In Which the U. of Iowa Tries To Put Theses on the Internets for Free
Dear all,Horrified that this has prompted my return to the blog, but guess what?
Iowa wants to put MFA theses on the Web.... for free.
Read more here. Also pasting an e-mail from the awesome Kembrew McLeod, who is spearheading efforts against.
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Wednesday, March 12
Hello, and Greetings From Iowa City:
Over the past twenty-four hours I have dealt various University of
Iowa administrators, and I now have a (somewhat) better understanding
of how UI is handling the controversy over the possible online
publishing of MFA theses. Regardless, I am still somewhat confused
about what exactly is going on, and I feel like I have taken a hit of
bureaucracy-flavored LSD.
From what I can tell, the UI Library doesn't seem to be at fault;
they have no plans to scan MFA theses now or in the future. I know
and trust our librarians, and the ones I have talked to -- including
Paul A. Soderdahl, Director, Library Information Technology -- fully
agree that it is a bad idea to put MFA theses online.
That's the good news -- no old theses are being scanned, and there
are no plans to do so. However, there is bad news, and it affects
current MFA students who want to graduate from UI this year.
The controversy stems from a piece of paperwork that students have to
sign in order to deposit their thesis, and therefore graduate. It's
called a "First Deposit" form (found here: http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/
pubs/forms/FirstDepositCheckli
that can be construed as a license that hands over student thesis
publishing rights to the University of Iowa -- unless an embargo form
is signed, and that embargo only lasts two years. I ran the First
Deposit form by a very good entertainment lawyer who confirmed this
reading. In short, it's a badly written, ill-conceived document.
The problem is that the Graduate College (which gives out degrees)
won't revise this contested language (which it wrote), and the
deadline to turn in the First Deposit form is approaching in two
weeks. Even after internal pressure from students, staff, and
faculty, the Graduate College has refused to revert to the old,
uncontroversial form.
I said before that this doesn't appear to have anything to do with
Google Print, but that's not entirely true. The language of this new
Graduate College form would allow for MFA theses deposited this year
to eventually be posted on Google Print, which is a reminder that we
need good university policies regarding copyright protections and
exceptions. I highly recommend UVA Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan's blog,
The Googlization of Everything: http://
www.googlizationofeverything
implications of the Google Print project.
This Friday, March 14, my colleague Loren Glass will meet with a Dean
at the Graduate College, Dale Wurster. Loren is representing the
concerns of UI's Nonfiction Writing Program -- which has led this
fight -- and he will try to convince Dean Wurster to go back to the
old form. Sadly, it's not an open meeting, and I won't even be
attending (Wurster scheduled me for an individual meeting next week,
instead).
UI librarian Paul Soderdahl and others have been urging the Graduate
College to revert to the old First Deposit form until we have time to
write a sane publishing policy regarding MFA theses. But there seems
to be some kind of breakdown between the Graduate College and the
Library, some kind of bizarre communication-scrambling wormhole that
spits out contradictory information.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on an April 5 deposit date, like a
really boring bureaucratic version of the TV show 24 -- all while
this year's crop of MFA graduates could suffer negative consequences.
Based on my own experience, I feel that UI's Graduate College has a
really poor record with copyright issues, including fair use, and I
am not hopeful that things will turn around. However, the external
pressure might help.
Best,
Kembrew McLeod
P.S. Please spread the word in emails and blogs, and you have my
permission to reprint this email.
Labels: Google, Iowa, Kembrew, MFA, rights, theses, Thisbe, Web
posted by VVG @ Thursday, March 13, 2008
1 Comments:
whoa, that's weird. Do universities or university libraries make money off the google ads with this? Or could they eventually... Somehow, I don't feel like this is just about information-freedom either - there's usually someone profiting. Good sluething Sugi. p.s. I think we might be neighbors soon; I'm moving to 108th once my derelict apartment is rehabbed. How's the Fairway there?
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