Rowland Institute Library Blog

(Sigh)… Evidently the readers are “greedy” little applications that keep coming back for more…

I must have misunderstood something in this story….  The headline in the Post says: “Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act.”  The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the act, “but the case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said.” Sounds
like  the provision that you can’t tell patrons when their library
records have been subpoenad under the law.  (Source; Boing Boing)

Update (4/30/04); LLRX has an article
about libraries may risk getting sued for revealing records in response
to PATRIOT Act subpoenas. Evidently AOL revealed a customer’s records
and they are now being sued. “ It turns out that AOL apparently did not closely examine
the search warrant, which was invalid.” (Source: beSpacific)

Finally a blog directory with a significant number of science-oriented
news sources and weblogs.  Categories include natural sciences
(physics, chemistry, astronomy); health and medicine; technology; and
even libraries.  Resources range from news to personal weblogs to
weblogs for institutions and labs. Some are field specific (e.g. mass
spectrometry blog.) Many non-English sites.   A find. 
(Source: Confessions of a Science Librarian)

Scientists explored the correlation between number of hits (or
citations) on an author in Google and the number of papers the author
had posted to an electronic archive.  The sample included about
450 condensed matter physicists. The researchers claim they found that
citation in Google (“fame”) reflects “merit” (as calculated by number
of published papers.)    (Source: PhysicsWeb)

A Boston Globe article examines the persistence of print and the
surprising moderate growth in the number of published books, in spite
of e-book readers, cd-roms, print-on-demand and other phenomena. 

A news article describes how developers collaborate around the world to
refine Linux code.  Rowland’s computational scientist Alan Stern
is mentioned, as it is reported that he posted a solution to a mailing
list. 

beSpacific reports on two
recent Congressional Research Service reports having to do with
dissemination of scientific data and terror and national security
issues: Balancing Scientific
Publication and National Security Concerns: Issues for Congress, by
Dana A. Shea; and 

AAAS says research programs are at risk as federal government tries to
get deficits under control.  (Source: Science in the News)

Mirroring much public skepticism on patents for one-click shopping and
internet credit card processing, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
remarks: “The harm these patents cause the public is profound,” and
thus they launch a campaign to contest the validity of such patents and
unearth prior art where it may be found. (Sources: Boing Boing,
Slashdot)

An article by Elaine Scarry documents how local governments have passed
resolutions protesting provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, defending
people’s rights “where they live;”  how the legislation encourages
secrecy and challenges the notion of an open, democratic government;
and even how the use of “USA” and “PATRIOT” in this context confounds
the meanings of these words.  Excerpted in the May 2004 Harper’s
magazine, it was originally published in the Feb/Mar issue of Boston
Review.