A couple days ago I heard an interview with James Boyle on NPR that reminded me of a lot of information related issues that I have previously discussed with other librarians (and my father). See Boyle bring up the issue that current copyright laws are actually a disservice to the general public. While no one wants the author of any piece, be it in writing, audio or visual format to be robbed of their intellectual products, we also need to think of the needs of the general public.

Copyright is supposed to give the intellectual author of a piece credit and when appropriate, income from their work. All this is great, the problems begin when people begin extending these rights for increasingly long periods of time, and passing these rights down through the generations. In effect this creates a scenario where an increasingly larger amount of information is under copyright, but out of print, and therefore out of reach to most users.

For a little historical background, the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) dates back to 1998, when copyright in the USA was extended by an additional 20 years. Before copyright would last the lifetime of the author, plus an additional 50 years, 75 years in the case of a corporate authorship. Fair enough, but now the extended term says the copyright holder has copyright for a lifetime plus 70 years, and 120 years for corporate authorship. These extended dates are making more and more information inaccessible to users.

I’ve discussed these issues with my father because he works as a scientist in a third world country and he is often frustrated by finding so much intellectual material inaccessible. The organization where he works has little money to buy access to the large (and expensive) journal databases, the fact that he lives outside the USA means that mailing documents back and forth is difficult, costly and timely. So how is he supposed to get current information to keep up to date in his field? He’s been forced to increasingly rely on Google Scholar, which he thinks is a great source to find useful citations, but often doesn’t provide full text article. And we’re back to large amounts of information being out of the reach of users.

All this brings me back to the issues of copyright, and in Boyle’s case to the Public Domain. As a people it is in our collective best interest to be educated. There are plenty of books, pieces of music, movies and the like that have become part of our collective understanding of the world, and we should all be able to use these works. And I’m not advocating that authors get the short end of the stick and not be able to claim copyright. Everyone who produces intellectual material of some kind or other should be given full credit for their work, and should be allowed to profit from it when appropriate, but I don’t see why this person’s offspring or trust holder should continue to make money off their work when they are not the authors. Likewise it bothers me that this situation prevents people like my father from being able to access material in an inexpensive and timely manner.

Fortunately a few things are changing. For one people are starting to publish in the public domain, making their work available under licenses such as Creative Commons. (Even president elect Obama has begun using them!) Universities such as Harvard are encouraging their faculty to embrace open access and sites such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) are helping us find more and more information that is freely available to us.

Coming back to that NPR interviews, you should check out James Boyle’s book The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. He will give you much more detail on the subject, and true to his word, you can either purchase the book, of download the entire thing for free from his website!

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A couple weeks ago Google come out with one more impressive online collection. This time it’s the LIFE Photo Archive. Most of us have probably seen the powerful images that have been printed in LIFE Magazine over the decades. Google’s press release explains that only a small percentage of this archive has been made public, but now we get to see a much larger portion of the collection.

From the front page of the collection you can browse images by decade, as well as use the search box to find more specific images. Some of the options include searching for individual people, places, sports, cultures and events. The site also suggest we add “source:life” to searches to make sure the images we get are the ones from this collection.

While looking through some of the images, I’ve found that results show you a variety of images, but if you open an individual image, you’ll find tags related to the image, information as to where the photograph was taken, the date, and size of image (You have the option of two sizes for all images). When available, you are also given a few “related images.”

The images you’ll find are for the most part photographs, although there are a few posters, and pieces of art work as well. Currently the collections begins back in the 1860s, and reaches the 1970s. The plan is to eventually catch up with current times.

The collection is really great, so happy browsing!

Image: “Cats Blackie & Brownie catching squirts of milk during milking at Arch Badertscher’s dairy farm” by Nat Farbman.

Hace un par de semanas Google salio con otra impresionante colección. Esta vez se trata de la colección LIFE Photo Archive. Muchos de nosotros probablemente hemos vista algunas de las impactantes imágenes que han salido en la revista LIFE a través de las décadas. El comunicado de presa de Google explica que solo una pequeña parte de esta colección alguna vez se ha puesto a la disposición del público, pero ahora tendremos la oportunidad de una porción mucho más grande.

