60 minute read
Writing in Mathematics
Too often, when technical services is asked for assessment reports they are rebuilding the same reports from scratch year after year. Servizzi lays out a seven-step process that details a more efficient way to manage this information and make data more accessible and apparent to the library’s key stakeholders.
The chapters throughout this book provide case studies that show how technical services is key in the assessment picture of demonstrating library value. Through their collective experiences perhaps even more institutions will find success at demonstrating this at their various locations.
ATGReviewerRating: Ineedthison mydesk. (This book is so valuable, that I want my own copy at my desk that I will share with no one.)
Hakala-Ausperk,Catherine. Win ’Em Over. Chicago: American Library Association, 2019. 978-0-8389-1811-1, 48 pages. $19.99
Reviewed by MichellePolchow (Electronic Resources Librarian, University of California, Davis) <mpolchow@ucdavis.edu>
A professional promotion is great news! Now that you have the job, do you (and others) wonder if you’re up to the task? Hakala-Ausperk’s new book is a confidence builder for anyone facing a new job, especially with the need to establish leadership skills. Even more so, this book even helps with that potentially awkward experience of receiving an internal promotion where you suddenly become the boss of your friends and colleagues.
This brief book is presented in workbook format. The author acts in the role of mentor or career coach, providing space for reflection, visualizing exercises, recognizing your accomplishments and creating a plan to meet the challenges ahead of you. Given the author’s extensive and diversified set of experiences earned over 30+ years in the field (including library service work, management, administration and as an iSchool instructor for Kent State University), she’s written this book that will help a large variety of younger professionals. The leadership planners focus on successful team building by developing strong and effective library leaders. Features in Win ’Em Over, such as “Walking the Plank” exercises and suggestions to “push yourself to try something new,” can fundamentally shape your career, not just launch a new job. In this era when libraries face challenges as never before, it’s gratifying to discover a book focused on the development of human resources and recognizes this is one of the library’s paramount investments.
Editor’s Note: We do not condone writing in the print materials found in our collection — so if you are using this book from a collection, please record your answers in a notebook!
ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this available somewhere in my
sharednetwork. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it with three to five days via my network catalog.)
Collecting to the Core — Writing in Mathematics
by KristineK.Fowler (Mathematics Librarian, University of Minnesota; Mathematics Subject Editor, Resources for College Libraries) <fowle013@umn.edu>
Column Editor: AnneDoherty (Resources for College Libraries Project Editor, CHOICE/ACRL) <adoherty@ala-choice.org>
Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting to the Core” column highlights monographic works that are essential to the academic li brary within a particular discipline, inspired by the Resources for College Libraries bib liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). In each essay, subject specialists introduce and explain the classic titles and topics that continue to remain relevant to the undergrad uate curriculum and library collection. Disciplinary trends may shift, but some classics never go out of style. — AD
“We’re being WEC[k]ed.” Such is the slang at the UniversityofMinnesotaSchool ofMathematics in developing and codifying a Writing-Enriched Curriculum; mathematics departments elsewhere have gone or are going through similar processes. Despite the misconception that math is the opposite of words, the effort to explicitly use effective writing in learning math concepts and communicating math research is of long standing. Evidence can be seen in current interdisciplinary education emphases such as STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics), in iterations of the writing across the curriculum movement, in math style guides, and in the many prizes established over the years to recognize excellent math writing. This article will highlight some of the key resources around writing in mathematics, in its various aspects.
EducationalAspects
The intentional focus on integrating written communication objectives into teaching and learning has had many labels (and acronyms), with somewhat differing emphases: writing across the curriculum (WAC), writing to learn, writing in the disciplines (WID). A seminal general source is Writing Across the Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Programs, edited by Susan H. McLeod and Margot Soven. 1 David R. Russell traced the progression of writing-enriched education in Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History, with a particular focus on 1970-2000 in the 2002 second edition. 2 He notes that “though it may seem surprising at first glance, mathematics has been a leader in this regard,” particularly in the shift to departmental programs that can create more lasting institutional change than an individual instructor’s efforts. 3
John Meier and Thomas Rishel provide direction for math-specific implementation in their 1998 Writing in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, advocating “sensible, well-formed writing assignments which are consistent with the pedagogical style and goals of a course.” 4 With many practical suggestions and exercises teachers can use, they address how to incorporate writing into courses, while also discussing why. The short answer: “Writing requires thinking, and thinking is what we, as teachers, want to encourage…. We hope to convince you that to get students to absorb mathematics, or any other subject, better, you need to have them think about, then write about that subject.” 5
Many more ready-to-use suggestions are provided via the Mathematical Association ofAmerica’s (MAA) Classroom Resource Materials series, specifically AnnalisaCrannell et al.’s Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses: Crushed Clowns, Cars, and Coffee to Go. 6 The lively projects utilize a range of skills and are indexed by undergraduate course, from pre-calculus through differential equations. Franco Vivaldi’s Mathematical Writing provides the basis of a dedicated undergraduate course, modeled on one he has taught, including examples and exercises (some of which have solutions/hints provided). 7
It should be mentioned that in some mathematical contexts, “writing” refers specifically to the writing of proofs; indeed, the math course most likely to be explicitly identified as writing-intensive is often a course in logic/ proof-writing that forms a transition from low-
er to upper level undergraduate mathematics. UlrichDaepp and PamelaGorkin’s Reading, Writing, and Proving: A Closer Look at Mathematics is in this vein, which makes clear the intertwined nature of mathematical reasoning and its written expression. 8 This connection is built into the Process Standard for Communication outlined in the highly influential Principles and Standards for School Mathematics for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 from the National CouncilofTeachers ofMathematics: “Students who have opportunities, encouragement, and support for speaking, writing, reading, and listening in mathematics classes reap dual benefits: they communicate to learn mathematics, and they learn to communicate mathematically.” 9
StylisticAspects
That there are many different perspectives on what constitutes good mathematical communication is exemplified by the process leading up to the publication of How to Write Mathematics (American Mathematical Society, 1973). 10 Originally intended to be a consensus “pamphlet on expository writing of books and papers at the research level and at the level of graduate texts” by a high-powered AMS committee, it ended up as a compilation of four individual essays on the topic by the four committee members: Norman Steenrod, Paul Halmos, Menahem Schiffer, and Jean Dieudonné. Halmos, always entertaining to read, begins his essay with “There Is No Recipe and What It Is.” Many of the recommendations, like the shared emphasis on rewriting, could be applicable to any subject; but each author discusses some specifically mathematical concerns, from the ordering of theorems to the level of detail that should be included in proofs.
There are several book-length guides to the subject, such as A Primer of Mathematical Writing: Being a Disquisition on Having Your Ideas Recorded, Typeset, Published, Read, and Appreciated from the very prolific Steven Krantz. 11 He addresses the gamut from writing in TeX, the typesetting system invented by and for mathematicians, to the different style and organizational requirements for a research paper versus an opinion piece. Nicholas Higham’s Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences gives an overlapping perspective on some of the same topics, as well as unique ones like preparing a research poster and writing and defending a thesis. 12 The chapter offering advice for those mathematicians for whom English is a second language is very relevant to this very international scholarly community.
