This article aims to argue for the benefits of all scholarly journals being Open Access. Authors argue that non-open access journals are significantly detrimental to an authors' research impact. Their argument is that even if all journals charged an at-cost price for their content no (or very few) libraries would be able to afford all journals in this situation. The article gives excellent statistical information, including charts and grafts depicting the impact that Open Access has on citations, downloads, budgets, and institutional archive growth.

This article explores the benefits of open access publication to scholars and researchers in so much as Open Access will greatly increase their research impact because a ten-fold number of other researchers will be able to review their work. By referring to some of the statistics and information the authors of this article have compiled, I will further list the importance of why pushing publishers toward Open Access or "less astringent copyright practices" is of extreme importance in today's library fields. Undoubtedly, pushing information on why pushing publishers toward O.A. would help library's with their budgets, but also would increase library usage. However, I think it is also important to argue librarians have a duty to further scholarship, showing that O.A. helps facilitate research and increase citations and articles downloads will be an extremely efficient way of doing this.

The above article is a PR address from the Association of American Publishers regarding the infringement lawsuit brought up on Georgia State University by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and SAGE Publications. The document gives the reasons why these three publishers felt it necessary to bring up charges against GSU and why it is important that the copyright they hold over their published works is important (mainly because of the significant funds they spend publishing their works).

 

http://publishers.org/main/PressCenter/documents/GSUlawsuitcomplaint.pdf

 

The above link directs you to the legal complaint in its original form. Using the above legal cliam and the press release to help decipher and guide me through this legal document will help me to better understand why the publishers feel they have been wronged by Georgia State University. The infringements listed by Georgia State University have most assuredly been facilitated by the library/libraries of GSU or at least exacerbated by the library/libraries.

 

I will use the above article as a way of understanding what was it exactly that publishers feel are significant reasons to bring up suit against an entity. By examining the stated reasons for the lawsuit, I could further research as to what could be done to eliminate the possibility of being sued for supplying copyrighted works to students, faculty, and staff by the university library. The above articles will help me to define in my essay what is sufficient cause for a publisher to take up suit against a university / library.

The above article revolves mostly around the the use of electronic reserves at university libraries and what copyright restrictions apply to the use of E-Res. Also, it discusses various court cases involving copyright and attempts to form a listing of percentages of work that could be used without infringement. By doing this the authors attempt to form a more 'objective' and concrete idea of what constitutes copyright infringement. In addition, the authors argue against using the Copyright Act of 1976 as a guideline for libraries, stating that it does not accurately depict fair use.

This article will be extremely useful to me because it attempts to objective numbers as to where copyright infringement begins and fair use ends. Also, it explains the awareness of copyright law by various individuals who work in and around a library. By using some of the information compiled from this article I intend to show how unlikely it is to expect a librarian to do the calculations and to have a cogent knowledge of what is fair-use and what constitutes infringement. Also, by concurring with this article's authors on the unreliability of the copyright act of 1976 to accurately define fair use for libraries will help to build the credibility of my argument.

U.S. Code Title 17 is the definitive legal resource for the U.S. Laws regardining copyright. This resource has relevant information on what constitutes copyright infringement and what actions are needed to remedy said infringements. 

I will use the above resource as a primary source. This source will help me to define exactly what copyright infringement is according to the law. The above material will help me to define what actions a librarian could take when addressing sensitive copyrighted materials. By knowing the extent of the law I could then determine what are suitable actions to take when coming in contact with something which is questionable -- and in turn what is definitively illegal -- in order to argue for what actions a librarian could take to "push the envelope" on copyright law.

The above articles attempts to comprehensively define Open Access, listing the various iterations of Open Access as it is defined differently by whom is using it. The article then tries to unify the definition of Open Access or at least define Open Access in their own terms. From which point the authors address the goals of the Open Access movement or what is the intended outcome by spporters of Open Access. The author gives a fairly decent job at illuminating some of the struggles toward the adoption of a universal open access policy, but also lists the benefits of a universal Open Access policy. The article gives multiple viewpoints to Open Access (Advocates, Critics, Observers)...

I plan to use this article as an information resource showing what benefits there are to Open Access resources. By using this articles definition of Open Access and mentioning some of its lofty goals for Universal Open Access, I intend to show in my essay what the benefits would be for Librarians to push publishers toward open access by knowing ways "around" copyright. In other words, I will use examples from this article to show what benefits there are for librarians to legally circumvent copyrighted materials and "play dumb" when it comes to copyrighted works.

Judith Currano is the Chemistry Librarian. She can be contacted for assistance at 215-898-2177 or currano@pobox.upenn.edu

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