This Week in LIS - 11 September 2009

Headline of the Week: Copyright and Intellectual Property at Luther

More and more, everything from the pulse of our daily (social media-enhanced) lives to the heartbeat of our national and international economies runs on information and knowledge. As we transition into a post-industrial world, information is currency and power. Because of the rising value of information, the stakes around ownership, management, and use of intellectual property continues to be a hot button topic. This week, legal filings were due regarding Google’s proposed settlement of the Google Book Search lawsuit which if accepted would create the world’s largest digital library. Copyright and ownership of content has figured centrally in the debate about this initiative, and viewpoints on the merits of the proposal are varied. Just about everyone agrees the proposal is far-reaching and fundamental in how it would shape access to information, and how creators would receive compensation and legal protection for their work. Some have said the settlement works to recast copyright law, and in some cases that is likely true.

The digital revolution has unleashed new capabilities and challenges for laws that were written under completely different understandings of information and how it could or should be used. And while Google’s proposals help address some issues of copyright and intellectual property in a 21st century world, there can be no denying Google’s status as a for-profit corporation that stands to profit significantly from adoption of the settlement. Google is not alone. Corporations have lobbied successfully for years to extend protections. There will surely be no end to these efforts in the future.

The fact that issues of intellectual property are fundamentally linked to our economy and future are why it is important that we at Luther understand and promote awareness of how we should live in an information-based world, both legally and ethically. To that end, we’ve worked this summer to begin drafting a new portfolio of materials and policies designed to education, inform, and guide the Luther community in understanding copyright and intellectual property considerations, particularly in an academic context. These materials are now available in draft form on the Luther website at http://www.luther.edu/copyright. This past week, we held the first forum to discuss the policy, and issues relating to copyright and intellectual property. Additional sessions in different venues will continue this fall as we work toward adoption of the proposed policies.

Speaking personally, there are many things about copyright law that are obtuse, ambiguous, and counterproductive in the new digital world we live in. Yet, the legal and ethical use of information is critically important to our society in general, and the business of scholarship and education in particular. As a community of scholars, we have an opportunity and an obligation to understand and educate others not only about the proper use of information, but also the importance of legal rights, fair use, the public domain, and the law.

I welcome comment and discussion about Luther’s proposed policies in particular, or any of the other materials we are providing on the new website.

---

LIS Blog Highlights from the Week

The following articles are sampled from those available on the LIS Blog:

• Library professional staff meeting 9-7-09
• AdAstra Maintenance Tonight Late PM – Complete
• Colleague Advancement changes for Colleague users
• LIS Web Updates – 9/10/09
• Academic Commons Profiles CLAMP

---

Notes from LIS Council

LIS Council met August 18th and discussed the following topics:

• H1N1 flu preparations for ongoing LIS operations
• Key and access issues in Preus
• IT audit wrap-up
• File sharing
• LIS campus email notifications
• Internal network traffic considerations
• Development of LIS data dashboard
• Planning for summer planning
• LIS project review

---

Fine Arts Collection Notes

Dave Kamm and Jane Kemp picked up the newly restored painting, “Tin Mines, Cornwall” by Byron Burford recently from the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis. A large painting, it will likely be hung on the Main Floor of Preus Library. They also delivered two other paintings for review and possible restoration: a portrait of Diderikke Brandt by Herbjørn Gausta, intended for the portrait exhibit which will be part of the Sesquicentennial, and Gausta’s altar painting, “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane” which was donated to Luther College in July 2009.

---

NITLE Opportunities

As a member of NITLE (National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education), Luther has the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of developmental and training programs intended for faculty, librarians, and information technologists. Events listed at the link below are currently open for registration by Luther participants. LIS Staff who are interested in participating in an event should speak with Christopher Barth. Faculty who are interested in participating should speak with Lori Stanley. Participation is contingent upon available funding and program acceptance.

A full list of events (sortable by registration deadline) is available at http://www.nitle.org/www/events.

---

Upcoming LIS Training, Instruction, and Professional Development Opportunities

Click on the event below for specific information and for a link to register. More information on training and development events is available.

---

Notable Internet Resource of the Week: Supercook

Perplexed about what to make for dinner tonight? Looking for something new? Supercook lets you input whatever ingredients you happen to have on hand and makes suggestions for recipes that match what you have. From their website:

Supercook wants to make life easier for everyone who cooks at home! Our mission is to enable smarter, quicker decisions about what recipes to make and what ingredients to use using advanced technology and all the recipe content on the web. Created in 2008 and based in New York, Supercook has a distinct focus on solving the practical problems of modern home cooks: how to waste less food, how to use up perishable or seasonal ingredients, how to keep track of everything in the kitchen, how to save time and money.

