Spring Cleaning and Greenwashing

Trees are budding, flowers are blooming, and temperatures are (or should be) warming.  Spring has arrived.  It is time to open up the windows, breathe in fresh air, and feel the sunshine.

It is also time to take on your annual spring cleaning.

But before you break out the bleach and rubber gloves, you may want to reconsider the products you are using.  In a timely publication* by South Carolina Lawyer, the author calls attention to deceptive claims of environmentally-friendly products, including cleaning supplies.  Specifically, the article discusses the “greenwashing” phenomenon that was introduced more than 20 years ago and continues to gain momentum today.

The article explains that “greenwashing” refers to the use of vague or unsubstantiated claims that propagate a misleading environmentalist image.  Section 5 of the FTC Act** enables the FTC to regulate unfair or deceptive product claims, including greenwashing.  Thus, in 1992 the FTC published its first set of “Green Guides” to aid marketers in avoiding vague or unsubstantiated claims that tend to mislead “green” consumers.    

For instance, the FTC closely scrutinizes products with broad claims, such as “eco-friendly.”  The reason is because consumers may interpret such claims as indicating the product and its origins have no degree of negative environmental impact whatsoever.  As such, the Green Guides offer examples of how marketers may qualify or limit a claim to a specific aspect that can be substantiated.  For example, a label that simply states a product is “eco-friendly” may be deceptive, but a label that states a product is “eco-friendly: package made with recycled materials” is not deceptive, as it provides a clear and prominent limitation.   

As for more narrow or specific claims, the FTC also closely scrutinizes language that may create a false impression.  For example, a label that says a product has “30 percent less of chemical X” may be technically true if the percentage has decreased from three percent to two percent.  However, the FTC believes such a claim may mislead consumers and should be avoided.

So, for those of you interested in cleaning green this Spring, your best bet may or may not be with greenwashed products.  Below are links to various tips and DIY recipes for a healthier home and environment.   

Green Spring-Cleaning Tips:

• http://www.treehugger.com/htgg/how-to-go-green-spring-cleaning.html 
• http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/10-green-spring-cleaning-tips.htm
• http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=1073

Recipes for Green Cleaning Products:

• http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/2013/03/spring-clean-green/
• http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/green-cleaning-spring-cleaning-460303#slide-1
• http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/20-diy-green-cleaning-recipes-141129

Happy cleaning!

References:

*Elizabeth B. Partlow, Greenwashing: Deceptive Claims of Environmentally Friendly Products, South Carolina Lawyer, March 2013, at 40.  Available at http://www.ipubviewer.com/publication/?i=149058.    

**15 U.S.C. § 45 (2006 & Supp. 2011).

~Shannon Reid~

Yes, another acronym: DPLA for Digital Public Library of America.

Scheduled for launch on April 18, 2013, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will be opening as a portal to a vast array of digitized, special collections from across the United States. The organization’s mission is to give everyone a way to easily access these digital collections through a single virtual place, free of charge.

History. The idea of a nationwide aggregator of digital collections has been around since the early 1990’s.  Organizations such as the Library of Congress, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive have been building collections. There are also large collections like the Smithsonian and the National Archives. However, there are hundreds of universities, public libraries, museums and other civic minded organizations with isolated collections that could be accessed for everyone’s use. So far the challenges to bringing together these digital collections have included differences in technology, incomplete metadata, and different legal issues such as digital lending, orphan works, international works, metadata ownership, strategies for tiered access, and how to deal with vendors and materials under various kinds of restrictions and copyright.

The DPLA initiative started with a meeting at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in October 2010 which brought together representatives from foundations, research institutions, cultural organizations, government and libraries to figure out how to best create a national digital library.  In December 2010 the Berkman Center for Internet & Society with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began the process of planning the launch of the DPLA.  John Palfrey, DPLA board president and head of Phillips Academy gave a TEDx talk about the vision of DPLA in November 2012.

Content. Emily Gore, Director for Content, leads the Digital Hubs Project. Her interest in a national digital library began when she was with the State Library of North Carolina. She managed the former statewide digital library in North Carolina, NC ECHO, and co-directed the South Carolina Digital Library.  In her position, she surveyed more than a 1,000 cultural institutions that carried a variety of materials from US Senator Sam Ervin Jr.’s papers on Watergate to pottery depicting the story of the Cherokee Indians.  The Digital Hubs Project has partnered with seven digital libraries (six state and one regional) and larger cultural collections like Harvard University, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, Boston Public Library and New York Public Library. The content of these collections varies from photographs, manuscripts, books, newspapers, oral histories to streaming videos. Some of the initial exhibits will focus on immigration, civil rights, prohibition, Native Americans, and the Great Depression.

