Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, compiler. 2010. Intellectual Freedom Manual, 8th ed. Chicago: American Library Association. 439 pages. $65.00.

The latest edition of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Manual has a tough job. On the one hand, it must show the library profession’s unified support of intellectual freedom. On the other hand, it has to acknowledge messy disagreements over practical implementation of those principles. The Manual largely succeeds in this endeavor and provides an essential reference for conscientious librarians. While it may not be needed in the open stacks, every library should have at least one copy at the ready for guiding policy development and in case a conflict over intellectual freedom occurs.

The text is a mixture of ALA policy documents, historical commentaries, and review essays. The Manual walks a fine line; the policy statements are full of aspirational language setting out absolute rights, while the historical commentaries acknowledge that such consensus was not always a given and even today breaks in some situations. All librarians should be roughly familiar with the policy documents, including the Library Bill of Rights and later Interpretations, the Freedom to Read statement, and the ALA Code of Ethics. The historical background essays are akin to legislative histories for the policy statements, often detailing processes by which amendments were adopted. The policy statements are published under a Creative Commons license, permitting greater copying and distribution.

The legal content of the book is wide-ranging. While the freedom to read and right of privacy are primarily grounded in the U.S. Constitution, state and federal statutes are also implicated. Essays discussing libraries as public fora, minors’ access rights, and privacy issues give thorough overviews of the major federal cases and statutes. State law is mentioned, but librarians with specific questions will need to do further research for controlling state law. The legal essays avoid becoming saturated with legal jargon, but the book would even friendlier to non-lawyers if the glossary were augmented with more definitions of terms of art, such as strict scrutiny, reasonable expectation of privacy, and national security letter.

For librarians writing or revising policies relating to issues like patron confidentiality, collection development, and public meeting spaces, the book’s recommended practices will provide useful guidance and help avoid inadvertent oversights of important matters. The Manual, and policies it will help librarians write, will hopefully avert unpleasant conflicts and manage the controversies that cannot be avoided.

The Office of Intellectual Freedom has also created a website, http://ifmanual.org, which reproduces the policy documents and includes others that were not included in the book. The site also indicates that it will provide updates in between editions.

The Manual will be most valuable to public and academic libraries, though firm librarians may also wish to consult it for information on professional librarian norms. Some issues will be more relevant to law libraries than others–a law librarian is more likely to be concerned about patron privacy than challenges to books–but as a standby resource for dealing with these important issues, the Intellectual Freedom Manual is the definitive guide by the profession’s primary advocates for intellectual freedom.

Reviewed by Benjamin J. Keele, Reference Librarian at the Wolf Law Library, College of William and Mary.

© 2010 Benjamin J. Keele. This work is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Create Your Own Associate Research Training Program

With today’s economic realities, law firms must align client priorities and control their costs. An associate training program helps the law library meet these strategic needs of its firm while showcasing the value of legal information professionals to the institution. Please join Patricia Orr and Baiba Seward from Dykema Gossett PLLC as they share the nuts and bolts of implementing a successful associate training program. Create Your Own Associate Research Training Program webinar will take place on September 15 at 12 p.m. Eastern. Orr and Seward will provide details of a national law firm’s successful program to assist you in creating your own in-house program.

Register by September 9.

Copyright in the Workplace: Keeping Your Business Compliant and Competitive

How often do you e-mail an interesting article from a magazine or newspaper to your co-workers?  How often do you share content from a journal or research report with colleagues, customers or others inside or outside your organization?  If you’re like most business professionals, you do so frequently.  In today’s fast-paced, global environment, we rely on timely access to and sharing of information to innovate, collaborate and edge-out the competition.  But did you know by simply doing your job and trying to remain competitive, you may be putting your company at risk?  The fact is that if you are not getting the permission you need to distribute copyrighted information inside and outside of your company, you could be breaking the law.

Most of the content you use and share in the workplace is protected by copyright—newspapers, journal articles, newsletters, research reports, even blogs and other content found on the Internet.  U.S. copyright law applies not only to text works like those described above, but also to other original creative works such as photos and illustrations, charts and graphs, music and audiovisual works.  Its purpose is to foster creativity and spur the distribution of new and original works by giving publishers, writers and other creators the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute and publicly display their original works. Simply stated, this means that content users typically must get explicit permission from the copyright owner before they can lawfully copy, share or distribute a copyright-protected work, inside or outside an organization.

What is the Risk?

