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Here is your chance to make word history. No, not world history — word history.

Have you ever been told that you have been incorrectly singing the lyrics to one of your favorite songs? If you’re like us, it happens all the time! This phenomenon is called a mondegreen, and is among the new words being added to the 2008 update of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

The term means "a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung." For example, many folks think Jimi Hendrix is singing "excuse me while I kiss this guy," instead of the actual lyric, "excuse me while I kiss the sky." We want to hear your favorite mondegreens — click here for details on how to send them in. Don’t procrastinate; you only have three weeks until we choose our favorites.

SOURCE: Merriam-Webster

If you use the Internet or libraries, you can be proud that at least someone is standing up for your constitutional right to privacy.

The ACLU won a hard-fought victory in another legal challenge to the national security letter (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act. As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI this week withdrew an unconstitutional national security letter issued to the Internet Archive and agreed to unseal the case, finally allowing the Archive’s founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

The NSL, issued in November of 2007, asked for personal information about one of the Archive’s users, including the individual’s name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI’s limited authority to issue such demands to libraries. The lawsuit is the first known challenge to an NSL served on a library since Congress amended the national security letter provision in 2006 to limit the FBI’s power to demand records from libraries. (Read more)

Having harbored a great fondness for books and their authors since my childhood, I found this New Youk Times story to be highly provocative. It seems that a professor has developed computer algorithms that can collect publicly available information on a subject and (using 60 to 70 computers and six or seven programmers) turn it into books that can be printed on demand, or even delivered digitally.

Philip M. Parker, the chaired professor of management science at a business school with campuses in France and Singapore, has generated more than 200,000 different books. That makes him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” He actually seems to be making money doing it.

Confirming my impression of the depth of plot inherent to the genre, he is now working on new algorithms with the ability to generate romance novels. “I’ve already set it up,” Parker said. “There are only so many body parts.” (Read more)

Although the Internet is increasingly important as a source of information for a majority of Americans, most adults still use libraries, according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the University of Illinois. The survey, Information Searches That Solve Problems: How People Use the Internet, Government Agencies, and Libraries When They Need Help, was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal funding for U.S. museums and libraries.

The survey of 2,796 Americans looked at overall library use and library use for solving problems related to subjects such as health care, education, taxes, and job searches, etc.

More than half of American adults said they had visited a local public library in the past 12 months. Public library users tend to be younger adults, with higher incomes, who have attended college. Among respondents in Generation Y (18-30), 62% visited a library in the past year, and among respondents in Generation X (31 to 42), 59% visited a library in the past year. Of those with incomes more than $40,000 a year, 59% had visited a library compared to 48% of those with incomes less than $40,000. The greater one’s level of education achievement, the more likely one is to go to the library, according to the survey. For example, 68% of those with a college degree had been to the library in the past year compared to 44% of those with a high school diploma and 57% who attended college but did not get a degree. Among the most frequent library users were young families; 63% of parents with children visited the library, compared to 48% of those without children at home. (Read more)

SOURCE: Institute of Museum and Library Services

If you have, or know someone who has, an Apple iPod MP3 player this will definitely be of interest. Being a notorious cheapskate, I think it is a great idea.

The Editors of iLounge are proud to announce the immediate availability of The Free iPod Book 2.2 for download. This edition is an expanded, improved follow-up to The Free iPod Book 2.0, which was recommended by The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg as the “free manual on getting the most from your iPod.” With four all-new sections and updates to many of the book’s previously-released sections, the 200-plus-page Free iPod Book 2.2 is a must-see for current and prospective iPod owners. Did we mention that it’s free?