Digitizers Restrict Access to Public Domain Books

Thormann, Gabrielle

Clark, A. & Chawner, B.  (2014). Enclosing the public domain: The restriction of public domain books in a digital environment.  First Monday, 19(6). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i6.4975  

     "Research shows that open repositories allow works to have far greater societal impact than when access is restricted (Cullen and Chawner, 2008)."  Access to public domain books is being threatened by digitizers.  This article does a great job of making the complex issues clear, and offering solutions.  The writers who are from New Zealand examine this problem by choosing to track 100 public domain books from New Zealand before 1890.  The questions they ask and answer are:  How much are public domain books being restricted in terms of access and use?  What are the reasons for these restrictions and are these reasons okay?  What’s a fair way to digitize and host public domain books to balance needs of digitizer and the public?  Starting this study as a microcosm within New Zealand led them to the macrocosm of varying copyright law and contractual law internationally.
     Basically, these digitizers create contracts for internet use, and then claim these contracts take precedent over copyrights.  Those of the public who are concerned believe the books still belong in the public domain on the internet also.  And, different countries have different definitions of copyrights and contracts.  
     Interestingly, digitizers HathiTrust and Google both of the United States apply the most restrictions to access public domain books.  They use 'Technological Protection Measures' (TPM) to block access to materials that may be considered public domain.  These measures include blocking the cut and paste function, using the ‘snippet view,’ and blocking full pdf download access.  The writers did contest blocked public domain books for both large companies.  As of the published article in 2014, Google did not resolve the dispute, while HathiTrust immediately released all 11 of the contested books back into the public domain.  The problem is that there are many more books blocked by these companies.  Further, other companies will access and download pdfs, and then charge unreasonable access prices for these public domain books:  Amazon is one company doing such practice.  Know that other digitizers as mentioned by this article, such as Early New Zealand Books, New Zealand Electronic Books, Project Gutenberg, and The Internet Archive, usually do provide full access for most public domain books.  Thus, it’s always worth searching for the item you’re looking for to see if it’s available for free. 
      Why are these digitizers restricting access?  Since copyright law varies globally, Google Books and HathiTrust responded that they are wary of legal battles, as they are missing bibliographic information for many books.  So, they apply more restrictions, specifically increase copyrights beyond terms.  They also increase copyrights as they figure they have done the work to digitize, so they are entitled to reap profits from this work.  However, the research is clear that " the social costs of copyright extension do not outweigh the benefits.  Legislators should refrain from increasing the period of copyright protection..."

     Here are suggestions by the writers to solve issues:

• Attach bibliographic metadata to each public domain book that takes a minute to find and is found 66% of the time.  This time is in comparison to the time needed to digitize a book.  In 2006 digitizing 500 pages took 30 minutes plus other processing time. 
• Use statistical analyses to develop copyright restrictions for books with missing biographical data.
• Create standardized processes to determine copyright, and create an easy way for users to contest digitizers.
• If standards are agreed to, create a ‘safe harbor’ for digitizers, as problems emerge regarding copyright issues.

     While this was a tough article to get through, I wanted to know how and why digitizers are charging for items that are supposed to be free.  And, what are the implications of such practice?  We know the ideal internet helps to make information accessible, not restrict those who can have access and those who cannot.    
  

            

Digital Storytime

Mitchell, Ruth

Paganelli, Andrea. (2016). Story Time for Learning in a Digital World. Knowledge Quest, 44(3), 8-17.

School librarians can enrich and enliven storytime and engage students with digital storytime.  Kids are growing up in this digital world and don't see the difference between digital books and traditional books.  Using digital books can revitalize traditional storytime.  This article provides tables comparing traditional storytime with digital storytime and links to recommended titles and sources.

Evaluation - I was a naysayer about digital storytime until I read this article; now I am excited to try it. If it will engage those "blase" fifth-graders then it is worth a try!

Social Media - Uses for Libraries

Bonaventure-Larson, Nichole

Wetta, M. (2016). Instagram Now. School Library Journal, 62(2), 30-32.

Summary: This short article outlines how libraries can use the social media application Instagram for the promotion of their programs, inclusion of their teenage patrons in goings on at the library, and the significance of the image-based site over other resources like Twitter.

Evaluation: I though this is was a really interesting short piece. I think Wetta makes some pretty good points about the simplicity of including an Instagram account in your promotional planning. She also makes several good points about the inclusion of day to day library life - such as posting photos of new books as they come into the collection - and how these kinds of posts are on par with how teenagers and young adults are expressing themselves through the internet. We don't see, as often, the long stream of consciousness blogging from the days of MySpace and LiveJournal. Accessing patrons who are active on social media is simpler now than it has ever been.  All it takes is a photo, a quick caption, and the proper use of hashtags. I think it's a brilliant way to connect and I would definitely follow my library if it had an account on Instagram. What do you all think? Is it as worthwhile as it seems?

Meyer, L. (May 2009). Safeguarding collections at the dawn of the 21st Century: Describing roles & measuring contemporary preservation activities in ARL libraries. Association of Research Libraries. Retrieved from: http://www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/safeguarding-collections.pdf

• Preservation is a core function of the research library and a key element of both the stewardship and access missions of research organizations.
• Digital age:  New Technologies
• ARL member libraries confront new challenges
• Transforming collections
• New preservation techniques
• New Services
• Digital library developments
• Doesn’t solve all of our preservation problems, but opens the doors to other potential problems, or new sets of standards
• Acquiring more and more digital content
• Creating digital access for patrons remotely and in house
• Look at the relationship between preservation and collection development
• The best preservation technique is providing materials with an environment that caters to that mediums needs.
• Print and media - maintaining temperature and RH (relative humidity)
• General concerns with the preservation of cultural resources means that the conservation of books, manuscripts, and other artifacts continues to be an important activity for libraries.
• Deacidification has enormous potential for preserving printed works that cannot be reformatted due to copyright concerns or have enduring value in their original format, and for preserving unique archival materials.
• Reformating techniques
• Microfilming, preservation photocopying, digitization, reformatting

Reexamining the Documentation Strategy of Archival Acquisitions in a Web 2.0 Environment

Hamby, Megan

Thomas, L. M. (2012). The Embedded Curator: Reexamining the Documentation Strategy of Archival Acquisitions in a Web 2.0 Environment. RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Cultural Heritage, 13(1), 38-48.

