- Marie Kennedy is the Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. This blog is about organization, librarianship, and sometimes monkeys and/or bananas.
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in an earlier post i mentioned a grass roots effort that seems to be growing roots quickly, sciencedebate 2008. it is getting all kinds of press and discussion, which is excellent. the presidential candidates have now been invited to a debate specifically about science and technology, and it is scheduled three days before the pennsylvania primary, on april 18. read their latest press release at this site: http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=21. consider adding your name to those interested in a debate on this topic.
quoted from one of the organizers of the debate, “Most of the major policy challenges the next president will face, from climate chance to jobs and economic competitiveness to healthcare to the health of the oceans, center on science and technology.”
these are exciting times. have your voice heard on topics you care about!
headed to las vegas for the joint meeting of some regional medical library groups. the meeting’s theme is clever: viva librarians! there is a promise of an up-close elvis sighting at tonight’s welcome reception, so really, what could be better? i’m on the planning committee for the conference, and worked on getting exhibitors and sponsors. adam and i will be presenting a paper on our electronic journal usage statistics gathering project (summary: gathering usage stats isn’t easy, even with counter, but i’ll write more about that later). in between conferencing i’ll be gambling a chance at a megabucks progressive slot for bill.
choosing a candidate to vote for in the upcoming presidential elections can be overwhelming. the candidates say a lot about a lot of things. how does one narrow that down? i’ve helped myself cut through the tall weeds by identifying what my top three concerns are in making my choice, and i’ve listened to the candidates with an ear focused on those things. one of my top three issues is advancing science. i really want to see an emphasis placed on our government making decisions based on scientific data and i want an overwhelming movement of support for a broad funding of scientific pursuits. as it turns out, i’m not the only one interested in this. check out sciencedebate 2008 to see what kinds of groups are calling for a presidential candidate debate specifically on the topics of science and technology, health and medicine, and the environment. while you’re at the site, consider clicking on the button marked, “click to support science debate 2008” (or click the link in this post) to add your name as a show of support on furthering the discussion.
if you like knowing what your members of congress are up to, check out this site, aimed at openness and transparency in government: http://www.opencongress.org/. once you create a profile your representatives and senators will be identified and you can create an rss feed of each vote they make. if that’s too much information for you, just create a feed to track bills you care about. if you’re only into gossip, they’ve got you covered there too, with a congress gossip blog (no profile required to grab that particular rss feed).
i especially appreciate that this site lets you involve yourself at whatever level you wish. i learned alot from its description of what congress is all about, but if you’re advanced you can navigate directly to the full text of any bill.