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RAIN 01/27: Weekly Update Part 3



There are 17 stories in this posting.

New York Times 01/23/02
Amazon ships to sorting machine beat
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/21/technology/ebusiness/21AMAZ.html

by Saul Hansell
Fernley, Nev., Jan.18 -- Ever since it built five vast warehouses in 1999, Amazon (news/quote) .com has boasted of the wonders of the machinery inside them - 10 miles of conveyer belts and myriad other gadgets.



Washington Post 01/23/01
An exhibit as big as a house
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21774-2002Jan22.html

by Janice Kaplan
There are 3 million objects at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Some are small and don't take up much room (Dorothy's slippers from "The Wizard of Oz," for example). But the largest object needs a three-story gallery to hold it.
It's a house.



CIO 09/15/01
Are you sure you want to save that?
http://www.cio.com/archive/091501/save.html

by Ian Springsteel
THINK YOU HAVE A GOOD electronic records management strategy? Think again. Sure, you back up your data rigorously. You save everything you can, whether it's product specs or sales reports, in case the original files are damaged. But such practices, say electronic records experts, can be dangerous. To manage electronic files right, you need to take into account what's in those files and decide how long to save them.



Casa Grande Dispatch 01/22/02
Many Police agencies fail test of state's public records
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3055161&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6

by Jacques Billeaud and Enric Volante
Associated Press
EDITOR'S NOTE: Journalists fanned out across Arizona in October to see how local governments follow the state's Public Records Law.
Jacques Billeaud of The Associated Press and Enric Volante of the Arizona Daily Star were the lead reporters. Casa Grande Dispatch reporter Harold Kitching was part of the team.Police agencies around Arizona refused nearly half the time to hand over public records dealing with crimes in a test of how local government agencies follow the state's Public Records Law.



Chicago Tribune 01/23/02
Wormy apples from the groves of academe
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0201230024jan23.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed

by Ron Grossman
This is a tale of two professors.
It is a cautionary tale, for in the heady days before their respective pedestals in the ivory tower crumbled, their careers were on superstar trajectory.



Courier Leader 01/21/02
Paw Paw Township debating new records copying charge
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3043837&BRD=2188&PAG=461&dept_id=414962&rfi=6

by Deborah Klinger
PAW PAW - For several months the Paw Paw Township Board has been wrestling with the question of what to charge per copy for public records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Township Clerk Marlene Peasley would like the township to adopt a new lower FOIA copy charge rate.



The Times 01/23/02
Hancock fan finds lost hour
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002034981,00.html

by Adam Sherwin
TWO episodes of the Hancock's Half Hour radio show that had been lost for almost half a century have been found.
The classic comedy programmes were discovered by a fan as he was listening to a collection of old tapes. The episodes, first broadcast in 1956, are Sid James's Dad and The New Secretary. The BBC, which was afraid that they had been wiped, hopes that they will be of broadcastable quality after being restored.



Washington Post 01/23/02
Md., Va. Consider limits on public records
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22365-2002Jan22.html

Daniel LeDuc
Maryland and Virginia officials are joining a growing number of state leaders across the nation who want to restrict access to public records in the name of increased security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.



Orlando Sentinel 01/23/02
Jury wants law to close public record
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locid23012302jan23.story?coll=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines

by Susan Clary
A statewide grand jury investigating identity theft wants to throw a cloak of secrecy over the public records law.
In a 30-page report, the grand jury recommends reversing the law that opens all records to public scrutiny and keeping those records confidential unless there are legal grounds for release.



Arizona Republic 01/23/02
Roadblocks get in way of public records access
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0123accessmain23.html

by Jon Kamman
Arizona law plainly says that public records "shall be open to inspection by any person at all times during office hours."
But the idea of open government is coming under increasing pressure as more officials are simply defying the law and interest groups are winning legislative exemptions from disclosure.



Salon.com 01/22/02
Relics of the lost bulletin-board tribes
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/22/bbs_archives/index.html

by Katherine Mieszkowski
For digital preservationists bent on rescuing relics of early online culture, the holy grail isn't an e-Rosetta Stone or some Web Pharaoh's tomb. It's a simple ASCII text file like this one, which offers practical advice on handling an encounter with a UFO.



Salon.com 01/08/02
The geeks who saved Usenet
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/07/saving_usenet/index.html

By Katharine Mieszkowski
On May 11, 1981, one Mark Horton, then a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, using the e-mail address "ucbvax^mark," posted this message to the Usenet newsgroup Net.general:



The Age 01/23/02
When the system fails, its victims suffer
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/2002/01/23/FFXXJRCKQWC.html

by Misha Ketchell
A few weeks ago Andrea Pfeffer received a letter from the Universities Admissions Centre in New South Wales and the ACT. It told her she had a problem.
According to their records she had not completed her diploma of business and public relations at RMIT in 2001. Officially she hadn't studied at all and was not eligible for entry into either of the two university courses for which she had applied.



Dallas Morning News 01/23/02
Methodist Hospital archive gallery has 75 years of history
http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/stories/methodist_23met.ART.Zone1.Edition1.bad6e.html

by Norma Adams-Wade
Sandra Fritchie was in her freshman year of nurses' training at Methodist Medical Center when a tornado hit in the 1950s.
"I'd never seen a tornado," she said. "It looked like a flock of blackbirds."



The Harvard Crimson 01/23/02
Harvard refuses tobacco subpoena
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=161373

by Daniel P. Mosteller
The University recently rebuffed the efforts of the tobacco industry to subpoena a half-century of Harvard research records.
According to University Attorney Diane E. Lopez, Harvard received a legal notice this fall from the industry's lawyers asking for all the records from any federally funded scientific research involving smoking within the last 50 years. The subpoena also asked for documents on 54 specific research projects conducted by the University since 1961.



Village Voice 01/23/02
Hijacking History
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0204/barrett.php

by Wayne Barrett
Out in Long Island City, near the Queensboro Bridge and just off the East River, is a block-like, two-story, concrete structure called the Fortress. Located in an industrial area peppered with abandoned factories, the Fortress describes itself as "the leading museum quality storage and service company in the world," chosen by "personal collectors and corporations as a guardian for their precious objects."



Reuters 01/23/02
Yahoo to unveil paid search service
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020123/80/cqjgm.html

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Yahoo!, which has always provided internet search services for free, will unveil a new paid search product, where customers will be able to buy specialised documents that are not generally available on consumer search engines.





Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
pakurilecz@aol.com
Richmond, Va