Survey indicates students would use e-books more often if available

From a press release dated 6/24/2008:

ebrary® announced the results of its first 2008 Global Student E-book Survey completed by nearly 6,500 students throughout the world, representing approximately 400 individual institutions. Register to receive a free digital copy. Designed by more than 150 college and university librarians throughout the world, the wide-scale survey explores students’ usage and perceptions of e-books. ebrary plans to periodically repeat the survey to compare how e-book usage and attitudes among students change over time.

Key findings of the 2008 Global Student E-book Survey include the following:

• On research or class assignments, e-book usage is on par with print books, with almost equal numbers of students using each type.
• Fifty-one percent of students would “very often or often” opt to use electronic versions of books over print versions, compared to 32% who “sometimes” prefer e-books and 17% who always use the print version.
• E-books rank among the top resources students consider trustworthy, along with print materials such as books, textbooks, reference (dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps), and journals.
• Google and other search engines are indicated by the highest number of students for use in research or class assignments. Other top resources include e-books, print books, e-reference resources such as online dictionaries, encyclopedias and maps, and Wikipedia.
• Fifty-seven percent of students view instruction in information literacy as very important, compared with 38% who consider it somewhat important and only 5% who find it not important.

New Create Change Bookmarks

Create Change released a series of bookmarks to encourage open scholarly communication. The series invites four categories of scholars (humanists, mathematicians, social scientists, and biologists) to "Get more from your research. Share it."

Dr. Linda Hutcheon, Professor of English at the University of Toronto, recommends "Putting our work in an institutional repository" which "has the advantage of getting us priority on search engines. It makes our work more accessible and therefore it potentially has more impact."

Dr. David Morrison, Professor of Mathematics at UC Santa Barbara, states that "The nature of the scientific enterprise is founded on free and open communication of results. To reach a broad audience of other scientists may require new techniques of communication."

Dr. Carolyn Kenny, Professor of Human Development at Antioch University, predicts that "There is a revolution because of open access. It allows for much quicker communication and more communication internationally. It will change the way people learn and do things."

Dr. Gary Ward, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Vermont, encourages that "To maximize scientific progress, it’s critical that everyone has full access rather than be handcuffed with barriers to information. The more eyes looking at the data, the more we will learn."

The bookmarks, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, are suitable for libraries as well as offices where graduate students are counseled for theses and dissertations.

New Blog: Students for Open Access to Research

Open Students is a blog related to open access to which students, faculty, librarians, and others can post on OA issues relevant to students. Current categories of discussion include:

• Journals
• Lack of Access
• Open Access
• Opportunities
• Self-Archiving
• Student Activism
• Student Journals
• Student Outreach

Check them out!

Section 108 Study Group Report Recommendations

The Section 108 Study Group is an independent group assembled by the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office. They were charged to provide recommendations for updating Section 108 of the Copyright Act (§ 108. Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives) specifically in light of new technologies. Ultimately, the findings are to be used to draft legislation for Congress. There were three categories for these findings: recommendations for legislative change, conclusions on other issues, and additional issues. The first section is the only one in which specific legislative solutions are proposed and it contains broad language that can be interpreted many ways.

The group was able to agree that

• Museums should be eligible institutions under section 108.
• The current minimum qualifying criteria should be retained AND libraries and archives should be required to meet additional eligibility criteria: they must have a public service mission, employ trained staff, provide the normal professional services, and possess a collection of lawfully acquired materials.
• A library or archives should be allowed to authorize outside contractors to perform some activities on its behalf as long as the contractor is only receiving compensation for the contracted work, does not retain copies other than is necessary to provide the contracted service, and the rights holder can obtain remedies for infringement by the contractor.
• No liability should be imposed on libraries when copyright infringement occurs through "unsupervised use of reproducing equipment located on its premises" including that which is owned by the user as long as there are copyright notices in public areas.

More ambiguous recommendations were made for preservation and replacement activities. The recommendations for preservation include a long list of qualifications to be met to determine which institutions are included in the exception and suggests limiting copies to those which are "reasonably necessary" in addition to "restricting access." There are recommendations to the "three-copy rule" which permits libraries to make up to three copies of a published work for replacement purposes. The groups suggests changing this to allow "a limited number of copies as reasonably necessary" to create and maintain "a single replacement copy" and attaches the condition that a "usable" replacement copy is not available at a "fair price" while suggesting that "there may be circumstances under which a licensed copy of a work qualifies as a copy obtainable at a fair price."

The group was unable to form substantive recommendations regarding copies for users, including interlibrary loan. Additional issues identified included virtual libraries and archives, display and performance of unlicensed digital works, licenses and contracts, technological protection measures, e-reserves, pre-1972 sound recordings, and remedies. Academic libraries were hopeful that they would have recommended exceptions and limitations for the use of copyrighted works as electronic course materials that are not specifically addressed by the Copyright Act.

Support Orphan Works Legislation

There is legislation in both the House and Senate (H.R. 5889, S. 2913) regarding orphan works -- those works whose copyright holder cannot be found. This legislation limits remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works; that is, if the work is used without permission and a copyright holder later emerges, the copyright holder is entitled to reasonable compensation. Generally, these works haven't been used because of the fear of unknown liability. The House version of the bill includes a "dark archive" requirement that mandates that users file a notice to the U.S. Copyright Office before using an orphan work. The Senate version of the bill does not include a dark archive provision and is the recommended version.

Why is this important to scholars? The following talking points are provided by the American Library Association:

• This legislation advances productive uses of culturally and historically significant works whose copyright holders cannot be identified or located, even after a reasonable search to locate rights holders is conducted.
  
  
• The collections in our libraries, museums, state and local historical societies, and archives include a significant number of orphan works. These repositories with orphan works are not made publicly available by libraries for fear that rights holders will come forward, initiate legal action, and demand unknown amounts of compensation.
  
  
• A dark archive requirement – mandating that users file a notice to the U.S. Copyright Office before using an orphan work – would be excessively burdensome for users, with little benefit to owners. Such a requirement will undoubtedly drive up compliance costs, and many institutions will require legal counsel to review the submissions prior to filing.
  
  
• Despite extensive and costly searches to locate orphan work rights holders, without a legislative solution, the risk remains high for institutions that make these works publicly available.
  
  
• Resolving the orphan works problem presents significant new educational opportunities because these works will be accessible and available to students, scholars, and the public.

Scholars will benefit from the use of these works and this legislation fills a significant gap in copyright law. Contact your Senators and Representatives to lend your support for orphan works legislation without a “dark archive” provision.

World Intellectual Property Day

April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day. If you're interested, WIPO produced a nice poster (it is 8MB). Since 2000, WIPO and its Member States have celebrated World Intellectual Property Day with the goals of increasing public understanding of intellectual property and demonstrating the impact of IP on innovation and creativity in our world.

From the web site, the aims of World IP Day are:

• to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life;
• to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
• to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe;
• to encourage respect for the IP rights of others.

So celebrate: kiss a scholar!

Study of Graduate Education and the Public Good

The Council of Graduate Schools has released its Study of Graduate Education and the Public Good today. The report provides quantitative data to support the economic advantage of graduate education programs and showcases alumni and their unique contributions. The executive summary is available at: http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/GR_GradEd-PubGood_excerpt.pdf.