As a documents librarian, it's always been a particular frustration to me that I could give access to the CA Codes to all who asked *except* for Title 24, the CA Building Standards Codes which are under copyright by and must be purchased from various organizations -- for @ $890!

Well, no more. Carl Malamud and his public domain avengers have just liberated Title 24 (download the whole kit and caboodle here!). This is truly a great birthday present on Independence Day!!

The Organization For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is asking the public this question: "How can the Internet make the world a better place?" The results will be shown at their Ministerial meeting on the “Future of the Internet” in Seoul, Korea on 17-18 June 2008. The best youtube videos will be shown to ministers and VIPs. It's good that OECD leaders are willing to listen to ordinary citizens' voices, but it's interesting that OECD is partnering with youtube (owned by google). I can understand why OECD is using youtbube -- numbers of existing users, ease of use of the tool, etc -- but it would be better IMHO if OECD used an open and community-driven system rater than one owned by one commercial entity. We'll post the best videos here when they're announced.

Many thanks to Karen over at Free Range Librarian, for pointing out this YouTube video of LOCKSS installation:

In this video, Angela Slaughter of Indiana University walks us through the steps of setting up a LOCKSS cache. Please watch this five minute video and see how easy it could be for your institution. Then hope on over to http://www.lockss.org, learn more and consider what LOCKSS could do for you!

Day 3: If you're ever thinking of being a bookmobilista, I advise you to learn how to endure over 90 degree summer heat in Northern California. James and I were sitting outside of the Madelyn Helling County Library  in Nevada City  for 5 hours with very little shade. It was obviously too hot to be out because there were very few visitors to the library.

There were a couple of tricks that I used to alleviate heat. First, I tried to trick myself saying it's not that hot -- even though I wasn't able to think much because of the heat.  Second, I tried to be tough and stay focused. Neither of them worked.  Eventually James got sunburn on his ankles and I stopped thinking. A librarian came out later and was surprised by our endurance.

Despite of unbearable heat,  good bookmobilistas cann't ignore their duties - talking to library users about the importance of the public domain, questioning copyright, access to knowledge and supporting public libraries.

Many library staff came out throughout the day and asked about  the bookmobile, but overall it was a slow day. While we were talking up the public domain, a couple  of librarians asked about how to verify whether or not a book was in the public domain. We were so proud that we bookmobilistas made library staff think about public domain issues and why librarians have to advocate for the public domain.

Later on, a few elderly people asked if we had large format books to print out and also asked how they could get acces to the digital books if they have little or no access to the internet. For people who live "out in the boondocks" (as a couple of people put it!) the public library IS the place to connect to the net and the library is the closest thing to ubiquity for many of us. The digital divide is still alive and well even in the United States.

We are in Orland, CA tonight and will visit Orland Free Library tomorrow. As of the 2000 census, Orland had a total population of 6,281. Interestingly, while we are coming into the town from the south, we noticed a big sign saying "Want a laugh? See the Orland City Council on YouTube!" and shortly afterwards a sign for "Orland City Council recall petitions available here." While we haven't been able to verify what's happening on the City Council, we DID find their videos on youtube. This is a great example of how a small town city council can use internet technologies to get the word out and inform their community.