Desde la página principal de la colección podrá ojear por década, al igual que usar la caja de búsqueda para conducir una búsqueda más específica. Algunas de las opciones de búsqueda incluyen buscar por persona individual, lugares, deportes, cultura, y eventos. El sitio también nos sugiere que agreguemos “source:life” a nuestra búsqueda para asegurar que los resultados realmente sean parte de esta colección.

Mientras miraba algunas de las imágenes me he dado cuenta que los resultados nos muestran una variedad de imágenes, información sobre donde se tomo la foto, fecha, y el tamaño de la imagen (tendrá opción de dos tamaños diferentes). Cuando haya imágenes relacionadas con esta, también le serán disponibles.

Las imágenes que encontraran son en su mayoría fotografías, aunque también encontrara algunos afiches, y obras de arte. Actualmente la colección empieza en el año 1860 y llega hasta 1970. El plan es eventualmente ponerse al día con el presente.

Esta colección es realmente asombrosa, así es que a diviértete ojeándola!
Imagen “Cats Blackie & Brownie catching squirts of milk during milking at Arch Badertscher’s dairy farm” de Nat Farbman.

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In honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I’m highlighting a couple stories about the subject from around the world.

• Earlier this year UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched UNite to End Violence Against Women, a campaign that wished to create awareness and raise political will to address both the effects and causes  of violence against women.
• This year culminates the first phase of UNFEM’s Say NO to Violence campaign. This campaign is based on the same principles as the one above with the added emphasis of wanting to demonstrate that there is a large world wide constituency that demands better treatment for women.

Here are some soberring facts (visit site for full list), coutesy of Feminist.com;

• 17.6% of women in the Unites States have survived a complete of attempted rape.
• 64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend or date.
• Only about half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police.
• Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.  Every 15 seconds a woman is battered, usually by her intimate partner.
• Females ages 12 to 24 are at the greatest risk of experiencing a rape or sexual assault.
• World wide 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually.
• More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation.

On this day I can’t help but notice the many campaigns out there calling for an end to violence against women, every I’m surprised (and maybe I shouldn’t be) to see that things haven’t really changed all that much from the previous year. But I think what gets me the most is thinking that we are being victimized by the very people in our lives. They say that the vast majority of women who have had to suffer through any kind of gendered attack knew her assailant. Also, since I currently live in the USA, I always shudder to think of the sky high levels of violence towards women that take place every day here when this country is supposedly at “peace”…

Sigh, maybe next year will be better…

“All of us – men and women, soldiers and peacekeepers, citizens and leaders – have a responsibility to help end violence against women. States must honor their commitments to prevent violence, bring perpetrators to justice and provide redress to victims. And each of us must speak out in out families, workplaces and communities, so that acts of violence against cease.” – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

If you want to learn more about the history of this day, check out my entry from last year.

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WorldLinQ is a site created at Queens Public Library which gathers a wide range of useful websites in a variety of different languages. The site offered link to public websites offering information on news, education, recreation, health, science, and a variety of other topics. The site connection you to relevant links in a multitude of languages, each entry annotated both in the original language and in English. Do note that because each language entry links to relevant resources in the corresponding language, entries vary in content.

The site was created about 10 years ago with initial funding from At&T, and was devised as an non-traditional way of reaching out to the very diverse library community of Queens borough. Currently it functions in 15 different languages, including Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and French, just to name a few. But this ambitious project hopes to one day function on all 150+ languages in use in the Queens Public Library community. If you are fluent in a language not yet on the site, you may consider offering your help with gathering useful links and providing the basica annotations needed.

Access to WorldLinQ and Queens Public Library.

WorldLinQ es un sitio web creado por la Biblioteca Pública de Queen (NY) que reúne una gran variedad de recursos útiles en una cantidad de idiomas. La página ofrece enlaces a sitios que ofrecen información sobre las noticias actuales, educación, recreación, salud, las ciencias, y otra cantidad de temas. El sitio lo conectara a una cantidad de recursos útiles en una multitud de idiomas, todos anotados tanto en su idioma original como en ingles. Por favor note que debajo de cada página de un idioma encontrara recursos apropiados a ese idioma, por lo tanto varían entre un idioma y otro.

El sitio fue creado hace ya 10 años con fundación inicial de AT&T, y con la idea de crear una forma poco tradicional de conectarse con la comunidad de Queens. Actualmente WorldLinQ funciona en 15 idiomas, incluyendo español, italiano, rumano, y francés, entre muchos otros. Lo increíble es que este ambicioso proyecto espera algún día funcionar en todos los 150+ idiomas que se usan a diario en la Biblioteca Pública de Queens! Si de casualidad usted sabe algún idioma que todavía no tenga pagina, de pronto le interese ofrecer su ayuda encontrando enlaces relevantes, y proporcionando las anotaciones necesarias.

