The other day I was plowing through my pile of journals and newsletters and found a whole list of copyright sources. I will post the list in the future, but it served as an impetus for some pondering.
In addition to this list, I have found myself dipping into all the resources available to me. I work at the University of Michigan - Dearborn, so I have access to their online resources and databases. Additionally, I work at Southfield Public Library and naturally have access to their resources. Finally, I am a student at Wayne State University, so, well, you know the drill.
On a number of occassions I have used my long informational reach to access articles that my patrons or coworkers could not get without me (or without driving elsewhere or without going through ILL). I've also used multiple resources from other places for my own consultation endeavors.
The situations vary: sometimes it's a really wonderful patron that wants that obscure journal article. If you're a really nice patron and you just need a single article or something quick, I won't subject you to having to go to Wayne State, sign up for a computer and then use one of their filthy machines while a homeless person watches porn next to you. Good patrons deserve better.
Other times it's a coworker or client that needs some research done. Sometimes their research sources aren't quite as fabulous as mine.
Although I do research favors for people, I never (until now) publicized it. While looking through my unfortunately huge listserv message box, I found that someone actually posted that they needed an article - full citation and all. They even admitted their library has no subscription, but one of their patrons needed it.
So, my quandry was this: is it legal? Is it ethical? The answer is: neither. I looked it up and found a great discussion at the University of Texas-Austin. Not exactly the most exciting reading, but enough to show that I shouldn't be doing that other than for my own personal scholarly research and that patrons should be going through ILL.
I also found a lovely PDF entitled, Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians. It's full of boring copyright mumb0 jumbo and excerpts from political discussions, etc. Pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about copyright as it relates to libraries and archives. Have fun with that.
Does this mean that I'll stop sharing my resources? Not until they take my access away ;) Am I really that wrong to provide excellent customer service? You know, I really can't help myself.
2 comments:
All that copyright law needs major reform. It's getting bad because this guy from Texas tried to copyright Basmati rice and would have gotten a percentage of it everytime someone bought anything saying 'basmati' on it. The Indian government had to step in to say something. Copyright can be misused and abused in order for individuals to make money from things which are either well within public domain or that one could and should never OWN.
Well in my professional opinion I think it is illegal and wrong but a necessary evil in the information world we live in today. Although I agree with all your points I would look at it from this perspective.....and one that I think publishers could agree with if they are business savvy. Essentially all you are doing by providing a copyrighted item to these individuals is promoting their products. You are simply providing a trial of a product that other wise would not be accessed by the patron. You are basically a grass roots marketer who really knows the customers needs and offer an opportunity for them to utilize the product. It is not our decision if after a satisfactory or non-satisfactory trial the patron decides to purchase the product on their own or have their library order it or not. In essence I think you should be paid by these money grubbing companies for your services and not sued. Of course I think that argument is an uphill battle but one that I am willing to fight. I mean think about it, you know food companies aren't suing the little old ladies handing out samples of there item in the grocery store. Of course I am an idiot so what do I know!
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