Library Stuff

AP – “The University of Minnesota libraries are sending the first shipment of books to be digitized to Google this month as part of the Google books project. Among the books going to Google are volumes from the university’s noted collections related to forestry, beekeeping, Scandinavian literature and Minnesota’s early history.”

AP – “Officials from Germany, Canada, France and seven other countries are raising privacy concerns about Google’s mapping service and the company’s fumbled foray into social networking. Although the concerns they raise are not new, the officials said the online search leader “too often” forgets people’s privacy rights as it rolls out new technologies.”

Read the letter

Star Tribune – “In bad economic times, public law libraries boom with visitors needing legal advice. Do-it-yourself legal work has become the way, from bankruptcy filings to fighting an eviction.”

Telegraph – “Telegraph.co.uk’s UK Political Database helps you find all the information on your constituency and its candidates in the forthcoming 2010 General Election and beyond.”

Direct to the database. More here and here

Marion Star – “As people rely more on libraries for job searches, high-speed Internet access, books and DVDs – all for free – libraries are relying more on their patrons. State lawmakers have pushed funding decisions on Ohio’s library system out of the Statehouse and into the polling booths.”

From Library Journal.

EFF – “Once upon a time, Facebook could be used simply to share your interests and information with a select small community of your own choosing. As Facebook’s privacy policy once promised, “No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.” How times have changed.”

UPI – “Policymakers and stakeholders in Texas are wrangling over whether printed textbooks should go extinct in favor of online learning. Advocates say putting textbooks on the Internet will save money and promote the use of interactive lessons for today’s high-tech children. Adherents of traditional textbooks say cost-savings may be overstated, given the cost of maintaining computer systems, and poor children may be left out.”