Psst! Don't tell the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, or Homeland Security, but the TeleBlog keeps getting a few accesses from Iran. No nuke secrets for the ayatollahs. Hey, guys, I'm Jewish. Maybe this is one reason for the visits:The head librarian of the Central Library of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Dr. Mohammad Abdullahi, said on the threshold of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the university that the electronic library of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, with some 5000 digital periodicals and 500 electronic books, has connected the students and the faculty members to...

I don't mean to pick just on librarians. Maybe the Washington Post should gently ask Michael Getler, its ombudsman-PR guy, if he wants to retire ahead of time.An ombudsman is supposed to be independent, but apparently this man is taking a few too many naps on the job. He still hasn't responded to my accuracy-related complaint of a month ago--following the Post's embarrassing misuse of the term "public domain."The Old Fart DepartmentIn the Old Fart Department, Gorman, er, Getler, shines. Headlined The Essential Newspaper, his latest column acknowledges that many people are rejecting the Post as too bulky to...

Here's a neat wrinkle for an e-book conference--a "show and tell." Bring your pet e-book device and compare it with the hardware other people are using.That's one of the attractions at the eBooks in Illinois Academic Libraries Conference--which actually could also be of interest to out- of staters. It'll be held March 7 and 8 in Champaign. Details:The conference will feature ebook experts speaking on such topics as: an industry overview: devices, readers and formats; pricing, acquisition, access, and integration with print resources; standards; free vs. commercial texts; university press projects; and the promotion of digital resources..The attendance prizes...

"States already take land and other property in order to benefit the public by building things such as roads and schools. Now some legislators and officials are saying they should be able to take away a drug company's intellectual property, its patent." - The American Prospect via Slashdot.The TeleRead take: Zealots have tried to position copyrights as being eternal like land titles. But could this parallel haunt them in the end--even though copyright law isn't the same as patent law? In the case of drugs, of course, government officials are POed over patent-enabled gouges, and as the Eyes on...

Some professors at Ohio State are offering their own e-textbooks and other online material for free--saving their students big bucks. A lesson for the publishing industry if it can't control prices? What's next? Could open source textbooks suck many millions out of the business, especially as e-book technology improves ? Many in academia might see that as A Good Thing. (The Oklahoma Daily, via eBookAd.)...

Michael Gorman has come up with the excuse that his anti-blogger piece in Library Journal was good fun. Huh? The damn thing in places reads like a legal brief. Simply put, the president-elect of ALA is a liar and an idiot who can't grasp the power of blogs to put books and other formal content in context. Moreover, he has yet to repudiate his ignorant op-ed in the Los Angeles Times against e-books for most uses.Worse, by discouraging the mass digitizing of books, he is a threat to literature. As often noted, many venerable classics were printed on acidic...

Oh, no! Has civilization declined to the point where Michael Gorman, the president-elect of the American Library Association, must appear in Library Journal to respond to mere bloggers?Here are a few naive questions in the wake of Gorman's LJ article and an anti-e-book rant published earlier in the L.A. Times. Didn't he seek election while pledging to work toward "equity of access for all library users?" Couldn't the efficiencies of the new technology help bring more books to cash-strapped libraries? And what about the disabled? For some reason, my eyes haven't been functioning as well these past few days...

How about this--a print-on-demand network for those who want physical copies of free documentation? Check out a NewsForge item. (Via eBookAd.)...

Did a Korean e-book actually sell five million copies, as claimed? Can't say. Still, I read with interest the following:When South Korea was the guest of honor at the world's largest book festival, the Frankfurt Book Fair, many visitors were impressed by what they saw of the nation's creativity industry, of which audio-visual entertainment is an important part. South Korea's best-selling Internet book sold 5 million copies, while Taiwan's sold only around 20,000. According to an annual report released by Taiwan's Eslite Bookstore last year, 73 percent of locally published books sell less than 2,000 copies in a year's...

"...a Feb. 1 Soapbox commentary said that one-third of Salinas residents have access to the Internet. If that figure is correct, it means two-thirds do not have access. Very likely many of these are students. Also it argued that adults are able to buy books instead of going to the library. This shows a lack of awareness of the poverty level in Salinas. The Internet is not a substitute for a library. It augments it. The American Library Association reports the Internet has increased - not replaced - the circulation of library materials." - Marlys Maher, a retired librarian...

From my friend Rochelle at LISNews:Anonymous Patron writes "that British schools are looking at giving the time-honored classics a backseat in the classroom according to this Sunday Times (UK) article.In their place, children may be required to study a greater range of modern writers and those who reflect the ethnically diverse nature of modern Britain such as the prize-winning black author Andrea Levy.Other potential candidates for the new list include fantasy writers Tolkien and Philip Pullman, who many believe more closely reflect the reading tastes of children than the current list."...

Blogger Corps Delivers Greensboro101 appears in New Voices and tells of a lively site bringing together bloggers' posts on topics ranging from politics to furniture. Greensboro so far just may be the California of political blogging--Trend Central. (Found via Ed Cone.)Related: Blog map of the Washington, DC, area, built around subway station locations....