Naturally there are various internet resources for math writing. A rich source for educators is the MAA’s mathcomm.org, which originated in the MIT Department of Mathematics and provides a collection of resources aimed at engaging students, including “General Principles of Mathematical Communication,” a list of resources for “Writing to Learn: Using Writing to Help Students Learn Math,” and more. 13
Exemplars
The Internet also serves as a source of written mathematics in traditional and emerging formats, such as EvelynLamb’s “Roots of Unity” blog on the Scientific American web site and the Simons Foundation’s Quanta Magazine, which both present current mathematics for a general audience. 14-15 TerryTao’s blog section “On Writing” addresses the issues directly, while his many posts and research publications can be mined for excellent prose. 16
Both the MAA and the AMS, as well as other organizations, regularly give prizes for excellent math writing, which are convenient for identifying good examples. For instance, the Joseph L. Doob Prize recognizes research-level books that attain the “highest standard” in exposition and the EulerBook Prize recognizes “exceptionally well written books with a positive impact on the public’s view of mathematics.” The most recent Doob Prize was awarded to John Friedlander and Henryk Iwaniec for their book Opera de Cribro and the 2019 Euler Book Prize winner was Cathy O’Neil for Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. 17-18
For a sampler of outstanding recent short pieces, see the annual series The Best Writing on Mathematics, edited by Mircea Pitici since 2010. 19 Intentionally non-technical and drawn from a wide variety of sources, including Nature and The New York Times as well as The Mathematical Intelligencer, the selections are meant to be enjoyed by the general reader. Famous mathematicians are among the writers represented, as are early-career academics, science journalists, and others. Topics range from current news controversies, such as Moon Duchin on mathematical tests for gerrymandering, to foundational aspects of mathematics, such as John H. Conway on “unsettleable arithmetical problems.”
Including the above resources in library collections will support students, faculty, and programs with written works about writing in mathematics. Whether these very fine pieces all follow the advice for how to write mathematics well is a proof left for the interested reader.
Endnotes
1. McLeod, SusanH. and MargotSoven, eds. Writing Across the Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Programs. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Available in the WAC Clearinghouse Landmark Publications in Writing Studies: https://wac.colostate.edu/books/landmarks/ mcleod-soven/ 2. Russell, DavidR. Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History. 2nd ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002. 3. Ibid, 320. 4. Meier, John, and ThomasRishel. Writing in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1998, p. x.* 5. Ibid, 5. 6. Crannell, Annalisa, et al. Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses: Crushed Clowns, Cars, and Coffee to Go. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 2004.* 7. Vivaldi, Franco. Mathematical Writing. London: Springer, 2014.* 8. Daepp, Ulrich, and Pamela Gorkin. Reading, Writing, and Proving: A Closer Look at Mathematics. 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 2011. 9. National Council ofTeachers ofMathematics. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000, p. 60.* 10. Steenrod,NormanE, et al. How to Write Mathematics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1973. 11. Krantz, StevenG. A Primer of Mathematical Writing: Being a Disquisition on Having Your Ideas Recorded, Typeset, Published, Read, and Appreciated. 2nd ed. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2017.* 12. Higham, Nicholas J. Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1998.* 13. Mathematical Association ofAmerica. “Mathematical Communication” http://mathcomm.org/. 14. Lamb, Evelyn. Roots of Unity (blog). Accessed June 28, 2019. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/ 15. Quanta Magazine. Accessed June 28, 2019. https://www.quantamagazine.org/ 16. Tao, Terence (blog). Accessed June 28, 2019. https://terrytao.wordpress.com/ 17. Friedlander, John and HenrykIwaniec. Opera de Cribro. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2010. 18. O’Neil, Cathy. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. London: Penguin Books, 2018. 19. Pitici, Mircea, ed. The Best Writing on Mathematics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011- .* *Editor’s note: An asterisk (*) denotes a title selected for Resources for College Libraries.
LEGAL ISSUES
SectionEditors:
BruceStrauch (The Citadel) <strauchb@citadel.edu> JackMontgomery (Western Kentucky University) <jack.montgomery@wku.edu>
Legally Speaking — European Union Promises Big Changes in Copyright Law
by BillHannay (Partner, Schiff Hardin LLP, Chicago, IL) <whannay@schiffhardin.com>
ControversyContinuesoverNewEU
Directive,ButitDoesCreateSafe HarborsforLibrarians
On March 26, 2019, the EU’s Parliament adopted a new “Directive on Copyright for the Digital Single Market.” The leadership of the EU claims that the directive will modernize and improve copyright rules on a market-wide basis, but the voting was anything but unanimous. It passed 60% to 40% (or 348 in favor, 274 against). Five countries refused to approve the directive: Italy, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and three other countries (Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia) abstained. See generally https:// ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/modernisation-eu-copyright-rules.
The EU leadership claims that the new law will have three major benefits: (1) it will ensure better choice and access to content online and across borders; (2) it will improve copyright rules for research, education and cultural heritage purposes; and (3) it will achieve a well-functioning marketplace for copyright.
The Council of the European Union (a separate body consisting of government ministers from each EU country) officially approved the directive in April, and it went “into force” on June 7th, 2019. However, it will not be fully operative until the completion of the “transposition” phase in which each EU member state is given time to enact its own internal laws to implement the directive. (The member states will have until June 7th, 2021 to do so.)
It will be a bit complicated if the dissenting states continue to oppose the directive. If a member state fails to pass the required national legislation (or if the national legislation does not adequately comply with the requirements of the directive), the EU’s executive branch (called the European Commission) may initiate legal action against the member state in the European Court of Justice.
According to the EU’s website, Europe “needs modern copyright rules fit for the digital age” and the new Directive on Copyright “will make sure consumers and creators can make the most of the digital world.” Moreover, the Directive “will help European copyright industries to flourish in a Digital Single Market and European authors to reach new audiences, while making European works widely accessible to European citizens, also across borders.” The Directive’s aim is to “ensure a good balance between copyright and relevant public policy objectives such as education, research, innovation and the needs of persons with disabilities.”
The five countries that voted against the new directive expressed strong but polite disagreement with the leadership, issuing their own Joint Statement commenting as follows:
We believe that the Directive in its current form is a step back for the
Digital Single Market rather than a step forward.
Most notably we regret that the Directive does not strike the right balance between the protection of right holders and the interests of EU citizens and companies. It therefore risks to hinder innovation rather than promote it and to have a negative impact the competitiveness of the European Digital Single
Market.
Furthermore, we feel that the Directive lacks legal clarity, will lead to legal uncertainty for many stakeholders concerned and may encroach upon EU citizens’ rights. 1
Poland has even gone so far as to bring suit against the European Parliament over the Directive. The country’s Deputy Foreign Minister is quoted as saying: “This system may result in adopting regulations that are analogous to preventive censorship, which is forbidden not only in the Polish constitution but also in the EU treaties.” 2
The chief problems with the Directive are contained in Articles 11 and 13 in the original draft (now re-numbered Articles 15 and 17). Article 11 establishes a socalled “link tax,” which will allow publishers to charge platforms such as Google to “link” to publications and display news stories. Article 13 would impose liability on any platforms for displaying content that infringes on someone’s copyright.
