Category Archives: Government

Indiana Open Source ILS Initiative

This announcement by the Indiana State Library and the Hussey Mayfield Memorial Public Library in Zionsville is significant : they aim to make Indiana the third statewide implementation of the Evergreen ILS, assuming that it meets their needs. Third??? Well, … Continue reading

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Presidential Primary Results

I am a bit of a political junkie… and it generally won’t spill over onto this blog. However, one resource that I have found very interesting when examining Ohio and New Hampshire results has been Google Maps coverage of the … Continue reading

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USA.gov Mobile

USA.gov Mobile is a great little search tool for government web pages and toll-free numbers (and it is well designed for your PC, even though it is made for mobile browsers). found via ResourceShelf

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Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control – Draft Report

Library of Congress’ Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control released their Draft Report (Pdf) today, and are requesting that people review and comment on their recommendations between now and December 15th. This promises to be one of the … Continue reading

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Copyright Cost Trend

Three items have caught my eye this past week, and they all point in the same direction, even though they each are about something fairly specific: First was an article about a bill working its way through the Ohio General … Continue reading

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WebWISER

WebWISER is an online access point for WISER, which stands for Wireless Information Sytem for Emergency Responders.  This database of information on hazardous materials is maintained by the National Library of Medicine, and can be used to both find information … Continue reading

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American FactFinder

American FactFinder is a lookup service from the U.S. Census Bureau that will provide a decent snapshot of statistical information for a given geographical area.  Enter your zip code, city or county and there you go! found in the third … Continue reading

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OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap is a U.K.-based project that fulfills a great need:  an open, collaborative mapping project.  Ever find an error in MapQuest, Google Maps, or Yahoo Maps?  Can’t do much about it, can you?  OpenStreetMap will be able to be updated … Continue reading

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NIH and Public Access

There is a bill being voted upon by the U.S. Senate on October 15th which will potentially open up a great deal of research being done with National Institute of Health (NIH) funding.  The bill will mandate that the public … Continue reading

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AltLaw

AltLaw.org, according to the site, “is a joint project of Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology, and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School.”  The site’s purpose:  to allow the user to search case … Continue reading

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Deceptive Copyright Notices

Deceptive Copyright Notices is a post by Karen Coyle post about those notices that restrict the reader’s/viewer’s rights beyond what is allowable under copyright, and an interesting complaint filed with the FTC. Also included is a neat reversal of the FBI … Continue reading

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Diary of Saad Eskander

The Diary of Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraqi National Library and Archive is available via the British Library website.  In the diary, Dr. Eskander details the day-to-day challenges faced by the library staff as they attempt to do their … Continue reading

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Britain Rejects Copyright Extension

The British Government has rejected an extension of copyright beyond the current 50 year term.  This is interesting for a few reasons, including the impending rush of British Invasion music becoming royalty-free, but mostly because it may signal a sea change … Continue reading

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WorldWideScience.org

WorldWideScience.org is a federated search tool for science resources sponsored by The British Library, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, and eight other participating countries.  It searches 15 science portals and combines the results for … Continue reading

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Lawrence Lessig: the next 10 years

Lawrence Lessig, chair of Creative Commons, writer for Wired Magazine, and much much more, has announced that he is changing the course of his life, and will be attempting to champion the cause of a democratic society.  Don’t read my … Continue reading

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LOUISdb

It is called the Library Of Unified Information Sources, a.k.a. LOUIS.  It’s purpose is to make it easier for people to learn about what is happening in the federal government, and is sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation. It currently contains … Continue reading

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Public Libraries ROI

A newly released study, Taxpayer Return-on-Investment (ROI) in Pennsylvania Public Libraries (Pdf), comes to an interesting and positive conclusion:  for every $10 of tax money invested in public libraries, the Pennsylvania taxpayers receive a return of $55. found on ResourceShelf

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Border Patrol, Library Style

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House has a somewhat unique situation:  it straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. Now, according to this article in the Washington Times, the U.S. Border Patrol is cracking down on those who cross the border to … Continue reading

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Library of Congress Blog

It seems odd that it hasn’t happened before now, but the Library of Congress has just started a blog. from One Big Library

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Library of Congress/Archive.org Preservation Project

This article from Linux.com is a great overview of what it takes to run a digitization project with fragile material and across great distance, as the Library of Congress and Archive.org work together on a project to preserve some of … Continue reading

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