synching a pda Originally uploaded by Meg Canada. Meg Canada interwiewed me for a YALS article the week. In the course of our IM discussion she mentioned a school she just visited in San Francisco that gives students PDAs and has sync station in the school. I found an older article about it here: http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2001/8/2001-8-28-High-School-Using.html The other thing Meg told me about is they do not filter the computers there. They’ve adopted a commitment to “wise freedom.” One of the goals of the school is to educate students to achieve “personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.” I wonder […]
Categories Advocacy
81 posts
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/internet/29138prs20070322.html “Technology evolves at an incredibly rapid pace, and our laws face the challenge of trying to keep up,” said ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Chris Hansen, who was lead counsel on the case. “Americans have the right to participate in the global conversation that happens online every moment of every day, and Congress does not have the right to censor that conversation.” Joan Walsh, editor in chief of Salon.com who was a plaintiff in the case, said that parents, not the government, should control children’s access to information and ideas. “Whether minors should read Salon is a question for their […]
Read my interview with Robert Doyle: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2007/02/thoughtful-advocates-an-ala-techsource-interview-with-ilas-robert-doyle.html “If people were better informed about social networking sites and knew and used basic Internet safety tips, the cloud of fear may decline.”—Robert Doyle, Executive Director of the Illinois Library Association
I’m sitting in the student lounge at Simmons GSLIS withtwelve students at a meet-n-greet, and of course conversation has turned to the recent uproar about that award winning book some librarians are pulling off their shelves because of a certain anatomical reference. One of the students urged us to check out: http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/youth_literature_is_filled_with_scrotums.php In both of my 701 sections this week we discussed this topic for over an hour.
For immediate release From: Robert P. Doyle Illinois Library Association phone: (312) 644-1896 fax: (312) 644-1899 e-mail: ila@ila.org http://www.ila.org Provide Senator Matt Murphy with Your Comments on Banning Social Networking Sites on Thursday, 22 February 2007 The Daily Herald reported today that Senator Matt Murphy (R-27, Palatine) will host an online chat tomorrow night, Thursday, 22 February 2007, about Senate Bill (SB) 1682, which would ban social networking sites in public libraries and public schools. The proposal, which Murphy’s office claims is the only one in the nation that calls for a complete ban on these sites, has been a […]
Steve at Teach42 notes another, more sane bill introduced by an Illinois senator: http://www.teach42.com/2007/02/20/illinois-legislation-the-ugly-and-the-really-really-good/ I know Will says that he thinks things may get worse before they get better, but I did notice something while exploring the Illinois General Assembly website that gives me a little bit of hope. Matt Murphy wasn’t the only one to submit an bill to protect children from the internet that day. Senator Dan Kotowski also submitted an act, this one titled the Internet Safety Education Act. Sounds good already doesn’t it? It has the word Internet accompanied by ‘Safety’ and ‘Education’. Now, that doesn’t […]
http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6417241.html While the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly may not be too receptive to new social networking legislation proposed by freshman Republican Senator Matt Murphy, the bill may be the first in several state attempts to achieve the goals of the federal Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. The Social Networking Website Prohibition Act would require public libraries to prohibit access to social networking web sites, including MySpace and many less controversial, on all publicly accessible computers, including those used by adults, and also would prohibit access by students in schools. […]
Via the LiB: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2007/02/dopa_returns_th.html Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska has introduced a bill called “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act” (#S49.IS). This is simply the new version of the DOPA bill, including all the original DOPA propositions with two additional Titles added: restricting the sale of personal information of children for marketing and raising fines for child pornography violations. Because DOPA is now sandwiched between these two other things that sound hunky dory, it is more likely to pass than it was last time. Now, why should librarians and their patrons care about DOPA? As I said the […]
Jaap and Erik speak to an LIS Class at Dominican Originally uploaded by mstephens7. As I type, dear readers, it’s a COLD Thursday morning..still dark outside with temperatures hovering around 0.’ Jaap and Erik from Deflt Public Library are already up as well, getting ready for their next adventure: tours of libraries to the northwest and meetings with more innovative librarians. Yesterday was wonderful because I had them with me, on campus at Dominican University, as guests of the Graduate School of Library & Information Science. We had lunch in the Dining Hall with Professors Kate Marek and Karen Brown. […]
David Warlick would like your elevator speeches about the value of librarians! http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/01/29/who-needs-em/ While at the National School Boards Association Conference the other day, more than one school board member came up to me, a tech guy, and asked, “We’re trying desperately to find ways to deal with budget crunches. With all of these computers and access to online information, do we really need librarians or libraries any more?” This is one of those questions that I absolutely love to hear — if I have an hour to answer. It’s a question that I hate, if I only have a […]