The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) opted on Friday to delay implementation of many of their new testing and certification regulations for one year, to enable them to review what products and organizations should be covered under the law.

This allows libraries to keep offering services to children, as the CPSC had ruled that libraries were covered under the statute, and would need to individually test each item to certify that it does not contain unsafe levels of lead or phthalates, effectively closing most childrens’ libraries.

My previous post, with links to various sources, can be found here.

found through Publishers Weekly (includes information on a request made by supporters of the regulations to President Obama to replace the head of the CPSC)

If you have been concerned about the possible effects of the global financial crisis on libraries, you aren’t alone.  The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has issued a statement that is not only short, succinct, and dire, but also proposes some solutions that would not only aid libraries and consortia, but the content providers from whom they purchase.

ICOLC Economic Statement.

This is a very powerful and constructive statement which is meant to initiate some significant changes in the way resources are offered, selected, and purchased.  My compliments to those who crafted the statement; it is a good, proactive document.  Adopting its suggestions will benefit everyone.  From the statements:

“While there may be practical limits to this principle, publishers, authors, scholars, and libraries will be best served by those solutions that retain as much access to as much content as possible.”

Note that there are many, many adopters of this statement, including CARLI in Illinois, as well as INFOhio, OHIOLink, OhioNet, and OPLIN, all in Ohio.  Check the list at the bottom of the statement to see if your consortial partners have adopted it.

found via the Disruptive Library Technology Jester

It’s a post that is months old, but the information is just as useful:  Swiss Army Librarian has a guide for Using Firefox on Our Public Computers.

If you have computers that restore themselves to a pre-determined state upon reboot, I also recommend Zotero so that people can organize their research (though power users should customize their own version of FirefoxPortable.

found via the Innovative User’s Group (thanks Gus Calderon!)