NS16.2 BOOK ALERT: AN IMPORTANT NEW WORK ON COPYRIGHT, Joe Hewitt
NS16.3 HUMANIST MESSAGES ABOUT COPYRIGHT
NS16.4 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY CANCELLATIONS, David L. Stonehill
NS16.5 SISAC HOLDS X12 DEMONSTRATIONS AT ALA-MIDWINTER MEETING, Tina Feick
NS16.6 PRICE WARS, Lelde Gilman
NS16.7 CHARLESTON CONFERENCE ADDRESSES SERIAL CANCELLATIONS, Buzzy Basch
NS16.8 ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL TRANSACTIONS, Brenda Corbin
NS16.9 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIANSHIP, Harry Llull
NS16.10 PERGAMON EXCHANGE RATE CHANGE, Adrian Alexander
NS16.11 FOCUSED CANCELLATIONS, Jim Thompson
NS16.12 DOLLAR AMOUNTS OF SERIAL CANCELLATIONS, Alexander Gilchrist
Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET.
Copyright issues occupy a large share of the newsletter's space this issue. Joe Hewitt urges us to read a new book on the subject, and members of the HUMANIST discussion group have had much to say. I am reprinting some of that discussion, as well as a comment from Christian Boissonnas, my source for the HUMANIST material. I hope the different perspectives will stimulate further discussion for our next issue. Copyright is something that most of us do not know nearly enough about, but with electronic transmission of articles and the coming of more commercial document delivery services, it is even more a necessary part of our professional lives.
Donald Koepp, Princeton University Library, has distributed a second letter to Pergamon Press. We will print it in the next issue (out very soon), along with comment from a subscription agent and a librarian.
NS16.2 BOOK ALERT: AN IMPORTANT NEW WORK ON COPYRIGHT
Joe Hewitt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UJHEWT@UNC.BITNET.
All librarians interested in copyright, as well as others concerned for users' rights under the 1976 Copyright Act, should be aware of an excellent new book -- THE NATURE OF COPYRIGHT: A LAW OF USERS' RIGHTS, by L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg (University of Georgia Press, 1991). Patterson is a well known scholar of copyright law and Professor of Law at the University of Georgia, and Lindberg is Professor of English at Georgia and editor of the GEORGIA REVIEW. According to a PW announcement, an earlier work by Patterson was cited six times in a recent opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
The following quote states one of the central themes of the book:
Traditionally viewed as a law for authors and artists, copyright was actually originated by publishers and has a long history of having benefitted entrepreneurs much more than creators. A major purpose of this book is to explain the vagaries of history that caused this anomaly, and thus to justify a new -- and long overdue -- perspective of copyright law: copyright as a law for consumers as well as for creators and marketers.
THE NATURE OF COPYRIGHT is a work of legal scholarship, but it is not an in-depth treatment of case precedent nor a manual on copyright law; it is an excellent explanation of the underlying premises of copyright that is fully accessible to the layman. For librarians, I feel that Patterson and Lindberg provide a legal and historical interpretation that supports many of our views of copyright. I urge readers of the NEWSLETTER not only to read this book yourselves, but also to bring it to the attention of your university attorneys. It may be useful in counteracting some of the intimidating pronouncements of the publishing industry and its associations.
Of particular interest to readers of the NEWSLETTER is the following quote from Patterson and Lindberg's discussion of the rules of fair use:
Price of the work is relevant because a quid pro quo for the
copyright monopoly is that copyrighted works be available at a
reasonable cost to the public. In other words, a part of the
copyright bargain is that the copyright owner shall not abuse the
monopoly rights granted.
Interesting...
Most importantly, THE NATURE OF COPYRIGHT may provide a solid background for a more active lobbying agenda for users' rights. Robert W. Kastenmeier, who chaired the House Subcommittee that wrote the 1976 Act, hints at this need in his introduction to the book:
I commend the book to copyright lawyers, to legislators and their
staffs, to judges, and to all those whom copyright is ultimately
intended to benefit -- the American citizens who use copyrighted
materials for the promotion of their own learning, but who have
no lobbyists in the halls of Congress to plead their case for the
right of personal use in their homes, schools, libraries, and
offices.
