Brent was playing outside with his friends after dinner tonight. When he came inside, he plopped down on the couch next to me and watched me respond to some email. After a few minutes, he said, “Can I talk to one of your friends?” I said, “You mean you want to chat with one of them online? Sure.”

So we opened up Trillian and found Karen was online. Even though I know she’s terribly busy, she was kind enough to chat with Brent for a few minutes. I told him she had been in the military, so he asked a couple of questions about that. She most graciously responded. As I watched their conversation, I noticed Brent using IM language that I didn’t even know he knew. In fact, when he threw “nvm” out there, both Karen and I were stumped. (Turns out it stands for “never mind.”) Then he threw in ppl, kewl, and cya at various points. Astounded (remember, he’s only nine-years old and he hasn’t gotten into IM yet), I asked him where he was learning all of this. Guess where?

Yep – Runescape.

One of the big motivations for Brent learning to read has always been video games. He played Playstation before he could read, and when I used to tell him it was time to shut down, he’d pull up the options screen and ask how to save his game. My response was always, “You tell me. Find the one that says ‘save.’” Runescape has helped him learn to read faster, because the text others type can scroll by pretty quickly.

So now he’s learned to read (certainly faster), learned to type (certainly faster), and now he’s learning IM slang, all thanks to Runescape. Interesting literacy lessons there.

Of course, I wonder what else he’s learning….

Whenever I post anything about Apple, I’m guaranteed to get comments from Apple fans, and last week was no exception. However, Ben Karel posted some very thoughtful commentary that suggests a most interesting possibility. In my original post, I pointed to an effort to get Apple to try and help libraries circulate audio ebooks to patrons with iPods and to play nicely with others in the industry. In the comments to that post, Ben and I differed on who is to blame for the current situation, but his last comment really has my mind going.

“There are relatively cheap technological solutions to this particular (technological) problem. By ‘relatively’ cheap I mean less than two thousand dollars for the hardware and software infrastructure. Considering that it would probably double the number of patrons able to listen to library ebooks on their player of choice for a one-time fee amounting to a fifth of the price of a single year's subscription, said technological solutions would be a no-brainer were it not for the DMCA's prohibitions upon any and all forms of DRM circumvention.

Hmm. But wait! According to http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/usc_sec_17_00001201----000-.html , Provision (a)(1)(B) states that the ban on circumvention of copyright-protecting technological measures does not apply to users who are ‘adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses of that particular class of works under this title [...]’. I'm not entirely sure, but I think the next two subparagraphs essentially say that only the Librarian of Congress has the authority to [pre!?-]determine when the exemption in rule (B) applies.

So perhaps the route of least resistance is to forget about Apple entirely and instead convince the Librarian of Congress that the DMCA should count 'audiobooks in public libraries' as a class of copyrighted works deserving of an exemption to aid in noninfringing use by the majority of library patrons.

Also something to consider: the DMCA seems to focus on technologies that short-circuit the process of gaining access to a protected work. Little seems to be said about one may do with that work after having gained access.

Oh. Stupid me. The DMCA already has a built-in exemption for libraries and other such nonprofit entities, which means it looks like you're free to convert those problematic encrypted WMA files into MP3 so that the majority of your patrons will be able to access and play said files in a noninfringing manner.

No doubt a real lawyer ought to examine this, but... Problem solved?”

In the immortal words of Neo, whoa!

It's an interesting idea. So now, I’m wondering if we could really do this. After all, there’s a difference between “letter-of-the-law-right-with-a-true-loophole” and “letter-of-the-law-right, go-for-it but get-your-butt-sued-out-of-existence-and-the-loophole-closed-forever.” Which, of course, is exactly what legislation like the DMCA is designed to do – stop you from even thinking about trying anything for which you could even remotely, possibly be sued for actually doing.

So now I’m in a pinch. Illinois LSTA grants are due in June, and this year there’s finally a "dream big" one that my organization could apply for. I’ve already pitched a half dozen ideas, two of which we’re probably going to submit and one of which a member library is going to submit. But what if we submitted a grant to actually do what Ben proposes? What would the implications be? Is it realistic? Would we still exist in a year or would the legal bills kill us? Would it ultimately open up circulation of digital files in libraries or end it forever? I'm not a fan of DRM, but I also don't want to see libraries used for illegal copying (a whole other debate). Is there an open source type of DRM for these files? I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV, so I'd be interested to hear reactions from others on this.

I’m thrilled to be included as a presenter in this year’s International Ticer School at Tilburg University in the Netherlands this coming August, even more so after I saw the list of other speakers! Here’s the press release:

“The International Ticer School (known for its former International Summer School on the Digital Library) offers a brand new, modular course for librarians and publishers: ‘Digital Libraries à la Carte: Choices for the Future,’ to be held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 22-26 August
2005.

From its 'menu' of five one-day modules, you can pick your choice:

• trends and strategic issues
• technological developments, relevant to libraries
• consortia and licensing
• open Access and institutional repositories
• the role of libraries in teaching and learning

Top speakers will present their views. Below is a selection.

• Marissa Mayer is Director, Consumer Web Products at Google
• Derk Haank is CEO of Springer and former CEO of Elsevier
• Peter Suber and Richard Poynder are among the most cited authors on Open Access
• Jenny Levine's blog (theshiftedlibrarian.com) is read by thousands of librarians
• Carol Tenopir has published over 200 journal articles and is cited frequently
• Deb deBruijn closed the worldwide biggest consortium deal (over 50 million dollar)
• Gerry McKiernan is the compiler of several known Web registries
• Steven Gilbert is president of The TLT Group and an expert on learning landscapes
• Pat Maughan transforms the undergraduate curriculum at the prestigious UC Berkeley to include information literacy training

To guarantee a highly interactive programme, the number of participants is limited to 45 per module, lectures contain an interactive component, and two
modules are concluded with a practical workshop. The course is recommended by JISC, the DARE project and SURF Diensten.

The course website can be found at www.ticer.nl/05carte/. If you register before 1 June 2005, we can offer you a discount. Do you want a quick update in just one to five days? Then Tilburg is the place to be this summer!”

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? There’s more information on the web site (including full descriptions of each module), so if you can attend, I highly encourage it!