The letter U and the numeral 2...

I love Negativland. They were sued in 1992 for copyright violation and also fueled the sampling lock down of artists using other people's material in their pieces. John Oswald the man who coined the term "plunderphonics," did a musical collage of the history of compact disc music (1982-1992). It clocks in at around 20 minutes. Oswald uses micro-samples and intricate layering and reorganizing to create a unique soundscape using no original materials. He also did an interesting piece with more than a hundred versions of "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead. If you are interested look him up on Wikipedia.
As a librarian, I have to worry about not stepping on copyright toes, flex intellectual freedom and  promote and execute the library mantra..
 Promotion of literacy (in terms of both reading and information), intellectual freedom, and transforming libraries to keep up with technological standards can be taxing. With changing laws, technological advances, and everyone able to contribute to the information superhighway, it proves a challenge for informationologists to evaluate so many resources and determine what are the best for the patron.
Dialogue or participatory librarianship can help keep the standards that librarians want to uphold (Lankes, 2008, p. 234). This notion is based on Conversation Theory, which is that knowledge is gained through conversation, thus libraries being a hub for information that they are also a place for conversation. The shift to participatory practice is currently underway because of wide use of social media that helps change in the way patrons will eventually view a library and its staff (Lankes, 2008, p. 238). These, along with environmental scans in strategic plans, outreach, Friends of the Library type organizations, are just some of many ways that information can be best served to patrons by librarians. By using social media and the physical space to celebrate the cultural and ethnic demographic through events, workshops, exhibits, and programs, the library is showing that it is responsible for its mission and principles. Having the preeminent resources and materials further secures the values of providing the best to their population.
The Intellectual Freedom Statement expresses that library professionals do not censor material that are often “subjected to threats of legal, financial or personal pressure" (Rubin, 2007, p. 390). Librarians must have open minds when choosing materials for their collections and, at the same time, make sure that all patron groups have options that reflect their interests. When one of those groups is academics, librarians must also be able to advise them as to how intellectual property laws may impact how they want to use copyrighted materials in their research or when sharing them with their students.  Fair use is something as a musician, teacher, and librarian that is focal in my studies. The importance of intellectual freedom is something I value and being able to explore a subject whether for oneself or for a class is important.
This was brought on because a co-worker asked me a copyright question.
                                            References
American Library Association. (2012). Core ethics, values, and core competencies. ala.org. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/40corevalues
Lankes, D.R. (2008). The ethics of participatory librarianship. Journal of Library Administration, 47(3/4), 233 241.

Rock and roll ain't noise pollution!

Here we go again! Another "edgy" librarian blog. I know for some of you the idea of an edgy librarian is strange, but believe me we are out there.

For those of you who will read this and do not know me, I am a librarian at a for-profit college that offers diplomas and certificates. Some of the campuses (yes, it is a chain) offer AA and BA degrees and supposedly the campus where I work will be "going that way" in the summer. I am also a musician, who has been in bands since the late 1980s (what!?!). I subscribe to the punk DIY ethos and generally have a FU attitude when it comes to stupid people who misuse and abuse their authority. Slowly, I am learning that the corporate game has a lot of rules, and frankly, I am not too fond of most of them. This blog is an avenue to keep me sane and for the students I help everyday. They are the reason that I enjoy what I do and my hope is that there are others like me, who will read this and join me in the conversation.