You can both include things you have on hand, and also exclude certain categories (e.g. only find vegetarian dishes). It will provide some prompts for additional items leading to more recipes. With an account, you can save your recipes and generate suggested shopping lists if you wish.

On the web at http://www.supercook.com/

---

Around the Web

Here are a few links to interesting developments over the past week:

• Books, Media, and Publishing
  • The Journal and The Times Plan San Francisco Editions [New York Times]
  • A Book That Lets Readers Handle the Footnotes [New York Times]
  • Google Plans Tools to Help News Media Charge for Content [New York Times]
  • Kindling Changes for the Reader and the Writer [Chronicle of Higher Education]

• Copyright and Intellectual Property
  • The Next Victim of Kindle’s Big Brother [Speak Quietly]
  • At Congressional Hearing, Register of Copyrights Slams Google Settlement [Library Journal]
  • ‘Ellen’ Sued For THOUSANDS Of Copyright Infringements [Huffington Post]
  • Net’s plagiarism ‘cops’ are on patrol [MSNBC]

• Culture, Economy, and Business
  • How the Web OS has begun to reshape IT and business [ZDnet]

• Data Security and Privacy
  • None

• Future
  • A peek into the future [Los Angeles Times]

• Google and Search
  • Google Books and the Escape from the Black Hole [The Public Domain]
  • Google willing to share digital books with rivals [Yahoo! News]
  • A few fun facts from Google’s new Internet Stats feature [ars technica]

• Google Apps
  • Five million students going back to school are ‘going Google’ [Official Google Blog]
  • Embeddable Google Document Viewer [Google Operating System]

• Hardware and Technology Tools
  • How much are you prepared to pay for an eReader [Tomorrow’s Trends]
  • What’s Next for the Netbook Market? [GigaOM]

• Higher Education
  • The New Back to School Ritual – Swine Flu Quarantines on Campus [New York Times]
  • Why College Costs So Much [New York Times]
  • Dismal Science Fiction [How The University Works]
  • College for $99 a Month [Washington Monthly]
  • The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project: A Case Study [Academic Commons]
  • Rethinking Tenure for the Next Generation [Chronicle of Higher Education]
  • Student Debt vs. Average Income [Kiplinger]
  • Teaching After Midnight [Inside Higher Ed]

• Innovation and Design
  • None

• Internet and Networking
  • 2010 could be the last year for IPv4 as we know it [ars technica]
  • Deep packet inspection engine goes open source [ars technica]

• Libraries and Librarians
  • A library without the books [Boston Globe]
  • Sound archive of the British Library goes online, free of charge [Guardian]
  • Are Dictionaries Obsolete in Age of Google? [Wall Street Journal]
  • Ohio State U.’s Library Renovation Is ‘Stupendous,’ Says a Leading Consultant [Chronicle of Higher Education]
  • Library Design [Inside Higher Ed]

• Mobility
  • Texting? No, Just Reading My Textbook on the Phone [New York Times]
  • Motorola Unveils Phone Focused on Social Networks [New York Times]

• Social Media & Communication
  • Twitter classes for aspiring journalists [Times Higher Education]
  • Communication Tools and Levels of Interruption [Chris Brogan]
  • Facebook ‘enhances intelligence’ but Twitter ‘diminishes it’, claims psychologist [The Telegraph]
  • Facebook Open Sources FriendFeed Code [Web 2.0 Journal]
  • Expanding Our Idea of Listening in Social Media [Social Media Today]
  • Facebook Lite Is Live [Mashable]
  • How Facebook Beat MySpace: From College Dorm to Platform [ReadWriteWeb]
  • CBS Launching Last.fm Powered Radio Station [Mashable]

• Software, Operating Systems, and The Cloud
  • Users abandon XP for Vista, Windows 7 [Computerworld]

The links above are selected from material posted to Infoneer.net, which gathers links and comment on the worlds of libraries, technology, higher education, culture, intellectual property, copyright, information, ethics, design, professional identity, leadership, and the future. Subscribe to Infoneer.net RSS

---

This Week in LIS is published most Fridays by Christopher Barth, Executive Director of Library and Information Services at Luther College for the Luther College community as well as those interested in information services and higher education.

Content is made available under Creative Commons license.