Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
I'm off to New Mexico in about three hours. Likely to have other things on my mind than blogging. I'm taking Martin Amis's Time's Arrow and Marylaine Block's How to Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet as my alternative to inflight movies. Interesting to see how many names I recognised from Marylaine's book - I guess that's one of the greatest things about the internet - I feel much more in touch with who the key figures in my field are, far more so than when I was previously studying (psychology). Weblogs and websites enable anyone with a passing interest in a field to keep current, whereas in the Dark Ages (pre-1996) I would have been reliant on reading a decent handful of academic journals. Reading blogs lets me skim the surface of the field, to at least be aware of what is going on, and gives me the option to read more deeply where I choose.

| posted by Simon at 4:26 pm

 
This is a great story. Justafan.org is a site set up by fans of Wilco as a 'payback' to the band for making its new album available for download months before the official release date. The site enables fans to make donations to Doctors Without Borders, as "a symbolic downpayment...in advance of the album's release....as a measure of good faith....to show that there will always be an audience who will pay for good music".

The site notes that when Wilco's last album was made available online months before its commercial release, it ended up being their biggest-selling album yet, reaching #13 on Billboard.

So: Wilco gets their album out online, and it doesn't hurt their sales. The fans get to hear the songs in advance of the release date. Doctors Without Borders get some extra cash.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Off Metafilter

| posted by Simon at 9:58 am

 
"Bloomfield's may be the first public library in the nation to charge library card holders for the Internet, national library officials said.

News of the new policy sparked reactions of surprise, outrage and sympathy from residents, local libraries directors and national advocacy groups.

Library officials said the $1 fee is necessary to offset its increasing computer costs, which are estimated at about $12,000 a year. "

I'm showing total naivety here, but I was under the impression that New Zealand libraries charged for internet access. I could be totally wrong - I don't (and never have) worked in a public library, and I've never needed to use one to get online. I guess this becomes a question of what's a core service - what is something that users have a legitimate expectation of being able to access without charge?

I think it's hard to argue that internet access doesn't fall into this category, now. Especially when so many governments are moving to make the internet their main point of contact with citizens. And I presume they aren't charging patrons to borrow books in order to offset acquisition costs. So why is the net different?

Via Techdirt from the Star-Ledger (New Jersey).

| posted by Simon at 11:42 pm