The big platforms — such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and others — and their customers fear that the Directive will significantly deform and destroy the way the sites currently function. While the Directive says that content platforms cannot be liable for what they’re hosting, that exemption is entirely dependent upon the sites’ efforts to remove anything that infringes on someone else’s copyrighted works, like books, magazine articles, music or pirated movies. Sites can only be safe if they proactively ensure that copyrighted content is not making its way onto the site. The platforms (and everyday users) are of the view that this is a fool’s errand. There is no effective way to detect and prevent millions of users from uploading a copyrighted photo, sound clip, video scene, or other potentially protected work. Platforms would have to install and implement some sort of mass filter, which doesn’t currently exist and would, as one commentator noted, “be ripe for abuse by copyright trolls and would make millions of mistakes.”
For those of you worried about the impact of this new law on the viral creative process known as “memes,” the EU says to stop worrying. Certain tweaks to Article 13 of the law were made earlier this year in order — theoretically — to make memes safe “for purposes of quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody and pastiche.”
As is often the case with large-scale law reform projects, there are good things accompanying the new Directive as well as the seeming censorship of the previously free-wheeling Internet. Of greatest relevance to libraries and research institutions, the new Directive will allow libraries and other cultural heritage institutions, like archives or museums, to make copies of EU cultural heritage protected by copyright and related rights to preserve it, using modern digital techniques.
The Directive will also make it easier for cultural heritage institutions to conclude licenses with collecting societies, which cover all the out-of-print (or out-of-commerce) works in their collections. This should significantly facilitate the use of works that are no longer commercially available, while ensuring that
the rights of copyright-holders are fully safeguarded. This will make it possible for cultural heritage institutions to digitize and make available their collections of out-of-commerce works for the benefit of European culture and of all citizens.
The mechanics of this process will be aided by an exception included in the Directive that will apply in specific cases when no collective management organization exists that can license the use of out-of-commerce works to cultural heritage institutions.
Moreover, the Directive addresses the situation in which a work of art is no longer protected by copyright, i.e., falls into what the legal terminology calls “public domain.” In such cases, anyone should be free to make, use and share copies of that work, be it a photo, an old painting or a statue. However, this is not currently always the case, because some Member States provide copyright protection to copies of those works of art. The new Directive will make sure that all users are able to disseminate online — with full legal certainty — copies of works of art that are in the public domain. For instance, anybody will be able to copy, use and share online photos of paintings, sculptures and works of art in the public domain available on the web and reuse them, including for commercial purposes or to upload them in Wikipedia.
blockchain and whether it could be used to reduceuncertaintyaboutwhoauthoredawork and the date it was produced.
ANSWER: Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. It is an open ledger of information that can be used to record and track transactions, which are exchanged and verified on a peer-to-peer network. The significance of distributed ledger technology is that it ensures the integrity of the ledger by crowdsourcing oversight and thus removes the need for a central authority.
There may be an opportunity to use block chain to solve the determination of authorship and production date if it is built on the sustain ability of copyright registration information. Some have argued that use of blockchain could actually reduce the number of people needed to maintain archives. Blockchain may actu ally have more application for trademark and patent law, because of the greater flexibility in copyright law. For example, registration is not required to claim rights in a copyrighted work as opposed to a patent. In order sue for copyright infringement; however, one must register the copyright, so registration is still very important.
In addition to these defenses or exceptions to copyright violations, the Directive deals across the board with a number of other copyright exceptions. Currently, many of these exceptions to copyright law are currently “optional” and do not necessarily apply across borders. Also, some of them need to be re-assessed in light of today’s technological realities. Therefore, the Directive on Copyright seeks to modernize copyright rules and make key exceptions and limitations applicable throughout the EU, especially those in the areas of teaching, research, and (as noted above) preservation of cultural heritage.
Text and data mining (“TDM”) is an automated process which allows information to be gathered through the high speed machine reading of massive amounts of data and texts. The new rules will allow researchers to apply this technology on large numbers of scientific journals that their research organizations have subscribed to, with no need to ask for authorization for text and data mining purposes.
The new teaching exception will cover digital uses of copyright-protected content for the purpose of illustration for teaching. For example, the exception will ensure that educational establishments (such as colleges, universities, and schools) can make available teaching material or online courses to distance students in other Member States through a secure electronic environment, e.g., a university’s intranet or a school’s virtual learning environment.
An updated blockchain secured and distributed may provide assistance in recording rights that are created in original works of authorship. It has the potential to reduce costs by speeding up registration processes and for clearing rights. Some even argue that it may have the potential to replace the current copyright system currently in use at the U.S. Copyright Office. At present, blockchain’s use in copyright is merely in the discussion stage. Proponents say that as the technology becomes mainstream, developers will have to collaborate to develop standards and interoperability protocols. The European Union Intellectual Property Office and the U.S. Congress currently are looking into the capabilities of blockchain.
whether it is permissible to use a student’s picture from a previous presentation.
ANSWER: To answer this question re quires further analysis of the question. By picture, does the librarian mean photograph of the student or a photograph that the student used in a presentation? I will assume that the presentation is for a course that meets the re
But neither the “bad” aspects of the new Directive nor the good ones will be implemented in the near future, until EU member states enact their own “transposition” laws implementing the directive and until the lawsuits challenging the Directive make their way through the courts.
In the meantime, you can still dream a little meme with me and publish it on the Internet without worrying about copyright violations. Oh, hey, I forgot, the EU leadership says that memes will still be protected even under the new Directive. So, naught to worry.
William M. Hannay is a partner in the Chicago-based law firm, SchiffHardin LLP, and is a frequent contributor to Against the Grain and a regular speaker at the Charles ton Conference. He can be reached at <whannay@schiffhardin.com>.
Endnotes
1. https://www.permanentrepresentations. nl/binaries/nlatio/documents/policynotes/2019/02/20/joint-statement-regardingthe-copyright-directive/II-39+Declaration+ NL+ea+on+Copyright+DSM.pdf 2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eucopyright-poland/poland-files-complaintwith-eus-top-court-over-copyright-rule
Questions & Answers — Copyright Column
Column Editor: LauraN.Gasaway (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of North CarolinaChapel Hill School of Law, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; Phone: 919-962-2295; Fax: 919-962-1193) <laura_gasaway@unc.edu> www.unc.edu/~unclng/gasaway.htm
QUESTION: A publisher asks about
QUESTION: Ahigh schoollibrarian asks
change-idUSKCN1SU0T9 quirements of section 110(1) of the Copyright
Act (in a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom, with students and teachers present at the same place as a part of instruction).
If it is a photograph of the student who delivered the first presentation, then answer is easy. It is the photographer rather than the student who owns the copyright, absent a transfer of rights. Because of privacy concerns, however, the student should be asked about using his or her image in a later presentation unless the school has students and parents agree to a blanket permission to use their photographs.
Assuming that the second presentation is also for a class, reusing another type of pho tograph from the first student’s presentation is also covered by section 110(1) that allows the use of photographs in a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom etc., as a part of instruction. If the first presentation contained original photographs taken by the student, it would be polite to seek permission to reuse the photo. Regardless of who took the photo graph, if the presentation is posted on the web, permission to use it should be obtained unless the image is in the public domain.
New to Chicago American Journal of Health Economics
A quarterly journal of the American Society of Health Economists
New in january 2020 Environmental and Energy policy and The Economy
An annual journal of the National Bureau of Economic Research
Subscribe to the Complete Chicago Package (CCP) to save up to 50% on the comprehensive collection of journals from the University of Chicago Pres s. The CCP is designed to meet the content needs of your institution by providing electronic access to 83 titles from a wide range of disciplines.