This article introduces the term “embedded Curator” which is essentially someone who documents a specific community using a collection policy while also serving as a resource to that community. With the ever developing digital age we live in, the article discusses the need to find ways to archive digital material using collection development policies and the struggle with preserving digital records in time before they no longer become available. These curators can use a something called More Product Less Process (MLPL) which helps with community and donor relationships and the collection or they can speak directly to their donors early on before records are gifted to an institution. Thomas stresses the importance of sharing archival processes with donors and communities so that these communities might be better informed in how they can back up and preserve important files for archiving.

I found this article interesting because it focuses on how important it is to implement a solid collection development policy in order to archive important and relevant digital materials from various communities. According to Thomas, “well-designed collection development policies and deeds of gift can provide curators with tools and documentation to allow them to change their minds about the direction of the collection…should they need to do so” (p. 40). These embedded curators can also impact the collection and archival processes by speaking to the donors about the importance of maintaining their records for future archiving. This was interesting because often I hear of stories of archival records coming to repositories in boxes without any arrangement or order. By speaking directly to important donors whose records are anticipated being gifted, curators and archivists would be able to satisfy their collection policy much easier. 

Reading Improvement Techniques Informing Collection Development

Bryan, S. (2011). Extensive reading, narrow reading and second language learners: Implications for libraries. The Australian Library Journal, 60(2), 113-122. 

This lit review by an English-teacher-turned-librarian (like me!) looks at the research behind Extensive Reading and Narrow Reading, and how library collections developed for second language learners can help them make the most of these techniques.   

The theory goes that repeated exposure to words and ideas through fun, not-too-difficult reading—lots of books on many topics in the case of Extensive Reading and lots of books by a particular author or on a particular topic in the case of Narrow Reading—will result in improved fluency and automaticity in reading, as well as a richer vocabulary in the target language.  The books must be not too difficult (she explains the 5 Finger Rule, which I’d never heard of, but sounds reasonable: no more than 2-3 new words per page, which you determine by counting on your fingers) and the reader must get to choose the books and topics or authors.  The research is pretty clear that these techniques work, but any of us who read all the Nancy Drew books, or the Harry Potters, or Series of Unfortunately Events, or the Discworld series as our method for learning to read know that already.   

In the library, collecting for multiple reading levels in the target language is important:  some libraries use children’s and YA books in the target language, like we do at my library, an academic library with students learning English, Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.  There is a danger with certain older populations that juvenile content might not hold their interest, so graded readers are also suggested (no significant difference between “authentic” and graded readers to reading improvement was found in the lit).  Collecting foreign language texts on a variety of topics or by one author can be a challenge; this article cites another I read (Bissett, 2010) which describes how one library reached out to the community and to embassies and foreign consuls for donations to get more foreign language leisure texts for their academic library.  At my library, we’ve been adding translated copies of popular series—we have the Harry Potters in Chinese, French, and Spanish for instance—which aren’t as expensive since they’re common paperbacks we could order off of Amazon.  Other media types by which the books can be enjoyed are suggested too, such as audio books or read-a-loud books that come with CDs.

Since it’s important for the reader to choose his own books, the levels need to be indicated. The author mentions colored stickers, which is what we do for our books at my library: the children’s, YA, and graded readers are marked with a sticker on the spine so students can wander the shelves and identify what's probably in their reading-level range.  She also suggested putting the information in the bibliographic records for efficient online browsing as well.  For public libraries with English learner populations, the author suggests helping the patrons determine their own reading levels and showing them where to find the most appropriate texts.  To help all language learners,

 “The most important, and most easily implemented suggestion libraries can adopt, however, is to ‘inform the patron’, rather than improving the collection—that is, to provide patrons with the metaknowledge necessary to make better selections from the existing collection.  It is believed that students, particularly older students, are unlikely to remain motivated in a reading programme that may involve reading works they do not regard as age appropriate unless they know how and why it will benefit them (Dornyei, 2001; Hedgcock & Ferris, 2009). . . . Many language learners do not know how to learn a language (Jones, 1993) . . . . Providing a guide for these students which explains what resources are available to them, how they should use them, where they can find them and how they will help them with language acquisition could be one of the simplest, yet most effective forms of support libraries can offer” (p. 120). 

Sometimes we can’t add to a collection—because of the budget, because of the availability of appropriate materials in the target language, because of space considerations, and the like—but we can find ways to still help the students use the collection well: by understanding how and why we develop foreign language fiction collections for our language learning students, and by understanding how it benefits them.

One strategy not mentioned in the article but that could supplement a foreign language collection for students is a “connection” like Project Gutenberg for English second language learners (2016) or Livres Pour Tous for French language learners (2016).

References

Bissett, C. (2010). Developing a foreign language fiction collection on a limited budget. The Australian Library Journal, 59(1-2), 12-22. DOI: 10.1080/00049670.2010.10735961

Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge: University Press.

Hedgcock, J. S., & Ferris, D. R. (2009). Teaching readers of English: Students, texts, and contexts. New York: Routledge.

Jones, H. (1993). Beyond the fringe: A framework for assessing teach-yourself materials for ab initio English-speaking learners. System, 21(4), 453-469. 

H. A.