Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

Joseph P. Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:
>
> No, at least for the public library in my county (Monroe County,
> Pennsylvania). They refuse to or cannot renew any books that are
> borrowed through Inter-Library Loan. Thus, I can borrow ILL books
> only for three weeks (unless I ask them to borrow again and again
> through ILL, which surely will drive them crazy, not to mention the
> costs they have to pay for the postage and service).
>
> It is very obvious that the copyright law is very bad for those
> who desire to purchase a copy of a work that is out-of-print, is
> not available in any nearby used bookstores, cannot be found by any
> book search services, cannot be reproduced by the companies (such
> as UMI), but is sitting on a shelf in a remote library gathering
> dust.
>
> Very sad, indeed.

I checked with the Interlibrary Loan Dept. here where I work and the policy on renewals seems to be an individual thing with libraries. The concern is mostly for getting the material back for that libraries users. We will renew on a limited basis with libraries that we have established a good relationship with and from whom we are fairly certain the books will come back. While it is required that we inform borrowers of the prohibitions of copyright laws, it's also known that once the book is in the hand of the patron, we really cannot police what they do with them. The only real insurance of compliance is the patrons own conscience.

Leah Gadzikowski
Kornhauser Library
Public Access Services
(502) 852-8530
<lrgadz01[_at_]gwise.louisville.edu> Received on Thu Aug 27 1998 - 13:57:49 GMT