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Re: Dissertations



Hold on a sec, re: copyright issues relating to dissertations and theses. 

I believe that two different issues are being discussed.   Ironically, I think the original questioner has no copyright problem whatsoever, but the first respondent has, I think, a very big copyright problem.

Giving an existing copy of a dissertation to another department or person doesn't, in my opinion, violate copyright.  It's like giving a copy of a book to another department or person, not like publishing the book without permission, which would be a violation of copyright AND brings me to the second situation described by Daniel.

If I understand Mr. Noonan correctly, he is in the process of, essentially, publishing electronically material whose copyright is owned by the originators, i.e., the authors of the dissertations and theses.  While I wouldn't mind my own dissertation being electronically published ... I would mind very much if it happened without anyone asking me and gaining my permission to make the copy.  (If the person or group was making any money from my dissertation, well, then, I'd want a share of that money.)

Sally Gibson (Toronto, where I believe the copyright issues involved here are the same as in the US)

>>> Daniel Noonan <dnoonan@ADM.NJIT.EDU> 03/14/01 08:48am >>>
Hi I am the Digital Documents Librarian and Archivist at the New Jersey
Institute of Technology.  We are embarking on a program here to digitize
our existing Theses & Dissertations and to begin to develop policies and
procedures for having students turn in theor T&D's electronically.  We are
in the process of becoming members on the Networked Digital Library of
Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) http://www.ndltd.org/. I recommend that you
check this site out, it is very useful.

Our program will include the removal of all current T&D's from the general
stacks and place them into secure storage as they are "1st editions" and as
the majority of them are Theses maybe they are one of a kind.  These will be
available by request only.  Even then when the request is made, the T or D
will be scanned and mounted digitally through our web site for the patron's
access.

All incoming T&D's will be scanned and digitally mounted through our
website.  We are in the process of installing and testing our scanners and
hope to have our January T&D's up by the end of the semester.  The copy that
is the library's copy will be on archival quality paper and stored in an
archival box with the existing T&D's.

We will still be binding Advisor, Department, and Student copies.  In
addition, Dissertations (after scanning) will be sent to UMI for
microfilming and Indexing & Abstracting.

For the future, we intend to have a pilot program in place by Spring 2002
with a Department on campus here to have their T&D's created and transmitted
electronically, eventually leading to all students doing this.  This is the
case at Virginia Tech which hosts the NDLTD.  We will still then print a
copy of the T or D on archival quality paper and store it.  Further, UMI now
accepts T&D electronically for processing.

Next week (3/22 -3/24) ETD 2001 is being held at Cal Tech in Pasadena.  This
is the annual conference sponsorded by the NDLTD.

I Hope this is of help --

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The librarian will have to be a more active participant in staving off
"infochaos." If the traditional librarian has been conceived as a   figure
at home in the discreet silences and cautious dealings of a Henry James
novel, now perhaps the right model will be found in James Fenimore Cooper or
the Star Wars films: something between the pathfinder Natty Bumppo and the
Jedi knight."

"Avatars of the Word"   James J. O'Donnell, Ph.D., 1998
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel W. Noonan, MLS
Digital Documents Librarian & Archives
Robert W. Van Houten Library
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Central Avenue Building (Room 1006)
323 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Newark, NJ 07102-1982
mailto:dnoonan@adm.njit.edu 
Phone 973/596-5235
Fax 973/643-5601
http://www-ec.njit.edu/~dnoonan/

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