Expanding Access to Audiobooks

This Saturday, I'll be making a speech to the Hawaii Library Association conference. It will be titled "Expanding Access to Audiobooks".


Libraries that serve the print disabled (which includes the blind, visually impaired, and those with physical disabilities which make it difficult to hold a print book) loan out audiobooks for those patrons.


However, federal law has limitations on the lending policies.


So here is my letter to Congress about that issue.

The Pratt-Smoot Act of 1931 (and its various amendments) allows the National Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (also known as NLS) to loan out audiobooks to eligible patrons.  The eligibility requirements includes any of the following conditions

• blindness
• visual impairments
• deaf blindness
• physical disabilities that make it hard to hold a print book
• reading disability caused by organic dysfunction

The following conditions that are not eligible to receive audiobooks from NLS include

• developmental disabilities
• intellectual disabilities
• illiteracy due to a lack of education

People living with such conditions should  NOT be isolated from information that is easily accessible to everyone else.

People living with such conditions may have difficulty reading a print book or reading from a computer screen  could benefit from access to audiobooks.

However, it would take an act of Congress to change the eligibility requirements to receive audiobooks from NLS.

I would want Congress to do the following

• open eligibility of NLS provided audiobooks to those struggling with illiteracy, intellectual disability, developmental disability, emotional illness, mental illness and any other disability that makes it difficult for a person to use a print book

• change the NLS official name to National Library Service for People with Disabilities to reflect such changes

• change the terms listed in Pratt-Smoot Act (and amendments) and NLS materials to better reflect modern terminology related to disabilities (ie. use "intellectual disability" instead of "mental retardation", use "physical disability" instead of "physical handicap")

Please introduce bills in Congress that address such issues.

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The letter and the speech is an extension of my work for my LIS 699 Project: Library Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired.


You can check out my writings for that project at http://pwegesen.wix.com/pablowegesendlis#!lis-699-projects/cdgt

Laws are enforced by violence

Remember, laws aren't just a set of moral codes, they are rules enforced by violence.

I don't like cigarettes (or alcohol or any of those other drugs) however, when there is a law against selling untaxed cigarettes, how do you think that's going to be enforced?

It got enforced by an angry officer who placed a deadly chokehold on a person accused of selling untaxed cigarettes! (ie. Eric Garner case)

Huffington Post

Eric Garner being choked by a police officer

Be careful with advocating for certain laws, and think about how they'll be enforced before advocating for more laws!

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Learn more about the Eric Garner case  at

"The Policies that killed Eric Garner" by Nick Gillepsie

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/03/the-policies-behind-eric-garner-s-death.html

"Grand Jury Declines To Indict NYPD Officer In Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner"  by Chrisotpher Mathias

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/eric-garner_n_6263656.html

where am I from again?

Because I'm neither Polynesian nor Asian, some people assume I'm not from Hawaii


Here is my facebook post from today

even after all this history, some still have the nerve to ask me "where you're really from" after I tell them where I'm really from!

“Hispanic Firsts” in Hawaii:

First Hispanic: Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spaniard, became a resident of Honolulu in 1794. He soon went to work for King Kamehameha I as his business manager, “doctor,” translator, and vintner (he made wine).

First Mexicans: In 1830, King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) brought in 200 Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) from California to teach the Native Hawaiians the art of cattle ranching. The Hawaiian word for cowboy – paniolo – is believed to derive from the Spanish word for the kerchiefs the vaqueros wore – pañuelo.

First Puerto Ricans: Between 1900–1901, the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association brought in 5,000 Puerto Ricans to work on Hawaii’s plantations. They came because in August 1899 a powerful hurricane – San Ciriaco – had devastated Puerto Rico and thousands of agricultural workers were unemployed.

Thanks to Hawaii Hispanic News for telling the world that Hispanics are NOT new to Hawaii, they've been around a long time.

It's just that they didn't come in with as big numbers like the Asians did! 

