Integrating Fair Use into Information Literacy: Perspectives from the Georgia State University eReserves and HathiTrust Copyright Infringement Cases

Fair use is essential to information literacy because it empowers the student to use the works of others legally. Fair use in U.S. Copyright Law allows people to use the works of others without asking their permission under certain circumstances. But because fair use is a balancing test rather than bright line rules, it ultimately takes a court to decide its boundaries. The Georgia State University eReserves and the HathiTrust cases offer new decisions on applying fair use in higher education. The presenters will discuss an overview of the cases and provide approaches of how to integrate them into an information literacy framework

Student voices: the residential business learning community experience

The College of Business at Iowa State University (ISU) implemented learning communities (LCs) in the fall of 1995. This program has since evolved to include residential LCs beginning in the fall of 1999. Since much of the data collected on LCs (at ISU and elsewhere) is quantitative in nature, there seemed to be a gap in explaining and identifying the community building aspect of the LC experience, and its affect on student learning. This study set out to discover those tangible, underlying elements and factors that the residential business LC students found beneficial to their community building and learning, as well as those that connected them to their LC.;Utilizing qualitative methodology, specifically the case study approach, focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with 11 of the 23 first-year residential business learning team (BLT) students throughout the fall semester 2001. Interviews were also conducted (in spring 2002) with the two sophomore peer mentors, who assisted in guiding these BLTs throughout their experience.;A number of themes came to light in the discussions with the students: the importance of the residential setting, the connections to their peers, the impact of their involvement within the team, and the structures and functions of the BLT around them. These themes highlighted those elements that helped the students successfully navigate their first year at ISU. In analyzing these themes from a student development standpoint, Sanford\u27s notion of challenge and support and Chickering\u27s vectors of development played a key role in understanding the impact of the college environment on students\u27 growth and adjustment, and their movement along these lines. A secondary analysis included a critical theory perspective, based on the hidden inequalities inherent in the social structures within the BLTs and LC initiative on ISU\u27s campus

Essentials of a Publication Agreement

This session will focus on authors\u27 rights and publishing contracts. When academic publishers agree to publish academic works, they require the authors to sign agreements before doing so. In the past, these “agreements” – contracts, by another name – often have contained provisions that primarily benefit the publishers, including assigning intellectual property rights in the works to the publishers and limiting authors’ abilities to use their works after transferring their rights. Faculty authors often ask librarians for their guidance on how to read and negotiate publication agreements. As such, this session will discuss common provisions found in publishing contracts to help clarify their meaning and identify what to look for when reviewing these agreements

Academic Libraries as Unlikely Defendants: A Comparative Fair Use Analysis of the Georgia State University E-Reserves and HathiTrust Cases

Academic libraries rely on fair use for key functions in support of education. Among these functions are provision of electronic reserves, mass digitization, provision of access for print-disabled students, and preservation. These were the practices at issue in the 2008 Georgia State University e-reserves case and the 2012 HathiTrust case. This article explores the two lawsuits where libraries were sued for alleged copyright infringement. We explore how the courts in each case applied fair use to the facts of the case, compare and contrast the courts\u27 analysis, and explain the role that transformative use plays in distinguishing the outcomes. Finally, the article applies lessons learned from the two cases to common library activities

What\u27s in a licensing agreement?

Now that you know the foundations of enforceable contracts, and want to have more familiarity with some nuts and bolts of contract language to become a better negotiator for your institutions, you will want to take this second webinar. Participants will learn:• What are the basic provisions or clauses of a contract?• What do these provisions obligate my institution to do? • What do these provisions obligate the other party to do? • What rights does my institution have if the other party breaks its obligations

Contract Basics for Librarians and Others in Higher Ed

If you have signature or negotiation authority for your institution, and would like to get an overview of contracts to learn what your institution’s rights and obligations may be under a contract, this session is for you! Participants will learn: • Why it is important to understand how contracts work?• What does it mean for a contract to be enforceable in a US court? • How is an enforceable contract formed? • What could lead to contract breach

Scholarly Piracy vs Scholarly Activism: Where Sci-Hub Fits in the Information Literacy Landscape

In recent months, the site Sci-Hub (https://sci-hub.io/) has gained attention for providing easy access to any scholarly journal article, without regard to the user’s subscription status, and without requiring payment. For articles that are not already open access, this activity infringes on the copyright in the articles, generally held by publishers, and, for articles obtained via a library subscription, is presumptively a breach of the license between the library and the publisher. Regardless, this activity has proven to be a popular and expedient way to break through access barriers to important scholarly information for students and faculty, especially those in situations where paid access is a real challenge. Librarians have been quick to recognize that so-called pirate sites such as this are illegal, but it’s not as clear where the ethical lines should be drawn. Some have argued that sites like Sci-Hub hurt publishers as well as hurting legitimate open access initiatives, while others have argued that using these sites is a form of civil disobedience in the face of unrealistic access barriers to information that was funded by and for the public. In this panel discussion, four librarians from academic research libraries will discuss what pirate sites like Sci-Hub mean for libraries, and for library users in understanding how to use information legally and ethically

Beyond random acts of conservation : an institutional analysis of the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Agricultural Water Enhancement Program

Irrigated agriculture accounts for 90 percent of consumptive use of freshwater in the western US and is considered the largest contributor to nonpoint source water pollution. The diffuse nature of most water quality and quantity challenges necessitates institutions that can more effectively engage agricultural producers in strategic, integrated, watershed-scale approaches to water management such as those associated with Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). With approximately 9,400 professionals working in nearly every one of the nation's 3,071 counties and an emphasis on voluntary, incentives-based approaches to conservation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is well poised to influence land and water management on private working lands. NRCS conservation programs, however, have been criticized as "random acts of conservation" that lack a strategic vision for addressing natural resource challenges at-scale. Using NRCS's new Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) as a case study, this paper seeks to examine the factors that enable or inhibit NRCS from promoting an integrated approach to water management consistent with IWRM principles. Following the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework this paper traces the development of AWEP and examines how the rules established at the national level impact implementation at the national, state and local levels. The paper then evaluates AWEP based on a set of six IWRM design principles to determine (a) the extent to which AWEP represents an IWRM approach, and (b) the institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit NRCS from taking a more integrated approach to water management. I found that institutional factors vary greatly between levels of analysis depending on the specific context, but did identify several consistent enablers and barriers. The three most significant factors that facilitate an IWRM approach are: (1) AWEP's focus on priority resource concerns within a defined hydrographic area; (2) AWEP's emphasis on pursuing a partnership-based approach; and (3) increased local involvement in defining projects. The three most significant factors that inhibit an IWRM approach are: (1) a lack of clarity concerning partner roles and responsibilities and constraints on partner involvement; (2) limited flexibility of existing program rules; and (3) limited local capacity to engage with landowners and implement projects. The paper offers institutional recommendations for facilitating an IWRM approach within NRCS, and concludes with a consideration of the utility of IWRM design principles and the IAD framework for analyzing water management institutions

Understanging Information Use in the Multidisciplinary Field: A Local Citation Analysis of Neuroscience Research

Assessing the information needs of a multidisciplinary academic community presents challenges to librarians managing journal collections. This case study analyzed the literature used by the neuroscience community at the University of Maryland to determine the following about the publications they cited: their type, their discipline, and how recent they were relative to the citing publication. The authors searched the ISI Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index to identify the publishing, citing, and coauthoring patterns of both faculty and graduate students to inform library decisions about collecting journals and other types of literature