Spring forward…Fall back….

It’s ingrained in our consciousness almost as much as the A-B-Cs or our spelling reminder of “i before e….” And it’s a regular event, though perhaps a bit less regular than the swallows coming back to Capistrano.

Yet in those four words is a whole collection of trivia, facts and common sense about Daylight Saving Time.

In 2005 and 2006, Daylight Saving Time begins for most of the United States at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April. Time reverts to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at:

2 a.m. on the Second Sunday in March
to
2 a.m. on the First Sunday of November.

The new start and stop dates were set in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Everything you ever wanted to know about daylight savings time.

Source: NationalAtlas.gov

The National Cancer Institute at NIH offers an in-depth site with a lot of information,

Here are a few (of many) online resources that might be of use to you.

+ Get Live Help from the Cancer Information Service at NIH
Chat online from 9am-11pm EST, M-F.

+ Breast Cancer “Health Topic” Compilation from MedlinePlus
Organized into various categories. Very useful.

+ Breast Cancer Interactive Tutorial ||| Spanish Language Version
Both versions from Patient Education Institute at NLM.

+ Male Breast Cancer “Health Topic” Compilation from MedlinePlus

+ Breast Cancer Resources News and Info from the American Cancer Society

+ Breast Cancer (MayoClinic.com)

+ Breast Cancer (Cancer Center, Stanford University School of Medicine)

+ Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (American Cancer Society)

+ ClinicalTrials.gov: Breast Neoplasms From the National Institutes of Health (National Cancer Institute)

+ ClinicalTrials.gov: Paget’s Disease, Mammary From the National Institutes of Health (National Cancer Institute)

+ Breast Cancer Prevention Studies From the National Institutes of Health (National Cancer Institute)

This week the International Olympic Committe (IOC) will announce which city (Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro or Madrid) will host the 2016 Olympic Games. The announcement will take place on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark during the Olympic Congress.

The IOC has made several resources available online including four that utilize popular social media tools:

+ Photos via Flickr

+ Twitter Feed

+ Facebook Page

+ YouTube Channel

+ The IOC sponsored an online video contest. More than 200 people entered. Two winners won a trip to Copenhagen for the Congress. More about the Winners with direct inks to their winning videos posted on YouTube in this announcement.

What Else is Available:

+ Official Web Site

+ A Live Video Feed of the Final Presentations and Announcement Will Be Available Here

+ Broadcast Quality Videos Can Be Accessed and Downloaded for Free (Login: IOC Password: MEDIA2009)

+ Cool! Olympic Review Magazine
A Full Text, Full Image eMagazine, dedicated to the Olympic Congress Note: It can take a while to download the complete 84 page document, utilizes technology from Digipage. You can view thumbnails of pages, see facing pages, keyword search the publication, etc.

Fact Sheets
+ Theme 1 – The Athletes
+ Theme 2 – The Olympic Games
+ Theme 3 – The Structure of the Olympic Movement
+ Theme 4 – Olympism and Youth
+ Theme 5 – The Digital Revolution

+ Practical Information and Official Schedule of Events (for Media)
Both Documents are PDF Files.

During the past week we’ve been compiling online resources that have to do with BBW, intellectual freedom, etc.

We will continue to update the collection this week with more resources. You can access the growing compilation here.

The National Book Festival is full of useful information including maps and schedules.

One very exciting feature allows you to listen to a large collection of interviews online with some of the authors who will be in attendance. LC’s Matt Raymond is the interviewer.

Some of the Other Features Accessible on the National Book Festival Website Include:

+ Young Readers’ Toolkit

+ Materials (including podcasts) from past NBF. This link will allow you to browse all of the podcasts/interviews ever done for the festival. As we post this item 510 are available. You can also browse podcasts by category.

+ A Complete List of Authors

+ A Link to view the Official 2009 Festival Poster

This blog post talks about “connecting” with the NBF.

Topics include:

+ A web site optimized for mobile browsers

+ Text message updates (we’ve blogged about them a few weeks ago)

+ A large monitor in the Library of Congress Pavilion that will publicly display (in real time) all of twittering taking place at the festival. That’s right, tweets for all to read.

Source: LC

UPDATE 9/25 A Dozen Ways to Enjoy the National Book Festival (via LC Blog)

LC’s Matt Raymond goes over 12 ways (we mentioned a few above) to enjoy the festival while in DC or online elsewhere.
herlc/index.php”>via this page. You can also access webcasts from the 2007 and 2008 festivals here. Matt says that this year’s webcasts will be online by mid- to late-afternoon tomorrow. You can also find content direct from iTunesU and the Library of Congress Channel on YouTube.

If you’re near a TV you can also watch the festival via C-SPAN beginning at 9:50 am. Here’s the C-SPAN program schedule.

Again, a review of this latest blog post is more than worth a look. Nice job Matt!

Almost forgot:
If you’re going to the festival, don’t forget to visit the Digital Bookmobile. It will, “showcase eBooks and other digital formats available 24/7 from America’s libraries.” The bookmobile has a Twitter feed (@DigiBookmobile) and Facebook page.

From a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article

News junkies, social studies teachers and anyone just fascinated with the outpouring of information related to the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh might want to play around with this Web site set up by a local advertising agency.

Mullen’s new G20Buzz.com is set up [our emphasis] to pull information from online services such as Google News, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Anything that’s tagged with the G-20 label should show up, said Aaron Clark, who designed the site for the Strip District agency.

