NEWS
Research into electronic licensing
GROWTH in electronic content means more licences determining what libraries do with copyrighted material, including terms that can undermine rights and guar- antees offered by exceptions to copyright in legislation.
According to copyright think tank Knowledge Rights 21 these licences impose a price on public interest activities and undermine the intention of legislators. They have commissioned Digital Republic, a Bulgarian digital rights association, to explore the extent of this phenomenon, which will see it examine a range of the contracts offered to libraries for electronic material, and to assess where and how far these undermine core library activities.
Office star tweets support for libraries
RICKY Gervais tweeted a #Support Libraries message to his 15.1 million followers on 27 January which, four days later, had been viewed 15.6 million times, liked 242,000 time, retweeted nearly 20,000 times, and commented on 3,500 times. Tweeting from @rickygervais “I had no money growing up. My dad was a labourer and my mum did everything to make ends meet. Men worked hard. Women worked miracles. But education was free. As was the local library. I knew books were my passport to a better life. #SupportLibraries”
Fundraising with dog sculptures
SUFFOLK Libraries largest ever fund- raising campaign will see dog sculptures designed and individually created by local artists displayed in all its libraries. The PAWS-itivity campaign – with three other charities: Pets as Therapy, Suffolk Pride, and Realise Futures – will launch the dogs at the Suffolk Show before being housed in Suffolk’s 45 public libraries and then auctioned in September. Money raised will support the work and raise awareness of it as an independent charity needing funding to nurture literacy, improve health and wellbeing and accessi- ble arts opportunities for local people.
10 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
The North East network: Beyond the Horizon
EACH year the North East CILIP (NECILIP) Regional Member Net- work host an annual conference, Beyond the Horizon. It provides a chance for local CILIP members to share ideas with colleagues from across the library sector. Louise Masson, Faculty Liaison Librarian at Newcastle University, and NECILIP Committee Member, said: “We pitch this as an opportunity to hear about projects or initiatives, both completed and ongoing within the Library sector. We actively put in the call for speakers for those who have not presented at a conference or event to come forward and share their work.” In recent years the conference has switched to an online event, enabling more people to take part – including those based outside of the region, and from a variety of fields. And 2022 was no exception with papers about Reading for Wellbeing in County Durham; sup- porting Primary Care NHS staff in the North East; a full building refurbishment for the Common Rooms in Newcastle; an Open Programme for students at Newcastle University Library; use of H5P at Sunderland University Library; and competency based needs assessments at Boise State University, USA. Louise said: “The joys of time differences
and hosting online meant we had both speakers and delegates from a variety
of different countries. In total this year we had 80 people attend our May confer- ence and we received positive comments around the variety of presentations, prac- tical tips and sharing ideas.” Sessions from last year’s conference can be viewed at
https://bit.ly/3wIqNGX and there are a series of write ups available at https://
bit.ly/3RjiKK2.
With plans already under way for this year’s conference, Louise said: “If you are working on something interesting at the moment, then we would love to hear about it in this year’s conference, particularly from sectors such as Public Libraries. You don’t need to be the project lead or the manager or sponsor. You just need to be involved in something going on in your place of work which you think might be interesting to share with others. “So, it can be a project, a piece of tech- nology which you’ve discovered and loved or a library service which has developed and changed.” Louise adds that the group is looking for more local members to become active, with a variety of roles available, adding: “As a committee we are already planning for the 2023 event, which will be held on 22 May. If you are based in the North East, we also have opportunities to join our committee and help organise the events we run.” For more details on the group and to get in touch, visit
https://bit.ly/3XRRq87.
Classification of classified
documents questioned FOLLOWING the discovery of documents in properties belonging to President Joe Biden, ex-President Donald Trump and ex-Vice President Mike Pence, the US National Archives has asked representa- tives of ex-Presidents to review their per- sonal records for any classified-marked documents in their possession. An article in the Associated Press explored
the extent of the problem claiming that sources say lost or forgotten classified documents are returned fairly regularly, but said: “The National Archives declined
to comment when asked to provide a list of times that classified documents were turned over to the agency by former officials.” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York, told the Guardian: “The bigger scandal here is not any particular episode involving the mishandling of classified informa- tion but rather the classification system itself, which is totally broken in ways that are bad not just for national security but for democracy.”
January-February 2023
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