One ploy of publishers is to promote the idea that theirs is the only
legitimate view of copyright. Librarians and others who disagree with
the publishing industry's interpretation of copyright are sometimes
attacked for being "against copyright" which, it is implied, is equivalent to
being against motherhood and apple pie concepts such as the rights of
authors, private property, and constitutional law. The only thing that
librarians are against is an unbalanced interpretation and enforcement of
copyright law that emphasizes economic rights at the cost of all other
public interests. Librarians are not against copyright, but for the legal
rights of users under the law and for the public interests that copyright
is intended to protect. THE NATURE OF COPYRIGHT is a work that not only
helps to clarify the real issues involved in copyright, but can also
assist librarians in developing their positions on users' rights into
more substantive and effective forms.
There are many striking quotes that I could pass on that would convey the style and substance of this book. I offer the following extended quote to whet your appetite for Patterson and Lindberg:
Most Americans think of law as consisting of written rules in the
form of legislative statutes or court decisions. But law also
grows out of what people actually do, that is, out of custom.
Even the most comprehensive legal statute is skeletal in content,
while court decisions tend to be fact-intensive (resolving disputes
between litigants over specific concrete issues.) Between
these two poles, therefore, there is an enormous amount of room
for private action, and consistent private action can essentially
"make" law by reshaping existing customs (or even creating new
ones) that may subsequently be honored by the courts.
When the conduct in question involves economic interests, those
most directly affected often take the lead in making private
pronouncements concerning the kind of actions that are legal and
permissible. This is precisely what has happened in the matter of
the use and fair use of copyrighted materials. Corporate copyright owners
and others with vested interests -- including licensing agents,
broadcasting and publishing associations, and so on -- have used the
skeletal statute, section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act, to influence and
promulgate guidelines that purport to implement that law but instead
often constitute self-aggrandizement at the expense of the public interest.
There is much for librarians to ponder in these words. I urge you to
go out and help make THE NATURE OF COPYRIGHT the influential work it
deserves to be.
NS16.3 HUMANIST MESSAGES ABOUT COPYRIGHT
Contributed by Christian Boissonnas, Cornell University, CBY@CORNELLC.BITNET, and edited by Marcia Tuttle.
[Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0533. Monday, 16 Dec 1991.]
I just had a weird experience perhaps worth sharing with colleagues. I wanted to include one of my book chapters in a packet of readings for graduate students in my course next semester, but in the wake of the Kinko's ruling, my own publisher (which I won't name but will identify as owned by the late Robert Maxwell) informed me that the fee for reproducing this and one other chapter (in another book of mine they also published) would be $250. This was not their opening gambit, but came a week AFTER I beseeched them to be reasonable since it was my own work and I didn't want to see my students (to whom the copy service would immediately pass the fee) charged in this way. The best they could tell me was that if I waived MY part of the fee, then it would drop to $125. I replied that instead I'd copy my own typescript, avoiding extra fees for students. So today I "unpublished" or "depublished" the chapter, printing it out single-spaced in a microfont that is indeed small, but clear and readable, again the intent being to save my students money (I managed to print a dozen book pages onto five pages, notes included). What a weird experience: I had to "unpublish" my work in order to make it more easily accessible to students! How do you like that? Truly a postmodern, postlegal experience...
Jim Cahalan, English Department BITNET: JCAHALAN@IUP 110B Leonard Hall, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA 15705-1094 Tel: (412) 357-2262
Selected responses from HUMANIST.
>From Peter Conn, University of Pennsylvania (PCONN@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU):
....His experience may be post-modern, and even post-Maxwell; I doubt if it
was in fact "post-legal." I would be surprised to learn that copyright holder
can be deprived of those rights merely through a change in the format of
repoduction. The copyright covers the *content* of the text, not merely one
particular published version. So, if Professor Cahalan's (unnamed) publishers
wanted to pursue this matter -- which I assume they will not, given the modest
size of the dispute -- presumably they could.
>From Paula Presley, Thomas Jefferson University Pres, Northeast Missouri State University
(AD15@NEMOMUS.BITNET):
I appreciated Jim Cahalan's tale of woe. It gives us yet another example of why
universities need to support the publication of their own faculty's research.
Nobody gets rich publishing with academic presses, but neither do they get
gouged (especially for using their own stuff!!!). I applaud Jim for doing what
he did; the alternative would have been to gouge the student.
>From Ann Okerson, Association of Research Libraries (OKERSON@UMDC.
BITNET):
The unpublishing maneuver was ingeious but flawed in that copyright transfer
covers the *expression* of an idea, not the idea itself (which continues to
belong to the creator). In the print artifact, changing the font or format doesn't
usually alter the wording or expression of the idea, so our creative colleague's
new version is likely still owned by the publisher, who will keep an eye on the
institution and like institutions to track on the level of copyright
"infringement."