Copyright law allows copyright holders to sue infringers to cease the infringing activity and to collect money damages. For businesses, the cost of copyright infringement can come in many forms, including attorneys’ fees, potential loss of assets, negative publicity, and loss of public trust and goodwill. For companies such as Kinko’s and Texaco, which faced legal action against them, unlawful copying and distribution of copyrighted works cost them millions of dollars. (See side bar A)

Get Permission Before You Share

Most people would not put unlicensed software on their computer. Yet, many people don’t think twice before emailing or photocopying articles or newsletters. Almost any time that you share an article from a trade magazine, a conference presentation or any other copyright-protected work, your organization faces the challenge of ensuring copyright compliance. Though unintentional, in distributing these works you may in fact be violating copyright law.

Some content users assume that online content is not copyright-protected and therefore it may be freely used and modified without permission. This is not true.  Many people also believe that if a Web site does not contain a copyright notice the content contained on that site is not subject to copyright law and may be freely used and modified without permission. This is also not true.

Digital or electronic content, such as e-books, photographs on Web sites and electronic databases are subject to the same protections under the U.S. Copyright Act as non-digital, traditional or paper-based works. In addition, some specific provisions relating to digital content were established in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

When considering copyright law and protection as they relate to content distribution, common assumptions are often incorrect. The fact is that almost all content in any print or digital form is protected by copyright, and generally you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to re-use it.

Examples of print and electronic distribution that typically require copyright permission include:

• Sharing copies of a magazine article or analyst report with your colleagues.
• Emailing a PDF of an article to co-workers or to customers.
• Distributing competitive literature to your sales force.
• Providing company-wide access to a single publication or newspaper subscription.
• Posting articles to the corporate intranet or Wikis.
• Inserting content into PowerPoint presentations.

All of the cases above would usually be considered infringement under copyright law unless you first obtained permission from the copyright holder.

Doing the Right Thing

Unless you and your colleagues understand when and how to obtain permission to share and distribute copyright-protected information, you cannot be sure that your organization is copyright compliant.  Consequently, education and awareness along with access to convenient means to obtain copyright permission are the best ways to ensure that your organization is doing the right thing with regard to copyright law. In addition, every organization should have a comprehensive policy for copyright compliance, which includes detailed procedures for obtaining copyright permission that are specific to its business and usage needs.

When employees need to get permission to use a certain work, there are two primary ways to get it—contact the copyright holder directly or utilize licensing services provided by an authorized agent of copyright holders such as Copyright Clearance Center (CCC).

Contacting each copyright holder directly for every copyright permission you need can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. For most print and online publications, the publisher is most often the copyright holder. If you cannot identify the copyright holder for the material you want to use, you may have to request a search by the U.S. Copyright Office. The Copyright Office can search only those works that have been registered. However, registration is not a requirement for copyright protection. When requesting copyright permission it is important to note that a lack of response from the copyright holder does not, under U.S. law, convey permission. In addition, some works may contain materials—text, images and graphics—from multiple copyright holders and may require separate authorization from each one.

Alternatively, Copyright Clearance Center provides streamlined and efficient ways to obtain copyright permission.  CCC was formed as a not-for-profit organization over 30 years ago to make it easy for businesses and other organizations to get the permission they need to collaborate and share valuable information, while reducing the risk of copyright infringement.  More than 20 million corporate workers use CCC’s annual subscription licenses to share content across their companies around the world.  In fact, 400 of the Fortune 500 use CCC’s licensing solutions to accelerate the free flow of information that drives innovation and productivity.

In addition, CCC provides extensive educational programs and free resources to promote copyright awareness and provide employees with the tools they need to comply with copyright law.  You can visit the company’s web site at copyright.com for a host of free educational resources including the Guide to Copyright Compliance for business professionals, a video on Copyright in the Work Place, a new Copyright Basics Video and guidelines for developing a corporate compliance policy.

Complying with Copyright Has Benefits

By complying with copyright law, everyone wins. Copyright holders who create the content receive fair compensation and control over their work. Organizations benefit, gaining access to the valuable information they need to be competitive, while demonstrating lawful, ethical business practices.

To learn more about Copyright Clearance Center’s compliance solutions, please contact a Copyright Clearance Center Licensing Consultant at 978-750-8400.

Craig Sender is Senior Manager, Public Relations at the Copyright Clearance Center.

2010 AALL Denver Writer’s Workshop

They came to one of three large round tables, some hesitantly and some randomly.  There were those who knew each other already, some who came to the room together and some who just bolted for the nearest empty seat.  As each table settled into the workshop and began their introductions, the other tables faded into the background.  Focusing inward, the writers and writers-to-be went about the task of getting to know each other better.  They each exposed their own stories, their writing ideas and their ambitions.  They told of their past experiences and current fears.  As they talked, they closed the circles a bit more.  With each new person’s story and each discussion, they leaned in more and more to face each other and to get know the writers around them.

