Law Commons^™

The Corruption Of Copyright And Returning It To Its Original Purposes, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since its inception, Copyright has had two purposes: the private interest of the author in being paid for her work and the public interest served by the dissemination of these works. Within the last two decades, though, some industries have systematically undermined both of those interests, redirecting the benefits of copyright towards themselves instead of the intended beneficiaries. This paper looks at the book, music, and entertainment industries, examines how copyright has been used to suppress the uses it was intended to foster, and explores ongoing and proposed avenues for course correction.

Copyright Reform: Imagining More Balanced Copyright Laws, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Earlier chapters of this book provide a history of copyright and libraries in the United States, a review of outdated language in the existing copyright code, and a discussion of actions by both copyright owners and the public to rebalance copyright outside of legislation. This chapter simply imagines what copyright could be if we disregard the known political and legal obstacles. It starts with no constraints, which one might argue is both impractical and foolish. Why spend time discussing what could be when treaties, self-interest, and powerful industry lobbies stand in the way?

The answer is simply that environments can …

Food For Thought: Should Libraries Partner With Nonlibrary Search Engine Providers For Their Opacs And Discovery Layers?, Michelle Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since the development of integrated library systems (ILS) in the 1970s, the focus of developers and librarians has been on the “integrated” aspect, but with the advances in technology, the time has come for libraries to consider whether a disaggregated system would better benefit their users. This article seeks to make the argument that the design of a user-friendly public interface to library systems is ideal for partnerships with the broader search engine industry; such an approach would enable participants to harness their respective strengths while simultaneously limiting the effect of their deficiencies

Platform Selection And Strategic Alignment – Fall 2013 Symposium Presentation, Roger Skalbeck

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Whether providing services or resources, every library is faced with questions of selecting the right resource for the right reason. You need a website, a process for updating content, a way to manage operations, and a system for responding to constant change. Increasingly, new service opportunities are found in cloud and virtual platforms. This presentation looks at opportunities in selecting the right tools for the right job. The presentation will explore some unique aspects of law libraries and legal subject content many libraries rely on, including the strategic value of content from law libraries in metropolitan areas.

Building A Collaborative Digital Collection: A Necessary Evolution In Libraries, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Law libraries are losing ground in the effort to preserve information in the digital age. In part, this is due declining budgets, user needs, and a caution born from the great responsibility libraries feel to ensure future access instead of selecting a form that may not survive. That caution, though, has caused others, such as Google, to fill the silence with their vision. Libraries must stand and contribute actively to the creation of digital collections if we expect a voice in future discussion. This article presents a vision of the start of a collaborative, digital academic law library, one that …

Government Relations Office And Copyright Committee, Aall Issue Brief 2010-5, Roger V. Skalbeck, Jennifer Wondracek

Digital Preservation Publications

No abstract provided.

Breaking Down Link Rot: The Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive’S Examination Of Url Stability, Sarah Rhodes

Digital Preservation Publications

Ms. Rhodes explores URL stability, measured by the prevalence of link rot over a three-year period, among the original URLs for law- and policy-related materials published to the web and archived though the Chesapeake Project, a collaborative digital preservation initiative under way in the law library community. The results demonstrate a significant increase in link rot over time in materials originally published to seemingly stable organization, government, and state web sites.

Finding The Middle Ground In Collection Development: How Academic Law Libraries Can Shape Their Collections In Response To The Call For More Practice-Oriented Legal Education, Leslie A. Street, Amanda M. Runyon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To examine how academic law libraries can respond to the call for more practice-oriented legal education, the authors compared trends in collection management decisions regarding secondary sources at academic and law firm libraries along with law firm librarians’ perceptions of law school legal research training of new associates.

A Law Library Development Project In Iraq: Looking Back Two Years Later, Kimberli Kelmor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sometimes you get a chance to work on a project so complex, even you don't come to fully understand its impact until years later. At least that has been the experience for me regarding the opportunity I had to work in Iraq with the International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) from February 2004 to January 1, 2006. As I reported in a previous essay, IHRLI, an institute of the DePaul University College of Law headed by Cherif Bassiouni, received a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Higher Education and Development (HEAD) contract to work with three Iraqi law schools.' …

Codes And Hypertext: The Intertextuality Of International And Comparative Law, Marylin J. Raisch

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The field of information studies reveals gaps in the literature of international and comparative law as part of interdisciplinary and textual studies. To illustrate the kind of theoretical and text-based work that could be done, this essay provides an example of such a study. Religious law texts, civil law codes, treaties and constitutional texts may provide a means to reveal the nature of hypertext as the new format for commentary. Margins used to be used for commentary, and now this can be done with hypertext and links in footnotes. Scholarly communication in general is now intertextual, and texts derive value …

Why Print And Electronic Resources Are Essential To The Academic Law Library, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Libraries have supported multiple formats for decades, from paper and microforms to audiovisual tapes and CDs. However, the newest medium, digital transmission, has presented a wider scope of challenges and caused library patrons to question the established and recognized multiformat library. Within the many questions posed, two distinct ones echo repeatedly. The first doubts the need to sustain print in an increasingly digital world, and the second warns of the dangers of relying on a still-developing technology. This article examines both of these positions and concludes that abandoning either format would translate into a failure of service to patrons, both …