Learn more at journals.uchicago.edu, or by calling (877) 705-1878 (US & Canada) or (773) 753-3347 (intl).
Questions & Answers
from page 64
QUESTION: Audible announced that it would create the Audible Captions program to transcribe a book’s audio in order to create a text to run along with the audio. A reading teacher asks why publishers are objecting to this since the purpose is to help children “who are not reading to engage through listening.”
ANSWER: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed suit against Audible on August 23, 2019, to halt Audible’s plan to implement the Audible Captions program. Al though it did not join the suit, the Authors Guild later issued a letter supporting the AAP suit.
Publishers claim that their contracts with Audible are limited to voice recording and playback. They believe that including captions violates their rights of reproduction, distribu tion and display. Audible posits that it is too soon to file suit since the program had not yet been introduced to the public. Despite this, on August 28 Audible stipulated to the court that it would not introduce the Audible Captions program to the works from a group of major publishers until the copyright and licensing issues raised in the suit are resolved. It will go forward with the program for Audible and Amazon original works and for works in the public domain, however.
QUESTION: A children’s librarian asks about the recent copyright litigation involving the song “Baby Shark.”
ANSWER: The “Baby Shark” song is quite popular with toddlers but is very irritating to others of us. It became popular based on a 2016 posting on YouTube that has millions of views. The origins of the song itself are somewhat unclear, but a musician, Johnny Only, sued Pinkfong in South Korea this summer claiming copyright infringement of his “Baby Shark” song that he published on YouTube in 2011.
There is an argument that the tune was a campfire folk song in the United States for many years before “Baby Shark.” SmartStudy, the company behind the Pinkfong brand, claims that the tune is in the public domain. In order to succeed in the suit, Johnny Only will have to prove that the second song is substantially to “Baby Shark” and that he created the work that is not in the public domain. The issue will be decid ed in South Korean courts, so it bears watching.
QUESTION: A publisher asks when the modernization of the U.S. Copyright Office will be completed.
ANSWER: That is an excellent question. Recently, Thom Tillis, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina who is chair of the Senate Ju diciary’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee, wrote to the Copyright Office questioning the slow progress of modernizing the public recor dation and registration system and implementing a new Copyright Enterprise System. It is slated to be completed in 2023, which Senator Tillis said was too long.
Senator Tillis says that information tech nology experts indicate that the modernized registration system could be implemented in 8-12 weeks. A new system would speed the registration process from the current 1-7 months for electronically submitted claims and 1-18 months for claims received via email. The times are longer for both if correspondence is required. A new system would provide “real-time data and what needs to be tweaked within weeks, not months or years.”
According to Register of Copyrights, Karyn Temple, the Copyright Office has dedicated 25 employees to reduce the average pendency times by 40% within the last two years and to eliminate the backlog of workable claims. The Office believes that long-term planning for IT and other infrastructure upgrades could be im proved if Congress gave the Copyright Office authority to use unobligated fee balances from previous budget cycles.
This is a crucial issue for both copyright industries and for users of copyrighted works. Copyright is extremely important not only to copyright producers but also to society. Ac cording to Senator Tillis, copyright industries contribute $1.3 trillion to the U.S. gross domes tic product and represent almost 7% of the entire economy. These industries employ about 5.7 million American workers with average salaries of almost $100,000 annually.
The Tillis letter may be found at: https:// www.tillis.senate.gov/2019/7/senator-tillis-its-time-for-congress-to-modernize-the-unitedstates-copyright-office.
Reports of Meetings — 38th Annual Charleston Conference
and Sever Bordeianu (Head, Print Resources Section, University Libraries, MSC05 3020, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001; Phone: 505-277-2645; Fax: 505-277-9813) <sbordeia@unm.edu>
Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition, “Oh, Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Charleston Gaillard Center, Francis Marion Hotel, Embassy Suites Historic Downtown, and Courtyard Marriott Historic District — Charleston, SC, November 5-9, 2018
Charleston Conference Reports compiled by: Ramune K. Kubilius (Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) <r-kubilius@northwestern.edu>
Column Editor’s Note: Thanks to all of the Charleston Conference attendees who agreed to write short reports highlighting sessions they attended at the 2018 Charleston Conference. Attempts were made to provide a broad coverage of sessions, but there are always more sessions than there are reporters. Some presenters posted their slides and handouts in the online conference schedule. Please visit the conference site, http://www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/, and link to selected videos, interviews, as well as to blog reports written by Charleston Conference blogger, Donald Hawkins. The 2018 Charleston Conference Proceedings will be published in 2019, in partnership with Purdue University Press: http://www.thepress. purdue.edu/series/charleston.
In this issue of ATG you will find the final installment of 2018 conference reports. The first four installments can be found in ATG v.31#1, February 2019, v.31#2, April 2019, v.31#3, June 2019 and v.31#4, September 2019. Watch for reports from the 2019 Charleston Conference to begin publishing next year. — RKK
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018 LIVELY DISCUSSIONS
The eBook Story: The Key to a Happy Ending — Presented by Katy Aronoff (Ex Libris), Denise Branch (Virginia Commonwealth University), Evelyn Elias (Taylor & Francis), and Emma Waecker (EBSCO Information Services) — http://sched.co/GB33
Reported by Christine Fischer (UNC Greensboro) <cmfische@uncg.edu>
The content of this session was centered around three areas of focus relating to electronic books: metadata, management, and models. Branch outlined advantages and disadvantages of eBooks and described the workflow as a complicated ecosystem. Providing insight into the evidence-based acquisitions model, Elias explained that it affects authors because they do not receive royalties until a title is selected. Publisher metadata provided through ONIX for Books is less prone to error and is designed for international communication, but Waecker indicated that it is provided by only forty percent of publish ers, while sixty percent continue to rely upon Excel templates which offer fewer data fields. From the library system perspective Aranoff talked about the difficulties of receiving data from many sources and managing a large knowledge base. She described the multiple inter actions with a title throughout an eBook’s life cycle. The presenters provided sticky notes and invited attendees to write advantages and challenges they experience with eBooks and then to bring the notes up to a board to be arranged into categories. The discussion engaged everyone and included both librarians and publishers.
The Library’s Impactful Role in Supporting Student Success
Today: Case studies and open discussions — Presented by Michael Rodriguez (University of Connecticut, moderator), Penny Beile (University of Central Florida), Patricia Hudson (Oxford University Press), Raymond Pun (Alder Graduate School of Education), Ian Singer (Credo Reference), and David Tyckoson (California State University, Fresno) — https://sched.co/GB37
Reported by David Gibbs (California State University, Sacramento) <david.gibbs@csus.edu>
Libraries and publishers, called upon to quantify their impact on student success, have largely come up short on demonstrating direct value added. These panelists presented moderate success stories. Tyckson and his colleagues found a somewhat weak but positive correlation between number of books checked out and student GPAs. On the other hand, library instruction did not lead to higher grades. Beile was able to demonstrate that library users at her university had better grades and was able to secure funding based on this finding. She also demonstrated that students in classes using open educational resources (OER) and affordable textbooks were somewhat less likely to drop out. On the basis of this evidence, she was able to secure a position dedicated to textbook affordability and student success. Singer described a program in Arkansas that demonstrated that intervening with high school seniors led to better first-year college retention rates and less need for remediation. Pun argued that the decline in high school librarians has led to a greater need for bibliographic instruction in college. Hudson described a global study of the ways in which students find and use both free and paid reference sources. It found that students generally rely on free reference sources for quick, factual information, but a majority rely on library-acquired reference sources for more in-depth research, and are more engaged with these resources.
