Author: Dan

This site is called Library Monk, because yes I have been known to dress as a monk on occasion. Ask anyone who in the summer 2002 Genre Fiction class at UT’s School of Information Sciences. The reason I was dressed as a monk then was to talk about my favorite book, A Canticle for Leibowitz. Canticle tells the story of a post nuclear war world. People have turned against science and learning and life has reverted to a medieval existence. And as they did in the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic monks preserve what scraps of knowledge remain.

The name Library Monk is a homage to that book and grateful acknowledgement of the fact that if not for those monks in the Middle Ages, libraries in Europe and the Americas might not exist. Western Civilization is built on the work of those monks.

And monks are still preserving knowledge today. According to this New York Times article, monks at the Monastery of St. Catherine in Egypt are using a 75 megapixel camera to preserve ancient manuscripts. Almost makes you want to go to Egypt and help out.

In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a number of other national civic organizations, The Pew Internet & American Life Project served as research advisors for a new report finding that public libraries have helped close the digital divide by providing free, public access to computers and the Internet, particularly for people without access at home or work.

The report, “Toward Equality of Access: The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide”, also identifies significant challenges libraries face in sustaining and improving this service and recommends the public and private sectors work together to ensure that libraries can continue to provide this vital access to technology for years to come.

“Toward Equality of Access” is available online at the Gates Foundation Website.

I upgraded my iMac to Panther last night. It took forever but only because I was overly cautious and made sure my system was in perfect shape before I installed the upgrade. The new Finder and Expose alone are worth the upgrade price. Upgrading to Panther is also the only way to get the latest version of Safari.

The Tennessee Super DMCA is back for the 2004 legislative session. The House version, HB 3391,was passed on February 10. Senate Bill 3101 is currently in committee. While not as vicious as last year’s version, this bill still makes it questionable, if not illegal, to use things like firewall hardware and software and virtual private networking.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Tennessee Digital Freedom have more information on this and other Super DMCA laws.