Technology. Since the project is based on open source code, DPLA has started working with programmers to create apps that will allow people to access DPLA resources on their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The Follow that Cab! app allows users to design a search and then get regular updates. The What is Where? app maps collection resources by geographic area so they can easily be searched for local information. Recently, Innovative Interfaces announced that they would integrate access to DPLA into its Encore Synergy platform. This means that patrons of libraries like Charlotte School of Law will be able to access DPLA resources through the library’s catalog.

Future.  An exciting start for DPLA will be the launch on April 18^th at the Boston Public Library. Some of the collections mentioned above will be accessible on that date and some of the exhibits will also be available. There is still a lot to be done for the vision of a national digital public library to be complete, but its launch is a start.

References

• Cottrell, M. (2013, March/April). A digital library for everybody. American Libraries, 44(3/4), 44-47.
• Digital Public Library of America. (2013, March 5).  Retrieved from http://dp.la/.
• Palfrey, J. (2012, November 7).  Digital libraries and keeping well in a digital age: John Palfrey at
• TEDxPhillipsAcademy. [Video file].  Retrieved from http://youtu.be/IBivvdwZkbU

~Betty Thomas~

Weed ‘em and Reap

With the school’s impending move looming on the horizon, the library has undertaken some significant weeding projects, where old and non-updated versions of materials are being withdrawn from the collection and discarded.  Much as when you’re moving to a new house, it’s always best to clear your clutter before you start anew.

Even though discarding books sometimes feels a little like death to librarians, weeding is a vital part of library collection management.  Think about it – your library takes in new books almost every day.  Can you imagine how quickly a collection could get out of hand if there weren’t policies and procedures in place to cull irrelevant and older materials?  No library has unlimited space available for their resources, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.

Luckily, we’re part of a law school where new and updated materials are part of every day life, making it easy to determine what should be weeded and what’s out of date.  When the not so easy decisions rear their ugly heads, it behooves libraries to take into account feedback from other librarians and staff, their patron base, their collection development policy and their circulation statistics.

You would be amazed at the things you can unearth in the library when undertaking a weeding project.  And sometimes, you run across things so entertaining, you just have to share.

Awfullibrarybooks.net is a site run by Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, public librarians in Michigan.  They state that their site is “a collection of library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection.”  And amusing they are.

For instance, Diet, Crime and Delinquency is a book that was published in 1981.  The back of the book states that this tome ““…demonstrates how ‘junk’ food diets, sugar starvation, vitamin deficiencies, lead pollution and food allergies can convert a normal brain into a criminal mind.”

But even books published recently can spark a need to weed.  Check out My Beautiful Mommy, published in 2007, in which Mommy picks her child up from school to take her along on a trip to the plastic surgeon.

The little girl asks Mommy about the trip and her Mommy tell her she is getting a tummy tuck and a nose job and why.

The girl worries that her Mommy will look different, but is corrected that Mommy will just be more beautiful. You have to see it to believe it, right?

One more, and then I’ll let you check the site out for yourself.  Macrame Accessories: Patterns and Ideas for Knotting was published in 1977, and features some of the grandest macrame phantasmagoria I’ve ever laid eyes on – with a little something for everyone.

Are you a shy hot pants wearer?

In need of a new vest for that moot court competition?

In the mood for a his and hers set?  This book has you covered.

The moral of the story is, weeding in libraries is a necessary survival skill.  Painful sometimes, as librarians, to physically let go of materials.  But gratifying both by making additional room in the collection for even better materials and by running across treasures like these.  I’m hoping we find something half as fun during our project…

~Ashley Moye~

Who are You? Part Three.

In the first part of this series of blogs, I explained the Four Elements of Success from the Path Elements Profile™. That post can be found at http://charlottelawlibrary.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/who-are-you/. The second part of this series of three blogs focused on StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. That blog posting can be found at http://charlottelawlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/who-are-you-part-two/.

The first time my husband took the Myers Briggs test and also gave the administrator my MBTI, she laughed. She imagined me sitting in the driveway with the car packed with small children and all their worldly belongings ready for a road trip to see the relatives. Meanwhile, my husband would just be starting to throw his stuff in a duffle bag in the bedroom upstairs. She could have taken a photograph. She was so right.

