Christine Pawley will join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies in August 2006. Pawley, who earned her Ph.D. from Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, is currently an associate professor at the University of Iowa's School of Library and Information Science and the director of the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She will be providing leadership for UW Madison's Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America.
Catherine Arnott Smith will join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies in August 2006. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 and brings expertise in medical informatics and research interests in consumer health terminology and medical records. She is currently an assistant professor at Syracuse University.
Stephen Paling will join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies in August 2006. He earned his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 2004. His research interest is in digital publishing and organization of information. He is now an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Hilton, Google Scan Plan Architect at Michigan, to Leave for U. of Virginia
James Hilton, associate provost for Academic, Information, and Instructional Technology Affairs, as well as the interim director of the library, is leaving the University of Michigan to become vice president and chief information officer at the University of Virginia. Hilton, a passionate advocate for the power of information technology in education, was one of the driving forces behind UM's controversial participation in Google's ambitious plan to scan the entire contents of the university's library. In a recent interview with Library Journal, Hilton acknowledged the controversy surrounding Michigan's involvement with Google, but defended the library's position vigorously. "There is nobody except for libraries whose mission, whose job it is to archive things for future generations," Hilton explained. "One of the concerns we've had from the beginning is that we have all this printed material, but if it's not digitized, the odds of it being seen as relevant for future generations goes way down." In the Michigan Daily, UM's assistant general counsel called Hilton "completely irreplaceable." University officials added that the Google project will continue and would be "an important issue" for Hilton's successor.
In his new role at UVA, Hilton will oversee the planning and coordination of academic as well as administrative information technology across the university. In a statement, UVA president John Casteen called the 46-year-old Hilton "a visionary leader." Hilton will begin his duties officially on July 1, 2006. In his own statement, Hilton said he was excited by his next challenge, and praised UVA for its visionary use of technology. "I believe the University of Virginia has the potential to best 'get' the use of technology in the service of providing a great residentially based education," Hilton said. Under his stewardship, he said UVA would further "reduce the barriers between research and teaching," and that technology would "facilitate and enhance the directions the faculty set." University Librarian Karin Wittenborg was co-chair of a nine-member search committee that unanimously recommended Hilton's candidacy. "He understands the importance of our work in the digital humanities," she noted. "At the same time he's looking at the horizon for opportunities and challenges headed our way."
Unfair Use? NYU Brennan Center Report Charts Erosion of Fair Use
A sobering report issued by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice says that fair use today is at risk. Acknowledging that fair use safeguards in copyright law are essential to maintaining freedom of speech, the report, Will Fair Use Survive?, chillingly illustrates that increasing use of legal tools such as "cease and desist" letters and "take down" notices for Internet service providers and content providers have caused many to back off speech "without having any court rule that [the use] is illegal." Analyzing a hefty sample of 320 cases of both "cease and desist" letters and "take down" notices, the report found that 20 percent of those actions were based on "weak copyright or trademark claims," with another 27 percent of those cases attacking uses that had "reasonable free expression of fair use defenses." Most chilling, in 17 follow-up interviews with those targeted, nine with reasonable fair use claims simply acquiesced to avoid costly litigation.
The report's findings echo a growing chorus of critics in recent years, chief among them Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig. "In our legal system, fair use is the right to hire a lawyer," Lessig told the LJ Academic Newswire in 2004. "But in practice the right to hire a lawyer is useless to 95 percent of those who want to engage in creative activity… the idea that we make free speech contingent upon the failings of such an awful legal system is, to me, astonishing." Indeed, in the Brennan report, authors Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles note "confusion about fair use," among creators, including artists and scholars. What can be done to bolster fair use? The report recommends a number of actions: encouraging more "community support and pro bono legal assistance," "creating a clearinghouse for information," and a "legal support network" to work with everyone from Internet service providers to legislators to reduce "the cost of guessing wrong about fair use." To download the report, go to: www.fepproject.org.
Users to OCLC: Libraries are "Books," Search Engines Trusted
The report is in, and it's not pretty. Information consumers told OCLC Online Computer Library Center that they view libraries as places to borrow print books, but don't know about the rich proprietary electronic content they can get there as well—and they say that search engines are by far their first choice when looking for information. The report, Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, is based on surveys of information users across six countries and follows up on the 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition. "We wanted to know more about people's information-seeking practices and preferences, how familiar people are with the wide variety of e-resources libraries provide for their users, and how libraries compare to other information resources, particularly web-based resources," said Cathy De Rosa, VP, OCLC Marketing & Library Services, a principal contributor to the report. "One of the most important goals of the project was also to gain a better understanding of 'The Library' brand."
Surveys of college students revealed some particular concerns. Only ten percent of college students said their library's collection fulfilled their information needs after accessing the library web site from a search engine. Asked how they typically begin their search for information on a particular topic, 84 percent of college students cited search engines; six percent cited email; and two percent each cited topic-specific web sites; email subscriptions, and online news. Asked their first choice for information, 80 percent of college students cited search engines, while just 11 percent cited physical libraries and six percent cited online libraries. The findings are a reminder that in the world of Google libraries must become more proactive and nimble. Overall, respondents said they use the library less and read less since they began using the Internet. Moreover, 90 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with their most recent search for information using a search engine.
HarperCollins Says It Will Create a Digital Library
On the heels of recently announced digital initiatives from the likes of Random House, Amazon.com, and Yahoo, HarperCollins publishers said this week that it was soliciting offers from vendors to convert some 20,000 books in its catalog into digital editions. HarperCollins' officials acknowledged that the initiative would be costly, running into the millions of dollars, and group president Brian Murray told reporters the company hoped to have a few thousand books available by late 2006, all available to be crawled by any search engine.
