"Many of you already know about ALA's involvement (with other library associations) in challenging the FCC's 'Broadcast Flag' rule, a rule that will prevent librarians from being able to distribute or make available copies of broadcast television programs on the internet. It will also require you to purchase new electronic equipment that your library now uses to read or manipulate digital television signals (such as DVD players, recorders, TiVos, appropriately equipped computers, etc.) if that equipment is not Flag-compliant and your library does not already own a digital TV tuner.

We have filed an appeal to the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, arguing that the FCC had no authority to promulgate the Broadcast Flag rule. The validity of the Broadcast Flag is now pending before that court.

This week, the court issued a very important order requiring us to submit evidence proving that we have 'standing' to sue the FCC. In order to provide the court with the evidence it needs--and to defeat the Broadcast Flag, which will sharply limit how libraries might be able to use broadcast materials, perhaps in ways we might not yet have even conceived--we need your help.

We are looking for members of our organization that might be willing to submit an affidavit explaining how the Broadcast Flag harms them. The process will be simple, straightforward, and not very time-consuming. The lawyers representing us in the case will assist in drafting the document; you'll just have to help provide the facts of what it will say.

If you can answer 'yes' to the following questions and would be willing to help us protect the First Amendment rights of librarians, and the rights we fought so hard to obtain in the TEACH Act, then please contact us as soon as possible:

1. Are you a current member of the American Library Association?
   -and-


2. Do you do any of the following?
   
   
   
   
   1. Archive television broadcasts for use by library patrons or other educational or research purposes?
   
   
   2. Use portions of television broadcasts in distance learning courses, or make broadcast portions available to teachers at your institution for this purpose?
   
   
   3. Make portions of television broadcasts available via your library's or your school's website for any educational, research, or
      commentary reasons?
   
   
   4. Record television broadcasts at your library for any other type of educational purpose?
   
   
   5. Have equipment that you use to archive, record, or manipulate copies of television broadcasts that you would replace if it no longer allowed you to archive, record, or manipulate the television broadcast in the same way you do today.
   
   
   
   

We look forward to hearing from you to help in this important issue!

For further information, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/broadcastflag/broadcastflag.htm."

If you can help or if you can help your local library get involved (they may not understand the issues and you could educate them), please act now! These are incredibly important issues, not just for libraries, but for the average person, who the courts are apparently leaving out of the equation entirely.

Interesting that American Greetings now offers a few ecards just for National Library Week and reading in general. I set up something like this several years ago for my member libraries, although only one of them actually used it (and has since discontinued using it). You can still play with the demo, which used the Library Media & PR Read graphics. I used to change the postcards seasonally, which was kind of fun.

I still think this would be a great project for ALA to do on a national level.

This year’s Movers and Shakers issue from Library Journal is out, and how thrilled am I to see who’s on it?! Congratulations to everyone included, but special kudos to my buddies, Tom Peters, Veronda Pitchford, Aaron Schmidt, and Michael Stephens, as well as Karen Bersche! Michael and Aaron both point to each other’s inclusion on the list without noting himself – c’mon guys, take a bow!

The write-ups are great, although I would also note the following. I think of Tom as “Mr. Know-It-All,” but in a good way. Veronda is one of my new co-workers (via the merger of CMLS and SLS), and her enthusiasm truly is contagious. She’s a lot of fun to be around, and she always makes me laugh. As noted in Aaron’s write-up at the end, he’s an “extreme sports” kind of guy, which is the attitude he brings to librarianship. He’s fearless (as well as fun), and that’s a refreshing change. And Michael… well, the only thing I think his write-up didn’t quite capture is his zen-like nature. He is by far the calmest, most collected person I have ever met. I’ve never seen him angry, ruffled, impatient, or even agitated, all of which makes him the perfect trainer. I don’t know Karen as well, but I’ve certainly been impressed with her efforts at ALS.

Good call this year, LJ! Drinks are on me, Movers & Shakers!

RSS: Yahoo! Toolbar (IE) Adds Auto-Detect of RSS Feeds
“The Mozilla version of Yahoo! Toolbar has had this feature, and now the Yahoo!-created version for IE also automitcally detects RSS feed links on a page, and offers a one-click method of installing that feed on your My Yahoo! page.” [The RSS Weblog]

Podcasting: Podcasting the Cubs
“I've been seeing tons of stories about podcasting, and been showered with the confetti heralding its appearance, but it wasn't until today that I bothered paying attention to the big hoo-hah.  That's because this is podcasting that isn't about podcasting, but about something near and dear to my heart, the Chicago Cubs.  Cubscast.com is the labor of love of three die-hard Cubs fans (and apparent geeks).” [Tinfoil + Raccoon]