Managing the Changing Climate of Business Collections — Presented by Heather Howard (Purdue University), Katharine Macy (Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis), and Alyson Vaaler (Texas A&M University) — https://sched.co/GB32
This session was a Lively Lunch discussion and consisted of three brief presentations. Macy, in her presentation Determining Value through Col lection Assessment, discussed points to consider when managing business collections to meet user needs. She suggested conducting a stakeholder analysis of faculty and students using surveys and outreach, identifying key metrics (e.g., price history, use, cost per use, content coverage, portion of spend, and core resource identification), and setting priorities for both
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new and existing resources. Howard, in her presentation Critical Librarianship and New Resource Selection, advocated for using the concepts of critical librarianship (i.e., “a movement of library workers dedicated to bringing social justice principles into our work in libraries” — critlib.org) to evaluate resources during selection. Howard suggested digging deep into how a resource’s information was obtained to determine if groups or individuals were left out of the data or were harmed during the collection process. Librarians should consider how the information was acquired, who owns the company, who will have access to the information, and who won’t. Vaaler, in her presentation Accessibility: How & Why, discussed the implications of the Section 508 amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which “mandates that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities.” This amendment should be of concern to universities as some institutions receive funding from federal agencies for grants and initiatives. Universities can confirm a product’s accessibility through contract language, VPATS (Voluntary Product Ac cessibility Template), self-assessment, and user testing.
Is the Future of Collection Management More Like a Fire Ant or An Accordion? — Presented byBoaz Nadav-Manes (Brown University) — https://sched.co/GB4X
This session focused on the work of the presenter from his first automated workflow tool, POOF! created at Cornell, which OCLC subsequently purchased, to now at Brown. He wants to create a similar system but a more collaborative system. How do you bring in vendor systems and resource sharing deals into the picture? Is it like an accor dion that expands and breathes air into perceptions and thereby creating music? Or a fire ant that works in a data-driven environment, with the queen controlling everything? Can there be a collaborative model that looks at user behavior, what is being used, who owns what, and vendor activity? His library is in a large network, but is it worth it since there is a movement away from lots of selectors to a concentrated few?
Turn the Page: The New Data Realities for Librarians — Presented by Darby Orcutt (North Carolina State University), Jill Parchuck (Yale University), and Karen Phillips (Sage Publishing) — https://sched.co/GB4e
Phillips hosted the discussion by Orcutt and Parchuk. Parchuk talked about a survey of Yale faculty and their data management prac tices. Among other things the survey showed that data is spread about on campus in many physical locations, and is hared through a number of outlets, including websites, emails, and file servers. There is a lack of uniformity in how faculty are handling data. Most faculty said that they had sufficient resources for their data needs, but would like to see an institutional repository, more training, more assistance and secure storage. Orcutt noted the big shift to data on the internet: computer readers now outnumber human readers, and libraries no longer invest in information that cannot be accessed through computers. Data intensive
researchers don’t come to the library, we need to make ourselves more useful by hiring data literate staff and offering new data-centric services.
Who’s Counting? Measuring Usage of Untraditional Databases Subscriptions —Presented by Steve Cramer (UNC Greensboro), Cynthia Cronin-Kardon (University of Pennsylvania), Dan Gingert (PrivCo), Richard Landry (Sage), and John Quealy (SPGlobal.com) — https://sched.co/GB4U
This panel of presenters explored the challenges of measuring usage of databases when the content cannot be reflected in traditional COUNTER reports and how value can be conveyed in the absence of these statistics. Cramer and Cronin-Kardon presented from the librarian’s perspec tive, while Gingert, Landry, and Quealy presented from the vendor’s perspective. Cramer and Cronin-Kardon laid out the challenges and questions that must be considered when dealing with non-traditional databases (e.g., What are we counting? Users or datapoints? What is a download — a full balance sheet, a company report, etc.? Is there a way to standardize usage?). Gingert, Landry and Quealy spoke about the challenge of measuring the value of non-commoditized data, the role of subjectivity in usage statistics, the responsibility of the data publisher to convey the value of their product, and what are effective measures of usage for their products.
Data is Approaching: The changing culture of data citation, elaboration, and transparency lies ahead — Presented by Amy Forrester (DataONE), Robert Sandusky (University of Illinois at Chicago), Amy Schuler (Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies), and Heather Staines (Hypothes.is) — https://sched.co/GB4w
Presenters engaged in a freewheeling discussion, highlighting the various routes by which a person can end up in the data profession, and the many ways in which the culture has already changed by giving brief summations of their careers. Much of the discussion touched on the FAIR guidelines and how different strategies can help repositories and portals meet those standards. There is a need for a better infrastructure as well as a need for changes in culture and workflows to make data more accessible. The discussion also raised questions about where FAIR ap plies and doesn’t apply. Are archives required to meet FAIR guidelines?
Buy, Subscribe, or Borrow? Consumers’ Use Preferences for Information Products — Presented by Moonhee Cho (University of Tennessee) and Xiaohua Zhu (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) — https://sched.co/GB4q
Note: Moonhee Choo did not present in this session.
Zhu, the solo presenter in this session discussed the results of a survey about digital rights and consumption. There are five typical configura tions of DRM with different rights and limitations: Purchase outright, DRM enabled, Hosted, Subscription, Subscription w/hosted only content. Downloadability is very important for any device — the right to possess. The ability to sell was seen not as important but may be because there is no way to sell a digital item. Two surveys were conducted, one with students and the other with members of MTurk (an Amazon service). Students were less likely to buy; they prefer to rent movies. MTurk respondents prefer renting physical items and subscriptions for movies. For favorite authors, students prefer to buy print, whereas MTurk users prefer print and online equally.
Textbooks are expensive but adopting OERs can be challenging: Two models for libraries to provide e-book text access — Presented by Brian Boling (Temple University), Karen Kohn (Temple University), Russell Michalak (Goldey-Beacom College), and Monica Rysavy (Goldey-Beacom College) — https://sched.co/GB4j
The speakers from Temple University described a process where they figured out what assigned textbooks the library already had. They obtained a list of required texts from the bookstore, translated those titles to ISBNs, and compared them against the library holdings (with the help of an API). In addition, they developed a criteria to potentially purchase additional eBooks of required texts: they had to be available on eBook central as either unlimited or nonlinear users, and have been assigned for more than one semester. The first semester they did this they purchased 38 titles. They could then publicize to students, faculty, and liaison librarians that those books were available through the library. They found that 73% of the books were used, and those that were used received very high usage. The presenters from Goldey-Beacon decided that rather than pursuing open texts, they would concentrate on reducing existing textbook costs by partnering with a textbook rental company to negotiate a site license.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018 AFTERNOON PLENARY
Charleston Premiers: Five Minute Previews of the New and Noteworthy — Presented by Trey Shelton (University of Florida) — https://sched.co/G662
Participating Companies:
Wiley — Gwen Taylor
Code Ocean — Travis Howard Hewgley
The HistoryMakers — Dionti Davis
OpenAthens — Phil Leahy and Rob Scaysbrook
Third Iron — Gina McCue
Elsevier — Nikhil Joshi
EBSCO — David Podboy
Pagemajik — Jon White
Shelton again moderated the popular session that, as described in its abstract, “offered publishers and vendors the chance to showcase their newest and most innovative products, platforms, and/or content.” Some met the five minute challenge with dynamic and succinct presentations, while others, whose products fill a nice niche, did not necessarily do them justice in the five minute presentations.