One circle was guided by the experienced voices of Mary Rumsey and Mark Estes.  Expertly and encouragingly, they wove the thread for the circle’s journey to become more confident and diverse writers.  They encouraged the table to discuss where they felt they each were as individual writers and what types of articles they would want to write.  Mary and Mark drew out the fears and barriers to writing that lived within the circle, even if they didn’t realize what was holding them back at the time.  The circle itself found it had experienced newsletter writers, a LexisNexis Call for Papers student winner, librarians who were engaged in, or wanted to be engaged in, writing longer scholarly articles, those that loved to edit and those that really didn’t know what they needed to focus on.  There were some that just had ideas that they wanted, or needed, to get out of themselves and down on paper, but didn’t know where to start.  They talked of many things, from the practical, like knowing your audience and the style of the journal, to the inspirational, such as how to just begin…when that seems like an impossible hurdle.  They closed the circle tighter when they realized that they all had ideas, experience and advice to share.  In return, they found they all needed their colleague’s support, advice and editing.

The table, with the help of Mary and Mark, weaved together a support system and with the exchange of stories and cards, they each discovered what they came for.  They found the other writers they could seek out for advice, editing and encouragement when they went back to their lives.  They were focused on their lone circle; it was only when another table’s raucous laughter overwhelmed the circle’s quiet discussion that all the room’s occupants came rushing back into view.  In that moment, the circle realized it truly was not alone.  Finally, after all the writing advice and true confessions, everyone left the tables.  They were different than when they came, though.  They were circles of writers and they were not alone.

-Marin Dell, JD MLIS MS/MIS

Research Librarian, FSU College of Law Research Center

Janis, Mark Weston. 2010. America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939. New York: Oxford University Press. 232 pages. $100.00.

Through a series of eleven well-researched essays, Mark Weston Janis’s America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939 explores the origins of America’s complex relationship with international law.  Janis, William F. Starr Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and author of three law school books and over 50 articles on international law, focuses on select key individuals and events that shaped America’s early approach to the discipline.  This collection of essays is the successor text to Janis’s book, The American Tradition of International Law: Great Expectations 1789-1914.  Readers familiar with Janis’s first text may find America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939 slightly repetitive, as his second book offers many of the same discussions and arguments, but in a broader, more in-depth manner.

Both the historical coverage and Janis’s thorough research make America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939 an appropriate purchase for any academic law library.   Indeed, the text’s true value rests in its breadth and depth of coverage.   Logically, Janis begins with a discussion on the concepts of the law of nations and international law.  Where did the concepts originate?  What do they really mean?  Janis ultimately concludes the concepts, much like America’s early approach to the discipline, are anything but simple.  In fact, the concepts are no less ambiguous today than they were when William Blackstone and Jeremy Bentham introduced them.

The remainder of Janis’s book focuses on the historical characters and events that influenced America’s perception of international law from its founding until the onset of World War II.  Janis discusses how America’s founders, Jefferson and Madison, relied on the law of nations to legitimize America’s independence and sovereignty when drafting the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  Janis also discusses the role and contributions of “skeptics and believers” such as Kent, Wheaton, Dodge, Worcester, Ladd, Burritt, Root, and Scott.  Janis then addresses the importance of the Alabama arbitration, decisions such as Dred Scott v. Sandford and Missouri v. Holland, and the creation of the League of Nations, World Court, International Law Association, and American Society of International Law.  Janis concludes his work by examining Woodrow Wilson’s changing views of international law and how the end of World War I ushered in a new era of isolationism in America.

Despite its breadth and depth, the book does have a few notable weaknesses.   Specifically, the text as a whole and the structure within the chapters are somewhat clunky.  While Janis succeeds in compiling over 150 years of scholarship and historical events into a mere 232 pages, he fails to transform eleven distinct essays into one cohesive story.  The reader is left with a vast amount of information, but little explanation to connect the essays together.  Janis’s work might have benefited from introductory and concluding chapters, as well as a more evident overarching thesis.  Moreover, individual chapters might have been more reader-friendly if Janis had relied less heavily on block quotations.

Shortcomings aside, Janis’s book is a welcome addition to the canon of international law scholarship.  Janis’s latest text is not the first book to address America’s early relationship with international law, but it is one of the few to place the key people, institutions, and events into historical context.  Libraries and researchers alike will find the footnotes alone make Janis’s America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939 worth adding to their collections.

Review by Donna J. Bowman, research and faculty services librarian at the SMU Dedman School of Law Underwood Law Library in Dallas.