[Original posting on this topic appeared in COLLDV-L no. 1764 and is
reproduced below; the responses follow it.]
From: "Lenora Oftedahl" <OFTL_at_critfc.org>
I'm cross-posting this, please excuse the duplication. It also ties into
an earlier question about copyright [COLLDV-L no. 1758].
I would like to know where other libraries draw the line for cataloging
research type papers on bibliographic utilities. There's not really much
guidance from OCLC. The 3rd grade report on Peru is definitely not going
in, but what about high school? Even if it's really well-researched?
Undergraduate thesis? Master's and Doctoral are just about given as being
candidates.
How appropriate would an undergraduate thesis be for collection development
in a specialized library? Or as citations for other papers? Does
someone's age really dictate that they can't do in-depth research?
I would like to revisit the copyright issue again...are these works
protected by copyright? Who owns the copyright? Should we be afraid of
acknowledging we have copies of these materials available for our patrons?
I got no responses previously and really would like the collective wisdom
from someone.
Lenora A. Oftedahl
Asst. Librarian
CRITFC/StreamNet Library
Portland OR 97232
oftl_at_critfc.org
(1)========================================================================
From: Bernard Katz <bkatz_at_uoguelph.ca>
I will address only the copyright questions raised by Lenora Oftedahl, and
preface my comments with the caveat that I am not an expert in U.S.Copyright
law and not an attorney. Nothing I say should be construed as legal advice.
As I understand U.S. law, there was a very important change several years
ago in the matter of how copyright protection is achieved in the U.S.A. It
is no longer required to register a new work. The mere fact of creating
it and preserving it in a tangible non-volatile form (eg. on a computer
disk, or written on a piece of paper) is in and of itself sufficient to
protect the work. So the items you ask about are most likely covered by
the U.S. statute.
As for who owns the copyrights in these works - that's a horse of another
sort. The short answer is "it depends". That is it depends on several
factors, including any licences or releases that the students may have
signed as part of the terms under which they became students, etc. There
is a very hot debate going on right now on some specialty listserves about
such student works. I believe that the general concensus is that students
hold the copyrights to the works they have produced (only of course in the
text that they have themselves created, not in the quotes they've made!),
unless the contractual terms of their being students state otherwise.
As for whether what you hold is "legal" material - that too "depends". If
what you have are legal copies of the works (ie. obtained legally and as
copies authorized by the legal copyright holders), then you can certainly
lend them out, allow people to consult them, etc. Can they be copied? In
this case they likely are covered by the U.S. "Fair Use" doctrine that is
embodied in the U.S. copyright statute. But you will need some better
level of expertise in the U.S. law than I have because these are NOT pub-
lished works and so there may be a difference in the way Fair Use applies.
Bernard Katz, Head, Special Collections and Library Development
McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario
and Chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Task Force
bkatz_at_uoguelph.ca // (519) 824-4120 X2089 // FAX: (519) 824-6931
(2)========================================================================
From: "James Tobin" <RJT_at_gml.lib.uwm.edu>
We catalog senior honors theses and, occasionally, an undergraduate thesis
of particular relevance to the university or the locality.
The writer owns the copyright. A work does not have to be registered to
enjoy copyright protection.
Jim Tobin
Collection Management Librarian
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Received on Fri Jun 12 1998 - 09:31:43 EDT