The exception would ask WIPO member nations to establish a national exception that authorizes the making of accessible copies. This copyright exception would be similar to the Chafee Amendment (17 USC §121) in U.S. copyright law. In addition, the exception would allow countries to share accessible copies (Braille, large print, digital formats like accessible e-books) across borders.

Negotiations are reaching a fever pitch with many powerful corporations, including General Electric, Exxon, and the motion picture and publishing industries opposing the treaty. We need your help now. Sign this petition to let the Obama Administration and the WIPO U.S. delegation know that you support the right to read for all.

Sign the Petition

Here’s what you need to know in order to sign the petition:

1. You must have whitehouse.gov account to sign the petition, but it is very easy to obtain one.
2. Simply click the ‘Create an Account” button. You will be asked your name and email.
3. Upon entering that information, you will receive an email from whitehouse.gov with a link back to the petition.

Once you click that link, your account will be verified and you can sign the petition

The post Protect the Right to Read: Sign White House Petition on WIPO Treaty appeared first on District Dispatch.

The future-focused digital supplement examines how libraries are evolving in response to the digital revolution, including exploiting opportunities in self-publishing, while confronting challenges in licensing constraints.

The digital supplement also details progress made by the ALA’s Digital Content Working Group to advocate for equitable access to ebooks produced by the world’s largest book publishers.

Highlights from the report:

• Libraries as content creators: “It is time for the library to step up as the nurturer of content creation,” says James LaRue, director of Colorado’s Douglas County Libraries system. LaRue discusses how libraries can—and should— become local community publishers, and how community members themselves could be involved in deciding which ebooks are made available by libraries.
• ALA to move beyond the Big Six publishers: “In early 2012, urgent questions revolved around why the Big Six publishers wouldn’t do business with libraries or, for those publishers who did, why the terms were so unfavorable,” said ALA President Maureen Sullivan. “We focused on these issues last year and into 2013. While we’ve made some headway, more remains for us to do.”
• Assessments on ebook library lending: In “Ebooks in 2013: Promises Broken, Promises Kept, and Faustian Bargains,” Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information, provides an overall assessment of the library ebook situation, concluding that “the reality has been appalling.”
• Ebook business opportunities: Peter Brantley, director of scholarly communication at Hypothes.is, examines the implications of ebooks that are no longer the intact products of today’s trade ebooks.

Digital Content Supplement

The supplement Digital Content: What’s Next? is the third supplement to American Libraries magazine on ebooks and digital content. For more information about the ALA’s efforts on digital content and libraries, visit the American Libraries E-content blog.

Read the full report: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/7d9e3366

Participate in the ebook discussion at the 2013 Annual American Library Association Conference in Chicago. At the session “ALA, Ebooks, and Digital Content: What’s Next?” the leadership of ALA’s Digital Content Working Group will provide an overview of ALA activities and plans. A distinguished panel will then provide views on libraries as publishers and stewards of America’s digital cultural heritage, and how ALA can best advocate for these important library interests. Brantley and Wolven will continue the conversation as part of the ALA Virtual Conference on July 24, 2013.

The post How Libraries are Evolving in the New Digital Realm appeared first on District Dispatch.

The extended luncheon session featured federal agency representatives of great diversity—including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Energy, National Endowment for the Humanities, Department of Education, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. One of the participants noted her surprise (and appreciation) at the use of the word “imagination” from each agency in the respective characterizations of projects and programs.

I first became involved in this general topic over a decade ago when I worked as a study director at the National Research Council. I was the lead staffer on a multi-year study that culminated with the report Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity, published in 2003 with my co-editors, the late William J. Mitchell and Marjory Blumenthal, and inspired and funded by Joan Shigekawa, then an associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Beyond Productivity focuses on the opportunities enabled by the rise of the Internet and related technologies that promote the creation of innovative art and design. In collaboration with scientists and engineers, the work centers on both new forms of creative practices and outputs, as well as novel ways to engage the public in these new forms. One of the major topics in the study is exploration of venues for the new “Information Technology and Creative Practices.” Museums, art galleries, corporate R&D labs, and universities are among the likely venues, as well as cyberspace itself. In 2003, libraries were not identified as likely venues. It is interesting how some things come full circle, as now in 2013, libraries clearly are a venue for new information technology and creative practices, as libraries are rapidly evolving, incorporating larger roles in the production of information such as makerspaces, and shaping how libraries themselves fit in the evolving information ecosystem.

The American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), among others, emphasizes the increasing role of content production in libraries. In addition to makerspaces, libraries include video production studios, digitization facilities, book publication services, and other activities in support of an evolving vision for libraries. For example, consider the Library as Incubator Project, whose mission is to “promote and facilitate creative collaboration between libraries and artists of all types, and to advocate for libraries as incubators of the arts.” Of course, other libraries are pursuing various initiatives such as those at Chattanooga Public Library, which recently hosted Makerday: 3D Throwdown, and the Chicago Public Library is well-known for Youmedia, its innovative teen learning space.

I’m not sure yet how to systematically connect these efforts to paradigms at major research universities and art and design organizations with the library community, but there is potential for fruitful collaboration there. The possibilities vary with library types—school, public, academic, or other—and could provide benefit to library users as well as enable the development of new forms of art and design that incorporate participation from a diverse, potentially large, group of community members.

Contemplating such things is central to OITP’s mission: working to connect the dots to benefit libraries and the communities that libraries serve.

The post Some thoughts on knowledge production, makerspaces, and libraries appeared first on District Dispatch.

Register for the webinar

As part of the webinar, participants will:

1. Learn how to use LibEGov (www.libegov.org), an easy-to-use web tool that helps libraries serve the e-government needs of their communities
2. Become more familiar with online resources available from government agencies and non-governmental organizations in the areas of immigration and taxation; and
3. Learn about the benefits of the virtual Ask A Librarian feature available through the Government Information Online service.

Developed by ALA and iPAC, LibEGov is the product of an Institute of Museum and Library Services funded national leadership grant, intended to foster collaboration between libraries and government agencies, as well as to offer guidance to libraries on the provision of e-government information and services to a range of populations within their communities.

Speakers include University of Maryland professors John Carlo Bertot and Paul Jaeger; University of Maryland doctoral candidate Ursula Gorham-Oscilowski; University of Maryland Graduate Research Associate Natalie Greene Taylor; and ALA Office of Government Relations Assistant Director Jessica McGilvray.

Register for the webinar

The post Have You Used LibEGov? Learn How To During the Free E-Government Webinar appeared first on District Dispatch.

In summary, the World Trade Organization waiver would extend intellectual property rights under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement for LDCs until they individually graduated from LDC status. These waivers affect the price, availability and use of resources in libraries for education, research and personal development, as well as access to affordable medicines, agricultural goods and renewable technologies.

The post Intellectual Property Access for the World appeared first on District Dispatch.