Leahy spoke for OpenAthens, describing Wayfinder (https://docs. openathens.net/display/public/OAAccess/OpenAthens+Wayfinder) as a federated search solution for people who claim “If I’m asked to log in, I don’t read the article.” Taylor described the Wiley Research Academy, a self-paced, modular and competency-based interactive e-learning course with 14 learning paths and over 50 hours of content, that attempts to meet the challenges for researchers whose career success is measured by their research and publishing records. Hewgley described the shareability of Code Ocean and output tools, e.g., its Git integration and Dataverse partnership. Davis enthusiastically described The History Makers, the largest oral history archive, with its 15 subjects, family memoirs, section
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And They Were There
from page 68
for the K-12 audience, and more. McCue described Third Iron’s LibKey as 21st century content linking, highlighting its restful API, available since 2017 that can be ingested in Primo, for example, skipping the resolving page, and opening up in Browzine. Podboy described Ebsco’s Holdings IQ that provides a single data source for all applications (different sources, multiple input). Joshi described Elsevier’s Mendeley Data that helps address researchers’ desire to benefit from publishing with data sets as they are viewed, a holistic approach to research data management. White described the one year old Pagemajik that is a fully automated content management system for articles ready to be sent for peer review, with a task dashboard that helps restructure Word documents and supports reliability scoring.
By audience vote, the best design and most impactful went to “The History Makers,” while the most innovative was shared by “Pagemajik” and “Code Ocean” (the second won last year, too).
The Charleston Conference blog report about this session by Donald Hawkins can be found at: https://www.against-the-grain.com/2018/11/charleston-pre miers-new-and-noteworthy/.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018 MORNING PLENARY
The Long Arm of the Law — Presented by Ann Okerson (Center for Research Libraries), Kenneth Crews (Gipson Hoffman & Pancione), and William Hannay (Schiff Hardin LLP) — https://sched.co/G665
Rumors
from page 38
University of Houston Libraries; Negeen Aghassibake, University of Washington Health Sciences Library; Colin Nickels, North Carolina State University Libraries; Lindsay Barnett, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University; Victoria Seng, University of Kentucky; Elizabeth Cope, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Phil Willke, State Library of Ohio; and Jocelyn Lewis, George Mason University. Congratulations and hip hip hooray!
In other exciting news, the Charleston Library Conference (CLC) and The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) are partnering to provide a scholarship exchange program for Up and Comers and SSP Fellows to attend their respective annual meetings. Fellows and Up and Comers submit an essay to enter the competition. In the first phase of the exchange, current SSP Fellows were tasked with answering, “How will the needs of emerging professionals/academics change scholarly communications in the future?” Fellow Lynnee Argabright’s essay addressing the influence of emerging professionals and academics expectations of immediate access on scholarly communication has been selected as the exchange’s first winner. Lynnee will receive free registration for the 2019 Charleston Library Conference, held November 4-8. To make the most of this opportunity, Lynnee will also be assigned a “meeting mentor” to assist with networking and navigating the conference. Her essay and the essays of future winners will be published on The Scholarly Kitchen and in Against the Grain. 2019 Up and Comer winners will be eligible to participate in a themed essay competition to win
Crews and Hannay were introduced in this established conference session by Okerson. The first is a copyright expert in academe, having set up the first copyright office at Indiana University. He focused on news from the international arena, U.S. statutes, and Copyright Office Regulations. WIPO, an international agency of the UN, with 191 member countries, while protecting works, is going into the exceptions business. The Music Modernization Act has a new section that pro vides quasi-copyright protection. Hannay spoke about topics “as his whimsy took him,” provided redux on developments since last year on the “Right to be Forgotten,” school districts that claim “pornography is not education,” the latest developments with publishers suing Re searchGate, and a State of Georgia re-redux. In his annual musical moment, he sang “Course packets, we got ’em here!”…
Audience members’ questions included topics like these: the Ben obo selfie (accidental work or automatic copyright), the challenges of global listservs and emails of foreign participants (in light of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR))… As always, it was interesting to hear about legal ramifications of the work we do, but equally satisfying that experts who spoke at this, the ninth annual, session are following and analyzing the complicated legal world of rights, copyright, and so much more. (Better them than many of us). The Charleston Conference blog report about this session by Donald Hawkins can be found at: https://www.against-the-grain.com/2018/11/ the-friday-keynote-the-long-arm-of-the-law/.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018 NEAPOLITAN SESSIONS
Going it Alone: Why University Presses are Creating Their Own EBook Collections — Presented by Heather Staines (Hypothes.is), Terry Ehling (MIT Press), Sharla Lair (LYRASIS), and Charles Watkinson (University of Michigan) — https://sched.co/G8SN
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library) <r-kubilius@northwestern.edu>
In 2019, two university presses, MIT Press and University of Michigan Press, will launch their own eBook offerings for direct sale to institutions, others may fall suit. It was interesting for librarians in the audience to hear what led to this move. Watkinson shared reasons that include digital enrichment, reconnecting with partners, sustaining the open source community. It is especially important for performing arts, classics, the humanities to be “bleeding edge” regarding pub lishing. Michigan will still work with aggregators, with an embargo and SUPO model. Its platform is annually audited for accessibility by a Michigan State University team. Lyriasis is a partner. Ehling shared that MIT has partners, ranging from Silverchair, YEWNO, MUSE, JSTOR, IEEE. As a press, MIT wants to retain control over its brand (at least the front list), and experiment, be heterogenous, be consistent with its value system, be data driven, operationalize, consolidate, increase the number of OA titles. Lair talked about the “book experience.” Audience questions abounded-about the impact on discoverability, making available single titles, course adoption, increase in publisher responsibilities (MARC, KBART, marketing).
Springing into Collections: Best Practices for Inheriting an Academic Library Collections Budget — Presented by Anthony Watkinson (CIBER Research), Kevin Garewal (Harvard Law School Library), Sean Kennedy (University of Akron), Charles Lyons (SUNY Buffalo State), and Richard Wisneski (University at Buffalo Libraries) — https://sched.co/G8SP
Panelists offered various suggestions to make collection management easier. These included grouping subject fund allocations in larger clusters so that those making selections could work collab oratively within that larger budget; building up a 5-10% carryover to help smooth out the variances; trying to create predictability and reliability in costs wherever possible (for example, using deposit accounts and plans which can be turned off and on; turning off DDA in the summer). Some metrics discussed included cost per view of media, and comparing print usage to eBook usage by LC class, though the difficulty of measuring eBook usage was noted (clicks may not equal checkouts). One library mentioned stopping their approval plan, as the usage on auto shipped titles was much lower than those placed with a firm order. Most of the strategies and ideas mentioned by this panel echoed themes noted elsewhere in the conference, which provided some good reinforcement to the trends.
