Last year, the work of the Library's new Copyright Committee occupied a great deal of space in this report. Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham had appointed a Copyright Committee consisting of Mariana Regalado, Miriam Deutch, Beth Evans (chair), Sylvie Richards, Susan Vaughn, and Judith Wild, charging them with developing a statement about the Library's position on copyright and course-specific collections, one geared toward faculty. The statement is to cover reserves, both print and electronic, as well as material intended for specific groups of users (students enrolled in a course supported by a Blackboard site, for example). The objective is to protect the College, while putting the smallest burden possible on the faculty and the Library staff. The College's office of legal affairs is consulting.
To date the committee has created two documents: one on electronic reserves and one on Blackboard. The Committee is in the midst of adapting the Blackboard document for all types of course sites. Last spring, Margaret King (History) asked for assistance in evaluating her website for copyright compliance; once the TEACH Act passed, Sylvie Richards, Beth Evans and Judith Wild made presentations to the History Department on this topic.
The Committee's guidelines for electronic reserves were adapted by the CUNY Copyright Committee, of which Judith Wild is a member. The Copyright Committee also helped Judy to explore thoroughly both Docutek's and Aleph's e-reserve systems. In the end, the Library decided to postpone the implementation of an electronic reserves system:
1) The world of copyright was (and is) in a state of flux. There is no solid agreement on the interpretation of "fair use." Hence, a narrow reading of the statute would result in very high costs for permissions, while a broad reading would incur only modest costs.
2) The Aleph electronic reserves module has not yet been implemented by Ex Libris. While Brooklyn librarians were unimpressed by their presentation over a year ago, a usable Aleph e-reserves system would incur no costs for us and would have the additional advantage of giving us the same system used by the majority of other CUNY libraries.
3) As faculty and students become more technologically sophisticated (thanks in no small measure to the aggressive outreach of the AIT staff), Blackboard has most often become the learning platform of choice: this is where course readings increasingly reside, readings that were previously placed on paper reserve.