 

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As for my German side, I remember in the  LIS 663 class (Basic Database Searching), one classmate who was into genealogy research was trying to use the ancestry databases to find out who was the first Wegesend to come to Hawaii.

I did try Ancestry.com, but didn't want to continue after the Free-Trial period. And I got distracted by other things.

But with the LIS 693 class (Resources in Hawaiian and Pacific Librarianship)  going over genealogy websites, my curiosity peaked again. 

And then we took a field trip to the Hawaii State Archives

That's right, some of my ancestors were in Hawaii over a century ago!

Some of my ancestors were in Hawaii before the US took over!


My mom's side of the family is all locals. One of my uncles married a Native Hawaiian woman, and their kids are raised in Waianae!  That's right, you can't get any more "local" than some of my cousins!

Yeah, my dad (who has a different last name from me) came from Mexico. He's been in Hawaii over 40 years already!  Longer than I've been alive!



So who wants to continue insisting I came from somewhere else again?

Bill Cosby and Accountability

In my older blog posts, I did write a blog post titled "Why the US Latinos need their own version of Bill Cosby"

(note: the title has since changed to "Why the US Latinos need to be self-critical")

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-us-latinos-need-to-be-self-critical.html

The Obama speech on absent fathers remind me of Bill Cosby!

It was a few years ago that legendary African-American comedian Bill Cosby was speaking out against irresponsible parents. His speech-making tour was criticized as a "Blame the Poor Tour"!

As a person of Mexican-American ancestry, I say the Mexican-American also needs it's own version of Bill Cosby, and it also need it's own version of the so-called "Blame the Poor Tour"

Someone in the Latino community needs to speak up about the problems within the Latino community, including .......

I also mentioned that the Asian-American community could use their own version of Bill Cosby

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-amy-chua-is-dangerous-to-asian.html

(go towards the end of the blog post to see this part)

It is time for the Asian-American community to publicly stand up and aggressively denounce people like Amy Chua! If Bill Cosby can give aggressive criticisms of his fellow African-Americans who are negligent parents, than the Asian Americans should do the same to Amy Chua! 

As you can see, I do agree with Bill Cosby that SOME  of the problems within the  "minority community" is self-inflicted!

This does NOT mean I (or Bill Cosby) believe "racism is over!"

But I do believe that many people screw up their own lives, making a bad situation (some of it due to external circumstances) even worse!


And yes, I do think the same is true of European-American communities too!  The low-income European-Americans shouldn't blame their economic situation on "too many immigrants taking our jobs" or "nobody likes the white guy anymore" nonsense!


I had defended Bill Cosby from some of his critics in this blog post
http://pablothemadtiger.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html#108977977151843578

I have yet to read Ehrenreich's book "Nickled and Dimed" but I am wondering this - did Ehrenreich even bother to ask her interview subjects whether they cut class, disrupt class, bullied other students, annoy their teachers, etc. when they were young! 

But I wouldn't be surprised if Ehrenreich avoided that topic all together - because if she adresses, it might give the right wing some ammunition. Which is why she'll use the word "bigot" to describe anyone who has the nerve to say that many low income adults were once disruptive students! I know, I've seen it first hand! And Bill Cosby knows it, he's seen it first hand 

And Thomas Sowell gives Ehrenreich the smack-a-down she deserves 

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20040713.shtml  

Over the years, Bill Cosby has poured enough of his efforts and money into advancing blacks that he does not need any lessons from Barbara Ehrenreich on how to help his own people.But her attempts to pose as a friend and defender of blacks has implications that reach far beyond this one silly woman. 

But I did criticize Bill Cosby  with his comments about non-standard English
http://pablothemadtiger.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_archive.html#108580382921957844

While I would agree with Cosby on denouncing parents who spend $$$ on luxuries instead of educational tools and on deadbeat dads, he missed the mark on "non-standard English". 
There's this crazy assumption that if a kid speaks ebonics (African American slang) or pidgin (Hawaii slang) that kid will never be able to succeed in a standard English environment. BULL_____! 

