Barracuda

At work we have a pretty serious web-filter in place called barracuda. I think it is quite a fitting name!! This filter means business. 

The filter automatically blocks sites and gives a category the site belongs to and explain why it is being blocked from the user. There are categories such as game playing, downloads, spam, phishing and porn; which have all shown up some time or another while I am just working away. I have just started to ignore it. Obviously these do NOT work very well. I have had students trying to view pictures of food to those researching pregnancy and breast cancer all get perspective sites blocked by the filter. Which, I guess is pretty typical.

Now, here is the real issue I have: as a librarian I don't even have a login to get around the filter! I have students actually needing to access information and I have to tell them to simply try another site because there is nothing I can do. Our IS department is in charge of the filter and feels that we don't need access to an overriding login. If there is a site we want unblocked we can send a request to IS who will then review it and unblock the site for students to utilize. Sounds great, right!? Hmmmm....I wonder how long that will take? I'm sure students don't mind waiting days to view their needed website. 

Letterman vs. Palin

Late night talk show host David Letterman is very well known for poking fun at celebrities and bordering on inappropriate humor just like many other hosts.  Since this seems to be the norm I was surprised with how much press a comment he made about Sarah Palin's daughter has gotten recently. Letterman made a joke about her daughter being 'knocked-up" by a baseball player during the 7th inning stretch at a baseball game. Apparently Palin was upset because her 14 year old daughter was actually the one attending the game and not her 18 year old (who just recently had a child) that Letterman had planned the joke for. 

While I understand Palin could be offended because of this remark, why is everyone paying it so much attention? Every evening viewers who tune into Letterman's late night show will hear many inappropriate jokes. He simply exercises his first amendment rights to the best of his ability. 

People have been outraged at him requesting apologies and charitable donations among others. They really have no grounds to demand these things out of him. While he did apologize on air, I'm not sure I agree that he should have. Whether or not I agree with his jokes I definitely feel he has the right to exercise his first amendment rights. If someone doesn't agree they simply don't need to watch his show!

Social Networking and work

I found an article which discussed how employee usage of social networking sites can cause some problems for companies. I found this article interesting because with the popularity of social networks constantly increasing many don't always associate their personal actions with their professional life.  On one hand I understand that thinking: Why should what I do in my free time impact my professional career if it isn't affecting my overall work ethic? Why can't my association with my company end when I clock out at the end of the work day?  

During my undergrad I was a member of a sorority. By joining a sorority we were giving up some of our freedoms and had limitations on what we were allowed to post to our social networking pages and how we were to act in public while wearing sorority apparel. We had an overall image to uphold to the public and gave up some of our freedoms to be a part of that organization. I personally feel that some jobs are the same way. Every company has a public image and wants their employees to uphold it. 

While companies can't limit what employees are doing in their own personal time, they can persecute for actions done during work time.  However, since a large part of social networking that employees partake in will be done out of work hours their isn't much companies can do legally. I think the author sum it up perfectly with her final sentence: “It’s going to take the law a very long time to catch up to where young people are with their lives,”

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1241136.html

Illegal library?

Today I was reading the latest post from the Annoyed Librarian on LibraryJournal.com titled "Banned Books in Fake Locker". The AL discussed a question and answer set posted on Yahoo Answers about a high school student at a strict catholic school setting up a library in an empty locker. In this 'library' the student checks out books that appeared on a banned list for that specific school to other students. The basis for his question is whether or not he could get in trouble for running this type of operation. Now when I first linked to this Q&A and read through I thought, how awesome! I found it great that a student would be interested in reading such classic literary works and sharing them with his peers. Then I read through what the AL thought. Often not the most positive blog to read through, the AL said there was no way that this is real and basically we are all idiots for thinking it could be!
Now, on one hand I understand how this could seem impossible. Most people can't image an average high school student starting up something like this and encouraging the reading of books that we were actually forced to read in many of our English classes. However, as crazy as this story sounds, I like to believe it could be true! Finding a student who is dedicated to the intellectual freedom of these types of items is a wonderful thing! While many of the answers tell this student that he could definitely get in trouble for breaking school policy in this way, they commend his motive and offer him advice.

While I guess we many never know if this story is 100% true it is definitely a neat thing to think about a high school student doing!

Week 1 Posting

Recently at work we have had many issues dealing with intellectual freedom and copyright. I work for a small career college with a fairly small library budget. We don't have the funds or resources to purchase licensing and rights for every video and article faculty wants to incorporate into their classes. Time and time again I have instructed our faculty on the copyright laws and fair use doctrine, but their focus is on getting information to the students and that is that. They feel that my limiting them with rules and regulations is imposing on their intellectual freedom to materials for class! 

Library staff have given them plenty of materials on these topics, have postings on all copy machines and I have individually spoken wit several faculty members. Many seem to understand and care, but when it comes time to get the information ready for their class they are going to do whatever they see fit. While I can understand their frustrations with these issues laws and regulations are in place for reasons. Copyright is to protect the creator of the work....not simply to give faculty a hard time! 

When it comes down to it I know that I will continue to enforce the rules and regulations to the best of my ability. While I am obviously not hired to be 'copyright police' I feel it is my job to continue to educate faculty and students on copyright and intellectual freedom.