Intellectual Freedom - Post #6

Here's an interesting story. I found it on Jessamyn West's library blog. Several families in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against their school district, claiming "their religious rights were being violated when kids read books involving 'positive portrayals of families headed by same-sex parents and same-sex marriage, including the frequently challenged children’s book, King and King.'”

The court ruled against them, saying that "there is no First Amendment free exercise right to be free from any reference in public elementary schools to the existence of families in which the parents are of different gender combinations. It also held that public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, especially when the school does not require that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them."

I've got a lot of conflicting thoughts about this one, and I think part of it is due to me having been home schooled. I'm a little put out at the "how dare you question us" attitude that the school seems to have (or maybe it's the ACLU lawyer's tone that makes me think that). It seems like the rights of the children and the parents are second to the rights of the school to teach its curriculum however it sees fit. I'm not taking issue with the specific topic; I would feel the same way if the issue were more specifically religious.

Then again, this does seem like it was blown out of proportion. The books in question were optional reading that the students took home in a book bag. The parents were notified well in advance (though not about the choice of books, as far as I can tell). And I don't think that filing a lawsuit is usually a very effective way to get your point across.

Finally, I have the same question about this as I do about any sort of censorship/banning/controversial book situation: did the parents talk to their child about the books before they started litigating, etc?

P.S. You can read some of the back story here and here, and read the full court decision here (it's a PDF).

Library Systems - Post #7

In the last several months, I've become someone I never thought I would be: a Mac lover! (or at least I’ve got a grudging respect for them)

I've used PCs all of my life, and I never had any friends that owned a Mac. And I had always heard that "no one makes games for Macs". (Also, I was home schooled, so I didn’t use an Apple IIe in elementary school like a lot of kids did). So I never had any real desire to use one until I started working at the Herron Art Library last semester. All of the public accessible computers there are Macs, and the computer lab down the hall is all Mac.

So I thought I should get to know this strange thing. It would probably look good on my resume to be comfortable with Macs. And everyone says they're "sooo easy to use". To be honest, and this is pretty ridiculous coming from someone who considers himself pretty tech savvy, I was a little scared of it. No right mouse button?? How do I find programs on here?? Etc. What eventually dawned on me is that pretty much every aspect of the Mac that I found awkward was not because it was unnatural, but because I was so used to the old "tried and true" PC way. Instead of two mouse buttons, how about one, with more options by pushing Ctrl while clicking? I don’t even know how many times my mom was confused by the two button mouse when she was learning how to use a PC.

I still use PCs most of the time, and think they’re great, but I’ve finally come around on Macs. Now if only I could afford one!

Intellectual Freedom - Post #5

I'm not totally sure if this is IF related, but it's close enough that I'm going to post about it.

Michael Stephens' Tame the Web blog had a post recently about library IT departments blocking websites. He linked to a blog post from Mark Funk, President of the Medical Library Association, which noted that a survey conducted by the Social Networking Task Force showed that many Web 2.0 websites or applications were being blocked. Funk says, "If MLA wants to better connect our members using these new technologies, we need to convince IT people that not all Web 2.0 sites or applications are a frivolous waste of bandwidth or a security risk. In fact, this problem even goes beyond MLA activity, in that useful medical information is sometimes blocked."

Now, while this obviously is not an intentional limitation of freedom of speech (at least I don't think so), it certainly doesn't paint IT departments in a positive light. I'm sure they are fearful about viruses and security risks, but you can't block everything. And medical librarians especially should be allowed access to as much information as possible, in the event of a life-threatening situation.

Another thought I had was how much a staff member surrenders their freedoms in the workplace. If I work the circulation desk at a library, and the IT department blocks MySpace because I’m using it all the time and ignoring patrons, that makes sense. But some of the sites the survey listed as blocked are just strange. Del.icio.us??? They don’t want the staff to store and share important bookmarks?

Have you ever worked in a place that blocked even staff access to some websites? (I don’t mean filtering for sex, language, etc., but in more of a “preventing staff from wasting time on the computer” sense).

Library Systems - Post #6

Well, it seems inevitable that each of us has a "technology is a pain in the butt sometimes" post on here, and my time has come at last.

First of all, I share a lot of people's frustrations with the case study assignments. I had a hard time getting my head around the concepts in the first one, but once I did, I found it relatively easy to lay out a diagram in Microsoft Word. For the second case study, I thought I would use Word again. After I laid out my flow charts on paper (which only took maybe a couple hours), I started using Word’s flowchart features and thought it would be just a couple more hours. Then the horrors began. For some reason I still don’t understand, I was totally unable to make arrows connecting the boxes; I could draw an arrow between them, but if I moved a box, the arrow wouldn’t stay connected. I fooled with that for an hour or so, then naturally, I began to panic. I tried using Powerpoint , but I had the same problem. Finally, I tried Gliffy, which I probably should have gone with from the beginning. It was (fairly) easy to use, though trying to keep all of those arrows separated from each other was pretty frustrating. I’m glad I didn’t wait until the last minute to do this!

