I've been struggling with the fact that I spend so much time commenting on things other than library technology on this weblog. The problem is the name of the blog, not that I really wish to change the balance of topics being addressed.
Therefore, I've decided to change the name of the weblog to "Mentat."
There's a lot of talk about RFID tags and whether or not libraries should be using them given the possible privacy abuses inherent in the technology. Rather than point to another big long list of articles to read on the topic (although I can do that too....contact me offline), I'm going to refer you to this one, very technical, article:
Privacy and Security in Library RFID Issues, Practices, and Architectures Ed: broken link removed 2011 by David Molnar and David Wagner.
The Supreme Court has struck down Ed: broken link removed 2011 the Child Online Protection Act . Says Kennedy "For now, the law, known as the Child Online Protection Act, would sweep with too broad a brush."
See also the Legal Challenge to the Child Online Protection Act.
Yippeee!
Via WEB4LIB, courtesy of Don Wood, ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Of course, I've got to say I told you so because I did....
"The release of filter modules by the integrated library systems (ILS) is another likely development in the filter market..." [from Chapter 5: What's Next For Library Filtering?, Library Technology Reports, March-April 2004 by moi Ed: broken link removed 2011].
So Dynix has "chosen ContentWatch as filtering provider" per the listing in New Product News, Public Libraries March/April 2004.
There seems to be a crevice in the digital divide. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has issued two reports that suggest there are haves, have-nots and also have-a-lots.
In his 4/19/04 report Ed: broken link removed 2011 "55% of Adult Internet Users Have Broadband at Home or Work", John Horrigan reports 68 million adult Americans have broadband either at home or work. 48 million have broadband connections at home, an increase of 60% since March 2003.
Excellent article in the April 2004 issue of Computers in Libraries about the Kanguard filtering system available to Kansas public libraries that choose to opt in to the free, state library provided service.
I learned about it when I was researching my filtering paper for Library Technology Reports Ed: broken link removed 2011and was delighted to hear about at least one region working together to make something that works for libraries.