10262017 Members Call
October 26 Conference Call
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Attending: Michael Cook (Cornell), Kelly Trei (UIUC), Doug Holland (MOBOT), GBIF, Connie Rinaldo (MCZ), David Iggulden (Kew), Graham Higley (EOL), Jane Smith (NHM London), Susan Fraser (NYBG), Judy (Botany), Tom (AMNH), Barbara Ferry (SIL), Carolyn Sheffield (BHL)
Regrets: Martin R. Kalfatovic, Christine Giannoni
AGENDA and NOTES
- Secretariat Update
- Donations. 25 August - 30 September: US$750 from 11 donors. Gifts ranged from US$10 to US$200.
- Program Director Meetings and Presentations. Busy few weeks:
- ICSTI Fall Meeting. Washington, DC. 26 October 2017.
- Smithsonian Digitization Fair, Smithsonian 2017, Washington, DC, 18-19 October 2017 [Presentation]
- NDP at 3: Envisioning the Next Three Years of the National Digital Platform, Crystal City, VA, 17 October 2017
- Internet Archive Annual Event and Leaders Forum 2017, San Francisco, 11-13 October 2017 [Presentation]
- TDWG 2017, Ottawa, 1-6 October 2017 [Presentation]
- GBIF: GBIF 24th Governing Board Meeting in Helsinki, attended by Connie and Martin.
On Tuesday afternoon, SIL staff discovered that IA had been blocked on Smithsonian networks and BHL also experienced some issues with the PDF generator at that time. The block was first noticed on the main SI network which is the primary network used by Smithsonian staff. That block was quickly lifted the same day and the associated PDF generation issues, described below, seemed to resolve at the same time. The next morning (10/25) we discovered IA was still blocked on another network, one primarily used by guests. Smithsonian IT has been notified and we hope to have that lifted soon as well; BHL does not receive heavy traffic from that network but we are still working to get that lifted quickly.
In terms of the PDF generation issues that co-occurred with the IA blocks, Mike identified some sluggishness and a higher error rate, up from .003 to .3%, so still under 1% but higher than normal. That appeared to resolve with the lift of the first block but did recur the next morning so there may still be ongoing issues; Joel is returning from DLF today and will be monitoring the situation with SI IT.
- Topics from the Chair and Members (Connie/Jane)
- Newest Member: Yale University has been approved and welcomed into the BHL Family. Kevin Merriman will be the representative.
- Sonny Bono Collection (http://blog.archive.org/2017/10/10/books-from-1923-to-1941-now-liberated/) (Barbara)
Possible wider discussion for annual meeting - there is still a significant amount of due diligence involved; BHL will also have to assess the risk tolerance for participating institutions. Martin has had an initial discussion with the Smithsonian General Council and they believe that there is a strong legal framework for this interpretation of Section 108h of the Copyright Statute. [MRK note]
Discussion
In essennce, this is exploring the option of providng access to content published between 1923 and 1941, so long as it is not currently on the market. This might require a wider discussion, perhaps at the annual meeting. Martin has checked w SI OGC, and they feel there is a strong legal framework to move in this direction. So we all might want to explore what our respective institutions what comfort would be with that level of risk. It presents a very exciting possibility.
This would be for items that are no longer on the market from the author or publisher or whoever has the rights. Second hand would not be considered on market. Some due diligence that needs to be done. Wondering what kind of guidance we would want to give to Members. Perhaps best places to look, with clarity that it may not be 100% certain but identifying acceptable level of risk. Many of us have done orphan works research.
Elsewhere in the world, parameters might be different. In UK, there might be a push do this as well but might need to be approached in terms of a broad license agreement for example. Guidance on what is and isn’t possible, and what they might need to check.
Should we form a working group?
Jane would be happy to work with others on this.
Barbara and Martin, between them, can probably also be part of this group.
Harvard tends to be more conservative. Kyle Courtney (Harvard) was recently at IA, though, so hoping that might prompt some guidance from internal office.
First step might be we all gather our own guidance and look to other groups like ALA to see what is being put out by the profession in terms of guidance.
What if someone else scanned and it’s in IA, is it ok for us to ingest and making it available? If it’s in IA, wouldn't it already come through via ingest process? Wonder about places like Michigan that scanned everything through Google but it’s currently blocked, wonder if they will start making it available.
It’s also about stating to the world at large our position on this. Would be worthwhile to make our view(s) explicit on wiki, i.e., being respectful of copyright while working to achieve as much as digitization as possible.
Action – All, find out institutional guidance and what level of risks institutions are willing to bear. Then if Jane and Barbara can come up with some guidance for complying with the parameters.
- Notes from the Hathi Trust Shared Print Agreement webinar (possible wider discussion for annual meeting) (Barbara)
Jackie Chapman attended the webinar. Link to recorded webinar on HathiTrust’s discussion of proposal to maintain for 25 years of monographs scanned. Limit of 25 years is not a rolling limit. ILL provision – not only keep but make available for loan for other members.
Hoping BHL can have a wider discussion about what all of the scanning institutions’ retention policies are. SIL policy is to retain indefinitely.
Discussion page
This could be a Birds of a Feather topic for the annual meeting
- Recent/Upcoming Conferences/Meetings (Connie/All)
- EC trying to plan F2F meeting in London. Hoping to bring in people from Europe for some guidance on BHL Europe and from leaders in biodiversity field. Stay tuned.
- Charleston Library Conference – Barbara will be giving a lightning talk on BHL. Michael will also be there and will be presenting on the Hathi Trust permissions release process.
- Doug, Susan, Judy, Martin, Michale will be at Dumbarton Oaks, December 6-8 for a meeting on
digitizing botanical literature, organized by JSTOR and Dumbarton Oaks. Scholars will be there, too.
- New Grants Submitted/Received (Connie)
- Susan: EABL is winding down. This was a 2 year grant, for which we've received a 1 year extension. Core staff will be off payroll at the end of December, early January. We're now focusing on developing a sustainability plan, especially around the permissions the project has secured and managing the moving walls for those. November 15 is the deadline for sending out content to any scanning center. The project team will be working to wrap up towards March.
- Linnaeus Link consortium – working to get more Linnaean materials into BHL. Susan is the point person. Linnaeus Link maintains a union catalog of Linnaean titles held at different institutions. Isabelle at Linnaeus site in London sent over a spreadsheet of titles that DO NOT have digital surrogates available. However, some of the titles did actually have digital surrogates, while some that allegedly already had digital surrogates are behind a paywall. Susan is working with Susan Lynch and a library school intern working to try clean up and once ready will share with BHL. Then perhaps we can all identify which are held by BHL partners and might be added.
- Connie: NDSR Grant is winding up as well. Will be finished by January, and one resident is leaving in November. Even once they leave, there will still be lots of work to be completed. The grant officially ends in June. Each resident will be giving a webinar talking about their work and recommendations, mostly in November. We'll be sending out information on those and promoting on social media. We are also grateful to iDigBio for generously offering to let us use their AdobeConnect room.
Action Items
- All, find out institutional guidance and what level of risks institutions are willing to bear.
- Jane and Barbara can come up with some guidance for complying with the parameters.
