Libraries and copyright: A guide to copyright law in the 1990s

Libraries and copyright: A guide to copyright law in the 1990s

But today I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community [the Internet]. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libr...

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But today I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community [the Internet]. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offIces and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic. Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper; no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works: A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where-in the holy names of Education and Progress-important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued. Librarians have heard “The sky is falling” shouts before, as when first movies, then radio, then television were predicted to mean the demise of books. Did not happen then; will not happen now.-Allan Pratt, American Graduate School of International Management, Glendale, AZ 85306.

Libraries and Copyright: A Guide to Copyright Law in the 199Os, by Laura N. Gasaway & Sarah K. Wiant. Washington, D.C.: Special Libraries Association, 1994. 271~. $50.00 ($40.00 for SLA members). ISBN O-87 11 l-407-0. This admirable guide to copyright law, while providing librarians with the background information and specifics they need, is thorough enough to be used as a textbook in a library school course on the subject. This is not surprising since the authors are eminent law librarians and teachers. After offering an introduction to the concept of copyright and relevant Anglo-American history, the authors provide a very complete analysis of the Copyright Act of 1976. The bulk of the book, some 110 pages, is devoted to examining how the Act and subsequent court decisions affect libraries. The chapter on photocopying is particularly good, examining each provision of the law that affects libraries and explaining rights and responsibilities. Subsequent chapters treat the topics of licensing agencies and collectives; audiovisual and non-print works; computer software and databases; and unpublished works and course reserves. The book concludes with three chapters that offer an overview of international, Canadian, and British law, and a discussion of the Public Lending Right, whereby libraries must compensate copyright holders for lending their works-a right currently granted only in some European and Commonwealth countries but sometimes proposed for the United States. Since, as the authors, explain, foreign works are treated the same as domestic works under U.S. law, these chapters are of more theoretical than practical interest to U.S. librarians. Indeed, a theoretical bent is the book’s only potential drawback. Its ideal reader is a librarian who wants to understand not only what a library may or may not do, but also exactly why or why not. Someone who needs to check quickly on whether a particular activity or practice is allowed will find the information readily enough but may have to scan several paragraphs of legal analysis first. Such a reader will be greatly helped by the book’s excellent index. Useful appendices also include detailed answers to typical questions and the texts of various quasi-official guidelines for libraries.

This highly recommended book will be useful to special, academic, and public librarians. There are surprisingly few alternatives. The only other recent, similar guide is Arlene Bielefield and Lawrence Cheeseman’s Libraries and Copyright Law (Neal-Schuman, 1993). It is adequate, but less thorough than the present volume.-William L. Taylor, Government Documents and Assistant Acquisitions Librarian, Edward Bennett Williams Library, Georgetown University Law Center, 111 G St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Libraries and the Internet: Education, Practice & Policy, Library Trends (Spring 1994), edited by Thomas D. Walker. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1994. 173~. $18.50 (paper). ISSN 0024-2594. This issue of Library Trends helps fill a significant void in the avalanche of literature about the Internet. According to the editor, the overarching purpose of the volume is “to present to the general information community research concerned primarily with external research networks.” Unfortunately, as is typical of collections like this, the quality and utility of individual essays vary considerably. Three articles deal with some aspect of assessment or evaluation of networked resources. In what is probably the most useful and significant essay, Charles R. McClure discusses “Userbased Data Collection Techniques and Strategies for Evaluating Networked Information Services.” He emphasizes the importance of user-based evaluations and explains, in some detail, the strategies for implementing them. The other two articles dealing with evaluation address a specific networked resource (electronic texts in the humanities) or a specific group of network users (aerospace engineers). The latter article is not quite as esoteric as it sounds. Education and the Internet are discussed in “A Survey of Networking Education in North American Library Schools” and in “The Internet: Educational Issues.” The authors of the first essay conclude that library schools are staying current in the presentation of networking concepts and issues, and in providing students with access to the latest network resources. Unfortunately, what the authors do not appear to identify at all is how well library schools are doing in producing that much sought after specialist, the systems librarian. The other article on educational issues is remarkable in that it is, at times, both superficial and arcane. Nevertheless, the authors provide a useful analysis of several critical issues relating to the Internet and education, specifically the problems of unequal access, professional continuing education, privatization, and the need for improved user interfaces. An article discussing the equalization of access to the Internet for rural libraries provides a useful model for addressing this important issue. The author also analyzes the two most difficult problems in providing access to rural libraries: the dearth of adequate telecommunications technology and local expertise. The remaining articles deal with incorporating Internet resources into collection development decisions and reference service. Both are significant and well done.-William A. Richards, Director of Library Services, North Georgia College, Dahlonenga, GA 30597.

September 1995

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