On Litigating Fair Use

From Duke University Libraries:

When the Association of Research Libraries wrote a letter to the CCC expressing disappointment over the decision to help underwrite the lawsuit, CCC’s reply emphasized that no damages were being sought and maintained that their participation had the simple goal of “clarifying” fair use. This strikes me as disingenuous. There are more efficient ways to clarify fair use than litigation, and the CCC has a definite financial interest in the case even absent any request for damages. CCC’s aim here is not to clarify fair use but to narrow it dramatically, to their direct and immediate profit.

The argument developed here by Kevin Smith places the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) in a harsh light – subvening copyright violation litigation in order to further restrict access options to intellectual property, thus securing its own role in the publishing community while attempting to prop up that foundering industry a little longer.  As Paul Courant observes elsewhere (and thanks to Paul for the pointer to this article) it forces a reluctant higher education community to seek alternatives to its own and commercial presses – an outcome potentially fatal to the industry.

The Future Predicted in 1936

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I think Binkley could be on to something….

“The present generation should not be surprised at the conclusion of a technological revolution that has as its seed [sic] of a cultural revolution. Such may indeed be true in this instance. The cultural revival of the monopoly of the metropolis and the democratization and deprofessionalization of scholarship are on the horizon which seems to lie ahead. And these things themselves accord with other elements of our social and economic prospects, notably the possible decline in the centralization of population in cities and the development of a new leisure in the hands of a well-educated people. The same technical innovations that promise to give aid to the research worker in his cubicle may also lead the whole population toward participation in a new cultural design.”

The Libraries have two copies of his Manual on methods of reproducing research materials, both available for recall from the Library Storage Facility.

(via boingboing.net)

HRDI Project Earns Grant

From the Genocide Archive of Rwanda

The Aegis Trust is one of eight organizations that have been awarded an EMC Heritage Trust Project grant through the company’s Information Heritage Initiative program for its work on the Genocide Archive of Rwanda. Aegis partnered with the Rwandan government and the Libraries’ Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) to build the framework for the Archive, the digital files of which reside with HRDI.

The grant will provide for ongoing archival activities including the digitization and preservation of audiovisual testimonies, historical photographs, documents, newspapers and genocide victims’ information which is made available through the Archive’s site.

Congratulations to the HRDI team for their continuing excellent work on this important project.

Choosing a Path Forward

Recently, The University of Texas at Austin has found itself at the center of a debate over the structure of modern research universities. Questions have been raised about the value of research to the academic mission of higher education, and in light of the state’s current budget situation, whether state institutions can afford to be so heavily invested in the research enterprise. There is a belief in some quarters that the commitment to research excellence that characterizes top-tier research universities is unavoidably detrimental to the University’s teaching mission.

President Bill Powers presented his case last week in a speech that effectively made the argument that teaching and research are inextricably linked at the level of excellence the University pursues. In fact, his examples demonstrated that the interplay between teaching and research has resulted in the sort of collaboration and innovation invoked by the notion that what starts here changes the world. President Powers noted that our ability to sustain this level of excellence requires a continued commitment to the tradition of ongoing institutional introspection and transformation that have made The University of Texas at Austin a model of efficiency and excellence.

If you’ve yet to do so, you can view the speech in its entirety or read the transcript.

In Memoriam

Hal Box, one of our Libraries Advisory Council members and a former Dean of the School of Architecture has passed away.  The University of Texas Libraries has lost a dear friend and advocate, and we join with our colleagues across the University in mourning his passing.

Among his many honors and awards, Hal was also recognized by the University of Texas; The Hal Box Endowed Chair in Urbanism was established at the university in 1999 and the Texas Exes Alumni Association bestowed on Box its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, in 2003.

Memorial services are pending. Visit Box’s online memorial page.

Heath Talks Assessment in Austere Times

 

Before Dr. Fred Heath joined the University of Texas Libraries as Vice Provost and Director, he had spent several years at Texas A&M with a team of faculty and research professionals developing and honing an assessment tool called LibQUAL+™. With a certain degree of prescience, his earlier work has given the Libraries a leg up in dealing with the economic downturn.

Dr. Heath took some time to discuss his experience and perspective on the vital role of assessment in building a library.

So, why do assessment?

Fred Heath: I think this pressure for accountability has always been part of the public sector where it’s really hard to measure bottom lines. If you’re going to succeed in advancing your program then you are going to have to have some structure that relates investments to outcomes, and there aren’t many tools to measure our “profits and losses” in the public sector. For several years we’d been searching and we found a tool called SERVQUAL that was used with great success in the private sector, and we also had a great relationship with the developers of that tool. We started noodling there, and it grew.

