Archives, personal records, and privacy

Greyson alerted me to an article from the Vancouver Sun detailing new access policies for British Columbian archives that contain private personal data. Researchers who want to access records with sensitive personal data are being subjected to security checks of their computers, offices, and even homes. Apparently such checks, which seem on the surface [...]

‘Forgetting’ Part 2, or, it’s opposite: Data retention legislation in the US

Related to the themes of ‘forgetting’ I brought up in my first post are the recent policy discussions in the United States, the EU, and Canada about data retention legislation. Data retention refers to policies that mandate lengths of time that companies like Google and your internet service provider must keep your search and surf [...]

Indigo and Canadian school libraries

Dalton McGuinty, newly elected premier of Ontario, made a campaign promise of increased funds for school libraries – increased funds to the tune of $80 million for books. According to McGuinty, this is “the biggest investment of new books in Ontario in a generation.”
Great, right?
The catch: McGuinty named pal Heather [...]

Link to Survey Results – The Black Experience In Library School

A link to a study of racism in library school was passed on to me by the fantastic librarian and archivist of the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies Library and Media Center. The link below to the work of Toccara Porter, an M.L.I.S student at Kent State, includes data from her [...]

Blogging, Remembering and Forgetting

Blogging, Documentation and Retention
As I hemmed and hawed over my first blog post – changing topics, editing, deleting – I realized that behind my newbie jitters was lurking an issue I’ve been devoting a lot of time and space to over the last year. And that is: will this blog post be around forever? If [...]

CHN Part II – Replacement Resources?

What resources will fill in for the CHN when it no longer exists?
Let’s consider our options…

The US NIH, via MedlinePlus (not Canadian, necessarily US-biased…which makes little difference in some areas and a whole lot in others, like pharmaceuticals)
Provincial Health Portals/Guides (Typically not in-depth and underutilised)
There is that new Canadian government consumer health website, Healthy Canadians [...]

The Canadian Health Network: Part I – Pulling the Plug on a Success Story

As a health librarian, I suppose it’s only fitting for me to start us off here with a health information issue. So here we go. That said, this is not really “just” a health information issue – it’s an issue of social infrastructure, government priorities, and the current Conservative* government.
The Canadian [...]

Getting this show on the road

Welcome to the Social Justice Librarian blog!
The idea for this blog has been bumping around in my head for a while now, and I think it’s probably time to open it up and try it out.
What is the idea? A blog that is centred on social justice issues that relate to information and/or librarianship; that [...]