Acceso a WorldLinQ y a la Biblioteca Pública de Queens.

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At ALA I sat in on a great presentation titled Digitizing Indian Country. The first presentation was on Alaska’s Digital Archives. The collection brings together photographs, oral histories, maps, moving images and other files that record the state’s history between 1860 until the early years of statehood. Material was gathered partially through an invitation to the state’s community to share their photographs and other items related to this period in Alaska’s history.

Mientras asistía a la conferencia de ALA vi una presentación buenísima de titulo “Digitizing Indian Country”. La primera presentación fue sobre Alaska’s Digital Archives, una colección que reúne fotografías, historias orales, mapas, imágenes de video, y otros documentos, que juntos hacen record de la historia del estado desde 1860 hasta sus primeros años como estado de EEUU. El material aquí reunido se recogió por medio de un llamado a la comunidad de compartir sus fotos viejas, y otros documentos relacionados con la historia de Alaska durante este periodo de su historia.

Currently the collection is divided into two larger categories; Alaska Native History & Cultures, and Movement to Statehood. Under Alaska Native History & Cultures you will find links to a rich collection of photographs, and moving images organized in categories such as Religion and Church Leadership, Education, Art, Traditional Technology, and Ceremonial Life, among others. The Movement to Statehood collection is divided into categories such as Government, Military, Natural Resources, and Society and Daily Life, among others. You can browse both collections by geographical region, or by time period. Every photograph contains information on provenance, time period, subject headings assigned and holding institution. The site also provides access to a detailed timeline of the state.

Actualmente la colección está dividida entre dos categorías; La historia y cultura indígena de Alaska, y el movimiento para convertirse en estado. Bajo la primera categoría encontrara enlaces a una rica colección de fotografías, e imágenes de video organizadas bajo categorías como religión, iglesia, educación, arte, tecnología tradicional, y ceremonias, entre otras. Bajo la segunda categoría encontrara la colección dividida bajo categorías como gobierno, ejército, recursos naturales, sociedad, y vida diaria, entre otras. También podrá ojear la colección por regio geográfica, o por periodo de tiempo. Cada fotografía contiene información de su proveniencia, periodo de tiempo, y categorías asignadas por la institución. También podrá encontrar acceso a una detallada línea de tiempo que traza la historia del estado.

Image from the Anchorage Museum of Rasmuson Center, Library & Archives.

La imagen usada es del Anchorage Museum of Rasmuson Center, Library & Archives.

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While at ALA a couple of weeks ago I attended a great lecture on the IRRT Sister Library Initiative, a project spearheaded by Meaghan O’Connor, Simmons College’s Fellow for Dean’s Initiatives. The site is set up in wiki format and provides a space for libraries wishing to have a sister library relation to find each other. Libraries of all kinds (academic, public, school, special collections) can create profiles noting their contact information, area of specialty and interests, as well as what they are looking for in a sister library, and level of commitment.

The project functions under the ALA’s IRRT (International Relations Round Table) and aims at promoting international relations between libraries in an effort to educate users at both sites and increase resources. The wiki contains a page dedicated to success stories of libraries that are already involved in sister library relationships (stories are organized alphabetically by USA library). These can help potential participants get a better idea of how the relations can help enrich libraries on either side, as well as provide advice towards potential difficulties.

Some of the success stories include the friendship between Queens Borough Public Library and Shanghai Library which explain that Queens was the first USA library to have a sister library relation with a Chinese library. The two libraries have been helping each other out for over a decade now, during which time exhibits, book, and even personnel have gone back and forth between the two sites. Another interesting story is the one between Swarthmore College Library and the University of Ghana, Legon. Here the two libraries have focused on sharing material relating to dance and music.

If these stories have piqued your curiosity to become involved in a sister library relation, the wiki also offers guidelines for advance planning, and there is a list of suggested activities most libraries can engage in. The site also functions in Spanish, although it’s not as rich as the English version.

A few external links are mentioned on the wiki include Sister Cities International, IFLA, along with a few other links to general projects involving international work.

