ICT Policies for socioeconomic development and an informed society, Zimbabwe. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 414.

Cde Herbert Murerwa, Zimbabwe stressed the need for revamping Information and Communication Technology policies to reduce the information gap between the rich and the poor in society.ICTs to emerge as strategically important tools for social and economic change, that can be used by governments, public and private domains and civic society in the improvement of both service delivery and quality of service in sectors including health, agriculture, commerce, tourism, education and training, especially distance education to cover the masses who are unable to make it to universities. Government of Zimbabwe by and large, have pursued such policies that seek to deregulate the telecommunications industry, to attract foreign investment and increase Internet connectivity. She further wants Zimbabwe's national ICT policy framework to provide a conducive environment for effective participation in the global market to build a knowledge economy.

Library Services to the Incarcerated. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 413.

Library Services to the Incarcerated: Applying the Public Library Model in Correctional Facility Libraries
by Sheila Clark and Erica MacCreaigh (Libraries Unlimited, 2006).

Intended to aid librarians whose responsibilities include serving the incarcerated, either as full-time prison librarians or as public librarians who provide outreach services to correctional facilities.

International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 412.

In an article in In These Times Liz Sevcenko described the purpose of the International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience:

"Our goal is to transform historic site museums from places of passive learning to places of active citizen engagement. We seek to use the history of what happened at our sites—whether it was a genocide, a violation of civil rights, or a triumph of democracy—as the foundation for dialogue about how and where these issues are alive today, and about what can be done to address them.”

Since 1999, member museums have shared resources and strategies on how to promote democracy and human rights through historical analysis. At the District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, visitors are presented with street signs and maps from a neighborhood that was gradually demolished after the South African government declared it a whites-only area in 1965...
At the site of Perm-36, a restored Stalinist labor camp in Russia, the Gulag Museum uses structures from the old prison to discuss issues such as totalitarianism, state terror and the role of dissidents in an open political system. The museum asks its visitors, “What institutions or activities are fundamental to a democracy?”
The Tenement Museum recently won first prize from the American Association of Museums’ Brooking Paper on Creativity in Museums for its Shared Journeys Program.

[Thanks LHW].

Making Diversity Count. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 411.

The American Library Association has (ALA) released "Diversity Counts," a comprehensive study of gender, race and age in the library profession...
To increase diversity, the ALA committed $1.35 million in 1997 toward the Spectrum Scholarship Program, a groundbreaking effort aimed at encouraging more people of color to become librarians. A 2004 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) nearly doubled funding available for graduate students from racially and ethnically underrepresented groups to attend ALA-accredited master's programs or National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) library media programs. Since its inception, more than 400 students have received scholarships, mentoring and ongoing networking opportunities.

The study was conducted by the ALA Office for Research & Statistics, ALA Office for Diversity and Decision Demographics, a research firm based in Arlington, Va. The research provides the ALA with a reliable estimate of employment and will influence future recruitment efforts.

Making Diversity Count: Finding and Using Statistics, Data, and Resources on Diversity in Libraries and Librarianship

Joint Conference of Librarians of Color

Joint Conference of Librarians of Color

Stand Up Against Poverty-October 15-16. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 410.

Stand Up Against Poverty
Eradicate Hunger and Extreme Poverty



[pdf]Millennium Development Goals 2006.

Environmental Justice for All: Tour ’06 . A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 409.

Environmental Justice for All: Tour ’06 brought together environmental justice, social justice, public health, human rights, and workers' rights groups from all over the country to host a national tour of communities directly impacted by industrial pollution to meaningfully link these communities together in a public call for safe solutions to unnecessary toxic contamination.

Meanwhile the Bush administration CLOSES EPA Libraries.

Writing of the tour --"Poor, Black and Dumped On" in his Times Select column on 10-5-2006, Bob Herbert noted:

The systematic placement of garbage dumps, chemical plants, oil refineries and other hazardous facilities in communities inhabited primarily by blacks and other disadvantaged groups is nothing less than an unconscionable extension of the devastating Jim Crow policies that have existed in one form or another, legally or illegally, since slavery.

The tour was enthusiastically received at each stop, but got hardly any attention from the larger society. The message to blacks and others struggling with these hideous policies could not have been clearer: we are not in the least interested in you.

Reality Check 2006. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 406.

Reality Check 2006
is a set of tracking surveys designed to find out what people really think about important issues in education. From 1998 through 2002, Public Agenda conducted annual Reality Check surveys of parents, teachers, students, employers and college professors, primarily covering standards, testing, and accountability issues. In 2005 and 2006, Public Agenda revised and updated these Reality Check surveys to cover a broader range of questions, including high school reform, school leadership, teacher preparation and quality, school funding and other key issues.

Although school leaders nationwide give local schools good marks, those in districts with mainly-minority and low-income students - especially the principals - tell a different story. A majority of principals in mainly-minority schools say their schools have serious problems with too many kids dropping out, acting disrespectfully and slipping though the system without learning. Overall, principals in mainly minority schools are less satisfied with their teaching staffs than principals in mainly-white schools. They are also less likely to say that they have enough authority to do their jobs. Reality Check surveys of teachers tend to confirm this picture. Teachers in low-income and/or mainly-minority schools are more likely to report serious problems with kids slipping through the system without learning. They are also less likely to think their students learn to speak and write English well or will have learned the expected material by the end of the school year.