NetConnect have just announced the winner of their first annual netConnect Library Web Site Awards: Las Vegas/Clark County Library District.

Now I know the NYPL web site has a long way to go in terms of accessibility, and I know people in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones, etc etc etc. But I still must say, did anyone take a look at how quickly their site vanishes once style sheets and images are turned off? Take a look at the screen capture above [http://www.lvccld.org/good_books/index.htm].

This is basic stuff, folks. Maybe this library district isn't aware of the law; or maybe they just want a pretty site.

But shouldn't the judges at NetConnect care?

I'd like to be able to say that very little about George W. surprises me. But of course you know that's a lie. Take yesterday's speech, a speech we've been waiting weeks for. I was so surprised I actually screamed at my television set. [It's okay, kitty, you can come out now...]

"I call upon them to build a practicing democracy" said Bush, ignoring the fact that Arafat *is* the democratically elected leader of the Palestinians. Bush also called on the Palestinians to build new institutions. But let's not forget that these institutions - as well as the basic infrastructure (water, roads) - was only recently destroyed in what the United Nations called acts of "wanton destruction" on the part of the IDF. Here's a quick summary of some of the damage:

• At the education ministry the IDF destroyed all the files on student's results for the last eight years


• At the higher education ministry the Israeli army took computer hard drives and destroyed the rest of the computers


• At the transportation ministry, records on all cars in the West Bank were destroyed


• The land registry building was damaged and its computers taken


• All Palestinian ministries in Ramallah were ransacked or damaged to some extent except for the ministry of sport and planning


• Many schools, often used as staging posts by the IDF, were found trashed and vandalised


• Non-governmental organisations, such as human rights groups, seem to have been specifically targeted


• The broadcast machinery of radio stations was destroyed [Source: BBC]

Eight weeks ago Mohammed Shtayyeh (head of one Palestinian development agency) was quoted as saying "The aim is simply to put us in absolute chaos and then to be able to argue that the Palestinians are in a mess and corrupt and don't deserve a state."

Hmmm.... sound familiar?

Who wants to march in the Mermaid Parade with me next year? Here's the scene -- 1 Mermaid - our hero - saves 40 or 50 singing, dancing and otherwise groovin' lobsters from an evil fisherman's net. I nominate Liz to be our hero Mermaid (she's already tall and goddess-like).

Thing is, we'll need lots of lobsters for this to work - large and small - old and young. We'll push the littlest lobsters in a little lobster trolly.

Frances...can you bring the boomerangs?

It's Friday Five time:

1. Do you live in a house, an apartment or a condo?
I live in a one bedroom apartment. It's great in many ways, although always very noisy. If I want a quiet moment I walk over to the cemetary, 3 blocks south.

2. Do you rent or own?
I own. I guess technically, my brother-in-law, sister and parents own since they lent me the money to buy the place.

3. Does anyone else live with you?
Vicious, toe-nibbling kitty, storm.

4. How many times have you moved in your life?
If I'm counting right -- 25 times. Egham - Nottingham - Ottawa - Manotick - Angmering - Manotick - Ottawa (x 8 apartments) - Toronto - Ottawa - Toronto (x 3 apartments) - New York City (x 5 apartments). Phew.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
Senegal versus Turkey. Bagel with cream cheese. Mermaid Parade at Coney Island. Perhaps some cleaning. N'ah.....

Want to work on digital divide issues, in a very real way? The United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) is a new global volunteer initiative that sends volunteers to developing countries to teach about technology. If you'd like to volunteer from the safety of your cubicle, check out NetAid.

Red Hot Sizzling Snappy Burlesk -- Just the Kind You Like. [Baltimore, Maryland, April 1943] will be back... as soon as I figure out how to make a link the the Library of Congress image database.... Sorry.

52 Projects from Jeffrey Yamaguchi is delightful. Here's an excerpt from Project #2:

Find a recipe for key lime pie. If you've already got a favorite recipe for key lime pie, even better. Make the pie. Take pictures of the pie. Invite some friends over, and take pictures of them eating the pie. Have a friend take a picture of you eating the pie.

