Digital Convergence or Collision? 

Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War by Clark Gilbert

Many newspapers saw the emergence of the Internet as an attack on their core business, and responded with online products of their own. Unfortunately, says HBS professor Clark Gilbert, the papers failed to take advantage of the Web as a unique medium. He discusses the implications of disruptive technology on the newspaper business with HBS Working Knowledge editor Sean Silverthorne in this e-mail interview. [read more]

Intellectual Freedom 

Resolution Reaffirming the Principles of Intellectual Freedom in the Aftermath of Terrorist Attacks

WHEREAS: Benjamin Franklin counseled this nation: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"; and

WHEREAS: "The American Library Association believes that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right, necessary to self-government, vital to the resistance of oppression, and crucial to the cause of justice, and further, that the principles of freedom of expression should be applied by libraries and librarians throughout the world" (Policy 53.1.12, "Universal Right to Free Expression"); now, THEREFORE BE IT

RESOLVED: that the American Library Association reaffirms the following principles, and:

Actively promotes dissemination of true and timely information necessary to the people in the exercise of their rights (Policy 53.8, "Libraries: An American Value");

Opposes government censorship of news media and suppression of access to unclassified government information (Policy 53.3, "Freedom to Read;" Policy 53.5, "Shield Laws");

Upholds a professional ethic of facilitating access to information, not monitoring access (Policy 53.1, "Library Bill of Rights;" Policy 53.1.17, "Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries");

Encourages libraries and their staff to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the people¼s lawful use of the library, its equipment, and its resources (Policy 52.4, "Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records");

Affirms that tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a free and democratic society (Policy 53.1.12, "Universal Right to Free Expression");

Opposes the misuse of governmental power to intimidate, suppress, coerce, or compel speech (Policy 53.4, "Policy on Governmental Intimidation;" Policy 53.6, "Loyalty Oaths"); and, BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED: that this resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the Attorney General of the United States, and to both Houses of Congress.

Adopted by the ALA Council, January 23, 2002

Amen.

Newsstand 

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large
February 2002: Vol. 2 No. 3

Backward or forward? 

From Gary Frost, ebooks taking off in various directions, again

Find out why librarians and libraries are so backward and so forward at the Electronic Book Web For backward libraries see Internet & Libraries and for forward libraries (by the same author) see Future of ePublishing. What is difficult to believe is not the confusion itself, but the lack of understanding that the screen read book industry must be established in a reading mode other than the print reading mode.

See Gary's chart, Reading Matrix.

Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) 

Time to rewrite the DMCA by Rick Boucher

The American public has traditionally enjoyed the ability to make convenient and incidental copies of copyrighted works without obtaining the prior consent of copyright owners. These traditional "fair use" rights are at the foundation of the receipt and use of information by the American people.

Unfortunately, those rights are now under attack.

In 1997, motion picture studios, record producers, book publishers and other content owners came to Congress with a simple proposition: Give us a law that will stop pirates from circumventing technical protection measures used to safeguard copyrighted works, and we will release all sorts of exciting new content in digital formats

At the time, libraries, universities, consumer electronics manufacturers, Internet portals and others warned that enactment of the broadly worded legislation would stifle new technology, would threaten access to information, and would move us inexorably towards a "pay per use" society. That day is now close at hand. [read more]

History of the Book 

Research Centre in the History of the Book

Aspects of the Victorian Book

This introduction to the Victorian book, prepared to mark the centenary of Queen Victoria's death in 1901, draws on the British Library's extensive nineteenth-century collections. [read and see more]

Guide to Bookbindings in the British Library

Digital Copyright 

Electronic Mailing List: digital-copyright

DIGITAL-COPYRIGHT is a discussion group that provides a forum for the analysis of topics such as copyright law and policy, technologies, and federal information law and policies that impact higher education, particularly digital distance education. In addition to ongoing discussions of critical and theoretical issues, the list will contain: Ý

• postings on upcoming conferences
• calls for papers
• legislative news announcements
• and many other matters which should be of interest

This listserv aims to be a space for educators, policy makers, librarians, lawyers, and all who have a vested interest in digital copyright and other intellectual property matters of importance to the higher education community. The list encourages all levels of discourse, as well as relevant political, historical, cultural, and philosophical approaches to the problem of applying copyright to the digital arena.

What is he thinking? 

Reading the library its last rites? by Autumn Koepp

If Gov. Gary Locke succeeds in closing the Washington State Library to help balance the budget, he'll face a host of questions, not the least of which will be: Who'll take over the library's services, and what will happen to its 3 1é2 million books and other archival materials?

"It's like Humpty Dumpty," argues state librarian Nancy Zussy. "If the state library is eliminated or broken up, you cannot reassemble it again. It is unrealistic."

The library, with $9 million a year in state money, has become one of the focal points in Locke's efforts to close a shortfall in the biennial budget of more than $1.2 billion.

Laboring under a recession and initiatives that have raised spending and cut taxes, the governor has proposed more than $500 million in spending cuts and an assortment of new revenue, including tax increases, a new lottery game and spending from state reserves.

The library, until recently a low-profile institution, has come out fighting for its very existence. [read more]