There were three young professors in the College of Business at Texas A&M – assistant professors at the time they started developing SERVQUAL – who needed a research protocol, and grew it into, perhaps, the most significant user satisfaction survey in that sector. It applied to everything from aircraft companies, to insurance, to restaurants. And one day we visited with the professor who was still there – the other two are now employed elsewhere around the world in higher education – and asked, “Do you think we can redirect SERVQUAL to the not-for-profit sector, specifically to education, and then even more specifically to libraries?” And we were really cautious, because it was a shameless emulation of what those three researchers were trying to do, but he was hugely supportive, open to the idea, and, in fact, all three of those developers have lent time to us over and again to help us build the tool that LibQUAL+™ became. Without them, without that beginning, I doubt we would’ve had the perspective and background ever to get it launched.

How important was it for the development of LibQUAL+™ to have faculty members as part of the development team?

FH: We could never have done this without the methodologists and the economists and the statisticians that we had on our side. And we, ourselves, were faculty in our own specialties, but not those skill sets. It was bringing all of those tools, all of that commitment, an emerging awareness of survey protocols in a nascent Web environment…we’d had no clue how we’d plan to do this on paper, and one of the methodologists said, “You know, I think we can do this on the Web pretty soon.” So, it took a village to build it; it took many different types of faculty to make it happen. Continue reading Heath Talks Assessment in Austere Times

TPA Giveaways Are Back – Season Subscription Contest

Last year, followers of Tex Libris and friends and followers of the Libraries Facebook page and Twitter feed got to participate in contests for tickets to events that were part of the Texas Performing Arts 2010-11 season.

We’re happy to say that we’ve partnered with TPA again for the 2011-12 season, and we’ll soon be kicking off the promotion with a pair of tickets to an as-yet-unspecified performance.

While you’re waiting for our first giveaway, enter TPA’s big opening contest for a season subscription (four pairs of tickets!) to upcoming performances.

And check back here often (or add us to your RSS feed) for more chances to win.

Don’t get between him and his Easter bunny

From the LA Library archives:

“Wrapped in Thought: Four-year-old Philip Ross finds ABC Easter Bunny more interesting than his guns and spurs. Son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Ross, 12605 Califa St., North Hollywood, he said he can’t read but ‘didn’t mind looking at pictures.’ Librarians at North Hollywood branch library said he is a frequent visitor.”

(via BoingBoing)

 

Science Study Break, Now With More Na’vi

The Life Science Library’s Science Study Break program will wrap up its season on Wednesday (4/13) with an examination of James Cameron’s most recent blockbuster Avatar.

Dr. Misha Matz of the School of Biological Sciences will analyze biological fact and fiction in the fantastic world of the film.

The program will be at 6 p.m. in Garrison Hall, Room 0.102. It is free and open to the public.

Pop culture and the academy collide as Science Study Break features relevant faculty and experts from The University of Texas at Austin discussing the reality and fantasy portrayed as fact in science-themed books, television and film. Past presentations have featured presentations on bioterrorism and its treatment in the Fox thriller 24, artificial intelligence gone wild in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the comic realities of Spider-Man and epidemiological models for the proliferation of zombies.

Science Study Break occurs twice each semester and is generously supported by the University Federal Credit Union.

UPDATE: You can view Matz’s Avatar presentation on the university’s YouTube channel. Thanks, Misha.

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Thank you, Congressman.

Rep. Doggett with area student body presidents.

As the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office considers opening satellite offices to deal with a surplus of innovation across the country, various congresscritters are lining up to tout their respective districts as the ideal locations for the enterprise.

We’d expect no less from 25th Congressional District Representative Lloyd Doggett, and in making his argument for Austin as a potential future home for processing patents, the congressman pays The University of Texas and the Libraries (noting the McKinney Engineering Library) a tribute in making us part of his case for the project.

From the relevant text (emphasis added):

“Central Texas’s academic research sector is also very strong and would be an excellent partner as the USPTO seeks to enhance public engagement.  Of the top 250 R&D universities in the country, the universities in Texas earned the fourth largest number of patents.  The University of Texas flagship campus is in Austin and is home to 150 research units, exceeding $642 million in research spending as a Tier 1 research university (2009-2010), and is a major national leader among research universities with the fourth highest level of patent earnings in the country.  The University offers the only Master of Technology Commercialization degree program in the world, and UT Austin ranks in the top 10 in both Engineering and Computer Science.  UT Austin is also ranked in the Top 10 of research libraries and its McKinney Engineering Library is a PTO depository library.

It’s nice to know our leaders are paying attention.

UT Libraries