Library Stuff

…at NC Community College libraries

Forbes – “Employers must meet the needs of a new generation of workers.”

Reuters – “China has issued new Internet regulations, including what appears to be an effort to create a “whitelist” of approved websites that could potentially place much of the Internet off-limits to Chinese readers.”

The White House – “Today, Vice President Biden is in Georgia to kick off over $2 billion in Recovery Act grants and loans to bring broadband to communities that currently have little or no access to the technology, all rolled out over the next 75 days. The initial $182 million investment announced today is for eighteen broadband projects benefiting seventeen states, and has already been matched by over $46 million in private capital. We in the National Economic Council are releasing a new report (pdf) called “Recovery Act Investments in Broadband: Leveraging Federal Dollars to Create Jobs and Connect America.” The report explains the Administration’s strategy for using stimulus dollars wisely to get the biggest return on investment, in terms of jobs and exciting new opportunities for Americans.”

Read the NEC Report

AP – “The book returned to the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts this week wasn’t overdue by a week, a month or even a year. It was nearly a century overdue, and the fine came to $361.35. “Facts I Ought to Know about the Government of My Country” was supposed to have been returned by May 10, 1910.”

ZDNet – “One of the unique features of the nook compared to any other ebook reader is the capability to loan books to friends, almost like you can with a real book. There are limitations put on from the publishers, but the process is fairly straight forward. The LendMe capability is in beta and support for more titles is still being rolled out in the Barnes & Noble library.”

This is one of the reasons why I don’t want a Kindle. I love lending books to friends. Another reason is that I can’t buy used books on a Kindle.

AP – “New pictures and video showing the rebuilding at the World Trade Center site are now on two social networking sites. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says it added the views from One World Trade Center to photo sharing site flickr.com and online video service YouTube.com on Tuesday.”

Flickr site here
YouTube site here.

UCF – “Thanks to a $300,000 grant, two University of Central Florida researchers will teach Florida teachers how to bring more than 16 million digitized historical treasures from the U.S Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to life for today’s tech-savvy students. The project, TPS @ SUNLINK, focuses on teaching with primary sources — allowing students to answer historical questions by exploring documents and artifacts relevant to the period of interest.”

Technologist – “Trying to head off such situations before they occur, the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee has issued an opinion about the ethical issues that crop up when Florida judges use social networking sites. While this opinion addresses Florida judges, it highlights ethical issues that all legal professionals should think about.”

AP – “Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won’t completely work. Adopting a mandatory screening system would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among the world’s democracies. Authoritarian regimes commonly impose controls. China drew international criticism earlier this year with plans to install filtering software on all PCs sold in the country.”