Bookmobile. Brewster Kahle's Bookmobile doesn't seem like a replacement for public libraries. The distinction between "a book on demand" and "any book printed on demand" is not that slight. But the bookmobile does converge with the larger future of the print book sustained by digital access. [future of the book news]

5:02:24 PM    

Personal Voices: A Hysterical Librarian.

At AlterNet, Kim Antieau, a public librarian from Washington state, reflects on the library commitment to civil liberties and the freedom to read, and how the USA Patriot Act affects those freedoms. From the essay:

"I'm not saying libraries are safe places. They aren't now, and they never have been. They are filled with all kinds of revolutionary – and wrong – information. Everyone can find something in a public library to offend and outrage them. At the same time, it was a unique public space where people could get information and view it at their leisure without anyone keeping track of what they were viewing, researching, or reading. That was before the Patriot Act, of course."

The piece is a strong, personal perspective on the library as an institution based on freedom of information and how the anti-terror legislation changes the relationship between libraries and their patrons.

[commons-blog]

4:32:50 PM