|
 | EU Issues "Green Paper" on Library Exceptions for Digital Preservation, Classroom Use
This week, the European Union (EU) announced the publication of a “green paper” on copyright, specifically addressing copyright exceptions for libraries dealing with digital preservation, classroom use, and orphan works. The green paper, Copyright in the Knowledge Economy, is the third report on library digital copyright issues issued in recent months. It follows the Section 108 Study Group report, and the Library of Congress’s International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation.
Like its predecessors, the EU green paper offers little concrete guidance as to what exceptions to copyright law libraries should enjoy—whether to promote preservation, educational activities, or general access. Rather, the report frames a series of questions and solicits comments, which the EU Commission plans to use for a “debate on how knowledge for research, science, and education can best be disseminated in an online environment.”
Specific copyright exceptions raised in the green paper include those:
- for the benefit of libraries and archives
- allowing “dissemination” of works for teaching and research purposes
- for the benefit of people with a disability
- And, possibly, for new, “user-created” content
While the green paper seeks input on a library exception for digitizing works, one issue seems quite clear: EU officials believe any library exception permitting digitization of copyrighted works should not apply to “private” firms, like Google.
“It must be stressed that the activities of private entities, such as search engines,” the paper posits, “cannot benefit from the exception.” Such a policy would seem to hamper Google’s, or any private search firm’s, plans to digitize quickly copyrighted materials for the purpose of indexing and searching on the Internet. Since scanning involves making a copy, the paper states, “rightsholders have to give prior permission for such a reproduction to take place.” Google claims its scanning of copyrighted books in the United States is fair use—a point of contention publishers and authors are currently addressing in court.
In June, a report in the U.K.’s the Bookseller, suggested that European publishers feared that the then-forthcoming EU green paper’s call to “widen the library exemption” would end up “legalizing Google’s program of digitizing library books without obtaining prior permission from publishers.” Indeed, the green paper appears to have suggested the opposite.
The paper also briefly addresses orphan works as “mainly a rights-clearance issue.” While acknowledging that orphan works can “constitute an obstacle to the dissemination of valuable content,” it concedes there is a “scarcity of the necessary economic data which would allow the problem to be quantified on the pan-European level.” Translation: don’t expect the EU to act with any sort of urgency regarding orphan works. The full report is available here, and comments are being accepted until November 30.
|
|
UT Libraries To Preserve "Fragile" Records of Genocide and Human Rights Conflicts
It’s a difficult challenge to create and maintain digital collections of at-risk materials—and especially so when the collections belong to populations at risk. That’s the ambitious goal of a new initiative of the University of Texas (UT) libraries, however, which has received a $1.2 million grant from the Bridgeway Foundation to “collect and preserve in digital form the fragile record of genocide and human rights conflicts worldwide.”
The UT libraries initiated its efforts through a partnership with Rwanda’s Kigali Memorial Centre (KMC), which UT vice provost for university libraries Fred Heath recently visited, to document and memorialize the victims of the country’s genocide. Records of the genocide, including survivor testimonies and local court recordings, will be digitized by the university and preserved in UT’s digital repository. A similar project is also under way to preserve and provide digital access to deteriorating recordings of historical broadcasts from a clandestine radio station in El Salvador during that country's civil war.
“There is a very real danger that fragile primary resources documenting actors and actions in human rights conflicts around the world will be destroyed, by environmental or human attack,” explained Heath, adding that the archive will “make giant strides toward locating such resources, preserving them as evidence, and memorial, and making them available to conflict survivors, scholars, activists and students of human rights.”
|
| EPA, Union Agree on "Process" for Reopening Libraries
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) have signed an agreement to “establish procedures for the reopening of recently closed EPA libraries.” Under the agreement, signed July 10, the union will now be involved in planning of any future changes to the EPA library network. Under an order from Congress, EPA libraries, which were closed in a controversial move in December, 2006, are scheduled to reopen by Sept. 30.
