"Federal Bills Revisit NSLs, Digital Privacy"
American Library Association
4/3/09(Date accessed: 4/7/09) http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/april2009/surveillancebillsintro.cfm
The article “Federal Bills Revisit NSLs, Digital Privacy" talks about the Patriot Act, which is the Federal Bureau of Investigation being able to obtain a patron’s records for investigation, if they believe it points towards the person as a suspect. The article also mentions how Congress is now “considering several bills that would collectively impact the ability of law enforcement” to obtain this information about patrons. Thirdly, the article talks about how there are other legislation’s in place, such as the Internet Safety Act, where a “federal agenc[y]” can obtain someone’s records as well. Lamar Smith, who cosponsored the H.R. 1076 dealing with child pornography, said that people should not be concerned with this legislation because it just ‘ “simply allow[s] [the government] to match [an] IP address of a suspect to an individual’ ” “just as phone companies do with telephone numbers.” Furthermore, most of these practices are in place for the safety of society, not solely for the purpose of invading people’s privacy.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big problem is, if the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the one who is obtaining this information for safety reasons in most cases. Even though, it invades someone’s privacy, if you are not doing anything that you shouldn’t be doing, then you should have nothing to worry about. Thinking further into this topic, one has to think, again if you’re doing the right thing, then hypothetically speaking, why would you be a person of interest to the police? Usually, someone of interest is a person with a negative history or a pattern of negative behavior or actions over a period of time, whether this is five weeks, five months, or five years. I just think it is safer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be able to have access to this information, then to not be and something happens. That could have been possibly prevented or caught early on, if they had access to this person’s records.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Reading Assignment # 4
Appears Court: Miami-Dade Book Ban Isn't Censorship"
American Library Association
2/11/09 (Date accessed: 2/12/09)
http:www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/February 2009/vamoscango.cfm
The article “Appears Court: Miami-Dade Book Ban Isn't Censorship” deals with the board of Miami-Dade County Public Schools being allowed to remove off of their bookshelves, a children's book called “Vamos a Cuba,” that is about “contemporary life in Cuba.” ACLU Florida then went to court to try to have this ban removed, but the federal appeals court rejected this complaint. The defendant Miami-Dade County Public Schools counter rebuttal was that “Vamos a Cuba” was not the only book to be removed from their schools libraries. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members said that there was "23 other books that begin with “A Visit to...” that was removed from the bookshelves as well. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members also said that these books were ““an offense" to the First Amendment.” Also, they stated “there is a difference not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dorky on the other.” “The defense had pointed to several passages it deemed misleading.”
In my opinion, I feel that they should have kept the book on the shelf because of the Cuban culture surrounding Miami, Florida. I'm from Miami and Cubans are a huge chunk of the population there, and not only there, Florida period. So, if I was a Cuban in the United States I would see this as disrespect. Especially because their children our attending these schools, and this is basically sending a message that says, you can't read this book about your own culture, here in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the United States. Now, I do agree about the misleading information in the book that needs to be changed, but that is easy to fix. The author of the book could request that the book be edited again, and then put back out on the bookshelves. After this happens, then I believe Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members, would rely on the other complaint about the title of the book how it's “offense.” I hope ACLU Florida finds a way to fight this one.
American Library Association
2/11/09 (Date accessed: 2/12/09)
http:www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/February 2009/vamoscango.cfm
The article “Appears Court: Miami-Dade Book Ban Isn't Censorship” deals with the board of Miami-Dade County Public Schools being allowed to remove off of their bookshelves, a children's book called “Vamos a Cuba,” that is about “contemporary life in Cuba.” ACLU Florida then went to court to try to have this ban removed, but the federal appeals court rejected this complaint. The defendant Miami-Dade County Public Schools counter rebuttal was that “Vamos a Cuba” was not the only book to be removed from their schools libraries. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members said that there was "23 other books that begin with “A Visit to...” that was removed from the bookshelves as well. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members also said that these books were ““an offense" to the First Amendment.” Also, they stated “there is a difference not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dorky on the other.” “The defense had pointed to several passages it deemed misleading.”
