Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/mary-treacy/page/10/)
Please check out my blog at:http://marytreacy.wordpress.com One time librarian and former executive director of the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information I am currently a very happy independent consultant exploring untold options. My passion is to contribute the bit I am able to an informed and engaged community in which everyone's story can be told - and heard. This means using a dynamic array of media - newspapers, websites, television, radio, social media and whatever comes on line tomorrow. It means being willing to plumb the depths of a story - and it means having the courtesy, if not the intellectual curiosity, to learn from others. My sons are both enmeshed in the information maze. Rick Birmingham is the Manager of IT Services at MAP for Nonprofits. Steve Birmingham works his magic on the public access terminals in Hennepin County Library. Grandson Will Birmingham, 19 months, loves food, slides, puddles and books - in that order. A graduate of what was then the College of St. Catherine I went on to get a MS in Library Science. Truth to tell, I didn't work in real libraries that much, but I did work 18 years as Director of Metronet, a collaboration of nearly 600 public, academic, corporate, medical, school and other libraries and information services in the TC's. In recent years I've worked in a number of consulting positions, most notably the Sisters of St. Joseph Ministries Foundation. As a hapless volunteer I've worked with a host of nonprofits including the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, Learning in Style, the DFL Education Foundation, the Village Farmers Market among others. I've also written several pieces for TCDP. In recent weeks I've been joined the throngs of scribe wannabes by launching my own little blog called Poking Around With Mary - because poking around is what I do a good deal of the time.
Deaf History Month is like no other national celebration in many ways, including the fact that the month starts on March 13 and ends April 15, those dates being so important to Deaf history that the “deaf community has made an exception to the rule.” I love it! Continue Reading
Voter registration, an issue that some had optimistically assumed was resolved two decades ago by the National Voter Registration Act, has emerged – no, erupted – as a major issue, a mighty weapon wielded by forces that are only too well aware that the place to stifle the democratic process is the voting booth. Tinkering with the electoral process has taken various forms shaped to the vulnerability of the venue. In Minnesota, the pressure point was the Voter ID Amendment to the State Constitution. Originally portrayed as a benign detail the pernicious proposal was soundly trounced by the electorate in the last election. Continue Reading
When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”
― A.A. Milne Continue Reading
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.? The quote belongs to our beleaguered postal employees, of course. It also applies to independent researchers with a deadline – people like me. Continue Reading
Unaccustomed as we are to patting ourselves on the back, Minnesotans can take pride in the results of the recent Elections Performance Index issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Minnesota joins Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, North Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin in the winners’ circle of high performing states. Continue Reading
In this age of DIY informed citizenship governing agencies at every level have accelerated demand, and cost-effective tools, to assure that the proverbial man or woman on the street can be an independent searcher of truth in government. At the federal level, advocacy groups, e.g. the National Security Archive, the Center for Effective Government, Open the Government, the Sunlight Foundation, Public Integrity and a host of others have probed the intricacies of the bureaucracies. Because practices of state governments vary greatly, advocacy groups differ markedly by state, with many states having more than one watchdog group keeping an eye on the laws, regulations and their implementation. Continue Reading
In Minnesota and throughout the nation the name Archie Givens – Senior or Junior — is synonymous with the rich legacy of African American literature. Continue Reading
As a profession, hackers are getting a well-deserved image these days of leaks and invasion of privacy. Still, there are Good Hackers, those erstwhile folk who use their design, coding and analysis tools for good. Continue Reading
Last Sunday the Star Tribune editorial board pondered the question “What should we really fear?” The editorial flowed from a question originally posed by John Brockman, editor of Edge.com. whom the writers describe as “the uber literary agent, cultural impresario and best friend to the world’s smartest people.” Though I was not on Brockman’s list of gurus the question (originally posed as ‘what should we worry about?’) has intrigued me all week. Continue Reading
Writing last fall in The Nation Anna Lappe makes a powerful point about why it is hard for Americans to think of the right to food as a human right. Lappe avers that “it’s extremely difficult to get the concept of the right to food across in the United States because of your constitutional tradition that sees human rights as ‘negative’ rights – rights against government – not ‘positive’ rights that can be used to oblige government to take action to secure people’s livelihoods.” Continue Reading