No, not that TED — Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. In honour of his re-election to the Senate just days after being convicted of felony charges related to gifts from oil companies, I present the following artistic treatment of his legendary free-form poetic characterization of the Internet and net neutrality:
It seems that Republican Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, in the fine tradition of so many concerned municipal politicians from communities large and small, had a book-banning bee in her bonnet.
From “Mayor Palin: A Rough Record” in Time Magazine, via Librarian.net :
[Former Wasilla, Alaska Mayor John] Stein says “[Palin] asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor… [read more]
Threatening to fire the librarian for her refusal is somewhat unsurprising, given that Palin also reportedly sacked the heads of other city agencies for alleged ’loyalty’ to her predecessor.
Note to elected officials: undermining the merit principle for staffing and promotion in a non-partisan civil service is no easy shortcut to ‘cutting red tape’ or slashing ‘unecessary bureaucracy’; instead, it’s just another plodding step down the road back to the untrammeled patronage system of the not-so-distant past. Also, don’t mess with the library!
Photo credit: AKMuckraker via WIkipedia.
Soon, the City of Toronto will release a final report detailing its highly-anticipated and long overdue redevelopment of Union Station (our downtown subway, regional bus and regional/long-distance rail terminal).
Plans that the City has made available so far emphasize expanded retail space to complement the mostly food-centric vendors already onsite. Local transit whiz Steve Munro has a great overview of the station’s present and possible future.
You know what I think would be great? A storefront-style branch of the Toronto Public Library.
The idea(s):
The problem(s):
Oh, well. It seemed like a good idea for about five minutes.
Photo credit: “Union Station, Toronto” by Flickr user StarbuckGuy
(Creative Commons)
Library behind bars gets forced into closet [Toronto Star] : “[A volunteer who] amassed more than 2,000 volumes, from thrillers to psychology texts [was told to] move the prison library into a glorified broom closet, perhaps 6 metres long and a mere 100 centimetres wide… Officials [say] they wanted to use the library room to store protective vests. Guards tried to intervene; they offered a variety of alternatives, and asked to be present when the issue was discussed in management meetings. They were ignored.”
This is happening in the Toronto neighbourhood where I live, perhaps a 15-minute walk from my apartment.
In fairness, Wikipedia’s entry for the Don Jail notes that, because it was only designed to hold prisoners briefly before and during trial, it lacks all kinds of facilities, including a proper laundry and sufficient telephones, exercise space and visiting rooms.
Prisons purging books on faith from prison libraries [New York Times] : “[The US Federal] Bureau of Prisons [says it] was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups.â€
Not all items about religion are being discarded; instead, administrators claim, the goal is to ensure that only “reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts†remain available to prisoners.
Prison chaplains and academics (who one imagines might consider themselves to be reliable experts on the subject) are reportedly disputing the quality and variety approved materials:
“There are some well-chosen things in here,†Professor Larsen said. “I’m particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.†But he continued, “There’s a lot about it that’s weird.†The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,†he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has a solid post following the development of this story. Briefly: the initiative - called the Standardized Chapel Library Project - has since been put on hold and most pulled items will go back to the prisons, with the exception of “material that could be radicalizing or incite violence.â€
Library cuts may have backfired, board says [Toronto Star] : “Library board officials said they were notified last week that the Toronto Civic Employees’ Union (CUPE Local 416) had won a grievance filed against the board over the Sunday closings.”
Ever since a planned crucial revenue-raising tax measure unexpectedly failed to pass earlier this year, various departments of the City of Toronto have tried to find ways to cut costs the TTC offered up a slew of ‘poor performing’ bus routes plus a fare increase, the police insisted it couldn’t spare a penny, and the library resigned itself to closing on Sundays.
Now TPL may have to pay it’s staff for Sundays either way — that is, whether their branches are closed or not — because their legal advisors apparently failed to acount for the effect of the collective agreement. The 11 branches located in ‘priority’ (read: disproportionately impoverished) neighbourhoods were to remain unaffected. With luck, if this development negates much of the hoped-for cost savings, perhaps the city will relent and revert to normal hours of operation.
UPDATE: Subsequent media coverage confirms the reversal on the Sunday closures.
Construction of Archives of Ontario building begins at York University’s Keele campus [York University (Press Release)]
A rendering of the proposed building is available from PCL’s site.
From Unlocking Canada’s ‘most beautiful room’:
Canadians can now appreciate the parliamentary library in all its splendour after a $136-million renovation. Just last month, the building behind the Peace Tower opened its celebrated, fire-thwarting doors to visitors for the first time since 2002.
In addition to improving the building’s air circulation and electrical wiring, the renovations helped to restore the library’s appearance to that of its 1876 opening…
[Read more @ Globe and Mail]
From an Ontario Ministry of Culture press release at CNW Group:
The Library Strategic Development Fund (LSDF), managed by the Ministry of Culture, invests in strategic initiatives that enhance the public library sector at the provincial and regional levels.
Initiatives funded by this annual program include: research programs, technical support services, projects that address emerging issues and needs, projects that improve access, development of guidelines and standards, partnerships for new library services, and the creation of digital collections and services.
Tags: Ministry of Culture, library, grant.
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