Watchdog group PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) however, said in June that the EPA was “grudgingly allocating only minimal space and resources” and allocating insufficient space for “restoring” library services, as mandated by Congress. Despite signing the agreement, “several concerns” remain. “Beyond inclusion of the employee union, there is no mention of additional stakeholder input in the planning process for the library network,” noted OMB Watch, adding that “the exact amount of physical space and other resources that will be allotted to the libraries is not clear, and the plans for digitizing the library materials remain uncertain.”
The agreement to include the employee union in the reopening process may address some of these concerns. The agreement calls for a “six-member Union Management Advisory Board with equal representation by the union and EPA management.” The advisory board will review and make recommendations on the operations and development of the library network, as well as undertake “a formal needs assessment of the library network and develop recommendations for its strategic direction.” Under the agreement, EPA will also issue a report on the status of its efforts to digitize the library holdings in the coming months, and will update its progress at regular intervals after its initial report. The agreement comes after an arbitrator ordered the EPA, that it must negotiate with the union on any library network reorganization.
|
| Go West! Drexel U. Establishes Sacramento Graduate Center
Philadelphia’s Drexel University will open a Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, CA, in January, 2009, featuring degrees in library and information science and information systems among the five master’s programs it will offer. Drexel officials said that the programs, to take place in downtown Sacramento, are intended to address the schedule needs of working adults. The Sacramento programs will utilize a mix of state-of-the-art classrooms, “onsite staff,” and links to all the resources of Drexel’s main campus—including library resources and career assistance.
The university began exploring opportunities around Sacramento in 2007 after Drexel’s president, Constantine Papadakis, was approached by a group of the city’s community leaders, led by real estate developer Angelo Tsakopoulos. Sacramento developers have also offered Drexel more than 1100 acres to build “a major undergraduate campus,” in Roseville, located in adjacent Placer County. That offer remains outstanding, said Drexel acting director of the Sacramento Graduate Center Carl Oxholm.
In addition to establishing the Graduate Center, Drexel officials also said it would establish a $10 million fund for student fellowships to be awarded there. The Sacramento Leaders Fellowship Fund will be allocated over five years and will be funded entirely by Drexel, with the school’s California alumni contributing. Drexel will offer the first of three informational sessions in Roseville beginning June 22.
|
| Library Journal Politician of the Year deadline has been extended to July 25, 2008.
Library Journal Politician of the Year deadline has been extended to July 25, 2008. Is there a political figure making a difference in your library community? The editors of Library Journal want to know about them and what they've achieved for libraries in your area. Please send nominations, including a description of the politician's efforts on behalf of libraries, to Ann Kim via email at akim@reedbusiness.com; by mail to: Library Journal, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010; or by FAX at 646-746-6734.
|
Library Journal Academic Newswire
Contributing Editor: Andrew R. Albanese
Phone: 646-746-6852 E-mail: aalbanese@reedbusiness.com
Editor: Francine Fialkoff
Phone: 646-746-6807 E-mail: fialkoff@reedbusiness.com
Executive Editor: Rebecca Miller
Phone: 646-746-6725 E-mail: miller@reedbusiness.com
News Editor: Norman Oder
Phone: 646-746-6829 E-mail: noder@reedbusiness.com
TO UNSUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe send an e-mail to Unsub_Academic_Newswire@email.libraryjournal.com
TO SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Academic Newswire or our other newsletters
Subscribe to Library Journal magazine
ARCHIVE
Read past issues
PRINT
You must change your print settings from portrait to landscape to print this page.
VIEW OUR PRIVACY POLICY
Click here
QUESTIONS?
If you need further assistance with your newsletter subscription, please contact our Online Support Staff.
Send editorial questions about this newsletter to: aalbanese@reedbusiness.com.
RBInteractive: onlineads@reedbusiness.com, (888) 7RBI-WEB.
PRIVACY MANAGER: privacymanager@reedbusiness.com
Reed Business Information 2000 Clearwater Drive Oak Brook, IL 60523 | Fax: 630-288-8394
© 2007 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2008 Library Journal. All rights reserved.
"Library Journal" is a registered trademark. "Library Journal Academic Newswire" is a trademark.
|