In my opinion, I feel that they should have kept the book on the shelf because of the Cuban culture surrounding Miami, Florida. I'm from Miami and Cubans are a huge chunk of the population there, and not only there, Florida period. So, if I was a Cuban in the United States I would see this as disrespect. Especially because their children our attending these schools, and this is basically sending a message that says, you can't read this book about your own culture, here in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the United States. Now, I do agree about the misleading information in the book that needs to be changed, but that is easy to fix. The author of the book could request that the book be edited again, and then put back out on the bookshelves. After this happens, then I believe Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members, would rely on the other complaint about the title of the book how it's “offense.” I hope ACLU Florida finds a way to fight this one.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Reading Assignment # 5
The article “Information Navigation 101” talks about how universities and libraries are trying to teach and show students how to search for creditable information online through “scholarly databases” that are available to them through certain universities or colleges. The article also talks about how it is understood that students like to use the internet to do research because it is easy and convenient, but professors and libraries should make sure that their students are “ develop[ing] research skills to be effective” by educating them on the resources available for them.
Today, many colleges have adopted information literacy instruction classes to educate students on this topic. This article also mentioned how professors are getting tired and “frustrated with their students overreliance on Google, Yahoo,” and Wikipedia to help them with a research paper. When there are better resources outside of these three websites available for them to use. The main idea of this article is what could professors or libraries do or what have they already done to educate their students on information literacy? Some colleges have are started by requiring students to take the “Information and Communication Technology” test or the “Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy skills” test.
I like the idea how some colleges are going out of their way to make sure students are using effective research skills, like requiring them to take the ICT test. In my opinion, the only thing that is sad and shocking towards information literacy, is how some community colleges can’t afford to purchase any of the online journal subscriptions. This then leaves many students stuck with using search engines such as Google, if they do not have time to go to the library and get a printed source. In a way, some community colleges are helping foster this ineffective research behavior, even though they are not trying to do this. I’m so happy I have taken this class and educated myself on this topic before graduating because some students are going to graduate this May knowing nothing about this.
Andrea L. Foster “Information Navigation 101”
Today, many colleges have adopted information literacy instruction classes to educate students on this topic. This article also mentioned how professors are getting tired and “frustrated with their students overreliance on Google, Yahoo,” and Wikipedia to help them with a research paper. When there are better resources outside of these three websites available for them to use. The main idea of this article is what could professors or libraries do or what have they already done to educate their students on information literacy? Some colleges have are started by requiring students to take the “Information and Communication Technology” test or the “Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy skills” test.
I like the idea how some colleges are going out of their way to make sure students are using effective research skills, like requiring them to take the ICT test. In my opinion, the only thing that is sad and shocking towards information literacy, is how some community colleges can’t afford to purchase any of the online journal subscriptions. This then leaves many students stuck with using search engines such as Google, if they do not have time to go to the library and get a printed source. In a way, some community colleges are helping foster this ineffective research behavior, even though they are not trying to do this. I’m so happy I have taken this class and educated myself on this topic before graduating because some students are going to graduate this May knowing nothing about this.
Andrea L. Foster “Information Navigation 101”
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Reading Assignment #4
The article “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google” is about how libraries and producers of databases are trying to work together to get students to see that there are unlimited databases available for research outside of Google. The article also talks about how “library professionals and [database] companies” want to figure out how they could be “more like Google” and become more or just as appealing and attractive to students. One problem that rose in the article was the fact that too many of the “larger database” providers are more worried about gaining “libraries business” than developing an interface that is more user-friendly for students. One solution was to come up with software that is easy to use and it produces “high-quality results” for people who are not tech savvy in using databases. Finally, the article mentioned how professors and librarians need to work together to force students to have to use higher quality material for the research papers that are written.
Libraries and producers of databases want to be more like Google in terms of being easy to use, but they also need to keep in mind that “you get what you pay for.” So, they want to be producers of high quality results, then of course it going to be a lot more costly because of the software they have to come up with and provide that will produce the best results. It just goes to the point that Google information is freely available to anyone that’s why a bunch of the results that are provided is crap. It is very few people that will give up information that they have worked hard on for free and place it on the Internet. I think the only way databases are going to attract students is if they make databases more user-friendly.
