Tuesday, August 20, 2002

eBooks:  eBook Locator helps you find reclusive ebook titles regardless of where they might be hiding on the net.  A feature that is especially nice is the "Top 5 Bestselling eBooks" on the right hand side of the screen.  3:15:32 PM

"Tax Revolt Takes Aim at a County's Libraries" [The Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk] Here's another good news item.  Thanks, Gary. 3:00:05 PM

A List of Collaborative Live Reference Services [The Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk] The above is a news item on Bernie Sloan's compilation of live reference projects.  Is your library on his list? Bernie Sloan has also put together this bibliography on digital reference services.  2:26:43 PM

Problems with category links:  We're having problems getting the category links working.  Please bear with us as we work on getting this fixed. 1:09:28 PM

Privacy: Statewatch: monitoring civil liberties in the EU. [Privacy Digest] Also, Privacy.org which is a joint project of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Washington, DC) and Privacy International (London, England and Washington, DC) are informative resources. Why is watching these developments important?  Many states have privacy laws that pertain to libraries and library records.   But some recently proposed federal legislation may impact those laws, like the USA Patriot Act.  For more on how privacy laws may impact libraries, see the ALA Washington Office site and Robert Hughes' article, "Free Libraries, Free Society," in American Libraries. But some libraries also provide Internet service like an ISP.  For example, Bensenville Public Library in Illinois is the home of CleaRNET, the community network for Bensenville.  Libraries that provide community networks (email accounts, etc.) might have to negotiate their way through these possible conflicts between the state laws that protect patrons' rights to privacy and other laws, like the proposed EU one that would require keeping of communication records by communication providers for up to a year. 12:53:24 PM

Chicago Sun-Times: has a Mobile Edition for PDAs that they have started to advertise.  They are offering a free trial.   But after the 30 day trial, it's a subscription service.  The subscription runs $4.99 a month or $49.99 for a year.  12:05:36 PM

Be Happy! Found a new Palm site today: HappyPalm.com.  Their moto is "everything you need to keep your PDA happy." 11:37:49 AM

"Know your federal judge - the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary is a great publication, but for years it was only available in print.  It has biographical information on all of the judges in the federal judiciary.  Stuff like who appointed them, date of birth, educational and professional background and so forth.  It also now includes financial information gleaned from the mandatory disclosures that the judges are required to file.  By far the most useful facet of the work is the anonymous comments of practioners  I haven't used the book lately (because it costs a lot to update and our copy has most of the judges that we need to know about), but when I did last look at it I was impressed at how useful and accurate the comments (taken in the aggregate) were.  The Almanac, which is published by Aspen Publishers, is now available online.  The bad news is that it costs $1,900 (although you can try it free for 10 days).  The online service provides a directory of court guidelines that is updated 3 times a year.   If you spend a significant amount of time in federal courts outside of your home turf then the price of this publication is a pittance." [Ernie the Attorney] Thanks to Ernie the Attorney and his ab fab blog for reviewing this legal resource. CLS members: What do you think of this?  How useful is it to you?  Please let us know if this is of interest to you as a CLS member library in CLS Online.  If there's interest, I'll see if Aspen would be willing to work out a consortial discount for CLS members. 11:26:08 AM

Computer friendly clothing: ScotteVest is taking pre-orders for their newest additions to their PDA compatible clothing line. 11:13:24 AM

Library Dating - Pick me up and read me [LISNews.com] What a great idea for both public and academic libraries! 11:04:55 AM

"One Book, One Chicago:" The Chicago Public Library has announced the next book in its "One Book, One Chicago" reading series: Willa Cather's My Antonia.  The reading of My Antonia will culminate with the city's annual reading festival in October, The Chicago Book Festival: City of Big Readers.  Previous reads in the series include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Night by Elie Wiesel.  The Chicago Sun Times ran this story on the series on August 15. 10:22:26 AM

Circus@yourlibrary: The Illinois State Library has recently announced the following: "Secretary of  State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus have teamed up for an exciting new program targeting children ages 4 through 9. Kids who enroll in the program at their local library will be eligible for great prizes based upon the number of books they read. The top prize is a FREE ticket to the world-famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus-"the Greatest Show on Earth"! Other fun prizes include clown noses, bookmarks and stickers. Libraries enrolling in the program are asked to display circus posters that promote reading. Libraries will also monitor each participating child's progress, notify the State Library of the number of prizes needed, and distribute the prizes to children. If you are interested in enrolling your library in this exiting program, please fill out the application form at http://eli.sls.lib.il.us/circusenroll.html by September 9, 2002." 9:49:49 AM

OCLC is currently inviting participation in a web-based survey of library workers and managers, entitled "Training and Education of Library Workers."  Outsell, Inc. is conducting this survey for OCLC. The  interactive survey takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes to complete and will be available until Friday, September 13.  Click this link to access the survey Web page.   The user id is: Library and the password is: Survey. The survey has approximately 35 questions.  It can be saved to be finished at a later time, if you are interrupted or unable to complete the survey in a single session. 9:16:03 AM

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