So essentially, my homework took a couple of hours to actually do, and about eight (ugh) hours to implement. I guess computer graphics tools haven’t quite caught up with pencil and paper. Then again, there was probably some user error involved.

I could have also told the story about my 3 minute podcast for another class that took half an hour to write, another half hour to record, and 3 hours to edit! Technology 2, Joel 0.

Library Systems - Post #5

Since last Thursday, I've been thinking about the wikis we'll be working on, and the audiences they'll be intended for. Since we'll be creating training materials for the wikis, it's important that we know our audience and tailor our training materials toward them. Thinking about this reminded me of a story I read about on the blog LISNews about a study conducted by a British research group. Both Library Journal and a tech blog called Ars Technica reported on it. The study was called "Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future". Some of their findings were pretty scary, if not all that surprising.

The LJ article mentions that the researchers discovered that the "'Google Generation'—youth born or brought up in the Internet age—is not particularly web-literate, and their research traits—impatience in search and navigation and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs—are becoming the norm for all age-groups." I've definitely noticed this to be true while working at the University Library reference desk; I often have to do a lot of hand holding to get students to the information they need. Unfortunately, when they walk away, I'm not very confident that they'd know how to replicate the search on their own. It's sad to think that adults' research traits are becoming this way as well. This just underscores the fact that our wikis should be well organized and easy to use!

This report also shows that Internet literacy is something that needs to be taught. Duh, it's a skill to be learned just like anything else, but so many people seem to think that knowing how to use a computer is somehow innate now. Fact is, if kids don't get taught (by their parents, or by a librarian, teacher, etc.), they're going to learn from their friends. And chances are, their friends don't really know what they're doing either. Sigh.

Intellectual Freedom - Post #4

Well, here's a strange story, thanks to the Heretical Librarian, "a conservative librarian, documenting radical Islamism's war on intellectual freedom (and other topics of interest)." Frankly, his blog is usually too political for me, but this post was pretty funny (and sad).

It seems that a activist group known as Code Pink has been picketing a Marines recruiting station Berkeley, California. So far, so good. They certainly have the right to do that, just as much as anyone else. But here's the strange thing: the City Council voted 8-1 to tell the Marines that they must leave, calling them "uninvited and unwelcome intruders". And strangest of all, the Council, in a separate 8-1 vote, gave Code Pink its own designated parking space in front of the recruiting station (once a week) as well as a free sound permit (I assume this means they can use powered sound equipment like a microphone). According to someone who works nearby, the protestors are "aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy."

Now, I'm aware that Berkeley is a very liberal city, and it's not surprising that a protest like this would occur, but this surely sets a dangerous precedent. To officially side with one point of view and condemn another completely valid view is certainly unconstitutional and against free speech, not to mention silly. The one thing I could possibly say in the Council's defense is that they possible felt a lot of pressure from influential political groups in the area, where seeming to vote "for the Marines" might be considered political suicide. But alas, such is politics.

P.S. I found another article about the situation where one of the council members stated "I'm ashamed of my vote...The protesters should have free speech - this is where Free Speech was born, after all - but to tell the Marines they are not welcome is shameful." It sounds like this might shape up to be a pretty divisive issue.

Library Systems - Post #4

(This post is only tenuously connected to libraries, but I'll get to that in a minute)

I used to play video games a lot when I was a kid, but ever since I was, oh, probably 18 or 19, I've just not really been very excited about them. I think I lost interest around the time when the controllers had three joysticks, which you somehow had to use simultaneously. If I was playing a game from a first person perspective, my character would end up walking around staring at the ground. Anyhoo, I've gotten back into video games lately thanks to a new one that my roommate got for Christmas: Rock Band! (I would link to the game website, but there's loud music blaring on the front page...just google "rock band" and you'll find it.) If you haven't heard of it, it allows you to "play" songs using a guitar, drums, and microphone controllers. You don't need to know how to play the real instruments; you just push the colored button (or drumpad) corresponding to the color on the screen. It's addictive, and a lot of fun, and great for parties.

The thing about it that sparked this blog entry is the drums. I've tried playing real drums before, and it's not a pretty sight. I've gotten really good at this game on drums, though. And it feels like you're actually playing. So I've been wondering: does this mean that I could actually play real drums now? I wonder if, eventually, schools will use instrument simulators like this to teach music? That idea is a bit scary to me, but that's a ways off in the future.

Ok, to tie this in to libraries: I know that a lot of public libraries' teen areas have video games set up, including Guitar Hero (the same idea as rock band, just guitar only). I'm sure some of them have Rock Band now, too. For some reason, this bothers me...probably just the traditionalist in me ("this isn't what a library is supposed to be!") Do you guys and gals have any thoughts on this?