Just how dangerous is the Internet to children?

An interesting blog on this question is found at Monkey Speaks. Walter Minkel suggests that is not as bad you think it is and gives a few numbers to back his thoughts.

If you read the blog and his observations are true, do you believe it all about newspapers wanting to scare people away from Internet just so they will read newspapers instead? I don't. I believe it more because people do not understand the technology, and therefore don't trust it. Your thoughts?

Librarian = Captain Kirk

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is soon upon us and it is not too soon to brush up on its lore. Educational CyberPlayGround give us a nice summary, plus some extra tidbits of information. Not only is there the history of Valentine's Day & the day's traditions, but did you know that the right way to kiss begins in the womb? Plus a few numbers are given, e.g. 180 million - Number of Valentine's Day cards exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.)

Free Music

FIND MAJOR AMOUNTS OF Free music

Quoted from Educational CyberPlayGround

"Sunday we discussed apparently great news: a company announced making a deal with the major labels to provide DRM-free, ad-supported music. There's just one problem with that. Reuters reports that the Big 4 music labels have denied having any deal with Qtrax. Contrary to Qtrax's reports, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner had publicly denied that they had agreed to back the new Qtrax service. Universal Music, the largest of the group, said it also had not signed a deal for the new Qtrax service and is still in discussions. EMI Group said that while its song publishing unit has an agreement with Qtrax, its recorded music arm, EMI Music, does not. EMI Music, Sony BMG and Warner all previously had agreements with Qtrax, which was testing a paid music download service. Sources say those agreements expired in the last year and did not cover the new free, ad-supported model now being promoted by Qtrax. Qtrax did not immediately respond to further queries about its agreements with other companies."

Qtrax.com - Launches today with a catalogue said to be of more than 25m songs. Users will be able to download for free but must watch streamed ads and can't burn songs to CD or, at least initially, transfer them to their iPod.

We7.com - Backed by former Genesis frontman and internet visionary Peter Gabriel, it secured another £3m in funding last week. Free downloads are supported by 10-second audio ads attached to the song.

Imeem.com - Following two years of negotiation, the US social networking site became the first to agree deals with all four major labels in December. Users can watch any music video or listen to any song within the site. Its UK launch will be later this year.

MySpace.com - One of the first, and still most popular, social networking sites with music at its core.

Facebook.com - Applications such as iLike allow users to listen to and recommend music within the confines of the site.

Last.fm - Recently signed a licensing deal with all four major labels and indies to allow any track to be listened to up to three times.

The Importance of Play

OPAL

How did I miss this site before? OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries)
This site provides free online "workshops" on items of interest to a library. For example, they are offering a workshop at two different times on Friday, January 25 about virtual worlds for youth. While the focus will be on Whyville whose median age is teens, an overview of virtual worlds for youth and their relevance to libraries will be given. The workshops last about an hour.

Check it out.

Poster for Black History Month

There is a website you may find of interest for Black History Month. The Brown Book Shelf offers a poster showcasing African American authors for each day of the month. You could use it to set up a book display with some of the authors listed.