Scholarly Communication at Texas A&M

Steven J. Bell, associate university librarian at Temple University, contributed an interesting post to Inside Higher Ed recently. Titled Taming the Textbook Market, it is of particular interest to me as the Texas A&M University Libraries prepares to participate in Open Access Week in October.

Textbook costs are increasing at alarming rates, and many students wonder what can be done.  Student PIRGs (Public Research Interest Groups) have made textbook affordability one of their campaigns:  https://www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are one way faculty and institutions can help control the costs of textbooks.  Learning resources can be made freely available online. Bell argues that faculty can use technology to publish open textbooks — freely available online, or available print on demand for a modest fee. And librarians’ experience with institutional repositories can help with distribution of open textbooks. Of course, there are still costs associated with online distribution, and free textbooks do not generate royalties for the author.

The Texas Digital Library is developing TxLOR, a learning object repository. TxLOR will provide the infrastructure for faculty at member institutions to make educational resources freely available.  Read more about TxLOR on the TDL wiki:  http://wikis.tdl.org/lor/Main_Page.

In Washington D.C. tomorrow, an interesting cross-section of American citizenry will gather at the Newseum to celebrate a particular legal principle found in Section 107, Title 17 of the U. S. Code. Known more popularly as “the Doctrine of Fair Use”, this section of US Copyright law outlines conditions under which copyrighted works may be used, without permission of the copyright owner, for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

The First Annual World’s Fair Use Day (WFUD) is sponsored by Public Knowledge, a consumer rights advocacy group well known for its coverage of copyright policy. The day-long event is designed to bring together policymakers, artists, academics, entrepreneurs, journalists and consumer advocates to listen, watch, and learn from speeches and panel discussions, presentations, videos, films, music, and multimedia mash-ups that underscore the importance of Fair Use for creative culture, scholarship, innovation and learning.

Those outside the DC area can join in the program in a number of ways:

• Check out the event web site at http://worldsfairuseday.org/Worlds_Fair_Use_Day/Worlds_Fair_Use_Day.html
• Watch the live web stream, which will run from 9 am – 4 pm EST (stay tuned to wfud.info)
• Download and read the cool “Party Pack” which contains lots of great ideas for celebrating WFUD today, tomorrow, or whenever you want to express your love of Fair Use!

Among the presenters taking part in tomorrow’s World Fair Use Day are:

Terri Bays, from the OpenCourseWare Initiative

Dan Walsh, creator of the “Garfield Minus Garfield” web comic;

Machinima artist Chris Burke discusses, who uses fair use to produce his popular Internet Talk Show in Gamespace, This Spartan Life;

Lincoln Bandlow, an attorney who invoked the doctrine of fair use in the case Jackson Browne vs. John McCain to defend the Republican’s use of the song “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad without permission (the case was ultimately settled).

ENABLING OPEN SCHOLARSHIP (EOS), a new organization for senior management in universities and research institutions, has been
launched today.

The context in which EOS has been established is that of increasing interest from governments, funders and the research community itself
in opening up the way research is carried out and communicated. This interest is complemented by new research practices and processes that can work effectively only in an open, collaborative environment. (more…)