Mientras asistía ala conferencia del ALA atendí una charla muy interesante sobre la Iniciativa TRRI de Bibliotecas Hermanas. Este es un proyecto encabezado por Meaghan O’Connor, becaria de Iniciativas del decano, en Simmons College. El sitio se creó en formato “wiki” y proporciona un espacio para las bibliotecas que deseen tener una relación de hermanas con otra biblioteca. Bibliotecas de todo tipo (académicas, públicas, escolares, colecciones especiales) pueden crear perfiles, anotando sus datos de contacto, área de especialidad e intereses, así como lo que están buscando en una biblioteca hermana, y el nivel de compromiso.

El proyecto funciona bajo IRRT de la ALA (Mesa Redonda de Relaciones Internacionales) y tiene como objetivo promover las relaciones internacionales entre bibliotecas en un esfuerzo por educar a los usuarios en ambos sitios y aumentar los recursos. El wiki contiene una página dedicada a las historias de éxito de las bibliotecas que ya están involucradas (las historias están organizados alfabéticamente por la biblioteca en EE.UU.). Estas historias pueden ayudar a los posibles participantes a tener una mejor idea de cómo funcionan estas relaciones, incluyendo en enriquecimiento mutuo, además de ofrecer asesoramiento a las posibles dificultades.

Algunos de los ejemplos de éxito son la amistad entre Queens Borough Public Library y la Biblioteca de Shanghái que explican que la biblioteca de Queens fue la primera en EE.UU. en tienen una relación hermana con luna biblioteca china. Las dos bibliotecas han estado ayudándose por más de una década, tiempo durante el cual exhibiciones, libros, e incluso personal han ido y venido entre los dos sitios. Otra historia interesante es la que existe entre Swarthmore College y la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Ghana, Legón. Aquí las dos bibliotecas se han centrado en el intercambio de material relacionado con la danza y la música.

Si estas historias han despertado su curiosidad a involucrarse en una relación de bibliotecas hermanas, el wiki también ofrece directrices para la planificación por adelantado, y hay una lista de actividades por proponer. Tenga en cuenta que la versión en inglés es bastante más completa que la versión en español

El wiki también tiene algunos enlaces externos incluyendo la Sociedad Internacional de Ciudades Hermanas, IFLA, junto con algunos enlaces a otros proyectos generales que implican trabajo internacional.

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Lubuto means knowledge, enlightenment and light in the Bemba language, and this is exactly what the Lubuto Library Project is proving vulnerable children throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The project is a non-profit based in Washington DC which has been providing library services since 2005. Their aim is to help provide information, a space for socialization, and a positive physical environment for children throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The project began after seeing the success a makeshift library at the Fountain of Hope Center which provided help for street children, victims of the AIDS crisis.

Each Lubuto Library has starts out with a collection of 5,000 items, primarily non-fiction, and covering a wide range of subjects. The initial collection has only English language books, but material in local languages is added once the library is established.

Interestingly, this project helps children in the USA as well. The project aims to educate children in the USA about the impact of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, while helping create the collections, organizing them, and helping out with other aspects of the project, as well as learning about the children these libraries will impact.

The above video shows the libraries, the children they service, as well as the children in the USA who organize book drives and help keep the project going in a number of other ways.

You can learn more about this project by visiting their website.

En el lenguaje Bemba Lubuto quiere decir renacimiento y luz, y esto es exactamente lo que el Proyecto de Bibliotecas Lubuto esta ofreciendo a los niños más vulnerables en el sub-Sahara africano.

Este es un proyecto sin ánimo de lucro basado en Washington DC y han estado ofreciendo servicios de biblioteca desde el 2005. El proyecto se esfuerza por ofrecer información, un espacio para socializar, y un lugar positivo donde pueden reunirse los niños del área. El proyecto comenzó después de ver al excito creado después de construir una biblioteca temporal en el Centro Fountain of Hope, quienes proveen ayuda para niños de la calle y victimas del SIDA.

Cada biblioteca de Lubuto empieza con una colección de 5,000 volúmenes, incluyendo libros históricos, cubriendo un gran rango de temas. La donación de libros inicial llega solo con libros en ingles, pero luego se le agregan volumenes en idiomas de la región.

