The Houston Public Library have been asked to remove their teen-health website link to Columbian University’s health information site for teens called “Go Ask Alice”. The complaint apparently started with a Girl Scout troop leader who checked out the site before recommending it to her troop members and found “things that I’ve never seen as a 41 year old adult” (I’m not sure what’s more shocking here). It’s a very candid site. Teens have the opportunity to write in and ask questions anonymously about sexuality, drugs, etc. It is very explicit (is there less chance of getting pregnant if the women is on top, is it true that smoking pot while pregnant won’t harm the fetus, etc). Personally, I would hope my teen was comfortable enough asking me these questions but that isn’t always the case so I would be pleased that there was a source like this out there for her.
You are currently browsing the daily archive for 23.03.04.
From American Library Association, Feb. 2004.
“Inspired by the 2003 film Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren, Senior Librarian Dian Bowman at the West Hampstead branch of the Camden Library in Greater London, England, persuaded nine of her colleagues-all women between the ages of 37 and 60-to doff their duds in the interest of charity. Profits from the sale of “For Reference Only: A Calendar of Camden Librarians, 2004,” are being donated to Mayor Nasim Ali’s charity fund”
The Iraq National Library was badly burned during last Aprils attacks. Remaining books and documents were moved to the Board of Tourism where they’ve been waiting and getting moldy. Efforts by the Library of Congress have tried to find a temporary location for the library while a new building is designed and built. They’ve settled on the Senior Officers Club, which also happens to be occupied by 400 of our U.S. Troops. Full report can be found here.
Mike managed to drag me to the Dawn of the Dead on Saturday. As horror movies go I guess it was pretty decent (I’ll let him give ya’ll the low down) but I was very disturbed when I noticed, while burrying my face in my husbands shoulder during a particularly gruesome scene, a little girl sitting behind me no more than 6 years old. She was hugging her knees to her chest and covering her eyes with her hands. She would peak through her fingers every once in awhile, as if she was trying to decide whether it was ‘all clear’ to look again. It looked like she was there with her whole family, a sister and parents all eating popcorn as if this was some kind of family event. What is wrong with people!
Shifted librarian has a link to a pdf file of the recent Cites & Insights issue which highlights some of the concerns of the Broadcast Flag. To be honest, I’m still a little unclear as to how exactly DRM is going to affect libraries. When I asked my instructor in the last certification class I attended, she replied “we’ll just have to wait and see”.
Here’s a link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is also where you can sign a petition if you want to be involved in trying to stop the Broadcast Flag from passing.