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Judy
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Date: 7/16/97 6:58 PM
RE: NINCH NEWSLETTER No. 7
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N I N C H
Networked Cultural Heritage Newsletter
No. 7
July 16, 1997
www-ninch.cni.org/news/news.html
====================================================================
A news and information digest for those working to preserve and
provide access to cultural heritage resources through networked digital
technology.
====================================================================
This newsletter is published through the NINCH-Announce listserv of the
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. You are welcome to
distribute it freely, with due acknowledgments. It is also available in a
hyperlinked version on the NINCH web site, within two days of publication.
C O N T E N T S
1. COPYRIGHT: Where We Are
2. PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES
D-Lib: July-August Issue (includes NINCH article on Networking Moving Images)
Ariadne: July Issue
ACLS Publishes Survey of Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship.
Getty AAT & ULAN: Now Online
Perseus Expands Into English Renaissance
3. MOVING ON
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COPYRIGHT: WHERE WE ARE
Midsummer, and it's time for the broad cultural community to assess where
it stands and determine what its next steps are with regard to a number of
copyright related issues. As the Association of Research Libraries has put
it, one of the goals of the educational community should be to develop a
consensus about "the kind of practices in digital environments that are
understood to represent responsible applications of copyright, especially
fair use." We should be able to extend that to the even broader cultural
community (engaging museums, artists and arts organizations as well as
libraries, education and research institutions). What is fair and just in
the use of "intellectual property" on the networks? What are the tools that
we need to proceed? For a sense of the landscape from tha research library
perspective, see the Copyright Special issue of the ARL Newsletter for June
1997 at <http://arl.cni.org/newsltr/192/192toc.html>.
A number of developments have now come to a head that make this the time to
seriously survey the landscape and consider the direction we take. What has
brought us to this pass?
A. LEGISLATION
The proposed language for both last year's domestic legislation, the "NII
Copyright Protection Act," and the World Intellectual Property
Organization's Copyright Treaty skewed the current balance away from that
of existing copyright statute, re-asserting the rights of copyright holders
at the expense of certain limitations, notably Fair Use. Fortunately, the
domestic legislation was stalled and the final WIPO language reasserted the
balance between the rights of copyright holders and those of the users of
intellectual property.
As we prepare for new U.S. domestic legislation (including WIPO
implementing legislation) we need to be clear about what our values and
priorities are. As a member of the Digital Future Coalition, NINCH has been
an enthusiastic supporter of its positions and legislative activity. As a
community, we all need to be clear about what the issues are and how they
are represented in Congress.
B. CONFU
The longstanding Conference on Fair Use came to its ambiguous conclusion
this May. None of the proposed guidelines gained majority support and many
in the nonprofit educational world felt that their voices were not fully
heard nor were their positions included in the guidelines. Some are
prepared to continue the conversations; some are willing to test the
guidelines but there was generally a very strong feeling of blockage and
difficulty. There was the question whether some rights holders accepted and
understood Fair Use as a fundamental aspect of copyright practice, or saw
it as an obstruction to efficient commercial business. See the "Joint
Statement by Libraries and Cultural Organizations," at
<http://www.ala.org/washoff/confu.html>.
C. FAIR USE TOWN MEETINGS
Taking the debate on the road, the College Art Association and American
Council of Learned Societies organized a series of Kress Foundation-funded
town meetings to discuss the fate of fair use in a digital environment.
Three were held before May 19 (an interim report is available at
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/News/CurrentAnnounce/TownMeeting-Report>) and
three more are being scheduled. These educate and engage an audience, air
questions and grievances and will continue to shape our understanding of
what positions and actions we may need to take. The next Town Meeting is
scheduled for September 26-27 at Reed College, Portland Oregon, entitled:
"Copyright Law in the Digital World: Fair Use, Education and Libraries
after CONFU." Stay tuned for further announcements.
D. NHA PRINCIPLES
A committee of the National Humanities Alliance drew up a set of basic
principles in an effort to build consensus within the educational community
on the uses of copyrighted works in the digital environment. Currently
seeking endorsements from as many in the educational community as possible,
this document is a model for assembling community-wide bedrock principles
upon which we build practice. See
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/ISSUES/COPYRIGHT/PRINCIPLES/NHA_Complete.html>.