Closing Session and Poll-A-Palooza — Presented by Barbara Meyers Ford (Meyers Consulting Services (MCS)), Erin Gallagher (Reed College), Stephen Rhind Tutt (Fairfax House Group, LLC), and Anthony Watkinson (CIBER Research) — https://sched.co/G667
Gallagher started the “all out crazy party,” closing out the Charleston Conference, for the fifth time. She had the lunchtime participants vote, using Poll Everywhere, on which types of sessions they liked best (pretty close: concurrent, lively lunch, and happy hour). As always, audience laughter erupted upon seeing polling results on the screen. The buzzwords in 2018, per the audience, were “fake deal,” “OER,” “blockchain,” and even “diarruption.” There were a series of general questions about scholarly communication issues and practices at at tendees’ libraries (e.g., use of virtual reality), as well as some that were Charleston-specific (e.g., best food eaten). What programs discussed at the conference might be implemented? Diversity, Green Glass, 200 line Python scripts for weeding. Hottest topics? Zines and blockchain. As the questions neared the end, audience members were irreverent. Regarding desired conference chang es? Longer lunch breaks and more concurrent sessions. Suggested 2019 conference themes? Cats, dogs, diversity, herding, and justice…
Rhind-Tutt bravely took on the difficult task of summing up the 2018 conference (his takeaways). He was very compli mentary of the Joris van Rossum session on blockchain, and counted about 30 sessions on “open,” quite a few on analytics (CDL, quantify metrics, author analytics). Text books crossed his radar-sessions such as inclusive licensing models, expectations of library textbook holdings. Expanding roles of libraries? Standards, metadata, social function, and supporting research.
Watkinson introduced Meyers Ford who briefly shared that she has already begun framing a new session for 2019, involving journals and libraries and information, i.e., the history of journals. It was promoted as “A Journal Carol in 3 Parts,” coming in November 2019.
The Charleston Conference blog report about this session by Donald Hawkins can be found at: https://www.against-the-grain. com/2018/11/closing-session-and-poll-a-palooza/.
Well, this completes the reports we received from the 2018 Charleston Conference. Again, we’d like to send a big thank you to all of the attendees who agreed to write short reports that highlight sessions they attended. Presentation material (PowerPoint slides, handouts) and taped session links from many of the 2018 sessions are available online. Visit the Conference Website at www.charlestonlibrarycon ference.com. — KS
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The Scholarly Publishing Scene — The Maxwell Effect
Column Editor: Myer Kutz (President, Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.) <myerkutz@aol.com>
Icould say that I’ve been remiss during my years writing this column in not talking about Robert Maxwell, who reigned over the hugely successful Pergamon Press for nearly 40 years, except for four years in the 1960s, when Saul Steinberg of Leasco Data Processing wrested control away from Maxwell. (Maxwell had wanted to mount Pergamon journals on Leasco’s computers so they could be distributed electronically — an idea 25 years ahead of its time.) Maxwell, justifiably, was one of the key figures — if not the key figure — in the rise of the commercial STM journal publishing business in the years after World War II. It was a time when the scope and size of government and university sponsorship of scientific research in one discipline after another accelerated dramatically.
I’m prompted to write about Maxwell because his name has surfaced in press accounts of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and Epstein’s having been found dead in a federal holding pen. The two men are linked through Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine, the youngest of his nine children and his companion on his travels to the United States.
As of this writing, in August 2019, shortly after Epstein’s death, there has been a spate of articles about Ghislaine’s having been a British socialite, linked with Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton; Epstein’s girlfriend, after her move to New York in the early 1990s; and later allegedly the procurer of underage girls, which she denies. When her father is mentioned, the focus is often on his having been a media mogul considered a rival to Rupert Murdoch. Sometimes, his founding of Pergamon Press goes entirely unmentioned. STM publishing isn’t sexy enough, apparently.
Pergamon’s founding dates back to 1951. During World War II, Maxwell, a poor Czech Jew, was part of a group of European exiles who fought for the British army. After the war, when he worked for British intelligence in Berlin, he got a foot into publishing by importing Springer Verlag publications into the UK. At that time, the British government, petitioned by eminent scientists to fix the sorry state of British scientific journal publishing, formed a joint venture with Butterworths and Springer.
Maxwell was hired to run the new organization together with Paul Rosbaud, an Austrian metallurgist who had spied for the British on Nazi scientific activities and smuggled reports on German weaponry. When Butterworths abandoned the joint venture in 1951, Maxwell and Rosbaud bought it for 13,000 pounds. They named their new company Pergamon, after an ancient city near the Aegean Sea, which became highly influential during the Hellenistic Period. (Rosbaud left the company in 1956.) It’s not an exaggeration to say that Maxwell supercharged Pergamon’s STM journal publishing. (The company also published reference books.) He expanded the journal list by introducing a new title whenever researchers and practitioners began to work on a new scientific or technical discipline or sub-discipline. He easily outstripped competitors. By 1959, Pergamon was publishing 40 journals, four times as many as Elsevier was publishing in English. By 1965, Pergamon’s journal list numbered 150. Elsevier didn’t reach 50 until four years later. In the 1970s, Maxwell launched a boatload of life science journals — a hundred in 1974 alone, according to one account. (These numbers come from a June
continued on page 72
27, 2017 long-form Guardian article, “Is the Staggeringly Profitable Business of Scientific Publishing Bad for Science?” by Stephen Buranyi.) So much publishing activity could be justified by two insights: that journals covering the same discipline or sub-discipline don’t actually compete for subscribers and readers (papers are unique, after all) and subscription prices can be raised even as more and more journals are being published — providing, of course, that libraries have the wherewithal.
Maxwell knew how to make his journals succeed. Titles often started with “International Journal of,” a feature which recognized the growing globalization of scientific and technical work and research. He was adept at drawing journal editors and contributors close to him. According to a brief memoir written by Brian Cox, who worked at Pergamon for three decades, Maxwell himself made telephone calls to them and correspondence appeared above his signature. And he wasn’t bashful about wining and dining them, often at Pergamon’s splendid headquarters at a 53- room mansion, Headington Hill Hall, to which the company began migrating in 1959 from its original base in London.
It had been built for the Morrells, a local brewery family, who lived there for 114 years, until it was used as a military hospital during World War II, then as a rehabilitation center after the war ended. Maxwell leased Headington Hill Hall from the Oxford City Council, which had bought it from the Morrells. He and his wife renovated the property.
Maxwell was mercurial and autocratic. According to Brian Cox, Maxwell’s office was located in the mansion’s largest room. His desk was in the corner furthest from the door. To reach the desk, you would have to traverse a great expanse of floor. Upon arrival, you would If so, to what degree does it work? Without fully admitting (yet) to a full-blown existential crisis, such thoughts of imparting knowledge to students using the medium of games or gaming or gamification has given me pause. I suppose this often happens when one starts to apply a pet pedagogy only to find that real life is a bit more complicated than what’s on paper. It’s not unlike the feeling one gets after acquiring a new puppy, and thoughts of be asked a question. The correct answer would allow you to be seated and you would be given something to drink. Give the wrong answer, and you would have to remain standing.
