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November 2013 Volume 6 Issue 4
Victory for Google Books and Fair Use
Judge Denny Chin has dismissed the Authors Guild eighteen-year-old lawsuit against the Google Books project.  The Authors Guild argued that Google's scanning of books does not meet the legal definition of "transformative," creates potential harm to authors and other copyright holders, and is not protected as fair use under the law. Judge Chin's decision argues that the Google Books project significantly benefits all society, while "maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders."
  
The most powerful mitigation of the exclusive rights of copyright owners to control use of copyrighted works is the Fair Use clause of the U.S. Copyright Law.  The four factors of fair use written into the statute is the basis upon which faculty can justify use of otherwise protected materials in their teaching and research.  Judge Chin's use of the four tests for fair use in reaching his decision demonstrates the power of this part of the copyright law in providing open access to knowledge for the betterment of society:
  1. Purpose and Character of the Use:  Judge Chin argued that the purpose of Google's digitization project is not to sell or provide free complete electronic versions of books, but to use the scans to "transform expressive text into a comprehensive word index" that can be used in new ways such as text mining.
  2. Nature of the Copyrighted Works: Judge Chin found that 93% of the books digitized by Google are non-fiction which are entitled to less protection than creative and fiction works.
  3. Amount and Substantiality of Portion Used:  Even though entire books are digitized, Google limits the amount of text it displays in response to a search and limits the number of snippets from any one book that can be obtained so that whole books cannot be pieced together.
  4. Effect of Use upon Potential Market or Value:  While publishers claimed that Google Books will replace purchase of their books, Judge Chin found that Google Books has "enhanced the sales of books to the benefit of the copyright holders." 

Copyright lawyer, Kenneth Crews, Columbia University Libraries Copyright Advisory Office, stated that "this ruling joins court decisions about HathiTrust and in electronic reserves in demonstrating that even extensive digitization can be within fair use where the social benefits are strong and the harm to rights holders is constrained."

Spring 2014 Course Reserves 

 

The library is now accepting reserve requests for books, DVDs and other physical objects for the spring 2014 semester. Faculty are being asked to post their digital course reserves materials in Blackboard Learn. If you would like a CD of the scanned material that you have placed in ReservesEXpress in the past, contact Graham Fredrick, [email protected]. ITS can assist you with downloading the scans into Blackboard Learn.  Printing Services will be offering a new fee-based scanning service for faculty. Links in Blackboard Learn to full-text articles from library databases is another option.

 

To place course reserve requests for physical items, start at the library's homepage. On the right side of the screen, click the purple ReservesExpress button and look for the tab labeled Spring 2014 Reserves.  When you complete the request form and submit it, you will be sent a confirmation e-mail. Please print the confirmation e-mail and attach it to the physical item if this is a new reserve. For re-use of items already on reserve or items owned by the Helmke Library, the printout is not needed.

 

Questions? Call the Service Desk, 260-481-6505 or e-mail Joyce Saltsman or Deb Haley.

24/7 Library Hours During Dead and Finals Week 

 

The library will be open 24/7 during dead and finals week.  The library will open at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, December 9 and not close until 6:00 p.m. Friday, December 20.  The 24/7 hours are made possible by a grant from IPSGA.  

Would You Like Coffee with That?
Coffee Study Break: Monday, December 16 - Wednesday, December 18 

 

Helmke Library, Student Affairs and volunteers from across campus will serve up coffee, snacks and the always-welcome words of encouragement at the Coffee/Study Break Table from 5:00-8:00 p.m. on Monday, December 16th through Wednesday, December 18th. Faculty or staff who are interested in working a shift at the coffee table should contact Tiff Adkins in the Library at 481-6708. Come and join the fun of supporting our students! 

Tracking Research Pay Walls:  The Open Access Button Project


University students frustrated with the pervasive pay barriers to research imposed by expensive subscription-based journal publishers have created the Open Access button.  By tracking "denials" or fees, the button highlights the global impact of the problem of limited access to research to people other than academics, such as healthcare practitioners, patients, teachers, students, entrepreneurs, farmers, citizens of developing countries, and others.  The Open Access Button is a browser bookmarklet that you add to your browser; each time you are denied access due to subscription or fee requirements, fill out a short form with your location and the occurrence is added to a worldwide map.   The button and more information about open access is available at: https://www.openaccessbutton.org/.
 

The Eagle: The Statistical Abstract of the United States

FDLP

The Statistical Abstract of the United States compiled many of the economic and social statistics gathered by federal agencies into one volume. The Census Bureau began publishing it in 1878 bringing together tables on topics as diverse as income, imports and exports, agriculture, energy consumption, and natural resources. Due to a cut in funding in 2012, the Census Bureau ceased publishing the handy Statistical Abstract compendium.

 
Helmke Library holds paper versions of the Statistical Abstract from 1935-2012 with only a few gaps. Volumes which the Library does not hold can be requested through IUCAT's Request Delivery. In addition, the Census Bureau has digitized and made available all years of the Statistical Abstract online. Though the earlier editions are large PDF scans of the original documents, after 1994 researchers can access smaller chunks of the Abstract by table number. As with all cited statistics, finding the source/author/agency which produces or compiles the data opens many other avenues for searching directly.


Realizing that there was a gap to be filled (and a profit to be made!) the database publisher ProQuest now compiles the data the Census Bureau did previously and releases it to libraries as part of its Statistical Insight package. Both the Statistical Abstract of the United States and Statistical Insight are listed in the library's A-Z List. The Statistical Abstract of the United States is an essential tool for any researcher, and with luck will be around for many years to come.


Happy searching! 

Helmke Highlights Library Staff
  
Deanna Schumm is the library's new Information Assistant at the Service Desk. Deanna was a school media specialist for 16 years in a public school system near Sandusky, Ohio.  Her orientation to the library included the tornado warnings on Sunday, November 17 which sent everyone to the library basement.  Fortunately for us, that did not discourage her.  Welcome, Deanna!
Professor Audrey Ushenko worked in the library
on this study for an IPFW 50th anniversary painting
  
 

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