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President Obama Nominates New Librarian of Congress Who Supports Open Access (teleread.com)
Dr. Carla Hayden, CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and a former president of the American Library Association, is President Obama's nominee for Librarian of Congress. What a contrast to long-time LoC Librarian James Billington, a stuffy old academic who hated e-books and was so far out of touch that he liked faxing more than e-mail. According to President Obama, "Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to modernizing libraries so that everyone can participate in today's digital culture." Dr. Hayden was a fierce opponent of the Patriot Act and believes strongly in speaking out against surveillance. What's more, she would be the 14th Librarian of Congress, in charge of the Copyright Office, and the first woman and first African-American to hold the position.
With NSF's public access policy in place, PubMed provides open-access to a lot of journal papers in a variety of formats, including EPUB.
I've found the PubMed site itself to be one of the best-laid-out reference web sites I've used, period -- its links to external journals, full and partial papers in various formats, and ability to bookmark items of interest, are all very functional and easy to access.
The fact is that in the last 100 years the ONLY time a SCOTUS nominee has been voted down is by Democrats. Not only that, Obama himself participated in a fillibuster of a Bush nominee when he was a Senator. Joe Biden and other Democrats have also been against nominees from Republicans in similar circumstances as the one we find today.
You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... All Democrats. All the time.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
No, it's not just like that, because they actually had a specific nominee with a position to scrutinize, and they actually did have a vote regarding him. Republicans are vowing not to have a vote. There's not even a candidate on the table, they're just saying, "No, we won't even offer advice and consent." It's absolute obstructionist insanity, as is par for the course of late.
So you have to go back to the 80s? The Democratic Congress rejected Bork, and then confirmed Kennedy, Reagan's next nominee (well, the next one that didn't get disqualified for smoking pot, not such a disqualification nowadays), without a dissenting vote. I'm not saying that the Senate has to rubber-stamp Obama's pick, but that the Senate should not unduly obstruct the process. Some Senators have said they will refuse to confirm any Obama appointee, which is an entirely different thing.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
"What a contrast to long-time LoC Librarian James Billington, a stuffy old academic who hated e-books and was so far out of touch that he liked faxing more than e-mail."
What the fucking fuck. I read this sentence and my bullshit detector went so that I went to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and read for myself. Please learn to read and form your opinion instead of trusting this asshat submitter.
I read over his entire career and I can't really find much disagreeable with this guy.
During his tenure at the Library of Congress, Billington championed no-fee electronic services,[12] beginning with:
American Memory in 1990, which became The National Digital Library in 1994, providing free access online to digitized American history and culture resources with curatorial explanations for K-12 education
THOMAS.gov website in 1994 to provide free public access to U.S. federal legislative information with ongoing updates; and CONGRESS.gov website to provide a state-of-the-art framework for both Congress and the public in 2012
Educational portal for K-12 teachers and students in 1996, and subsequently new prizes and programs for advancing literacy in 2013
Online social media presence for the Library beginning in 2007, which expanded to include blogs, Flickr, establishment of Flickr Commons, Facebook, iTunesU, Pinterest, RSS, Twitter, YouTube and other new media channels. Twitter donated its digital archive to the Library of Congress in 2010; its vice president of engineering, Greg Pass noted, "I am very grateful that Dr. Billington and the Library recognize the value of this information."
"eCo" online copyright registration, status-checking, processing, and electronic file upload systems in 2008
The World Digital Library in 2009, in association with UNESCO and 181 partners in 81 countries, to make oline copies of professionally curated primary materials of the world's varied cultures free available in multiple languages.
Resource Description and Access (RDA) in 2010, a new cataloguing standard for the digital age implements in 2013
BIBFRAME in 2011, a data model for bibliographic description to provide a foundation for those depending on bibliographic data shared by the Library with partners on the web and in the broader networked world
National Jukebox in 2011 to provide streaming free online access to more than 10,000 out-of-print music and spoken word recordings.
BARD in 2013, digital talking books mobile app for Braille and Audio Reading Downloads in partnership with the Library's National Library Service for the blind and physically handicapped, that enables free downloads of audio and Braille books to mobile devices via the Apple App Store.
The Democrats started it with Bork and they'll support the same thing if they control Congress, at which time some people will suddenly be okay with it.
You seem to be assuming that they have to consent to somebody. They do not.
No, the Democrats allowed the hearings to proceed. The Republicans are saying they will not even hold the hearings. There is a difference.
Might want to lay off the Fox News drivel. Here's what he actually said:
"I believe that so long as the public continues to split its confidence between the branches, compromise is the responsible course both for the White House and for the Senate,” he said. “Therefore I stand by my position, Mr. President, if the President [George H.W. Bush] consults and cooperates with the Senate or moderates his selections absent consultation, then his nominees may enjoy my support as did Justices Kennedy and Souter."
And further clarified because partisan hacks like you keep taking his words out-of-context (Oh, Fox wouldn't do *that*, would they?):
"Nearly a quarter century ago, in June 1992, I gave a lengthy speech on the Senate floor about a hypothetical vacancy on the Supreme Court. Some critics say that one excerpt of my speech is evidence that I oppose filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year. This is not an accurate description of my views on the subject. Indeed, as I conclude in the same statement critics are pointing to today, urged the Senate and White House to work together to overcome partisan differences to ensure the Court functions as the Founding Fathers intended. That remains my position today."
Seriously, turn off Fox and grow a brain.