The initiative underscores publishers' unease with the Google's ambitious scan plan and also underscores Google's now-glaring communication problems with publishers. Why would HarperCollins spend millions of its own dollars to do what Google is offering to do for free through Google Book Search? In a word, control. HarperCollins CEO Jan Friedman conceded that the publisher didn't immediately expect to make money on the project, although the company would indeed seek to "monetize" the scans at some point. Although Friedman told reporters the venture was not intended to be "antagonistic" toward Google, its timing, following two lawsuits charging Google with infringement for scanning works in order to index them, is curious. In various reports, she said the venture was an effort by HarperCollins "to take charge of our lives."
Transylvania U. Book Thieves Sentenced to Seven Years
Kentucky U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman sentenced four men convicted of stealing rare manuscripts from the Transylvania University Library to more than seven years in prison, the AP reported. The four, Eric Borsuk, Charles Allen II, Warren C. Lipka, and Spencer W, Reinhard, all age 20, begin their sentences January 16. On December 27, 2004, two of the suspects were alleged to have physically assaulted and restrained a special collections librarian, then fled with two others in a gray minivan. Among the volumes stolen were an 1859 first edition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and a number of sketches by John James Audubon. They later attempted to sell the books through auction house Christie's, whose staff tipped off investigators leading to the arrests. Allen's lawyer said an appeal is planned on the basis that the convicted still contend they did not use a "dangerous weapon" (a stun gun) on collections librarian B. J. Gooch during the heist. Minus the weapons charge, their sentences could be reduced by as much as 17 months.
A Serious Reference? Wiki Gag Shows Perils of the Medium
He says he was just having a little fun with a co-worker, but the man who deliberately posted false information on the web-based Wikipedia implicating veteran Nashville journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. in the Kennedy assassination is out of a job. According to wire reports, Brian Chase resigned his job as a result of the debacle and apologized to Siegenthaler, who was so disturbed by the false entry that he penned an op-ed piece in USA Today questioning Wikipedia's credibility. Chase, in turn, told reporters at CNN he didn't know that Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia which lets users continually correct or update entries, "was used as a serious reference tool." Siegenthaler, former publisher of the Tennessean and founding editorial director of USA Today, said he did not plan to sue over the episode, and also wrote that, despite his unease, he does not favor more stringent control over the Internet. He did however voice concern that Wikipedia was asking for trouble by allowing sometimes "irresponsible vandals to write anything they want about anybody."
Best Sellers in Education, January–November, 2005, as compiled by YBP Library Services.
Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius
Lillard, Angeline Stoll
Oxford U. Press
2005. ISBN 0195168682. $35.00
Inside Teaching: How Classroom Life Undermines Reform
Kennedy, Mary M.
Harvard U. Press
2005. ISBN 0674017234. $25.95
Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do
Ed. by Linda Darling-Hammond
Jossey-Bass
2005. ISBN 0787974641. $38.00
Improving Literacy in America: Guidelines from Research
Morrison, Frederick J.
Yale U. Press
2005. ISBN 0300106459. $35.00
Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.
Vinovskis, Maris A.
U. of Chicago Press
2005. ISBN 0226856712. $29.00
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Second Edition (with CD)
Ed. by Elizabeth Walter
Cambridge U. Press
2005. ISBN 0521843790. $42.00
Teaching and Learning in Two Languages: Bilingualism & Schooling in the United States
Garcia, Eugene E.
Teachers College Press
2005. ISBN 0807745375. $64.00
National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling
Baker, David
Stanford U. Press
2005. ISBN 0804750203. $50.00
Language Development and Learning to Read: The Scientific Study of How Language Development Affects Reading
McGuinness, Diane
Bradford Books/MIT
2005. ISBN 0262134527. $45.00
College Knowledge: What It Really Takes For Students to Succeed and What We Can Do To Get Them Ready
Conley, David T.
Jossey-Bass
2005. ISBN 0787973971. $24.95
Teaching and Evaluating Writing in the Age of Computers and High-Stakes Testing
Whithaus, Carl
Lawrence Erlbaum
2005. ISBN 0805847995. $59.95
Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality
Oakes, Jeannie
Yale U. Press
2005. ISBN 0300108303. $19.00
On the Case: Approaches To Language and Literacy Research
Dyson, Anne Haas
Teachers College Press
2005. ISBN 0807745987. $50.00
Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom
Williams, Heather Andrea
U. of North Carolina Press
2005. ISBN 080782920X. $29.95
Defending Standardized Testing
Ed. by Richard P. Phelps
Lawrence Erlbauam
2005. ISBN 0805849114. $99.95
Game of School: Why We All Play It, How It Hurts Kids, and What It Will Take To Change It
Fried, Robert L.
Jossey-Bass
2005. ISBN 0787973475. $24.95
Public Schools
Ed. by Susan Fuhrman
Oxford U. Press
2005. ISBN 019517030X. $65.00
Edison Schools: Corporate Schooling and the Assault on Public Education
Saltman, Kenneth J.
Routledge
2005. ISBN 041594841X. $75.00
Framing Education as Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day
Davis, Jessica Hoffmann
Teachers College Press
2005. ISBN 0807745782. $56.00
At a Loss for Words: How America Is Failing Our Children and What We Can Do About It
Bardige, Betty Lynn Segal
Temple University Press
2005. ISBN 1592133924. $59.50
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