Editorial

Citation

Gelfand, J., Riggs, C. and Calvert, P. (2001), "Editorial", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918gaa.001

Editorial

This issue concludes the academic year and the fiscal year for many of our readers. This has been a period of many highlights and some very major challenges. Technology has moved us forward and libraries have even more options with new products and functionality and services. This issue offers new clear insights on a variety of issues.

This last couple of months has fueled the "conference frenzy" or "season" that has led so many librarians to extensive travel and absence from home. Conference attendance refreshes those who attend, can stress those who present and to our readers who depend on the coverage of our conference reports, you will be introduced to some new current coverage of important issues that will be second best to having been there in person. There are many determining factors of why one chooses to attend a conference: content, membership of the sponsoring body, location, timing, ability to network and meet colleagues, and the financial considerations. It is clear that we must begin to utilize technologies to bring conferences to us around the world, but until that is universally possible and cost-effective, we will continue to choose conferences that most meet our personal needs. So, sit back and this issue will take you to:

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  Hermosillo, Mexico to the FORO conference;

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  Washington, DC where the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Legislative Days and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Colloquium on Science & Technology Policy convened;

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  Ypsilanti, Michigan and the Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX) Conference;

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  San Antonio, Texas for the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) Annual Meeting;

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  San Francisco for the Society of Scholarly Publishing (SSP) meeting;

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  and finally to Albuquerque, New Mexico where the Engineering Librarians Division meeting at the American Society of Engineering Education took place.

The annual meetings of the Medical Library Association, Special Libraries Association and the American Library Association also took place since the last issue of LHTN was issued. Due to the significant volume of relevant content and the fact that this issue was sent to press before all reporters had sufficient time to submit, please look forward to the next issue to contain extensive conference reports for those meetings. The co-editors are also seeking conference reports from other parts of the world. We know there are readers and conference goers out there and we would like to share the "happenings" more equitably. Check the Calendar at the end of this issue and see if anything matches where you will be.

We are very fortunate to have some excellent new features in this issue. Sandra Paul explores Standards. Of interest to librarians, publishers, intermediaries and those who monitor the international scene as the markets become more global, readers will certainly get a wonderful update. Managing digital resources is high on the agenda of most libraries. Barbara Rockenbach and Max Marmor write about their extraordinary experiences at Yale University with using technologies developed by Luna Imaging, Inc.

Our regular columnists have never let us down. And we are fortunate that we have another exciting e-Book Current from Howard Falk; a new e-Profile by Gerry McKiernan on the NASA Astrophysics Data System building on the last profile on eConf: the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Proceedings Archive. Stuart Hannabus writes from Scotland about legal issues. The European focus of this comment introduces us to a major American action that took place on June 25, 2001, when the US Supreme Court delivered its decision on the New York Times Company v. Tasini case.

The case involves freelance writers who sued the New York Times, Lexis-Nexis and other information providers, claiming that the sale of an article to a print publication does not include the right to license use of that article to an electronic database. The publishers and Lexis-Nexis argued that such use is allowable under copyright law. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. As a result of the decision, some older articles will no longer be available to researchers on any online service.

This case is important because the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) who filed an amicus brief in favor of Tasini, commended the Supreme Court's decision in the case, despite the fact that libraries could be affected by the removal of content from licensed digital archives. ALA and ARL officials commented that the case "represents a major pronouncement on issues of copyright law in the digital age." Prudence Adler, Associate Executive Director of the ARL, states, "Implicit in the court's decision is the recognition that the nation's libraries and archives continue to provide access to the historical record of periodicals and newspapers. In addition, the Court's ruling recognizes that certain archival media, such as microfilm and microfiche, do not infringe freelance authors' copyrights. Thus the historical record will continue to be available to researchers and the public, a matter of utmost importance to librarians."

Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times Company has indicated that the paper of record will now "undertake the difficult and sad process of removing significant portions from its electronic historical archive" and states, "unfortunately, the decision means that everyone loses." The Times says it "will begin purging 115,000 articles written by 27,000 freelancers" because of the decision. Aggregators such as ProQuest and Lexis-Nexis also responded to the Court's decision. The Tasini case will now return to the Federal District Court in New York, which will determine what, if any, damages are due to the freelance author plaintiffs. For complete coverage of the case, the decision including the opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the dissenting opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens is available at http://supct.law.cornell.edu/ supct/html/00-201.ZO.html

Again, we hope that you will find this issue interesting and exciting. Library Technology is a big world and business out there ­ certainly you will want to let us share what is happening at your library or company. We want to include more activity from public and special libraries, expand the research column and have more libraries profiled in the "Around the World" column. We invite you to consider submitting work to Library Hi-Tech News.

Julia Gelfand - jgelfand@uci.eduColby Riggs - cmriggs@uci.edu Philip Calvert - philip.calvert@vuw.ac.nzCo-editors