Digital Libraries Colloquium Series
Sponsored by the School of Computer Science-Carnegie Mellon University, the School of Information Sciences-University of Pittsburgh, the University Library System-University of Pittsburgh, the University Libraries-Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Denise Troll Covey
Principal Librarian for Special Projects,
Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Talk: 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm in Newell Simon Hall, Room 3305 at Carnegie
Mellon University
"Faculty Rights and Other Scholarly Communication Practices"
Abstract: Spring 2006 Carnegie Mellon University Libraries conducted interviews with a stratified random sample of campus faculty to better understand their scholarly practices and concerns, to identify factors that influence their behavior, and to enable the Libraries to target education, tools and services. The interview data, analyzed by college, faculty track, rank on the track, gender, and age, reveal how faculty disseminate their work, how they keep current in their field, and why – without pay – they serve on editorial boards and referee articles. More importantly, they reveal faculty levels of understanding and appreciation of copyright and the open access movement.
The presentation focuses on the more provocative outcomes of the study, including
- The influence of copyright transfer terms on faculty selection of publishers
- Faculty understanding of their copyright transfer agreements
- What faculty are likely to do if their rights are not clear
- Current self-archiving practices and barriers and incentives to faculty negotiating the right to self-archive
- Faculty concerns about open access
- Factors likely to influence faculty choices or to provoke their resistance.
The presentation concludes with a brief description of the University Libraries’ collaboration with the provost and university legal counsel to address the more compelling findings.
Bio: Denise Troll Covey, Principal Librarian for Special Projects, is responsible for conducting research to inform library administration, strategic planning, and advocacy of important legislative initiatives. She keeps abreast of technological developments, their social implications, and the laws, policies, practices, and standards relevant to digital libraries. Her current projects are responding to the Copyright Office’s notice of inquiry about possible amendments to section 108 of the copyright law, and leading the Libraries’ collaboration with university legal counsel to develop a program for faculty and graduate students on authors’ rights. Her previous research focused on the public response to the Copyright Office’s notice of inquiry regarding orphan works and efforts to increase the success and lower the cost of acquiring copyright permission to digitize and provide open access to books. Ms. Covey serves on the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Standards Development. She was a Distinguished Fellow in the Digital Library Federation in 2000-2001.