Steven J. Ball “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google”
Libraries and producers of databases want to be more like Google in terms of being easy to use, but they also need to keep in mind that “you get what you pay for.” So, they want to be producers of high quality results, then of course it going to be a lot more costly because of the software they have to come up with and provide that will produce the best results. It just goes to the point that Google information is freely available to anyone that’s why a bunch of the results that are provided is crap. It is very few people that will give up information that they have worked hard on for free and place it on the Internet. I think the only way databases are going to attract students is if they make databases more user-friendly.
Steven J. Ball “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google”
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Reading Assignment # 3
The article “The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation” talks about how the roles of libraries in society are changing as technology evolves. “A library role is no longer primarily to serve as a storehouse.” “The article talks about how we have moved from a time where information was scarce to a time where information is overflowing.” Then the article goes on to discuss “ten key trends that it believes will affect the development of the next generation library.” Lastly, it stresses that changes of technology will forever keep the way that information is being presented to be changing.
It was very interesting to me to read about the story of how the art collection of Leonardo da Vince has been preserved. Reading this story just made me realize how sometimes people of today do not appreciate being able to go to a library and find old books or whatever they need, for whatever reason. These things are just something that people expect to be there and they do not take the time to understand where it came from or how it’s been preserved over the years or decades. There’s this big debate going around about whether or not libraries will be needed in the future? In my opinion, I believe they will be needed because no matter how much technology evolves you’re still going to need the library. It goes back to the point of one of the fundamental roles of a library, to “serve as storehouse.” Society will always need a place where the original works of individuals can be stored for back-up. If only society could count on people to be able to accurately predict the future a hundred percent, then we would know what libraries would be like in the future.
Thomas Frey “The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation”
It was very interesting to me to read about the story of how the art collection of Leonardo da Vince has been preserved. Reading this story just made me realize how sometimes people of today do not appreciate being able to go to a library and find old books or whatever they need, for whatever reason. These things are just something that people expect to be there and they do not take the time to understand where it came from or how it’s been preserved over the years or decades. There’s this big debate going around about whether or not libraries will be needed in the future? In my opinion, I believe they will be needed because no matter how much technology evolves you’re still going to need the library. It goes back to the point of one of the fundamental roles of a library, to “serve as storehouse.” Society will always need a place where the original works of individuals can be stored for back-up. If only society could count on people to be able to accurately predict the future a hundred percent, then we would know what libraries would be like in the future.
Thomas Frey “The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation”
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
News Report # 3
“More turning to Web to watch TV, movies”
Zach Pontz, CNN.com
2/6/09 (Date accessed: 2/10/09)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/06/internet.tv/index.html
This article talks about how more people are using the internet to watch television programs because they can no longer afford to pay for cable services. There are several sites such as “Hulu,” “Joost,” and “Netflix” that offer a place for people to go to watch one of their favorite movies or television shows. The only problem with this is that most of these sites are limited to the television content they can provide. In other words, it is much harder to get a current or newly released footage online such as a “professional football game.” Lastly, the article talks about how it has been researched that more people are watching things online, but not enough to say that Internet TV will be the “new television.”
Honestly, I do not like watching movies or television shows on the internet. From time to time I might view a news video clip online, but that’s about it. When I purchase certain DVD’s, for example Dark Knight, they come with a digital copy to download to the computer. I have yet to use any of the digital copies that have come with movies I’ve bought. I feel that DVD’s that provide a digital copy to the movie is helping promote online viewing. This in results turns consumers away from purchasing the DVD if they can view it online for free. No matter how much they try to push TV consumers to viewing things online I do not think it will go far. For the simply fact, that you will have people such as myself who prefer to view it on a larger television instead of a small PC screen. Another factor I believe plays a part is being comfortable. A person might think to their self, is this comfortable sitting in front of a computer versus lying in bed to watch the same show? I understand that their laptops available in this world, but then you have to deal with the previous point I mentioned viewing it on a small screen. I do not think this will go very far because if it every got to the point where people could go online to watch a current movie, then the producer of the movie, probably would not make any money and that would not go far. Producers do not spend the time and cost to make a movie to give it away for free.