There is a good chance that you have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or will sometime in the future. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is probably the oldest and most widely used method of assessing strengths.  This assessment was developed in the 1940s by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs based on the psychological type theories of Carl Jung. There are four dichotomies or pairs of preferences.  An individual’s personality type is the sum of the preferences.

Dichotomies

Extraversion (E) – (I) Introversion

Sensing (S) – (N) Intuition

Thinking (T) – (F) Feeling

Judging (J) – (P) Perception

As with the other two systems of assessments, the usefulness of MBTI comes in understanding the definitions of the spectrums and knowing where you stand in each range.

Extravert or Introvert?  Extraverts are energized by interacting with people and the outside world. Introverts are energized by spending time alone, reflecting on concepts and ideas.

Sensing or Intuiting?  Sensing people tend to prefer concrete and tangible information and look for details and facts. Intuitive people tend to see the bigger picture and enjoy abstract or theoretical concepts.

Thinking or Feeling? Thinkers tend to make decisions based on what seems reasonable, logical, and objective. Feelers tend to make decisions based on personal feelings and consider the need of the people involved.

Judging or Perceiving? Judgers tend to be planned, organized and like closure. Perceivers tend to be spontaneous, adaptable and optimistic.

There are 16 combinations or personality types. No type is considered any better or worse than another. Each type has its positives and the idea is that knowing your personality type and those of others will help you be more effective in your interactions with other people and know yourself better.

My family, friends and coworkers would not be surprised to know that I am an ESTJ, even though I was an ENTJ when I graduated from college.

Interestingly, there has been some questioning of Myers-Briggs by the academic psychology community. Some insights into MBTI’s history, its administration and its legacy appeared in a recent Washington Post article entitled “Does it pay to know your type?”

All three of the assessment tools described in this three part blog emphasize building on strengths. They are also a lot more involved than these brief descriptions. In sum, they do help us to better understand ourselves and the people around us. So who are you?

References

• Cunningham, L. (2012, December 14). Does it pay to know your type? The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/myers-briggs-does-it-pay-to-know-your-type/2012/12/14/eaed51ae-3fcc-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_story.html
• The Myers & Briggs Foundation. (n.d.). The MBTI® Instrument for Life. Retrieved from http://www.myersbriggs.org/
• Wong, J. (2012, September 2). It pays to do what’s natural. The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved from NewsBank database.

~Betty Thomas~

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a non-intellective form of intelligence where a person has the ability to identify their emotions, understand what those emotions are telling them, and realize how their emotions affect others around them.  Charles Darwin’s work on the importance of emotional expression is probably the earliest work in this area, followed by many others who researched in areas of social intelligence, multiple intelligences, and intrapersonal intelligence.

In 1985, Daniel Goleman introduced his mixed model of emotional intelligence, which describes the competencies and skills that drive leadership performance.  The five main focuses are:

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Social skill
• Empathy
• Motivation

Each area of focus contains a set of emotional competencies that are learned capabilities.  They can be worked on and developed to enhance performance and leadership.

As emotional intelligence becomes even more broadly accepted, it is critical to professional success, as it is being used increasingly when organizations hire and promote.  A high degree of emotional intelligence often goes hand in hand with a high degree of success.

Developing and utilizing your emotional intelligence highlights your attributes as a leader.  And yes, Virginia, these skills can be taught and developed.  You might start by observing how you react to people, evaluating your need for attention, becoming familiar with your weaknesses as well as your strengths, and determining how you react to stressful situations.  Are you willing to take responsibility for your actions?  Do you think about how your actions affect others?

Are you aware of your actions and feelings?  Do you value others, actively listen, and feel empathy?  Well, let’s get started enhancing your emotional intelligence skills.  To begin with, you might read Leadership:  The Power of Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman.  You might also read Brene Brown’s blog entitled Ordinary Courage.  And you should definitely check out mindtools.com – sign up for their newsletter, utilize their toolbox and they also have an app for your iPad.  Take leadership tools with you wherever you go!

~ Julie Morris ~

Who Are You?

