Scholarly Communication Issues

Basically, the University believes it is well within fair use guidelines to make these materials available to students, while the publishers believe that the amount of materials and the systematic, widespread practice pushes the University out of the scope of fair use. This has made me consider the role that librarians might play in understanding the scope of fair use and educating university faculty about the amount of content that may be distributed in this manner. Is it the role of a university's legal department to determine and monitor an amount of scholarly material that could be distributed, or should it be the duty of campus librarians to educate individual faculty about these practices?

Perhaps the outcome of Georgia's lawsuit will affect practices nationwide. I see this as an issue with many implications in regards to scholarly communication, as it relates to the ever-increasing cost of materials (both online databases and physical textbooks), the question of fair use, and the role of librarians. If the cost of accessing the most appropriate scholarly communication prohibits its use, will course instructors be forced to use inferior course materials? How will this influence the way that faculty view their publishing options as they produce research? Legal issues such as Georgia State's lawsuit may make institutional repositories even more appealing to publishing faculty as academic publishers are continually vilified.

-Posted by Anna Galyon