in serving the public. The “cookie policy” has been the topic of frequent discussion among federal web managers over the years as we strive to provide the best customer service online while protecting individual privacy. We want to use cookies for good, not evil. As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to create a more open and innovative government, OMB wants public input to determine how to best update the cookie policy to meet these goals.

Let your voices be heard. Get more background on cookies, the policy, and the new framework OMB is considering and visit the OSTP blog where you can comment. Help us help you.

Source: White House Blog

Articles Include:

+ e-Framework Implements New Workplan
Ian Dolphin and Phil Nicholls describe recent and forthcoming developments from the e-Framework Partnership for Education and Research.

+ A Support Framework for Remote Workers
Marieke Guy follows up on her two previous articles for Ariadne with an overview of an evolving structure to provide consistent support to UKOLN colleagues who work remotely.

+ To VRE or Not to VRE?: Do South African Malaria Researchers Need a Virtual Research Environment?
Heila Pienaar and Martie van Deventer identify the requirements of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) for malaria researchers in South Africa.

+ Spinning a Semantic Web for Metadata: Developments in the IEMSR
Emma Tonkin and Alexey Strelnikov reflect on the experience of developing components for the Information Environment Metadata Schema Registry.

+ Three Perspectives on the Evolving Infrastructure of Institutional Research Repositories in Europe
Marjan Vernooy-Gerritsen, Gera Pronk and Maurits van der Graaf report on the most significant results from two surveys conducted to provide an overview of repositories with research output in the European Union.

+ Making Digital Cultures: Access, Interactivity, and Authenticity
Lina Coelho finds this study of the cultural terrain of modern institutions, where digital and analogue objects co-exist, both challenging and thought-provoking.

+ Book Review: Managing Electronic Government Information in Libraries: Issues and Practices
Sylvie Lafortune reviews a book which addresses the following question: From e-government to t-government. How will libraries keep up?

+ Reader Development in Practice: bringing literature to readers
Abigail Luthmann examines a varied collection of approaches to the topic of reader development.

+ Sketching Tomorrow
Emma Tonkin takes a look at an ambitious work on the relationship of modern society to information and communication technologies and observes more sins of omission than commission.

+ More Content Available Including Conference Reports

Source: Ariadne / UKOLN

Net Neutrality, the idea that the Internet should be provided to all without discrimination based on content or applications, has been an important policy issue in the last few years. The focus of the presentation will be on key concepts, historical perspectives, legislative issues, and the impact of Net Neutrality on libraries and their users.

Direct to Full Text (42 page; PDF)

Authors: Alex Guindon and Danielle Dennie; Presented June 1, 2009.

Source: CLA/ACB 2009 National Conference and Tradeshow (via E-LIS)

This report includes discussions of:

+ Cookies
+ Social Networking
+ Search Logs
+ Location data and Geocoding
+ Government Use of Commercial Databases
+ Data Mining

From the Summary:

Soon after passage of the Privacy Act of 1974, experts noted loopholes in the law. The Act’s limitations have become more significant with the passage of time, as information technology has become more prevalent in the operation of government programs. And while the fundamentals of the Act—the principles of fair information practices—remain relevant and current, the letter of the Act and related law and policy do not reflect the realities of current technologies and do not protect against many important threats to privacy.

Inattention by policymakers to the underlying problems, and relatively little White House guidance, has meant that privacy policy is left to the individual agencies. There has been a lack of government?wide direction, and only a few privacy leaders in key agencies have been empowered by their internal leadership to fill the policy vacuum.

Moreover, new technologies not covered by the Act are generating new questions and concerns. For example, the Federal government has provided no guidance on technologies that allow civilian government agencies to track individuals and retain data about individuals by default. And government use of private?sector databases now allows the collection and use of detailed personal information with few privacy protections. Because little guidance has been provided to the agencies since the Privacy Act was enacted, agency policy and procedure have not adapted to technological change.

Source: Information Security and Privacy Board (U.S.)