Finally, and not from HUMANIST, Christian Boissonnas:
I don't think you have an unqualified moral right any more than a legal right to
stuff for which you have assigned the copyright to someone else. It would
make the whole premise behind copyright (protection for the author's
intellectual property) untenable. Part of the agreement for assigning the
copyright involves a payment -- money, or being published at no charge to the
author, which amounts to the same thing -- and protection -- the publisher on
his behalf, yes, but also on behalf of the author to whom he may be obligated
contractually (royalties). The publisher takes on all the risks and the author
none. He can't morally work against the publisher's best interest, especially
when that publisher also works for him.
The copyright assignment forms that I have signed over the years are pretty
specific. They clearly intend for me to relinquish ALL rights, not all rights
except that of doing what I want with my typescript. And I knowingly sign
them with that understanding.
Also, to say that the typescript should have different treatment for copyright
purposes from the published book is ludicrous. But others are addressing that
issue.
I don't know enough about the legal issues to address them. But people who
teach other people should be held to a higher standard than what is merely
required by the law.
NS16.4 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY CANCELLATIONS
David L. Stonehill, Director of the MBL/WHOI Library, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole MA, DSTPME@HOH.BITNET.
Congratulations on the Pricing Newsletter. The dialogue on systemic change is long overdue.
The MBL in the name stands for Marine Biological Laboratory, the WHOI stands for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Library is a joint effort between the two insititutions. It is a research library with about 200,000 volumes, mostly journals. We have about 5,000 journals in the collection, of which 2,000 are currently being subscribed. Our traditional strengths lie in a historical record of biology and ocean sciences, in our 24 hour open stacks, and in our small and friendly staff. Our current directions are to creat a geographically independent, retail, scientific communications resource -- ie, a library in the modern sense.
The Marine Biological Laboratory reduced its journal holdings by 10 percent in 1990. We cut the most expensive journals first, paying particular attention to foreign languages and basic science. Additions are judged with their prices in mind: we have not added a journal costing over $300/yr.
Where the scientific community has requested a journal over that figure, we have written to the publisher stating that we have the request, but are not ordering the journal because of its cost.
In the resulting correspondence the attitude reflected in the Pergamon letter has been universal. Responses from them were based on factors affecting the publisher and his staff; in no case did the publisher respond from the viewpoint of his customer.
The publishers seem blind to the market orientation needed to compete. In the same period, from 1988 through 1991, that journal prices rose by over 10 percent/year, the average price of a German luxury sedan rose a total of 1.14 percent. It is possible to compete, if good management and market awareness permeate an industry.
May your newsletter help bring that awareness to the process of scholarly communication.
NS16.5 SISAC HOLDS X12 DEMONSTRATIONS AT ALA-MIDWINTER MEETING
Tina Feick, Blackwell Periodicals and SISAC Chair, TINA@READMORE.COM
At ALA Midwinter, SISAC (Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee) will hold demonstration sessions on the draft SISAC invoice implementation of the EDI (electronic data interchange) X12 standard. On an automated system, SISAC Committee members will show an invoice going from a subscription agency through an X12 translator over a VAN (value-added network) to a library's automation system.
This brief presentation (involving many of the subscription agents) will also include a discussion of the advantages of EDI and especially SISAC's development of the serials industry's version of the X12 standard. We invite everyone to attend and become aware. Questions, comments and discussion are all welcome.
Two sessions will be for librarians (subscription agents, publishers, book vendors, etc.) and two will be for automation system vendors. SISAC needs the support and backing of all participants in serials business transactions: librarians, publishers, automation vendors, subscription agencies, etc. PLEASE COME AND GET THE HANDOUTS!!
LIBRARIANS, PUBLISHERS, SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS, BOOK VENDORS:
1) Jan. 26 (Sunday) 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
MARRIOTT RIVERCENTER, CONFERENCE ROOM 3
2) Jan. 27 (Monday) 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
MARRIOTT RIVERCENTER, SALON B
AUTOMATION VENDORS:
1) Jan. 28 (Tuesday) 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
MARRIOTT RIVERCENTER, SALON A
2) Jan. 28 (Tuesday) 11:00 AM - 12 NOON
MARRIOTT RIVERCENTER, SALON A
Any questions, please contact:Tina Feick, CHAIR, SISAC
Serials Specialist, Blackwell's Periodicals
1-800-458-3706 (US); 1-800-458-3707 (Canada)
Lelde Gilman, UCLA Biomedical Library, ECZ5LBG@UCLAMVS.BITNET.
