Quote of the Day

With all the debate and discussion that flows about various legal and illegal forms of copying in the digital age, I like this quote which takes us back to a simpler time.....

"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind, so I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind. "

(Rudyard Kipling)

Open Access 101

Looking for an overview of Open Access? I’ve just finished reading this one provided by Peter Suber. Peter Suber is, amongst other things, editor of the very useful Open Access News blog.

Want something even shorter? Check this one out.

Want it in Spanish? Or Slovenian perhaps? He covers that too!

Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation

WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) has just released an International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation. The study focuses on the copyright and related laws of Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States and the impact of those laws on digital preservation of copyrighted works. It also addresses proposals for legislative reform and efforts to develop non-legislative solutions to the challenges that copyright law presents for digital preservation.

Peter Suber gives a useful summary of the study and comments on it from an open access perspective on his blog. You can take a look at his thoughts here.

Freedom of Information: what relevance to researchers?

An announcement from the Research Information Network (RIN) about a workshop for researchers on the topic of FoI.

"Freedom of Information: what relevance to researchers?

9 September 2008, 10:00 - 16:00

Royal Institute of Public Health, 28 Portland Place, London W1

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act came fully into force in 2005.
The Act imposes significant duties and responsibilities on public
authorities to give access to information. Together with the Data
Protection Act and the Environmental Information Regulations, FoI is
a significant part of the wider government agenda to increase
openness, transparency, trust and accountability in the public sector.

In this context, the Research Information Network is organizing a
workshop to raise awareness of FoI as a resource discovery tool for
the research community; to help researchers become 'informed
consumers' under the new access regime; and to look at instances
where use of the FoI Act has been beneficial to researchers. Speakers
at the event, to be chaired by Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for
Freedom of Information, will include Professor Duncan Tanner (Bangor
University), Steve Wood (Information Commissioner's Office) and
Teresa Bastow (The National Archives)."

Click here for further information, programme and registration.

Making use of the FoI legislation a resource discovery tool is a topic I have covered in a number of my presentations so I do feel this could be a useful workshop for many.