Migrating to an Open Source Institutional Repository: Challenges and Lessons Learned

FSU Libraries is currently completing a migration from Digital Commons (a hosted proprietary IR platform) to Islandora (an open source digital collections platform based on Drupal and Fedora Commons). In implementing a mission-critical open source system, we have encountered a variety of challenges related to technical development, shared governance, communications, and user testing, and would like to share some of the lessons learned so that others can benefit from our experience

Bill C-11: A guide for academic instructors

Bill C-11 is poised to change Canadian copyright law in important ways, and these changes promise to have a significant impact on the copyright environment at academic institutions. This article is published as part of an IPC-SLAIS partnership

The Copyright Modernization Act: A Guide for Post-Secondary Instructors

In November 2012, the educational provisions of the Copyright Modernization Act were proclaimed in force, thereby introducing a number of significant changes to the Canadian Copyright Act. These changes include the expansion of fair dealing to include the purpose of education, the addition of new educational exceptions for the online transmission of lessons and the use of work freely available through the internet, and a number of amendments that make existing educational exceptions more technologically accommodating. This paper considers the significance of these changes for post-secondary instructors, first contextualizing the changes in relation to recent fair dealing jurisprudence, and then considering their significance for everyday instructional practice. Drawing on influential court decisions and the commentary of academics and lawyers, the paper not only describes how the changes to the Copyright Act have expanded the rights and exceptions available to instructors, but also identifies a number of unresolved questions about how the changes should be applied in practice. Despite these areas of uncertainty, the paper concludes that the changes bode well for post-secondary instructors, as they relax many long-standing restrictions around the use of copyrighted works for educational purposes. En novembre 2012, les dispositions éducatives de la Loi sur la modernisation du droit d’auteur ont été proclamées avec force. Elles apportaient un certain nombre de changements significatifs à la Loi du Canada sur le droit d’auteur. Ces changements comprennent l’élargissement de l’utilisation équitable pour y inclure le but de l’éducation, l’addition de nouvelles exceptions éducatives pour la transmission de leçons en ligne et l’utilisation de travaux disponibles à volonté sur internet, ainsi qu’un certain nombre de modifications aux exceptions éducatives existantes qui tiennent davantage compte de la technologie. Cet article examine la signification de ces changements pour les enseignants de niveau post-secondaire, tout d’abord en mettant en contexte les changements par rapport à la jurisprudence récente en matière d’élargissement de l’utilisation, ensuite en examinant leur signification pour la pratique de l’enseignement de tous les jours. L’article, qui met à profit les décisions de la cour et les commentaires d’universitaires et d’avocats, non seulement décrit la manière dont les changements apportés à la Loi du droit d’auteur ont élargi les droits et les exceptions à la disposition des enseignants, il identifie également un certain nombre de questions non résolues sur la manière dont les changements devraient être mis en pratique. Malgré ces zones d’incertitude, l’article en arrive à la conclusion que les changements sont de bon augure pour les enseignants de niveau post-secondaire car ils assouplissent de nombreuses restrictions qui existaient de longue date concernant l’utilisation de travaux protégés par le droit d’auteur pour les besoins éducatifs

Data as Intellectual Property

<p>Panel presentation for the Research Data Access & Preservation (RDAP) Summit, 20 April 2017, in Seattle WA. </p><p><strong>Description:</strong> The sharing, reuse, redistribution and production of derivatives of research data often raise intellectual property questions. Some common questions that are often raised include 1) what are the legal rights in data (i.e., trade secrets, copyright, patents rights etc.); 2) who owns these rights (i.e., data ownership versus data stewardship); 3) what are best practices on maximizing data sharing and reuse while minimizing any risks of infringing legal rights in data (i.e., Creative Commons license, institutional data policies etc)? This panel will discuss intellectual property issues related to research data sharing and reuse, as well as share experience and lend expertise in working through these issues.</p><p><strong>Panel Lead:</strong> Renaine Julian, Florida State University<br><strong>Moderator:</strong> Marina (Qianjin) Zhang, University of Iowa</p><p><strong>Panelists:</strong></p><ul><li>Devin Soper, Scholarly Communications Librarian, Florida State University</li><li>Melanie Kowalski, Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian, Emory University</li><li>David Fearon, Data Management Consultant, JHU Data Management Services, Johns Hopkins University</li></ul

De-centering and re-centering digital scholarship: A manifesto

The continued growth of digital scholarship in librarianship, as evidenced in new positions, new centers, new institutes, new reports/publications, and responding to the ethical turn that our field has undergone in response to current political culture. Following the ARL Digital Scholarship Institute, we agreed that it would be useful to have a document to point to that reflects and illuminates the impetus behind these impulses. Not finding such a document, we decided to produce this as a catalyst to begin that conversation

Discover DH: Introduction to Digital Humanities Theories and Methods

<p>Florida State University Libraries presents an introductory workshop series in the Digital Humanities. These sessions are designed to teach students and faculty the basic theories and methods behind digital research in the humanities. The courses cover a broad range of topics, from larger issues in digital research in the academy to specific tools and research techniques.</p> The weeks will be divided into “yack” sessions and “hack” sessions. The yack sessions will begin with a short presentation on an issue facing humanities scholars in the digital world. These will be followed by a discussion by all participants. For the hack sessions, we will begin learning a specific tool for humanities research. These sessions are hands-on and often require specific tools to be set up in advance