Zach Pontz, CNN.com
2/6/09 (Date accessed: 2/10/09)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/06/internet.tv/index.html
This article talks about how more people are using the internet to watch television programs because they can no longer afford to pay for cable services. There are several sites such as “Hulu,” “Joost,” and “Netflix” that offer a place for people to go to watch one of their favorite movies or television shows. The only problem with this is that most of these sites are limited to the television content they can provide. In other words, it is much harder to get a current or newly released footage online such as a “professional football game.” Lastly, the article talks about how it has been researched that more people are watching things online, but not enough to say that Internet TV will be the “new television.”
Honestly, I do not like watching movies or television shows on the internet. From time to time I might view a news video clip online, but that’s about it. When I purchase certain DVD’s, for example Dark Knight, they come with a digital copy to download to the computer. I have yet to use any of the digital copies that have come with movies I’ve bought. I feel that DVD’s that provide a digital copy to the movie is helping promote online viewing. This in results turns consumers away from purchasing the DVD if they can view it online for free. No matter how much they try to push TV consumers to viewing things online I do not think it will go far. For the simply fact, that you will have people such as myself who prefer to view it on a larger television instead of a small PC screen. Another factor I believe plays a part is being comfortable. A person might think to their self, is this comfortable sitting in front of a computer versus lying in bed to watch the same show? I understand that their laptops available in this world, but then you have to deal with the previous point I mentioned viewing it on a small screen. I do not think this will go very far because if it every got to the point where people could go online to watch a current movie, then the producer of the movie, probably would not make any money and that would not go far. Producers do not spend the time and cost to make a movie to give it away for free.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
News Report # 2
“Obama unveils new presidential Web site”
Lisa Respers France, CNN.com
1/20/2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/white.house.website/
The article” Obama unveils new presidential Web site” is about how the redesign www.whitehouse.gov was released to the public that outline's President Barack Obama stamina. The redesign site includes “more interactive features” such as a “photo gallery, the ability to get e-mail updates, and a White House blog.” The article also talks about how the newly updated site is a huge step up from what former President George W. Bush used it for. One of the reasons the site was redesign was because President Barack Obama wanted to use the website as a means of communication between the public and himself. Lastly, the article warns people to make sure that they do not get www.whitehouse.gov confused with www.whitehouse.org a spoof website.
I just love the whole idea of President Barack Obama taking a serious interest in using the site. This shows that he is trying to keep that constant line of communication from Americans open. It lets Americans know that he is interested and concerned with their voice. It is flabbergasting to me to know that I can e-mail the president about any of my concerns as an American and it will get to him. I also like the idea of the White House blog. I feel that this blog will allow people in general, not just Americans, to talk to each other about present or upcoming issues. I’m pretty sure that the staff of the White House will be monitoring this for the president somehow. Again, this gives President Barack Obama the opportunity to hear people concerns. I really hope that Americans will use this tool that is available to them for free. It is not every day you have the president wanting to hear your view or concern. Indeed, “Change has come to America” as you see even with something as small as the progression or changes made to the official white house site.
Lisa Respers France, CNN.com
1/20/2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/white.house.website/
The article” Obama unveils new presidential Web site” is about how the redesign www.whitehouse.gov was released to the public that outline's President Barack Obama stamina. The redesign site includes “more interactive features” such as a “photo gallery, the ability to get e-mail updates, and a White House blog.” The article also talks about how the newly updated site is a huge step up from what former President George W. Bush used it for. One of the reasons the site was redesign was because President Barack Obama wanted to use the website as a means of communication between the public and himself. Lastly, the article warns people to make sure that they do not get www.whitehouse.gov confused with www.whitehouse.org a spoof website.
I just love the whole idea of President Barack Obama taking a serious interest in using the site. This shows that he is trying to keep that constant line of communication from Americans open. It lets Americans know that he is interested and concerned with their voice. It is flabbergasting to me to know that I can e-mail the president about any of my concerns as an American and it will get to him. I also like the idea of the White House blog. I feel that this blog will allow people in general, not just Americans, to talk to each other about present or upcoming issues. I’m pretty sure that the staff of the White House will be monitoring this for the president somehow. Again, this gives President Barack Obama the opportunity to hear people concerns. I really hope that Americans will use this tool that is available to them for free. It is not every day you have the president wanting to hear your view or concern. Indeed, “Change has come to America” as you see even with something as small as the progression or changes made to the official white house site.
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