Whatever his temperament and the way he treated his subordinates, he did know how to run a journal publishing business. Sales results were terrific. According to Brian Cox, journal circulation grew by five to ten percent each year during the 1960s. Prices must have increased, as well. One advantage of continually growing the number of titles, Cox notes, was that older, established titles would subsidize newer titles that were still finding their audience.
If you were to propose a candidate for founder of the modern commercial journal publishing business, could you find a better candidate than Robert Maxwell? He was cosmopolitan; he’s said to have spoken nine languages and he spoke BBC English. He was no doubt able to exhibit enthusiasm for scientific discovery and for the means of reporting on discoveries. He was adept at deferring to the wishes of scientists and he knew how to pamper them with his nosh and his wines. He managed to become the confidant of his authors and editors, through flattery, no doubt, and with his continual telephoning and correspondence. He recognized an obligation to please editors and authors with speed of journal article publication, as well as with the physical quality of his journals. He was fearless in expanding Pergamon’s journal portfolio. There were his insights about pricing and competition. He ran his company like a dictator so that, I presume everything would be done his way, which in his mind — and the results spoke for themselves — was the right, and only way to get done what had to be done.
Unfortunately there was also a great appetite for status, fame, and fortune. Maxwell was driven around in a Rolls-Royce; there was a helicopter and a 200-foot yacht, called the Lady Ghislaine. He served as a Labour Member of Parliament from 1964 to 1970. “what was I thinking” pop up during moments of cleaning “accidents” off the carpet and finding your third pair of chewed up shoes. It is that moment of fleeting panic when you realize you are fully committed now and turning back would be as painful as chucking the whole idea. Though this may not be an existential crisis, I think it is at least a panic attack.
About a month or so ago my application was accepted for a small teaching grant to create escape rooms for teaching. The application He bought the London based Mirror Group Newspapers in 1984 . He bought the American publisher, Macmillian, for $2.6 billion. He was chairman of a British professional football team. He owned, among other properties, Nimbus Records, Prentice Hall Information Services and the Berlitz language schools. He also owned a half-share of MTV in Europe and other European television interests. In 1990, he founded a transnational newspaper, The European, which I can actually remember reading. (It folded in December 1998.)
His reputation, outside of STM journal publishing was in bad shape. Except for the Mirror Group, British press barons refused to sell their properties to him. The satirical weekly, Private Eye, called him the “Bouncing Czech,” a nickname Prime Minister Harold Wilson had bestowed on him when he was an MP. He was continuously litigious.
In 1991, Maxwell was so much in debt (he’d recently scooped up the NY Daily News when it was in bad straights, not a smart financial move) that he had to sell Pergamon. Elsevier bought the company, which published thousands of reference works, in addition to the journals, for 440 million pounds — something like a billion pounds today — which strikes me as a steal. Then his life really ended. He went missing off his yacht near the Canary Islands and was later fished out of the sea. It was, most likely, suicide. He was facing not only mounting debts, but also the impending revelation that he had bilked his employees’ pension funds. (Conspiracy theories still abound, however, perhaps due to allegations that he was an agent of Israel’s Mossad.) His death and disgrace may be the things he’ll be remembered for, more so, I would guess, than for his Pergamon stewardship — for better or worse, depending on where you stand on the creation of modern commercial STM journal
Considering Games in Libraries and Such — On using a Game to Actually Teach Something. Part I: The Accidental Learner
Column Editor: Jared Alexander Seay (Media & Services Coordinator, Addlestone Library, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424; Phone: 843-953-1428) <seayj@cofc.edu> blogs.cofc.edu/seayj
Does using a game to teach actually work?
publishing. narrative is a bit more complicated than your traditional escape game experience. But, without getting into details, let’s just say that my concept includes several game mechanics in addition to traditional escape games. The concept is, I believe, sound. But, of course, now it is time to make it work practically. Practical application: a tricky thing that.
Throughout this column, and most of my waking life, I have extolled the virtues of the
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PRODUCERS! Considering Games ...
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application of games to teaching. To be sure, I am still convinced that is the case — having read theory and applied it aplenty off the record. I am now in the position of proving it in an official way. Now I have to find my money and put it where my mouth is. Finding the money was the easy part. Finding my mouth … well …
So, how does one go about turning a traditional lecture lesson into a game anyway? How about turning a game into a lesson? Do you make something fun into a learning experience or do you make a learning experience fun? What if you could do both? What if you have no clue? Or what if you have a clue, but no leads?
Fortunately, I have two grant colleagues who are in this boat with me and share my burden. We spent many hours contemplating these very questions. Theme before content? Content before theme? Mechanics in there somewhere. Fun and learning integrated. Where to start? Fortunately, fate and a crazy — yet practical — project intervened this summer to assist. Because, when one is up against an unyielding project, what better way to stimulate one’s brain than to add another project that is easy, stimulating and way more fun?
Earlier this summer I was “contracted” to produce an escape game for a Science Summer Camp. My teenage children have regularly atNEW PLATFORM! tended this summer camp for years, and I heard that the camp director was looking for some “fun” activities that she could offer for electives. I seized on this, immediately seeing a chance to gain some experience in creating an escape room and a ready-made (and willing) group of play testers. And the best part is this activity did not have to actually “teach” anything. I was told that this was to be a “fun” “elective” activity among a myriad of other such fun stuff available to the campers. The goal was just “fun.” Pressure off!
The theme for this summer camp was Mars and Stars. Basically, it was about the science and adventure of space exploration — particularly that involving the red planet and Martian colonization. Escape rooms traditionally have some sort of hyperbolic issue that involves getting out of the room before you die in some horrible or interesting way. Your demise could come by being eaten by zombies or suffocation by drowning or air lock malfunction or just being caught by bad guys or the warden, or the police or the gestapo or a disgruntled alien. So, naturally my first thought was that this should be a crash landing on Mars survival scenario. What could more anxiety producing than that?
And so it was that I spent the better part of six weeks concocting such an escape room adventure. My participants were science campers from ages 11 to 17 who were theoretically doing the game in three or more similar age groups. With the pressure off to actually teach something, I was free to make this activity just
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TITLES! mindless fun. So, of course I set out to make it more than that. I don’t think fun is ever really mindless. It does not have to have a point. But, it can be — and should be — inspiring… if only to the game designer...as indeed, it was.
I think my biggest take-away from this — a grand insight about designing any creative production — is that content may be king, but experience is the goddess. Whether designing a game or a lesson plan or a birthday party, content alone does not make it a successful event. Indeed, content is integral to the core concept, but it is the experience that hooks the participants and stays with them. The event succeeds or fails according to the special sauce — the positive experiences and take away memories of the participants and students or party folk. I recently read a quote about public speaking that said, “Before you can get their minds, you have to grab their emotions.” Indeed, it is not only a war that has been lost by not securing “hearts and minds.”
Now I shall not go into detail about what I actually did to pull off the whole “having fun while learning” thing. I must save something for part two after all. To be sure, this was my first attempt at a “learning” escape room, and I am sure it was far from perfect. Still, I concentrated on the “fun” and engaging aspect of the game, and my escape game ended up being heavy on theater and theme. The learning aspect was intertwined with role-play, and puzzles and car
