Posts by Pete Sime
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Legal Beagle: Somewhere* it's National…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Do the Auckland Libraries hold a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook?
The Anarchist Cookbook was banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification as unconditionally indecent in 1994.
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Legal Beagle: Somewhere* it's National…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
and I have in the past been shocked at some of the books sold by libraries, stuff that should still be publicly accessible – gone for a song (or less)
I'm a librarian working in collection management. Standard practice is to have a disposal policy as part of a collection development policy. There's an email list that NZ librarians often use to post lists of items that are for disposal, in case any other libraries want those copies. Space is limited and there are better sources of information than holding on to that 1993 set of Encyclopedia Britannica. The number one rule of libraries is that books are for use, if they're not being used then a library is no longer a library, but a museum of books - where they are appreciated as objects, but not for the information they contain.
In public libraries in particular, if no other institution wants a book and they can't be sold at a library sale or given to the Lions or other organisation for a community book sale, often they end up being pulped because that space is far too valuable. Academic libraries in particular must focus on the needs of their users. I remember taking your position, Ian, when I was a history student at Vic and there was a huge deselection project under way. But it was a hoarder's mentality. I was asking what if someone needs these books? instead of are they being used?. Now that I'm a librarian, I find I take a very workmanlike attitude to books in this job.
And yes, I totally agree with Auckland Libraries' position. If a member of the public wants a title banned, then go to the OFLC.
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I'm reminded of this scene from Charlie Brooker's amazing satire, Black Mirror (language NSFW)
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@Andrew and @Graeme – could a decision on compensation be subject to judicial review? Or is it absolutely discretionary?
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I remember when I was a kid in the 80s, there was a bank of 4-6 public telephones outside the Post Office in North East Valley. I'd use to get a fairly decent rate of return by pressing the coin return button for pocket change.
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Hard News: Villainy and engagement, in reply to Russell Brown,
Crikey. The Dan News YouTube video embedded in the post above just passed 800,000 views. It will get close to a million in its first day online.
The video made it to the front page of reddit and was the top link on r/videos for a while today.
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Hard News: Villainy and engagement, in reply to Alan Perrott,
as someone without telly and no particular desire to watch the clip in question this has been a most bewildering day.
I didn't watch it, but that doesn't mean I don't care. A lot of kids watch the show and it'd be good if they understood that kind of behaviour is unacceptable. Hopefully this can be a teachable moment.
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Hard News: Earning Confidence, in reply to Timmy H,
Don't know about geoblocking, you might have to use Hola but the One News twitter account said it would stream from http://tvnz.co.nz/news
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There's a new poll(pdf) from Horizon looking specifically at Dirty Politics and it says in the executive summary:
While voting intention shifts from poll to poll, National’s level of retention this year of those who said they intended to cast their party vote for the National Party at the next election had been particularly strong in polls conducted by Horizon up to the July/August survey (before the Hager book’s release), at around 92%. In this survey, conducted after the release of the “Dirty Politics” book, National retains only 82% of those who said in July/August they would give their party vote to the National Party.
Note that around 8% of those who said in the July/August poll they would vote for National are now undecided about which party they will give their party vote to.
As we saw last night some of those undecideds are going to NZ First and the Conservatives, but it's likely some are truly floating voters and will cross the left/right barrier.
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Hard News: Never mind the quality ..., in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
It's not about being kind to Cameron Slater, it's about respecting the privacy of the people discussed. This demonstrates how important Nicky Hager's approach was in only revealing material in the public interest.