We have many well educated people who are multi-lingual, who can speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc fluently! They can speak fluent Japanese in Japan, fluent English in the US and UK, fluent Spanish in Spain and Latin America, so on and so forth. 

That being the case, there are so many people who can speak ebonics or pidgin to their friends, families, etc and CAN ALSO speak standard English at work and school. I know PLENTY of people at the University of Hawaii who can speak fluent Pidgin with local folks and can also speak, write and read Standard English in academic setting!  

So why I am re-mentioning all the stuff I wrote about Bill Cosby!


He's in the news again, but this time over rape allegations.

When I first heard about the Andrea Constrand's allegation against Bill Cosby, this was right in the middle of when Bill Cosby was in the controversy over his remarks about negligent parents in African-American communities! Some were angry that Bill Cosby had the nerve to not blame all the problems on "white racism".

At the time, I was wondering ..................conspiracy to shut Bill Cosby up?


But more and more women went public with their negative encounters with Bill Cosby! There were allegations that he spiked their drinks with drugs that made them unconscious in bed, and woken up noticing their clothes are off and Bill Cosby acting as if nothing happened!

1 or 2 of those allegations can be questionable.  (notice that only 1 woman ever accused 2pac of sexual assault........ which makes it seem that 2pac wasn't a repeat offender .......and gives the idea of doubt among many 2pac fans over the incident)

But 14 of those allegations against Bill Cosby by women who never met each other, over a span of decades?

And more going public?

And with comedian Hannibal Burress mocking the living crap out of Bill Cosby's moral scold image?

At this point, I think Bill Cosby is guilty of some serious sexual predator behavior!

This goes beyond just being too touchy with women he was flirting/dancing with! 

This goes beyond just accused of saying inappropriate jokes! 

(Sometimes, those things highlighted in pink could be simple misunderstandings that can be solved with a sincere apology)



He is accused of drugging (poisoning) women so that he could insert his body part into theirs! 


THAT is NOT some "misunderstanding that can be solved with an apology"

As one of the victims who recently went public said
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-janice-dickinson-details-bill-223700892.html

Dickinson says that keeping the alleged sexual assault a secret for 32 years drove her to a life of hurting herself.

"Stuffing feelings of rape and my unresolved issued with this incident has drove me into a life of trying to hurt myself because I didn't have counsel and I was afraid," she says. "I was afraid of the consequences. I was afraid of being labeled a whore or a slut and trying to sleep my way to the top of a career that never took place."

But now Dickinson, who says she never confronted Cosby after the alleged incident, doesn't mince words when it comes to what she would say to him now.

"How dare you," she says. "Go f*ck yourself. How dare you take advantage of me. And I hope you rot."

Bill Cosby thought he was invincible! He was comedy superstar, family sitcom superstar!

He was protected by the same political correctness that he denounced when criticized other African-Americans! He was protected by European-American reluctance to sound racist and he was protected by African-American reluctance to criticize one of their own, especially someone who actually gained popularity with European-American audiences after so much centuries of slavery and segregation!

Bill Cosby was protected by the "no tattling, no snitching" culture he was denouncing all those years! Why else would you think so many women were reluctant to contact police when he violated them?

Bill Cosby was protected by the mentality that "female models and wannabe stars are groupies who always want it", which goes along with the "no tattling, no snitching" culture that intimidates abuse victims from going public!

Well, the "no tattling, no snitching" message is losing its effectiveness with sexual abuse victims!


This "let it go","don't let it bother you", "just leave in the past" message is losing its effectiveness with sexual abuse victims!


The "you have to be a perfect person, a total angel to be believed" mentality is losing its effectiveness with sexual abuse victims!


This is a new era! Times are changing! 

