Facebook and Faith

Lately, privacy concerns around Facebook have somewhat soured my experience. (Don't tell Facebook, but I created a Orkut account behind its back.) I've written about Facebook and faith before, but I've been watching the recent news about Facebook and Youtube being banned by Pakistan.It wasn't privacy that raised the ire of the Pakistan court; at the center of the controversy was a "Draw Mohammed Day" page. You'll remember the furor in 2005 when a Danish paper published satirical cartoons of Islam's Prophet, offending many Muslims, both for violating religious teaching on images of the Prophet and for the perceived disrespect. The administrators of this new Facebook page claimed their intent...

Read More

I'm not afraid of no ghosts!

I am an information professional. My job title is librarian. I connect people with information. Not just information but the right information. I think I'm rather good at it.I think libraries will be around for years, but even if they disappeared tomorrow I'd still have a job. Some librarians wouldn't, because they are too entangled in the buildings and processes we constructed to help people find useful information. They forget that the point is the people. I was reminded today of some of the pessimism that has seeped into many libraries, particularly law libraries. Years of budget and staffing cuts have created a kind of fatalism. Someone asked me recently about innovations in Canadian Law...

Read More