Cell Phone Jukebox: The M4300, LG’s Musicphone
“Samsung’s got a musicphone (that new 3GB SGH-i300 handset). Motorola’s got a musicphone (they have those iTunes phones coming up, but they’ve already got the E398 and the MusicMOTO MS350). Pantech’s got a musicphone (the PH-S4000). Sony Ericsson’s got a musicphone (their new W800 Walkman phone, no less). Nokia’s got a musicphone (they’ve done a few—anyone remember the 3300?). Even HTC/Dopod’s got a musicphone (the 585 we wrote about last week). So maybe it’s no surprise that our old friends LG have been showing off a musicphone of their own this week, the M4300.” [Engadget]

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, better known as GoUpstate.com, has joined the parade of clueful newspapers offering their readers RSS news aggregators. Andy Rhinehart and the GoUpstatians are offering a free, downloadable Windows client called the GoReader for “the latest news, weather, auctions, and more delivered to your desktop.” Notice that the word “RSS” doesn’t appear anywhere in there, which is how it should be. Check out their home page for the banner ad at the very top of the page.

“What can GoReader do for me?

First and foremost, GoReader can allow you, in just one program, to keep track of the latest news at a number of Web sites. Let’s say you have 25 Web sites that you visit every day. If all of those Web sites offer news feeds, you can monitor all 25 sites from GoReader. Just keep it running on your computer, and the latest information will be downloaded to you every time a site makes an update. Then, you can pick and choose what you want to read, when you want to read it. Think of GoReader as your virtual newspaper carrier, delivering to your computer the material that you want to read.”

I’m not totally convinced that a desktop client is the way to go but it’s a huge step for a newspaper, and it means they really do understand about RSS (thanks to Andy). While I’m inclined to think that the recent announcements of web-based newspaper aggregators are more the future and I’m intrigued that the Denver Post is collaborating with NewsGator, check out this additional feature of GoUpstate’s aggregator:

“GoReader can also be used to subscribe to news feeds that contain audio material. These feeds are typically known as podcasts in that the material can be downloaded to a portable digital audio device such as an iPod. More on this in a moment.”

Very interesting addition, and it will be interesting to see if the local community starts doing more with podcasting.

Unfortunately, I don’t see any RSS feeds available from the Spartanburg County Public Libraries, a situation they now need to rectify as quickly as possible. Then hopefully Andy can add it as a default feed in GoReader. This also helps highlight how you can prepopulate aggregators to help your audience learn to use them. In GoReader, you automatically get AP South Caroline headlines plus GoUpstate’s breaking news, business news, news headlines, sports headlines, employment listings, and other “stuff for sale.” There’s even an embedded search engine for finding feeds via Syndic8 and a separate search engine for searching your subscriptions. Big branding in the aggregator, too, something I’d really wanted to see from libraries. Oh, and you can import and export your subscriptions, too - nice.

Still think your library doesn’t need an RSS feed? You’ve already got a “what’s new” section on your web site, right? The best thing you can do right now is turn it into a blog, which will make it easier to post information and will automatically give you an RSS feed.

Well done, Andy and GoUpstate!

Indulge me for a moment while I play catch-up and note that I, too, have added the “Blog Person” button to the right-hand column on my web site, right above the “RSS bigot” one. I note this mainly because some folks have wondered where it should link to, and I’ve chosen to point to a Technorati search for “michael gorman bloggers.”

Lots of people sent me links to the controversy while I was out sick (thanks!), and others have asked for my opinion on the whole thing. I think you know where I stand, and I don’t really have anything to add that is more complex or eloquent than what has already been written. I don’t think Gorman should resign, but I do worry that he has alienated a large contingent of people who could have helped both him and ALA in general. My biggest fear, though, is that he doesn’t even realize this (kind of like another president we all know), which doesn’t bode well for the coming year.

However, I’m not writing this to re-hash the debate. Instead, I think it’s time to move past GormanGate and look to the future, let bygones be bygones, and maybe even make a little money. You see, I think we’ll probably see many more Gorman editorials as he becomes the official President of ALA. Therefore, I think we should kill two birds with one stone and start a pool to guess what his next topic will be. This will allow us to prepare for the worst, while also providing financial gain for the correct prognosticators.

Of course, this won’t be easy, as there are so many different possibilities. I’m having a difficult time choosing just one:

• No serious conversation has ever occurred over instant messaging. Academic thoughts written as text should be read sequentially, providing a reflection period for each and every sentence in order to understand its full significance.
• No serious music has ever been listened to as an MP3. I doubt that these digital music downloaders have ever listened to an entire album in order, let alone a symphony. Don’t even get me started on MP3 audiobooks, girlfriend!
• No serious information has ever been transmitted over a cell phone conversation. To be properly savored, like fine wine, conversation must take place sequentially and in person. Otherwise, meaning and context will be completely lost to the listener, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the information being conveyed. Even the act of ordering a pizza requires close human interaction in order to demonstrate the urgency and complex nuances necessary to obtaining the best possible convergence of toppings and crust.

