ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Fast Facts

Garry Pattillo

→ Public fed up with spam

According to a recent Harris Poll, 79 percent of adults online favor curbing unsolicited mass e-mail by making it illegal. They estimate about 40 percent of all e-mails received are now spam. Ninety-three percent of the nationwide sample said they found unsolicited commercial e-mail “annoying.”

"Majority in Favor of Making Mass-Spamming Illegal Rises to 79% of Those Online," The Harris Poll® #38, http:// www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=387. July 16,2003

→ Gender gap persists in academia

Women in academic careers in science and engineering are disadvantaged compared to men in similar careers. While the gap is smaller than in the past, women continue to earn less and are promoted less frequently than their male counterparts.

National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, "Gender Differences in the Careers of Academic Scientists and Engineers: A Literature Review," NSF 03-322, Project Director, Alan I. Rapoport (Arlington, Virginia, 2003). July31,2003

→ U.S. book industry

In 2002,150,000 new titles and editions were published, up 5.86 percent from 2001, according to a recent R. R. Bowker news release. It was also reported that 10,305 new publishers came on die scene in 2002. While trade publishing declined slightly, university presses increased their title output by 10.21 percent.

"U.S. Book Production Tops 150,000 in 2002," R. R. Bowker. May 26,2003

→ File-sharing and copyright

Four out of five students downloading music via the Internet are unconcerned about copyright mles. College graduates, however, are the group most likely to care about copyrights on music files they download, but only about 40 percent of them are concerned. According to a new Pew Internet & American Life Project report, 35 million U.S. adults download music files online.

"Music Downloading, File-sharing and Copyright: A Pew Internet Project Data Memo." July 31, 2003

→ Media and privacy / libel cases

Media organizations won four out of five verdicts in trials for libel, privacy, and related claims last year. A new report from the Media Law Resource Center found that the total number of such cases is declining and the media defendants win rate is rising. The average award at trial from 2000 to 2002 was $2.9 million.

"Trial Records Set in 2002: Highest Media Victory Rate, Lowest Number of Trials," Media Law Resource Center. August 1,2003

→ Education in the Arab States

According to a recent UNESCO report, eight million primary school-age children remain out-of-school in the Arab States, and five million of them are girls. One-third of all men and half of all women are illiterate in the Arab States. Iraq has the highest overall illiteracy rate (6l%) and Jordan the lowest (12%). UNESCO also reports there are an estimated 862 million illiterate adults in the world, about two-thirds of whom are women.

"Education in the Arab States," UNESCO Institute For Statistics, http://portal.unesco.org/uis/ ev.php?URL_ID=5370&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201. May 14, 2003

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@ refsta ff. lib. unc. edu