"Libraries are inherently islands of freedom and antidotes to fanaticism" - James H. Billington, Librarian of CongressThe prototype for the World Digital Library was unveiled yesterday to a group of reporters in Paris.The Library, expected to launch in 2008, is an online initiative created by the U.S. Library of Congress, the U.N. cultural body UNESCO and 5 international partner libraries; Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Egypt, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library"The international digital library will be free and multilingual, with contributions from around the world, including rare books,...
Taliban Sexuality
Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak struck visual gold when he came across these photos at a photo studio in downtown Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban. Photographing any living entity was banned under the strict Islamic code of the Taliban yet there is a long history, whether for identification purposes or for pleasure, of the Taliban being photographed."Kandahar, a city of Pashtuns noted for their gaiety, so to speak, where Mullah Omar had made his final headquarters, has traditions of men in high-heeled sandals, with make-up of kohl and painted nails like sultry silent-movie stars. They liked to have their...
Dalai Lama Day
The Tibetan Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in 100,000 Verses(Tibetan Collection, Asian Division)The Dalai Lama received the The Congressional Gold Medal today. The award is our nation’s highest civilian honor and was given to the Dalai Lama in recognition of his advocacy for religious harmony, nonviolence and human rights throughout the world.The Dalai Lama also met with President Bush though you won't see any pictures of this event because the Chinese are pissed off and the Bush administration agreed not to release any pictures of the meeting. The Bush Administration also chose not to release a formal statement on...
Ultimate Censorship: Bookseller Killed in Gaza, Poet Tortured in Myanmar
As another Banned Books Week wraps up in this country and the cultural focus shifts to the next designated week for the next cause, word comes of two tragic world events related to the free flow of information.Eric Silver at the Independent reports that "The manager of Gaza's only Christian bookshop, who was abducted on Saturday by suspected Muslim extremists, was found dead yesterday."The bookseller Rami Ayyad, was 31 years old and leaves behind two children and a wife who is pregnant. "About 3,000 Arab Christians live among 1.4 million Muslims in the Gaza Strip. Attacks on Christians and their...
Banned Books and the Presidents
Chris Finan, President of The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), reminds us that the whole concept of Banned Books Week is a direct response to the Republican Revolution that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.Booksellers, librarians, and publishers celebrated the first Banned Books Week in 1982 against the background of a political and cultural counterrevolution. Many people saw the election of Ronald Reagan as a chance to strike back against the liberalization that had occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. On the local level, they began challenging hundreds of books that were used in schools...