Next, get a box and some limes. Put the limes in the box, along with a handwritten copy of the key lime pie recipe and the pictures that were taken of your key lime pie party. Mail off the box to a friend.

Read Memento Mori, the short story that inspired the film Memento.

New pics in the "NYC Diary" category on the left, including yesterday's Belmont Stakes. I had a great time, to be sure, although the frat boy quotient was a bit high. I think our next trip to the races should take us overseas, preferably to a Muslim country where alcohol is banned. Dubai, anyone?

Civil servant Johnelle Bryant says any government employee might have interviewed Mohammed Atta - as she did - and not have suspected he was a terrorist: "I think it's very vital that the Americans realize that when these people come to the United States, they don't have a big 'T' on their forehead."

But when you read the transcript of Bryant's ABC News interview, you have to wonder. As Andrew Sullivan said, this guy didn't just have a "T" on his forehead, he might as well have been carrying an enormous sandwich board. You decide.

Bryant: "He mentioned al Qaeda, he mentioned Osama bin Laden. I didn't know who Osama bin Laden was … He could have been a character on Star Wars for all I knew. ... He was seeking $650,000 for a crop-dusting business. He wanted to finance a twin-engine six-passenger aircraft … and remove the seats. He said he was an engineer, and he wanted to build a chemical tank that would fit inside the aircraft and take up every available square inch of the aircraft except for where the pilot would be sitting."

Finally, she recalls him looking at a picture of Washington DC and saying "How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it,' like the cities in his country had been destroyed?"

When I read the Digha Nikaya, it's a huge effort for me to not think literally.

I want desperately to escape this madness (read "New York City", or "America" even) with its culture of violence, poverty and greed. At the heart of my various "five-year plans," whether Ireland, Cape Breton, or my little Nova Scotian church is a desire to be alone, and - maybe - a cautious optimism for peace. I think I'll stay put. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places for the island:

"You should be an island to yourself, a refuge to yourself, not dependent on any other but taking refuge in the truth and none other than the truth. And how do you become an island and a refuge to yourself?

In this way. You see and contemplate your body as composed of all the forces of the universe. Ardently and mindfully you steer your body-self by restraining your discontent with the world about you. In the same way, observe and contemplate your feelings and use that same ardent restraint and self-possession against enslavement by greed or desire. By seeing attachment to your body and feelings as blocking the truth, you dwell in self-possession and ardent liberation from those ties.

This is how you live as an island to yourself and a refuge to yourself. Whoever dwells in this contemplation, islanded by the truth and taking refuge in the truth--that one will come out of the darkness and into the light."

The New York Public Library's Summer Reading Program site is finally up, and if I do say so myself, it rocks. Our target audience is 3rd through 12th graders (although there is some stuff there for younger kids and their parents). Readers can send e-cards, write book reviews and vote on books, connect with authors and other readers in our bulletin boards, and chat live with 4 world-class authors.

How did we do it? We hired a whiz-bang project manager - Linda Braun - with experience designing for kids, and some snappy graphic designers & programmers. We didn't let a committee near the content (although that was a close call). We kept the focus on children and teens, rather than parents, librarians or administrators. They can find their own damn sites.

And - finally - we never, ever, considered saying something like this -- "this year we have added several new features to our site. In addition to the Program Manual in a variety of formats (HTML and PDF), we have included several "interactive pages" where users can enter information directly from their keyboard." [from the Florida State summer reading site splash page].

Our users don't want to know about format, nor do they want to think about the process of interacting online (my fingers are typing on a keyboard...) They want to talk, vote, trash a book, play games, meet a cute author, and hang out with other book-ish types.

Actually, they want to do more, but there's there are are limits to what a library website can provide.
;-)

On Memorial Day I didn't "press a foot on the accelerator to make the car move north" - I went on a road trip. Writing for the web really is quite simple.

Even with my junk mail settings on their highest, this is what waits for me every morning. "Jumbo size" I think, beats my old favourite, "Put your lover into a coma, pixiejones." Very Claus, as Carrie said.

White Rabbits!