Title: “Orphan Works: Definitional Issues” Author: David Robert Hansen (University of California, Berkeley – School of Law) Source: Berkeley Digital Library Copyright Project White Paper No. 1 (via SSRN) Abstract: This paper outlines responses to two definitional questions that arise in the context of orphan works: (1) exactly what is the “orphan works” problem?, and (2) what is the size of this problem? The answers to these two questions are central to understanding how proposed solutions work to remedy the situation. While the most common descriptions of the orphan works problem focus on unlocatable copyright owners, others have framed the issue in terms of a...

A bunch of things have transpired since our original post. Here are three updates that have info we think might interest you before getting to our original comments found after Update 3. Update 1: “Kindle books are at 11,000 libraries — but any you want to read?” (via LA Times) On one hand, the headline could be better (and many only read headlines) but on the other hand the actual story does a good job pointing out something I mention below and (and other press stories don’t report correctly) that all BOOKS are available via the...

How Much of the Web is Archived?” (3 pages; PDF)by Scott G. Ainsworth, Ahmed Alsum, Hany SalahEldeen, Michele C. Weigle, and Michael L. NelsonPresented at JCDL 2011 Earlier This MonthFrom a Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group (Old Dominion University) Blog Post: There are many questions to ask about web archiving and digital preservation – why is archiving important? what should be archived? what is currently being archived? how often should pages be archived? The short paper “How Much of the Web is Archived?” (Scott G. Ainsworth, Ahmed AlSum, Hany SalahEldeen, Michele C. Weigle, and Michael L. Nelson), published at JCDL 2011, is...

From the University of California Riverside News Room: California’s weekly newspapers will be preserved in a searchable archive as UC Riverside expands its massive California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) to include the community chronicles of political, business and social history. Born Digital, a project of UCR’s Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research, launched in the spring with publishers of eight newspapers providing PDF files that the center will archive in an online database that is text searchable and free to users. “Small newspapers and libraries increasingly cannot afford the cost of microfilming these publications,” said Brian Geiger, director of the...

UNESCO Sponsored, “The Book Tomorrow: The Future Of The Written Word” ConferenceThis event took place in Monza, Italy. Podcast: “Do books have a future?” (via The Guardian) Recorded at the conference. What does 21st-century technology hold for the printed word? Last week academics, librarians, publishers and writers descended on the Villa Reale, near Milan, to find out. We hear from a Senegalese publisher struggling with the differences between west and south, from an Argentinian innovator who keeps his office on a laptop and a digital designer who has put Wikipedia between hard covers. Harvard professor Robert Darnton explains why, far from killing off the book, the...

From a M-H News Release: McGraw-Hill Professional announces the launch of the McGraw-Hill eBook Library,www.MHeBookLibrary.com, a state-of-the-art platform delivering unparalleled access to the publisher’s premium content for institutions around the world.  Responding to librarians’ and patrons’ evolving digital information needs, McGraw-Hill has taken the revolutionary step of providing unlimited concurrent usage to the digital library so patrons can access high-quality curated content from world-renowned authorities. A powerful online resource, the McGraw-Hill eBook Library provides more than 1,000 titles in collections that are continuously updated with new eBooks.  Users can access hundreds of thousands of pages of content from authors who are leaders...

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reports on a survey results released yesterday by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication about ebook usage in China. Who Was Surveyed? More than 19,000 people in 51 cities and 29 Chinese provincial regions were surveyed. Findings “Chinese people between the ages of 18 and 70 read 613 million electronic books in 2010.” “Among them, 23 percent read e-books via mobile phones, up 8 percentage points from 2009. Another 3.9 percent read books on e-book readers and over 18 percent read books on the Internet.” “Only 16.4 percent of Chinese e-book readers buy paper books after reading the electronic versions.” The...

From an Article in St. Petersburg Times: With the history of the Russian state comprising the core theme of its collection, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg may sound like a project meant for a very narrow audience. Yet this vast archive located in the majestic Synod building on Senatskaya Ploshchad has become Russia’s premier project showcasing innovative archiving technologies — and it is eagerly going global. With its collections consisting entirely of electronic resources, the library represents a new breed of archives moving away from piles of...

Some New Statistics From an Oxbridge Communications: In the first quarter of 2011, 54 magazines launched, and 24 magazines closed, according to MediaFinder.com—the largest online database of U.S. and Canadian publications. The top categories for new launches were regional interest, food, and women, with titles such as Plum Miami, Gourmet Italian Kitchen, and Harmony Magazine. The crafts category topped the list of closures which also included titles such as Access Direct TV, Continental, and Parade HealthyStyle. “The increase in magazine launches is a testament to the determination...

From a MyHeritage Blog Post: The NLS have uploaded a set of historical maps which overlay on Google Maps, making them easy to use and navigate. While there’s a focus on Scotland, there are maps for the whole of the UK also – and even beyond. Direct to Maps See Also: Georeferenced maps and applications See Also Map Georeferencer Homepage (Pilot Project) See Also: Maps of Scotland (More than 20K) See Also: A Favourite Historic Map of the UK from the My Heritage Team Directions for Embedding or Use in a Mashup Mobile: This historic UK map is also accessible on an iPhone/Pad/Touch and Android....

UPDATED (March 24, 2011, 9:00 pm EDST) Some of the Most Recently Added Items 1. “Judge Chin rejects AAP/Google settlement” (by Karen Coyle, Coyle’s InFormation) It is important to note that the position of digitization and ebooks today are vastly different than they were in 2005 when the authors and publishers first sued Google over its library digitization project. It is possible that if the question of Google’s digitizing were to be put forth for the first time today, the actions of the parties and the results would be vastly different. This...

UPDATE (Friday, March 4, 2011): “E-book Exasperation: Publisher Puts the Squeeze on Libraries” via Times-Observer (Warren, PA) Since the Warren County library system began offering ebooks and audiobooks on Jan. 27, the response has been a resounding success. Ebooks have been “the most immediately, instantly successful program we’ve ever offered,” Sherbondy said on Wednesday. “There hasn’t been a downside really to it at all.” Here’s a roundup of some of the mainstream press about library eBooks/HarperCollins story one week after the initial announcement. 1. “HarperCollins squeezes libraries (like ours) with new e-book rule” (via stltoday.com/St....