Why should publishers lower prices until they have to??? Do we really expect them to? The process will change when all of us can support ONLY THE BEST JOURNALS (published by whomever!) and the standards for getting into PRINT (yes, print!) will be very, very rigorous and selective. I foresee a spate of stuff published electronically, etc. but what does make it into print will be culled, peer reviewed, and available in much, much fewer (and expensive) journals. Publishers will vie with each other (as some are already doing) to have a monopoly on publishing these fewer journals. The "publish or perish" process will be severely affected (for the better) by this in that only the better and fewer articles will be a part of the printed, peer reviewed, archival record. We will not see too many more years of the same study being published several times with a slightly different slant and a reordering of the author's names.
Is this optimistic? No, it is just a reality that will arrive simply because everything (not just journals!) will cost too much. Books will be fewer, journals will be fewer and students at universities will be fewer. If those who have INFORMATION and can turn it into a desirable and marketable product (don't let's kid ourselves about this one!) are going to be the winners in the end-of-the- century economic sweepstakes, then those who can and are willing to pay for this will be the ones to survive. I can assure you that it is not going to be East Europe and the Soviet Union and much of the third world. It is going to be Japan, parts of East Asia and a unified Europe led by a strong Germany.
The US, currently without money, leadership or will, will founder. California (long said to be the bellweather state?) with the world's best university (some would say only best public university) is a disaster area. Our Governor has just proposed some drastic measures for addressing this and they sound pretty serious. Isn't anyone looking at what is happening in the entire country and the world instead of bemoaning the cost of journals? Europe is on the rise (note the many journals in English with European journal of, etc.) and we are going to have to fight it out here if we really believe in education, scholarship and all that good stuff.
NS16.7 CHARLESTON CONFERENCE ADDRESSES SERIAL CANCELLATIONS
N. Bernard (Buzzy) Basch), Basch Associates, Chicago IL, and moderator of preconference.
In the face of spiralling costs and the proliferation of new titles, static or diminishing budgets, a declining pool of students, and reduced government support for education, academic librarians are no longer debating whether they should trim serial expenditures through cancellations. They ARE cancelling subscriptions and expect further substantial cancellations over the coming years.
Five academic library administrators -- Jim Deffenbaugh (College of William and Mary), Susan H. Zappen (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Connie Wu (Rutgers University), Paul Metz (Virginia Polytechnic Institute), and Deana Astle (Clemson University) -- shared their experiences of cancellation with an audience of sixty at a preconference Workshop on Serial Cancellations held in conjunction with the Charleston Conference on 6 November 1991.
The good news is that it CAN be done. While each speaker described programs developed in response to unique local circumstances, all agreed that the experience had a number of positive aspects. The most significant were the importance of consultation and communication, and the strength of faculty support. The speakers agreed that consultation and communication was essential, both within the library and externally with faculty and administrators. All found a strong and supportive response. Faculty who were unaware of pricing policies such as differential rates for individuals and institutions and the dramatic increases in serial prices, recognized the need for action when presented with concrete data on serial prices and academic library budgets. In many instances, their support extended beyond the confines of the immediate serials issue to encompass active involvement in other library-related issues, including funding.
There is no magic methodology for success. Each library had practiced responsible serials management, regularly reviewing and rationalizing collections, and assessing access versus ownership options. The institutions had used core list analysis, citation analysis, usage studies, and duplicate analysis, and had reviewed acquisitions procedures, resource sharing, and document supply alternatives. No one method proved superior or sufficient in cancellation analysis. Instead, managers used the collection and cost data assembled from such studies to communicate the extent of the serials crisis to faculty and used the studies and informed judgment as the basis for cancellation decisions.
The panelists urged the audience to use all available channels to communicate with faculty and administrators: newsletters, meetings, discussion groups, cost studies, and list review. They stressed the importance of political awareness in educating and activating their constituents and advised library managers to expect and plan for some negative responses.
The most effective programs are ongoing: continuously reviewing subscriptions and other supply options as local needs and situations change, and using faculty interest in the serials issue to develop and sustain a broader base for ongoing interaction and consultation.
NS16.8 ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL TRANSACTIONS
Brenda Corbin, US Naval Observatory, LIB@PHOBOS.USNO.NAVY.MIL.