Curiosamente este proyecto ayuda a niños en EEUU también. Mientras los niños ayudan con las colecciones y otros aspectos del proyecto aprender sobre el impacto del SIDA en el sub-Sahara africano, y sobre los niños quienes usan estas bibliotecas.

Este video muestra las bibliotecas, los niños que las usan, y algunos de los niños en EEUU quienes ayudar a recoger libros y promueven el proyecto.

Puede aprender más sobre este proyecto visitando su sitio Web.

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A few days ago OCLC and Google Books created a partnership that will allow uses of both services to benefit, and better locate library material. OCLC member libraries who already have agreements with Google Books will now be able to make their MARC records available through Google, which will increase the visibility of material. Basically this partnership will allow users of the web to search for books and other library material be guided towards specific library catalogs, which will then provide full access to books that are already part of Google Books. Ideally this set up will drive up traffic for libraries both online and in person. Web users will be able to access full text books from home, but those who wish to borrow the books will be able to see local libraries’ holding.

You can read OCLCs press release on the matter here.

Hace un par de días que OCLC y Google Book llegaron a un acuerdo por medio del cual se beneficiaran los usuarios de ambos sistemas, y será mas fácil encontrar material bibliotecario. Bibliotecas miembros de OCLC que ya tengan acuerdos con Google Books ahora podrán hacer sus registros en forma MARC disponibles por medio de Google, lo cual aumentara su visibilidad en la red. Básicamente este acuerdo ayudara a los usuarios de la red a buscar libros y fácilmente ser guiados hacia el catalogo en línea de las bibliotecas que tienen el material deseado, el cual a su vez dará acceso completo al libro por medio de Google Books. Bajo las mejores circunstancias este acuerdo incrementara el tráfico a las bibliotecas, tanto virtualmente como en persona. Los usuarios de la red podrán ver los libros digitalmente, pero quienes deseen prestar el libro podrán ver a que biblioteca ir.

Usted puede leer el artículo (en ingles) de prensa sobre el tema aquí.

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This week NYC is celebrating a legacy of immigration through Immigrant Heritage Week. The New York Public Library has created a number of events highlighting the culture of a number of immigrant groups. Events include bilingual story time, exploration of traditional Latin music, classes of Chinese ribbon dance, photographs illustrating Greek immigration into the city, a guitarist playing Caribbean tones, music from Bangladesh, Dominican folk dances, Mexican Mariachis, Flamenco music and dance, among others.

If you happen to live in NYC or close enough, stop by and enjoy the festivities!

You can find a full schedule of events here.

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Based on the belief that American popular culture is shaping a new global environment which each day looks more hegemonic, the National Library of Venezuela has decided to fight back. Under the direction of Fernando Báez, the National Library of Venezuela will now try to fight what they believe is a global commercialization of world libraries, an effort, they believe is spearheaded by the Library of Congress in the USA. This project wishes to expand the country’s network of public libraries, promoting nation-wide reading, and build a National Digital Library.

Fernando Báez is the author of the world wide best seller “Historia universal de la destrucción de libros,” (Universal History of the Destruction of Books) and “La destrucción cultural de Iraq” (The cultural Destruction of Iraq) which made him a persona non grata in the USA.

Granted that this program could just as well limit local diversity, it is interesting to see a formal attempt at preserving local flavor. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one to see how it unfolds.

You can read the press release (in Spanish) from the National Library of Venezuela here.

Con base en la creencia de que la cultura popular estadounidense está dando forma a un nuevo entorno mundial que cada día se vuelve más hegemónica, la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela ha decidido crear oposición. Bajo la dirección de Fernando Báez, la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela ahora tratará de luchar contra lo que creen que es una comercialización global de las bibliotecas del mundo, un esfuerzo que creen que está encabezado por la Biblioteca del Congreso de los EE.UU. Este proyecto quiere ampliar la red de bibliotecas públicas del país, la promover la lectura a lo largo de la nación, y construir una Biblioteca Digital Nacional.

Fernando Báez es el autor del “best-seller” mundial “Historia Universal de la Destrucción de Libros y “La Destrucción Cultural de Iraq,” cosa que lo convirtió en personaje non grata en los EE.UU.

Concedido que este programa bien podría limitar la diversidad local, es interesante ver un intento formal de preservar el sabor local. Vamos a tener que mantener un ojo sobre éste proceso para ver cómo se desarrolla.

Usted puede leer el comunicado de prensa de la Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela aquí.

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