Add your best guess and place your bets!

What in the World is IceCasting?

“IceCasting is an experiment in MobCasting, an idea that Andy Carvin has been exploring lately. The Illinois Technology Conference for Educators (IL-TCE) will be held in St. Charles from March 1 through March 4 and I thought this might be an interesting way to extend the learning.

Everyone loves attending conferences. There's something about being surrounded by your colleagues and being exposed to new ideas at every turn that really just gets people jazzed up about technology, teaching, and education in general. This blog is a way to capture that feeling and share it with other people. It's a place to capture those ideas that you just can't wait to take back to your school, or make you think differently about the way you're doing things now.

If you experienced something at ICE and want to share it with people, there's two ways that you can do so. Send an email to teach42.icecasting@blogger.com, and the entire text of the email will be instantly posted here. You can also attach photos to the emails if you'd like to! If you'd like to leave an audio comment, simply call 1-661-716-BLOG (2564), use 555-555-5555 for the login and then enter 2005 as your pincode. Leave a message and your audio comment will be posted directly to the blog!

So in between sessions, if you feel inspired, pick up your cell phone and give the number a call. Share what you've seen or heard that inspired you with everyone else. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone else attending the conference.

If you happen to use Flickr, then tag your ICE photos with ICE2005. I'll be adding a feed to the sidebar that will grab all of our communal photos that way.” [IceCasting]

Steve Dembo seems to be doing all of the heavy lifting at this point (text and audio), but it’s certainly a great idea. Keep up the great work, Steve!

To my great regret, I won’t be able to attend the Computers in Libraries conference this year, so I’m going to have to attend via the blogs. Thank heavens for non-complex, navel-gazing conference bloggers!

In my RSS presentations, I always use the Chicago Sun-Times as an example because NewsIsFree has been scraping their site for years. I used to be more of a Chicago Tribune reader, but I've become a Sun-Times person because of that feed.

Now, though, Steven, IMs to tell me he's found a feed on the Sun-Times site itself! Great news for Chicago newspaper fans! Maybe this will even trickle down to my Sun-Times-affiliated local papers...!

Remember a few weeks ago when I highlighted Libraries Matter, a wristband campaign started by the Alliance Library System here in Illinois? Well, since that time, they've been quite busy. Not only do they now have a Libraries Matter blog with an RSS feed, but they've also added a separate Libraries Matter Gallery photoblog with an RSS feed. Even better, there is now a Libraries Matter Podcast!

"All libraries matter, and none more than school libraries. They hold our very future. Researcher Keith Curry Lance recently released the results of a study showing the direct impact of school libraries on academic achievement. Listen to an exclusive interview with Keith as he discusses his findings."

One of the ideas I've been pushing lately is using blogs to humanize libraries, speaking in what I call "the key of we" instead of in the third person. These are excellent examples, and I'm impressed that ALS gets it so well. Nicely done.

On a side note, the only one of my member libraries to have joined the wristband campaign so far is the Palos Heights Public Library (go Elaine!), and luckily they've agreed to send me a few bands when their batch arrives. The Lance Armstrong wristbands plus a bunch of knockoffs are all the rage at the kids' schools right now, so I can't wait to sneak in some library ones. Thanks, PHPL! :-)

Fellow Treo owners – check out Quick News, the new version of Hand/RSS that handles podcasts! w00t! Now I can download Greg’s podcasts directly to my Treo 650!

BTW, don’t you think Mr. Podcast, Greg Schwartz, should rename himself “The Pod Librarian?”  ;-)

Yahoo is celebrating its 10th birthday and as a result, anyone with a Yahoo account can get a free scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream today only. An interesting discussion ensued this morning when I was printing out the coupons and noting to Brent we'd be going for free ice cream tonight.

Brent: "So Yahoo is only 10 years old? I thought it was more like 20."
Jenny: "No, it's almost as old as you are." (Brent is nine years old.)
Brent: "Wow. So there was no Yahoo before I was born?"
Jenny: "That's right. Before you were born, there wasn't really an internet or the web or email. There was a very basic form for people in the military and at universities, but there were no web sites to visit and no web games to play."
Brent: "So Runescape didn't exist?"
Jenny: "Nope. You're older than Runescape."
Brent: "So computers were worthless ten years ago?"