If other communities are evolving similar principles or policies, we should
encourage them but seek to integrate them with the NHA Principles.
E. LICENSING
Research libraries have been engaging commercial vendors delivering digital
content via licensing arrangements. Both sides are determining, often
through negotiation and practice, what acceptable terms and conditions are.
Librarians are being aided by a number of recent resources, among them the
"LibLicense: Licensing Electronic Resources" website and discussion list at
<http://www.library.yale.edu/~Llicense/index.shtml> and "Principles for
Licensing Electronic Resources,"
<http://arl.cni.org/scomm/licensing/principles.html> produced by six
library associations. In another realm, the Museum Educational Site
Licensing Project (MESL), examining the issues involved in licensing
digital images from museums' collections for use on university campuses, is
concluding and will shortly release its report. Two museum licensing
collectives are now being formed to put MESL's lessons and recommendations
into practice.
F. ROLES
Out of many of these developments, many have come to the realization that
online, a great majority of us, both as individuals and institutions, will
be, sometimes simultaneously creators, copyright holders and users of
intellectual property. The scenario is a far more complex one than that
between those who are exclusively copyright holders and those who are
exclusively users of copyrighted material.
-----------------------------
PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES
**The July/August double issue of D-Lib Magazine, now available at
<http://www.dlib.org>, is devoted to stories about conversion,
preservation, and archiving. Aside from NINCH's piece on Networking Moving
Images is an article on how humanities textbase projects can help the
digital library research agenda and a number of reports on particular
projects, including the University of Virginia E-Text Center, J-Stor,
Michigan's Humanities Text Initiative, the Model Editions Partnership, the
Making of America project and others.
**Ariadne, the magazine of the British e-Lib project, has just published
its tenth issue online at <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue10/>. Contents
include an interview with CNI's new director Clifford Lynch, an article on
issues academia has with electronic journals, an example of how Dublin Core
metadata is being embedded in Web pages and reports on a number of e-Lib
projects.
**The American Council of Learned Societies has just published "Information
Technology in Humanities Scholarship: Achievements, Prospects and
Challenges: The US Focus," as an Occasional Paper. This 54-page booklet,
written and compiled by Pamela Pavliscak and Charles Henry from Rice
University and Seamus Ross, of the University of Glasgow, is a selective
review of the application of IT to humanities practice. It also identifies
obstacles and challenges that need to be overcome for humanities computing
scholarship to flourish. Copies of the booklet are available from ACLS
(212/697-1505; <www.acls.org>); an electronic version will be available
this fall via the American Arts & Letters Network <http://www.aaln.org/>.
**Getty AAT & ULAN: Now Online
The extremely useful Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
<http://www.gii.getty.edu/aat_browser> and the Union List of Artist Names
(ULAN) <http://www.gii.getty.edu/ulan_browser> are now freely available for
use on the website of the Getty Information Institute. Both sites include
searching tips and information about the scope and content of the
vocabularies.
**Perseus Expands Into the English Renaissance
The well-known Perseus project <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/>, well known
for assembling a multimedia library of classical material is now beginning
to build an English Renaissance digital library, beginning with all the
work of Marlowe and expanding into Shakespeare's sources. Suggestions for
texts to work on are being accepted at <[log in to unmask]>.
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MOVING ON
American Council of Learned Societies
Douglas Bennett has now left ACLS and is ensconced as President of Earlham
College; his position as ACLS Vice President is currently unfilled. Stan
Katz leaves his position as President of ACLS at the end of August; John
D'Arms takes his place September 1.
Coalition for Networked Information
Clifford Lynch, formerly Director of Library Automation at the University
of California, is now installed as Executive Director of the Coalition for
Networked Information. See press release at <http://www.cni.org/press/>
Kennedy Center
Scott Stoner, Director of ArtsEdge at the Kennedy Center, also left this
Spring. A search for his replacement is currently underway.
President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities
Ellen Lovell, Executive Director of the President's Committee departed for
the White House this Spring. Her new position is as Deputy Chief of Staff
for the First lady. Taking her place is Harriet Fulbright, formerly
president of the Center for Arts in the Curriculum and, from 1987 to 1990,
executive director of the Fulbright Association.
-----------------------------
===============================================================
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
www-ninch.cni.org
[log in to unmask]
202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax
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