Category Archives: Politics

Register to Vote on Libology

The Democratic National Committee recently released code that allows websites to offer streamlined voter registration pages through a Ruby on Rails interface.  The Obama campaign quickly modified that code to make it even easier to embed in nearly any website. … Continue reading

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Google Election Maps

The mid-term elections are shaping up to be quite dramatic (although not quite the roller-coaster ride that we had with the 2008 election season). And Google has come up with a new way to visualize the flood of data that … Continue reading

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Political Dictionary

Political Dictionary is one of those resources to make a note about, as it contains words and phrases unique to the political environment without being politically charged in defining them. Interesting terms include: Full Ginsberg Mugwumps Recess Appointment Vote-a-rama

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The Scope of the Illinois Crisis

The New York Times is running an article in today’s edition that highlights just how poorly the state budget in Illinois has been managed: Payback Time : Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole The article doesn’t … Continue reading

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Ohio Gets A Budget

The deal has finally been closed, and the state of Ohio has a new two-year budget.  The proposed cuts to libraries were scaled back by two-thirds, to about 11%.  All told, library funding is expected to drop between 25-30% from … Continue reading

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Strickland Gets Strict

Last Saturday, Governor Ted Strickland suggested that Ohio Librarians ought to take a pay cut rather than be critical of his budget proposal: As for libraries, which, in Strickland’s original budget framework were slated for a 30 percent cut in … Continue reading

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American Libraries on Ohio Funding

The American Libraries article is just one of many to explain the issues facing Ohio, but I found the following information worth posting: Strickland’s office was also flooded with phone calls; gubernatorial spokesperson Amanda Wurst said in the June 23 … Continue reading

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Dear Governor Strickland…

Here are two quick and effective ways for Ohioans to contact the Governor’s office and convey our thoughts on the library aspect of the budget crisis: Contact the Governor is a standard contact form that resides on the official governor’s … Continue reading

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Ohio Libraries Update

A few items of note to update yesterday’s post: The Library is Now Closed (a.k.a. Shuttered Library) is a blog created by an Ohio librarian named Mike (didn’t see a last name) which is compiling links to a vast amount … Continue reading

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Obama at ALA 2005

Many people have a memory of the moment they realized that Barack Obama was likely to become president.  For some, the moment came during the primaries, perhaps when they heard the speech he gave after the New Hampshire primary. Others, … Continue reading

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2008 Presidential Election Search Engine

The 2008 Presidential Election Search Engine is a Google Custom Search Engine created by the University of Kansas Library. It is a great resource in that one can find the needles of information in the haystack of campaign rhetoric. found … Continue reading

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Annenberg Media Streaming Video

The Annenberg Media website at learner.org is a resource that offers on-demand streaming video for “schools, colleges, libraries, public broadcasting stations, public access channels, and other community agencies”. These are top-notch programs, several which I recognize as having been used … Continue reading

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Librarians, Sarah Palin, and Fact Checking (oh my!)

Jessamyn has the best overview of the Sarah Palin / Librarian debate that I have seen so far.  The key to this, and to any other emotionally charged story, is to check your facts, and remember that everyone gets it … Continue reading

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Presidential Primary Results

I am a bit of a political junkie… and it generally won’t spill over onto this blog. However, one resource that I have found very interesting when examining Ohio and New Hampshire results has been Google Maps coverage of the … Continue reading

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Copyright Cost Trend

Three items have caught my eye this past week, and they all point in the same direction, even though they each are about something fairly specific: First was an article about a bill working its way through the Ohio General … Continue reading

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NIH and Public Access

There is a bill being voted upon by the U.S. Senate on October 15th which will potentially open up a great deal of research being done with National Institute of Health (NIH) funding.  The bill will mandate that the public … Continue reading

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Diary of Saad Eskander

The Diary of Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraqi National Library and Archive is available via the British Library website.  In the diary, Dr. Eskander details the day-to-day challenges faced by the library staff as they attempt to do their … Continue reading

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Britain Rejects Copyright Extension

The British Government has rejected an extension of copyright beyond the current 50 year term.  This is interesting for a few reasons, including the impending rush of British Invasion music becoming royalty-free, but mostly because it may signal a sea change … Continue reading

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Lawrence Lessig: the next 10 years

Lawrence Lessig, chair of Creative Commons, writer for Wired Magazine, and much much more, has announced that he is changing the course of his life, and will be attempting to champion the cause of a democratic society.  Don’t read my … Continue reading

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Public Libraries ROI

A newly released study, Taxpayer Return-on-Investment (ROI) in Pennsylvania Public Libraries (Pdf), comes to an interesting and positive conclusion:  for every $10 of tax money invested in public libraries, the Pennsylvania taxpayers receive a return of $55. found on ResourceShelf

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