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So yeah, I can appreciate Bill Cosby's comedy shows, his Jello commercials, his status as an African-American legend who is one of the earliest to gain acceptance with large European-American audiences.

I appreciate him promoting higher education and giving scholarships to African-American students!

I can even appreciate his concerns with negligent parents, gang violence and other self-destructive occurrences in the communities he grew up in! I can even appreciate him saying that "not everything is racism's fault"!

But Bill Cosby has to take responsibility for his actions too!

He can't blame white racism for his irresponsible actions!

He can't just say "I'm not as bad as the gangsta rappers" because what he is accused of doing is WORSE than saying violent lyrics!

Bill Cosby needs to held accountable! 

After all, he said that about everyone else! 

politics overview

Usually, I have blog posts analyzing the latest election results.


I don't have much time to go over in detail like I did in the past, but here's a few thoughts!



1) Hawaii

Duke Aiona will probably be forever linked with Linda Lingle and  Furlough Fridays (in which schools had cancelled classes on Fridays due to budget shortages). It was what doomed him in 2010 and it did so again this year. Campaign-wise, Aiona gave it his best shot, it's just not enough to overcome the stigma of being associated with Furlough Fridays.


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The religious conservatives claimed that they will use this election to show the politicians they couldn't get away with passing same-sex marriage last December!

Well, they didn't get much results. At this point, same-sex marriage is the new normal. There's no turning back!

And no, the issue wasn't the reason why Neil Abercrombie lost the primaries back in August. Abercombie  alienated senior citizens with taxing pensions,  the teacher's unions with the contract that didn't mention how teachers will be evaluated, anti-development folks over Kakaako high-rises and just many people who were offended by his "I'm not your friend" response to a protester at a community meeting.

As for Mufi Hanneman, he has a loyal fan base that feels the Republicans are too fiscally conservative and the Democrats too culturally liberal.  While it is good to have a candidate that contrasts with the two major parties, there just weren't enough supporters to win!

The next governor, David Ige will have a steep learning curve as he transitions from being a legislator to being an executive. No longer can he hide among the more vocal colleagues in the Legislature.  All eyes (and ears) will be on him.


2) National

As usual, the "other party" takes over most of Congress right before the last 2 years of a President's final term in office.


Also, since this was a midterm election, there is lower turnout, especially among the millenials. This gave the Republicans to exploit Obama's perceived weakness on the economy, health policy and foreign policy The Ebola scare and ISIS also added to the perception of Obama's weakness!

However, the Republicans shouldn't act all giddy yet. Their cultural conservative viewpoints on same-sex marriage and marijuana has turned from a strength to a liability. They'll have to continue to distance themselves from the anti-immigration fanatics.

The battle within the Republicans will be about foreign policy. John McCain, Lindsey Graham et al wants a military response to any and all provocations. Rand Paul wants a less militaristic approach, which matches his father's famous anti-war positions plus a greater public skepticism towards military intervention.  Only time will tell which side will win the heart of the Republican Party.

In Memory of Sherwood Maynard

Back in Fall semester of 2004, I was in my final semester as an under-grad at UH-Mānoa.

Also in that semester, I was working as a student librarian at the Marine Option Program.

 It was a job offered through a campus Work-Study program, and it paid more than my previous job as a student helper at the Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (LBPH).


The Marine Option Program (MOP) was a program for students interested in learning about the oceans.  While I didn't take any classes through that program, they needed someone to organize their collection of books, skill reports, brochures, videos and audio materials.  Because I had experience working at LBPH (and few other libraries), I got the job.

MOP was moving its offices from the HIG building to Dean Hall, so I had to move a whole bunch of stuff via handtrucks!

That was the same semester in which a flood in Mānoa valley damaged the Hamilton Library. What was less reported was that the flood also did some damage to the portables on Lower Campus that kept a whole bunch of papers for MOP!

