Bi-Weekly Update
3/28/13
A Court Ruling in Favor of Libraries and Their Patrons
On March 19, the Supreme Court ruled that the first-sale doctrine still applies to non-U.S. books sold in the U.S. To followers of the copyright law, this news is nothing short of sensational.
Just what is the first-sale doctrine? It is the legal exception to copyright that affords certain privileges to the buyer of a book. The buyer may sell, rent, give away, or even destroy a book. That is the privilege of the buyer.
What had been proposed in the recent Supreme Court case was that this doctrine would no longer extend to foreign-published works. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise 6 to 3. For libraries, the ruling means that they can continue to collect foreign titles, knowing that these titles can be checked out by library patrons and interlibrary loaned to borrowers at other institutions. Without the doctrine of first sale, such time-honored practices of checkout and interlibrary loan, for foreign titles at least, would have had to end. Whew!
NITLE Webinars To Be Hosted at the Library
All Muhlenberg faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend the following webinars, hosted in the library, free of charge, as Muhlenberg is a member of NITLE:
Title: Andrew Asher and Lynda Duke on the Changing Role of Libraries
Date: April 3, 2 -3 pm
Location: Trexler Library Rm. B02. Presented online via NITLE’s videoconferencing platform.
Description: Leaders of the ERIAL project outline recent ethnographic research on digital literacy and discovery services, highlighting its impact and describing the concrete effects of institutional changes that it informs.Title: Myth of the MOOC
Date: April 5, 2-3 pm
Location: Trexler Library Rm. B02. Presented online via NITLE’s videoconferencing platform.
Description: An opportunity to critically examine the MOOC phenomenon, consider the broader context of opportunities and anxieties in which the MOOC myth has been created, and think strategically about how to use emergent online learning platforms in the service of institutional mission.Title: History Harvest
Date: Friday, April 12, 3 – 4 pm
Location: Trexler Library Rm. B02. Presented online via NITLE’s videoconferencing platform.
Description: Two historians from the University of Nebraska discuss the development of a digital history project that engages students in building history, reflecting on historical change, and interpreting collected materials. This seminar will cover the development of the project, the lessons learned from teaching the History Harvest class over two semesters in 2011 and 2012, as well as the opportunities for other colleges to collaborate with the project in the 2013-2014 academic year.
An Authoritative and EASY Alternative to Wikipedia
Scuttlebutt is ever on the prowl for authoritative and easy-to-access alternatives to Wikipedia. Enter Credo Reference. Credo, available by library subscription, is a collection of several well-known reference books, great for finding introductory information on an array of topic. Currently there are 3,474,245 full text entries from 737 reference books.
The database is ever-expanding. Here are some of the titles added most recently, all part of Credo, and searchable from the same easy interface.
Infomaniac
Want the most current and authoritative data on countries around the world? Population, languages, religions, economy. Freely available to anyone. Your government dollars at work. See the CIA World Factbook. Just select a country or location, and go! Use it. Love it.
Calendar
Easter Recess (Begins at the conclusion of classes on Thursday, March 28. Classes resume at 8:00AM on Tuesday, April 2.)
Thursday, March 28 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday, March 29- Sunday, March 31 Closed
Monday, April 1 6:00PM – 1:00AM4/11 Faculty author reception: Elizabeth Nathanson’s Television and Post-Feminist Housekeeping: No Time for Mother. 12:30-1:45. Fulford Room, Trexler Library.
5/3 Trexler Library Annual Book Sale. Thousands of titles: everything must go! A wealth of choices for your summer reading pleasure. 8:00-5:00. Front steps, Trexler Library. (PS We are still accepting donations of fiction for the book sale.)