Read more

Access G20Buzz.com

Source: PP-G
Hat Tip: P.W.

See Also: Official G-20 Pittsburgh Web Site

See Also: Must See Pittsburgh (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Includes Blogs and Twitter Feed and Archive.

See Also: Official G-20 Pittsburgh Media Center

See Also: G-20 Pittsburgh Summit Press Room

See Also: Official G-20 Web Site ||| FAQ

See Also: Interactive Graphic: G20 Pittsburgh: Objectives and action (via Financial Times)

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued today the Schedule of Release Dates for Principal Federal Economic Indicators for 2010. The schedule is available online.

Principal Federal economic indicators are the major statistical series that describe the current condition of the economy. They are compiled, released, and periodically evaluated in accordance with procedures established in OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 3.

• Each agency that issues these economic indicators has provided OMB with its schedule of releases for the upcoming calendar year.

• If special, unforeseen circumstances make it necessary to change any scheduled release date after this consolidated schedule is issued, the agency must announce and explain the change as soon as it is known.
• Also, each release of a principal economic indicator will include an announcement of the date and time of the next release. The last release in the calendar year will provide a schedule for the next calendar year.

+ Schedule of Release Dates for Principal Federal Economic Indicators for 2010 (PDF; 51 KB)

Source: U.S. Office of Management and Budget

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

From the Article

News junkies, social studies teachers and anyone just fascinated with the outpouring of information related to the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh might want to play around with this Web site set up by a local advertising agency.

Mullen’s new G20Buzz.com is set up [our emphasis] to pull information from online services such as Google News, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Anything that’s tagged with the G-20 label should show up, said Aaron Clark, who designed the site for the Strip District agency.

Read more

Access G20Buzz.com

Source: PP-G
Hat Tip: P.W.

See Also: Official G-20 Pittsburgh Web Site

See Also: Must See Pittsburgh (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Includes Blogs and Twitter Feed and Archive.

See Also: Official G-20 Pittsburgh Media Center

See Also: G-20 Pittsburgh Summit Press Room

See Also: Official G-20 Web Site ||| FAQ

See Also: Interactive Graphic: G20 Pittsburgh: Objectives and action (via Financial Times)

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Law Library of Congress presents this guide providing commentary and recommended resources.

Sections Include:
+ Overview
+ Legislative Branch Documents
+ Executive Branch Documents

Direct to Resource Guide

More Resources for Hispanic Heritage Month via the Library of Congress

Sources: Law Library of Congress / LC

See Also: Looking for Stats and Facts About the Hispanic Population in the U.S.?
This “fast fact” guide is loaded down with all sorts of interesting and useful numbers.

Gary found this jewel on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) website, and we thought it was deserving of a little love. Actually, down in the lower right corner, there’s a little info box that says, “The Sports calendar is provided by the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).” But if it’s good enough for the International Olympic Committee, it’s good enough for us.

The dropdown menus make this calendar dead-simple to use. You can zero in on a particular time period, Olympic sport, and/or geographic location. It goes as far back as 2002 (if you’re interested in the recent past) and as far ahead as 2013. Nice bonus: The names of the individual sports are hyperlinked. Click on the link to get a brief description and history.

While you’re here, have a look at the IOC Library (”Reference centre for the publications of the Olympic Movement”). You’ll find an online catalog, bibliographies, and various reports and other publications.

NewsBank, inc., announced today the launch of NewsInHistory.com, a subscription service providing easy access to fully-searchable historical U.S. newspapers published from 1800-2000.

Featuring thousands of newspapers from all 50 states, including new content added monthly, NewsInHistory.com provides an exceptional record of the topics, people, issues and events that shaped America’s past.

[Snip]

NewsInHistory.com offers cover-to-cover reproductions of thousands of historical newspapers and millions of articles that capture the civic, political, social and cultural events of American life. This new resource will appeal to a broad spectrum of users, from the serious scholarly researcher to the casual user interested in learning more about the nation’s past.

Access NewsinHistory

Learn More About Subscribing to the Database

Source: NewsBank

+ Direct to Key Dates

+ Observances & Commemorations
Also free and updated monthly this list focuses in on events in the United States.

See Also: For More Online Event and Observances Calendars, See This Post.

2) U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock
From GIF clocks to telephone clocks via USNO Master Clock.
Dial: (202) 762-1401, (202) 762-1069, or (719) 567-6742.
See Also: NIST Time Services From Clocks, History, Online Exhibits, FAQ’s and more.

3) Lists:
+ List of countries that observe DST during 2009 (with start and end dates)

4) Facts:
All About Daylight Saving Time: A Resource of the Week Compilation
Shirl compiled a bunch of resources on the topic.

5) Facts:
Daylight Saving Time (RS22284)
3 pages; PDF. Another version was published on 9/27/2005.

Another CRS report (98-99) is available.
The report was first published in 1998 and last updated in 2002.
Source: Congressional Research Service

6) Fast Facts: Daylight Saving Time (via Infoplease.com)

7) Several software programs to sync your computer to various atomic clocks. Several of them are free to download and use.
Source: SnapFiles

Visit USA.gov’s Happy Holidays page for gift ideas, recipes, travel tips, volunteer resources, and much more!

See also: American Holidays (USA.gov)

Source: InfoPlease