 |
 |
Error during command authentication.
Error - unable to initiate communication with LISTSERV (errno=10061, phase=CONNECT, target=127.0.0.1:2306). The server is probably not started.
While I agree that the wholesale, unauthorized reproduction of Meskimmon's
book under the name of "Agnati" is deplorable, and that Meskimmon's dismay
is absolutely justified, I must say that I am myself dismayed by the
prospect of art librarians resorting to the suppression ("withdrawal" being
the more polite term) of the "Agnati" volume as a response to the situation.
I suggest that we take this opportunity to think about the following
questions:
Curatorial questions: What is our duty, not just to a wronged author or to
innocent readers, but to the preservation of the art literature? Pirated or
plagiarized books are by no means a new phenomenon in that literature. The
"Agnati" volume is certainly an unpleasant and embarrassing component of the
art literature of today, but it is an integral component nonetheless. The
blog cited in a previous post suggests that citations to "Agnati" may well
already exist in the secondary literature. Instead of withdrawing the
"Agnati" volume altogether from our collections, would it be more
appropriate to remove it to rare-books rooms? Who can be certain that no
future scholar will ever want (or have a legitimate reason) to see the
"Agnati" volume?
Evidential questions: Are the copies of the "Agnati" volume now held in
American libraries, legal evidence that may be required down the road in the
prosecution of a civil or even criminal case? Are they legal evidence of
an international trade in illicit merchandise? If the "Agnati" volume is
found by a court to infringe copyright, can libraries owning it recover
damages from its publisher or distributors? In either case, shouldn't
copies of it be carefully preserved (perhaps with the advice of legal
counsel or law enforcement personnel, together with acquisitions documents)?
Cataloging questions: Doesn't the OCLC record for the "Agnati" volume need a
note and uniform-title entry to link it to the record(s) for the Meskimmon
work? (As an aside, isn't it interesting that the two items have been
classified differently, Meskimmon at N71 and "Agnati" at N8354?)
Commercial questions: What will book dealers -- not just librarians -- do
with the information we all now have about the Meskimmon / "Agnati" volumes?
Do we expect our vendors to be able to spot cases such as this one at the
moment they arise, and alert us to such anomalies in the marketplace? If
so, is that a reasonable expectation? Are we disturbed to find that it took
from 2001 to 2004 for presumably expert dealers and their expert customers
to realize the relationship between Meskimmon's publication and the "Agnati"
volume (if indeed 2001 was the actual release date of the latter)?
Educational questions: Can the retention of the "Agnati" volume in art
libraries offering bibliographic instruction, provide an object lesson in
plagiarism? Of course we are horrified by the Meskimmon/"Agnati" incident;
but will our _awareness_ of it increase our _understanding_ of plagiarism
and piracy in the (contemporary) art literature in general? Will it change
the way we feel about the balance between copyright and fair-use of art
images (the scanning of which as part of the alleged piracy of her text
Meskimmon cited as a special concern)? How good is the art library
community at alerting its members to instances of piracy or plagiarism
_before_ the purchase of pirated or plagiarized volumes? Can it get better?
Historical questions: Who is "Tiziana Agnati"? According to
http://www.serv-ed.it/nonfic/gender.htm , "Tiziana Agnati works as
researcher at the Cultural Research Institute at the De Montfort University,
Leicester." But the "Cultural Research Institute" seems to be at the
University of Sheffield Hallam. The search engine on De Montfort
University's website can't find any such "Cultural Research Institute."
Perhaps that's an innocent mistake. Still, it is odd to be able to google
the name of someone ("Tiziana Agnati") who is listed as the author of so
many books and articles -- 9 pages of Google hits -- yet to come up with so
few websites (I counted only 3 obvious ones) that give any evidence of her
existence outside the world of text; though with persistence you can find
her at a conference held in Bologna in the Fall of 2000, and at
http://www.dols.net/dettaglio_news.asp?sessionid=&idnews=3350
her mailing address valid as of 2002: "Dott.sa Tiziana Agnati, Via
Colleoni, 36, 24129, Bergamo - e-mail: [log in to unmask]"
(If you are in a mood to shop, try googling "Via Colleoni 36" and see what
turns up!)
Don't the names of most prolific authors these days turn up on faculty
directories, advisory boards, speaker lists, etc., when you google them? And
not almost exclusively in book reviews and vendor catalogues? Also in
Lexis/Nexis, I could only find "Tiziana Agnati" as a footnote. There is
something downright Derridesque in this affair, it seems to me.
Al Willis
Hampton University
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]