Gordon & Breach has done it again. A new journal was recently announced: ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL TRANSACTIONS: THE JOURNAL OF THE SOVIET ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (ISSN 1055-6796). The flyer listed the Individual price as $87 and the Academic Library price as $245 per volume. Nothing new here. However, when I ordered the journal through Readmore, the account agent called to say that the price was higher. It appears that Gordon & Breach have a Corporate/Government rate and those libraries must pay $412 per volume !! This Corporate/Government rate was not listed on the flyer, and no indication was given at all that a 3rd tier of pricing was in effect. I will be writing to Mr. Harry Kirk in Reading, UK protesting this absurd pricing tier.
P.S. Keep up the good work. The issue which just arrived was filled with interesting material.
NS16.9 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIANSHIP
Harry Llull, University of New Mexico, ACRLSTS@HAL.UNM.EDU.
**ANNOUNCEMENT**NEW/FREE ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION**CALL FOR
SUBCRIBERS**
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----------INTERESTED IN SUBSCRIBING ACRLSTS@HAL.UNM.EDU *
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----------------------->> ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
LIBRARIANSHIP
December 1991 ACRLSTS@HAL.UNM.EDU Premier Issue
__________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS:
WHAT WE ARE/WHAT WE WILL BE--EDITOR
RESOURCES ON WOMEN AND SCIENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN
BY SUSAN SEARING, University of Wisconsin
SCIENCE LITERACY AND INFORMATION SKILLS
BY GREGG SAPP, Montana State University
SYNTHESIS: A NATIONAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION COALITION --
RADICALLY RESTRUCTURING UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING
EDUCATION
BY JOHN SAYLOR, Cornell University
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY: FOUR REPORTS
BY HARRY LLULL, University of New Mexico
SERIALS CANCELLATIONS--STATE OF THE ART: A REPORT ON A
PRECONFERENCE HELD AT THE 1991 CHARLESTON CONFERENCE
BY LYNN KACZOR, Sandia National Laboratories, Technical
Library, New Mexico
COALITION FOR NETWORKED INFORMATION FALL 1991 REPORT
BY CNI
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Issues In Science and Technology Librarianship is a publication of the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. The Editor: Harry LLull. Editorial Board: Lynn Kaczor and Gregg Sapp. This publication is produced at the Centennial Science and Engineering Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sent out in electronic form only over the Internet. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Section or Division. Articles and requests for subscriptions may be sent to the editor at ACRLSTS@HAL.UNM.EDU.
*****************************************************************
NS16.10 PERGAMON EXCHANGE RATE CHANGE
Adrian Alexander, Faxon, ALEXANDER@FAXON.COM.
Faxon's Chief Publications Officer, Joel Baron, announced that Pergamon will change its US dollar exchange rate for pounds sterling on January 1, 1992. The new rate will be 1.815, which is a 13 percent increase over the current rate of 1.60, and which reflects the impact of the currently weak US dollar. Orders that have already been placed will be billed at the 1.60 rate.
Jim Thompson, University of California - Riverside, THOMPSON@UCRVMS.BITNET.
I want to second Chuck Hamaker's exhortation that librarians focus their serial cancellations on particular publishers, and that they be open about it. True, institutional lawyers may sometimes advise against it, but remember that institutional lawyers are paid solely to keep the institution out of trouble, which means that when asked, they will always advise against any proposed action. As one member of the fine company of people Gordon & Breach tried to sue, I can say from experience that it matters a great deal how controversial actions are described. You don't have to tell the world that you're 'targeting Publisher X in order to reduce their income and bring them around;' you can merely 'instruct your bibliographers to consider, among other factors, price and the probability of future inflation based on the publisher's past experience.' It produces exactly the same result, and can be meaningfully related to legitimate business necessity.
NS16.12 DOLLAR AMOUNTS OF SERIAL CANCELLATIONS
Alexander Gilchrist, University of South Carolina, ILIBT11@UNIVSCVM.BITNET.
The total dollar amount of serial cancellations by ARL libraries this year would seem to be something over $7,000,000. It would certainly be valuable in showing to the publishers the impact of serial cancellations if somehow the total value of cancellations by all libraries could be compiled for this fiscal year. As David Salt pointed out in issue no. 15, it is immaterial to us what the causes for the increases are, since we do not have the funds to keep up anymore.
Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter.
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The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; Paper mail: Serials Department, CB #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respectively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor.
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