There were so much papers, books, whatevers and they weren't even well-organized, nor did it even seem that they were inspected lately. There was even a running joke that we just might find the Declaration of Independence there.

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My boss was Sherwood Maynard, who was the MOP director as well as a biology professor.

He had a sense of humor, but was also serious when the situation demanded it.

He was also a collector, which you could tell when I had to organize a whole bunch of papers, not only at the program headquarters at Dean Hall, but also at the portables on Lower Campus.


Like I said in a previous blog post, be careful what you make fun of, because it just might be you. Well, years later, I had to clean out a whole bunch of papers I collected, because it was started to remind me of all the stuff Mr Maynard collected. Check out http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-war-against-clutter.html

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Well anyways, I wasn't able to finish organizing the collection because I graduated at the end of that semester, and then I was no longer eligible for a student job on campus.


However, I was riding my bike on the UH-Mānoa campus and I saw Yuko (former co-worker at MOP) and she said "Sherwood is at the office". So I went to see him and kept him updated on my life since my under-grad years.

I think that was in 2006.

That would be the last time I ever saw him.


Sherwood Maynard passed away last year on December 5, 2013 due to diabetes.  He was 67 years old.

I only found a few weeks ago, while talking to a biology researcher who happened to be married to an LIS professor who taught my cataloging/classification class. We were at the event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the flood that damaged Hamilton Library.  So as I was talking to that biology researcher about the semester in which the flood happened, I mentioned about my job at MOP at the time and I asked if he knew Sherwood Maynard. That's when I found out the sad news.

Decade since the Flood

A decade ago (10/30/2004), there was a major flood in Manoa valley. It affected a few buildings within the UH-Manoa campus, but especially the main campus library (Hamilton Library).


It was Saturday night!


On Sunday, it  wasn't on the newspaper.  Plus Sunday was Halloween, so everyone was oblivious for obvious reasons.


Here was my reaction on Monday

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2004/11/uh-classes-cancelled-last-24-hours-have.html

Monday, November 01, 2004

UH Classes Cancelled 

The last 24 hours have been mind boggling. 

I decided to visit Centerfolds in my Halloween make-up (as Vili The Warrior), then I left because I thought school would be in session the next day. 

Then this morning I woke up later than usual (6:30 instead of 5:45) then i got a phone call from a friend saying classes are cancelled. I was only up 10 minutes when that call came, so I turned on the radio. UH classes are cancelled. 

And though I didn't yet read the newspapers, I saw a picture of Hamilton being damaged! BAD! 

I typed that blog post at Netstop (an internet cafe that has sadly since gone out of business).

At the time I was working at the UH's Marine Option Program (MOP) as a student librarian. MOP was located in Dean Hall, which was on the other side of campus. I did report to work that day.

Hamilton Library was closed for the rest of the semester.  It was my last semester as an undergraduate student at UH-Manoa.  I graduated that December, moving on to the next phase of life.
 ===========


Fast forward a decade.

I am back at UH-Manoa, this time as a graduate student in the Library and Information Science (LIS) program. Yes, the same program that was headquartered in the same exact section of Hamilton Library that received the most damage.

The LIS section has been renovated and open for business since 2009! It's very nice!

This past Sunday, there was a commemoration event at Hamilton Library. There were guest speakers including current and past administrators. And there was the professor who was working with the class that escaped the library during the flood. That would be the current LIS chair Andrew Wertheimer.



Here is a link to an article AND video about Hamilton Library's recovery and Sunday's commemoration event

http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2014/10/29/hamilton-library-thrives-10-years-after-devastating-flood/

(personal note: you'll see me in the audience clapping at 1:57 of the video)

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Also, there was another video filmed at Hamilton Library last week, in which I made a background appearance. It was related to the Kapa Presentation organized by Na Hawaii Imi Loa (a student organization promoting Native Hawaiian archives and library resources)

link to article and video at
http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2014/10/23/library-preserves-hawaiian-cultural-treasures/