Further to my last post on the bizarre copyright restrictions imposed by the BL, my correspondent writes:
[from her message yesterday] I will in fact go and try to collect it [today]. I will refuse to sign the copyright, asking only that I be allowed to read the paper document for 5 minutes and take notes. I fully expect the librarians to refuse this request, in which case an interesting stand-off will occur. I will let you know what happens![today] Update on above. Well, I arrived, and made my request. It was refused, on the grounds that it would “set a precedent”.Apparently, because the photocopy was not the original (whatever that means), they would have to “clarify” whether I could be allowed to read it. Had it indeed been the original, there would have been no problem in letting me look at it, or indeed even letting me photocopy the article for my own use (but still, not my student’s use).So whatever it was that [Prof Bluttrinker] had to say about [garlic] in 1899 will go undiscovered by me for at least for a few more days (or likely, weeks).The librarians did seem agreed that if I were to acquire a photocopy, scanning it, followed by OCR and then eg text mining would constitute a gross infringement (punishable by god knows what).
PMR: What are we to do?? We are trapped in this Alice-in-Wonderland where the librarians are there to stop us reading public works. A Fahrenheit2007 where publishers make their living by preventing people reading articles. Where dissemination of public information is a heinous crime.
I used to think that part of the Librarians’ role was to help develop new tools for scholarship. They have now been turned into junior police officers…
… unless some of you tell me different.