Recently I opened my email to find a friend had Endorsed Me! on LinkedIn. Puzzled… I clicked through to find other friends, whom I could in turn endorse. Evidently, LinkedIn had started a fun, new game. What skills or experience do your other connections have?  Does John Smith know about Wind? Wind?  Wind. Ah yes, Wind. I too am a Wind. I remembered that we had both attended ShareAcademy this summer and heard Nicole Greer, Principal Coach and Founder of Vibrant Coaching explain the Path Elements Profile™ written by Laurie Beth Jones.  The Four Elements of Success is a means of analyzing your personality and that of other team members. What is your element?

 The Four Elements of Success

 

Earth 

Earth personalities are grounded. They embrace structure. Solid, steady, and stable, the earth provides a nurturing environment for the other personalities to grow. The earth personality understands the gravity of every situation and intuitively creates a system, season, and cycle to abundantly support the team.

Water

Water personalities are life giving. Without a water personality on the team, nothing will survive. The water personality understands how flexibility serves the mission and the vision. Effortlessly, they support, cleanse, and dilute any situation with their inherent transformational power. The water personality is sparkling, pure and reflective.

Wind

Wind personalities are uplifting. The fun loving wind personality values a global perspective, interaction, new ideas and diversity. The boundless wind personality brings excitement and energy to every task. They message and communicate with ease. The wind is action oriented, confident and playful.

Fire

Fire personalities are captivating. They ignite any situation with their powerful, passionate, and radiant presence. Most oriented to the present moment, the fire is task oriented and blazes a trail. The fire personality sheds light, pioneers the effort, and signals the team to action. The fire is directing, assertive and decisive.

This assessment tool emphasizes building on one’s strengths rather than improving weaknesses. While it is more involved than the short description in this blog, there is enough information to understand the Four Elements of Success.  So let us celebrate our strengths!  I am a Wind?  What are you?

~Betty Thomas~

This is the first of a series of three parts focusing on different types of personality assessments. Next month:   StrengthsFinder® 2.0.

For further information about the Four Elements, contact Nicole Greer at 704-502-4953, Nicole@thevibrantcoach.com, or check her website at www.thevibrantcoach.com

Hotmail Email Accounts banned at CALI.org Website

Are you suddenly unable to log on to the CALI.org website?  It could be because you used a Hotmail email address during your registration process.

Due to an influx of spammers and their like, CALI.org has banned all accounts currently affiliated with a Hotmail email address.  While this is just a small percentage of total users, it still will impact quite a few people.  Are you one of them?

If you’re one of these banned Hotmail users, you have two options.

1. Send an email to webmaster@CALI.org with your name and a non-Hotmail email address you’d like to use with your CALI account.  This may take a bit of time to process, depending on the number of people who end up choosing to go this route.
2. Create a new account using a non-Hotmail email address.  If you go with this option, know that you’ll lose all access to previous lesson run information.  You’ll also need to dig up your Charlotte Law authorization code from your original registration.  If you can’t find your code, reach out to the library reference desk and they’ll be happy to assist you.

And as always, if you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the library!

~Ashley Moye~

Freedom to Read

Prior to becoming a librarian, I took my First Amendment rights for granted. It wasn’t until I was involved in a book challenge at a local elementary school library that I realized that the freedom to read was important for everyone to be able to read what they wanted without censorship.

It is hard to imagine that the rights to free speech and free press remain far from universal.  Few countries even come close to the protections provided by the U.S. Constitution. Even in the United States, our freedoms are regularly challenged.

Fortunately, there are some organizations that defend our free speech rights. They include the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, and Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF).  The Freedom to Read Foundation was established in 1969 by the American Library Association (ALA)  “to promote and defend the right to read; to foster libraries as institutions wherein every individual’s First Amendment freedoms are fulfilled: and to support the right of libraries to include in their collections and make available any work which they may legally acquire.”

The Freedom to Read Foundation was created as the First Amendment legal defense organization of the American Library Association.

The Foundation’s charter lists four purposes:

• Promoting and protecting the freedom of speech and of the press;
• Protecting the public’s right of access to information and materials stored in the nation’s libraries;
• Safeguarding libraries’ right to disseminate all materials contained in their collections; and
• Supporting libraries and librarians in their defense of First Amendment rights by supplying them with legal counsel or the means to secure it.

The Foundation’s work is divided into two main activities:

• The allocation and disbursement of grants to individuals and groups primarily for the purpose of aiding them in litigation;
• Direct participation in litigation dealing with freedom of speech and of the press.

In 1967, the ALA created the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) to monitor censorship, alert librarians to trends, and provide resource materials to local librarians to help them defend challenges to the books on their shelves. It was not long before the OIF realized that librarians needed expert legal support and thus the FTRF was created.

