From Library Journal:
Just as library organizations have criticized the proposed Google Book Search settlement without formally opposing it, rank-and-file librarians are on the fence about the settlement, according to a new survey of stakeholders by Publishers Weekly. The magazine shared preliminary findings with the LJ Academic Newswire in advance of a cover story appearing August [...]
Archive of entries posted on August 2009
PW Survey: Librarians On the Fence Regarding Google Settlement
UC Academics Raise Major Concerns About Google Settlement
From Library Journal:
Offering a crucial little-heard voice in the debate over the Google Book Search Settlement, 21 leading University of California faculty members have written a letter to the court asking for supplementary provisions to address their concerns. In the letter, the scholars speak on behalf of academic authors more interested in the public interest [...]
Tech giants unite against Google
From the BBC:
Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google’s attempt to create what could be the world’s largest virtual library.
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive.
They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works.
Google breaks into French National Library
From The Times:
Get ready for some Anglo-Saxon gloating. We hear today that France is giving up its four-year struggle to keep the barbarians of Google from Gallic gates, at least in their literary form.
“Google has won”, said the headline in La Tribune, a business daily. It reported that the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) — [...]
Lawyer and Author Adds His Objections to Settling the Google Book Lawsuit
From the New York Times:
In the latest objection, Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner, a prominent Washington law firm, plans to file a sweeping opposition to the settlement on Wednesday urging the court to reject it.
“This is a predominantly commercial transaction and one that should be undertaken through the [...]
Government of Canada Invests in Digitization of Canadian Multicultural Newspapers
From Canadian Heritage:
On behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Brian Jean, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and Member of Parliament (Fort McMurray-Athabasca), today announced funding for Athabasca University’s “Connecting Canadians: Canada’s Multicultural Newspapers” project.
This project will digitize and deploy to the Web up [...]
Warrants Required: EFF and Google’s Big Disagreement about Google Book Search
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The central question in the privacy debate that EFF and our partners at the ACLU of Northern California and the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley have been having with Google about Google Book Search is whether this exciting new digital library/bookstore is going to maintain the [...]
EPA Releases Toxics Data Early
From OMB Watch:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the most recent Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data several months earlier than usual. The early release of 2008 data represents a concrete action taken by the new EPA leadership to improve transparency following numerous pronouncements calling for such actions. The TRI database tracks releases and [...]
Pro Publica and Sunlight Lift the Lid on Foreign Lobbying
From the Sunlight Foundation:
Former government officials in the pay of foreign interests. Lobbyists introducing foreign military officials to defense contractors. Foreign agents descending on Capitol Hill to push the policy objectives of the governments that employ them…
That’s just some of what you’ll find in the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, a joint project of the ProPublica [...]
San Francisco Opens The City’s Data
From TechCrunch:
This guest post was written by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was elected to the position in 2003 and reelected in 2007. Newsom is also running for governor of California in the upcoming 2010 election. In this guest post, Mayor Newsom details the launch of DataSF.org, a new website that will offer convenient [...]