Time to move on

In case you haven't noticed, I have been veering away from library-only stuff. I have decided to move away from subject specific blogging and migrate to blogging about anything that interests me. I have also decided to migrate to Wordpress (admittedly mostly because I like their templates better and because I like the idea of having a template that I like and that I can incorporate some of my own photography into).

I can now be found here: http://beachedlibrarian.wordpress.com/

I will leave the past posts, but I will no longer be posting here. See you at my new blog :)

Not in WorldCat blog

For you bibliophiles who love rare and unsual books: Not in WorldCat

From the About page: "This blog will feature books, and book-like items, for sale online that are not in OCLC/WorldCat."

Library of Congress on Flickr

This is brilliant. The Library of Congress (yes, it really is the Library of Congress) has posted a lot of photos on Flickr. You can check them out for fun, add tags (over 4000 unique tags have been added already, and that was just in the first 24 hours), and leave comments (anything, though descriptive comments are very much appreciated as they have a lot of photos that come in with very little information). The project is part of a new thing on Flickr called The Commons, which they describe as being "your opportunity to contribute to describing the world's public photo collections".

CNET news.com has this to say and The New York Times has this to say.

Seriously, you have got to be kidding me!

From the Facebook group, Reverse Canada's Ban On Gay Male Organ Donors:

In December new rules took effect banning sexually active gay men from becoming organ donors. This was done so secretly that Canada's main organ transplant agencies were unaware of it until this week. We need to take a stand against these measures that continue to classify ALL gay men as "participating in high risk activities", grouping us with injection drug users.

Statement from Health Canada to the CBC:

“Men who have had sex with another man within the preceding five years are excluded from being organ donors. Similarly, people who have evidence of IV drug abuse or having had sex for money are excluded from donating organs.”

Reuters article:

Health Canada insisted gay men were not being singled out.

"A gay man who had practiced abstinence for the five years prior (to making an organ donation) would be acceptable," said the spokeswoman.

Liberal Health Critic Robert Thibault calls for an end to the ban

What about women who have had sex with women? I mean, if you are going to be homophobic, shouldn’t you include both genders, or are they trying to be sexist, too?!

I am so offended by this. Aside from the misguided assumption that all gay men have dangerous, unprotected sex habits, organ donation is desperately needed. This means that men who are in sexually active, long term loving relationships can’t be donors. So what happens when one of these men finds out that their sibling needs a kidney? (don’t forget, not all organ donations involve harvesting organs from dead people)

Libraries and poor people

The other day I mentioned to a friend that my program (Masters of Library and Information Science) has a course on intellectual freedom and social responsibility. I often forget that people (even my more astute friends) are painfully unaware of librarianship in general and of the issues we have to consider beyond checking out books. Many of us end up in publicly funded libraries where we have to be aware of things like intellectual freedom and our responsibilities to serve the whole public. This blog post, by Impagination, illustrates one of the many unsolved issues - how public libraries treat poor people (especially the homeless). I especially like their subtle remark where they compare the equally offencive, yet more socially acceptable, perfume overload to the smell of someone who hasn't showered in a while.

Another interesting point made is this:

Homeless people dwell in public places because we as a society have failed to provide private spaces for these individuals, who are among the most vulnerable members of our communities

I will keep you posted if their add more on the topic.

Playpumps

I have heard about playpumps many times before, but I think that they are brilliant. Playpumps are merry-go-rounds that pump water so that people can have safe, clean water. As an added bonus, girls have more time in school because they don't have to go and collect the day's water (which is generally really far away) - instead of arriving later than the boys, they can go at the same time, increasing their chances of getting a good, fair education.

Check out the website: Playpumps.org

Solid argument for taking action to deal with climate change

This guy uses solid, basic logic to show that regardless of whether climate change is or is not happening, we need to take action. Watch it. It will take a mere 10 minutes of your time.



On a less serious note, I wonder if he is single. I like smart men :)

Animal rights humour

This is pretty brilliant! :D


Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement?

Oh, and in case you are not familiar with The Onion (the source of this silliness), never take it too seriously!