LibraryLaw Blog

Hooray - I figured out how to use tags instead of categories in this blog

As I suspected, it's much easier and more flexible.  So if any of you are looking for new posts based on categories, you may not find them. Use the technorati tags at the bottom of a post instead. If it works like I think it will, I'll probably stop using categories altogether.

Update: It looks as if users who click on a technorati tag below will get everyone in the world's posts with those tags. That's useful, but it would be nice to have an option to limit it to this blog, the way flickr does.  Well, there's always the search button in the blog...

Free Download: Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for Libraries

The Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for Libraries (new - international perspective) is now available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License. It's written by Electronic Information For Libraries (eIFL.net), an independent foundation that focuses on libraries and electronic resources in developing countries. eIFL is an initiative of the Open Society Institute, part of the Soros Foundation network. The handbook is sponsored by the UNESCO Information for All Programme.

Minow take: The absolute best sections of the handbook, in my opinion, are the last three:  trade agreements, international policymaking, and national policymaking.  All focus directly on library impact. I always watch my students go weak in the knees when I discuss copyright and international trade agreements. This source hits the mark.  It cuts right through to why and how these treaties work, and how they impact libraries and library users.  It features international library statements and links to the most relevant source documents (without being overwhelming).

From the handbook: "We hope that you find the Handbook useful. If you do, please share, distribute, translate and build upon it! Teresa Hackett December 2006"

It's such a good start, someone should turn it into a wiki. That way library folks around the world can build on it (while keeping the frozen version intact, of course).

Hat tip to Jill Hurst-Wahl's Digitization 101 blog, and her student D. Harrison.

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The table of contents also includes:

The Relationship between Copyright and Contract Law: Electronic Resources and Library Consortia
Technological Protection Measures - the "triple lock"
Copyright, the Duration of Protection and the Public Domain
Orphaned works
Collective Rights Management
Public lending right
The Database Right - Europe's Experiment
Creative Commons: an "open content" licence
Open Access to Scholarly Communications

Rebuilding Infrastructure Post-Tsunami -- International Community Needed

Although most of us are probably focusing on the most basic aid needed (and hopefully are giving) to help survivors of the tsunami, it is also essential to rebuild infrastructure, including libraries.

Library Journal (Jan 11) reports that International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) president Kay Raseroka from Botswana said: "IFLA will be reminding international organizations of the importance of rapidly re-establishing library services in order to build community confidence and provide the necessary information to assist reconstruction, health services, and education."

Go to IFLA announcements for updates on where to give. Read on for specific needs in Sri Lanka.