In the first year, the FTRF helped defend a state librarian in Missouri who had been fired after writing a letter to the local paper protesting the suppression of an underground newspaper. In the same year, the Foundation helped a librarian in Virginia who challenged the constitutionality of a religion course in the city schools.  The FTRF has filed many legal challenges over the years, especially in those situations where the core mission of libraries needed to be defended. For example, the Foundation has initiated many cases concerning challenged books. However, the FTRF most often appears in court through amicus briefs to support First Amendment claims against legislation and local policies that would restrict access to published material. The Foundation has been involved in numerous fights over the USA Patriot Act. While the FTRF’s work often involves national issues, the Foundation has also helped with community challenges as well.

The Freedom to Read Foundation website has sections with news and updates on current litigation. The most recent news deals with a recent influx of cases dealing with the issue of internet filtering programs and the Children’s Internet Protection Act. http://www.ala.org/groups/affiliates/relatedgroups/freedomtoreadfoundation

This summer, the Foundation recognized the loss of two pioneering authors.

Ray Bradbury died on June 5^th.  His novel Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian book itself about censorship continues to be challenged even 60 years after its publication.

Maurice Sendak died on May 8^th.  His Caldecott-winning book, Where the Wild Things Are, was a part of New Times, Inc. v. Isaacks, an FTRF case.  Because he deviated from the norms of children’s book illustration and writing, his work was controversial and challenged.

When the FTRF was formed, its board decided that the Foundation’s operating revenue would come from membership donations rather than corporate or large private contributions. Individual memberships are only $35/year, $10/year for students.

How To Contact The Freedom To Read Foundation

Freedom to Read Foundation

50 East Huron Street

Chicago, IL 60611

Telephone: 800.545.2433 ext 4226

ftrf@ala.org; http://www.ftrf.org/

As Ray Bradbury said, “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”

~Betty Thomas~

What is Tumblr?

It’s Twitter with pictures. It’s Pintrest without the elitist recipe writers.   It’s Goodreads without the books. It’s Facebook without the face. It’s reddit….well it’s kinda not like reddit.  Anyway.

Tumblr in one sentence:

You make a blog, follow people and post/reblog pictures.

More Details:

Tumblr is totally anonymous unless you choose otherwise. Most popular feeds are devoted to one particular subject. There is no down voting, comments are sparse, and there is no drama.

Existentially:

At its purest, Tumblr is a person’s mind laid out for the world. Kinda like how you can get to know someone by looking at their book shelf, scrolling through a person’s Tumblr page can give you deep insight into how their mind works. Like a reverse Rorschach test.

This is what Tumblr is for me:

I reblog things so that I can easily find them later, saving me the time it takes to download images. I contribute nothing original. I only decide what level of appreciation I give to the images posted by the people I follow.

Reblog: if I love it and think the entire world should love it or it speaks to me in a deep/banal way.

Like: if I don’t want the world to know I love it (Liked images cannot be viewed unless you want people to see your liked images)

Social expression/networking is different for everyone. I would suggest you give expressing yourself through images a try.

~Aaron Greene~

Did you know that this week in history:

Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard in 1933?  http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GoldStandard.html

Check out Charlotte’s own Mint Museum.  The Randolph Road location is the oldest art museum in North Carolina and was a mint for the US government.  http://www.mintmuseum.org/visit

Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 1968 during his struggle to fight for human rights in America?  Not surprisingly, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights was established to continue that work.  Check them out here .

The first drive-in theater opened in 1933?

(Do you even know what a drive-in is?)

 George Orwell’’s 1984 was published in 1949?

The first successful assent of North America’s tallest mountain peak, Mt. McKinley (Denali), was accomplished in 1913?

Port Royal, Jamaica, was destroyed by an earthquake  in 1692?  Why is that significant, matey?  Check out the  histories of famous pirates here.

The first Porsche was completed in 1948?

GHOSTBUSTERS was released in 1984?

And FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF was released in 1986?

 Apache Chief Cochise died in 1874?

Amazing what you can learn when you start checking out historical facts, famous peoples’ birthdays, “this date in history”, etc.  History.com is a comprehensive site that gives you more historical information than you can imagine.  You can also check out what events occurred on your birthday and you can have the “facts of the day” emailed to you.  Just a little push to get you started on your path to more knowledge.  Worst case – you will be well prepared for any trivia game out there!

  ~ Julie Morris ~