Week 13 Legal Rights and Future of Digital Libraries

This week we should be able to walk away with an understanding of copyright and copyright protection, identify how digital libraries may violate copyright laws, and privacy issues.

I focused on the following readings:
1. Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Intellectual-property rights and wrongs”, Daily Times, Aug19, 2005.
2. Clifford Lynch, “Where Do We Go From Here? The Next Decade for Digital Libraries”, D-Lib Magazine, Volume 11 Number 7/8 July/August 2005
3. Knowledge lost in Information. Report of the NSF Workshop on Research directions for digital libraries

I am going to start with the Report on the NSF Workshop on Research. Basically, this report covers, in written form, everything of importance that went on during the workshop. As the report states, “this report details the nature of the federal investment required to sustain the pace of progress” in terms of research and investment in digital libraries. The sections of the report include things such as transforming the information landscape, the framework for digital library research, the future of research, emerging research opportunities and knowledge at hand, among other things. The report also includes charts and graphs. It also has helpful boxes of information as well as a list of acronyms used and their meanings.

Overall, this report was clear, concise and informative. It was written in a very clear writing style that made the somewhat overwhelming amount of information easy to understand. I especially found the ‘Knowledge at Hand’ section interesting. It is amazing how much digital libraries and the research pertaining to them have transformed over the last ten years.

Next up is, “Where do we go from Here? The Next Decade for Digital Libraries” by Clifford Lynch. The aim of this article is to discuss the history and past of digital libraries as well as bring an understanding of what is to come in the future. The article covers how the history of digital libraries can be traced back to as early as the 1960s, something people rarely realize. Lynch also discusses the period o f 1994-2004, and how this was the first real time for digital library research. This article actually really finds a theme in collaboration with the NSF Workshop report, as it makes many mentions of the NSF and their help towards digital library research.

The article also talks about the huge impact digital preservations will have in the future, it will be a very hot topic. The author asserts that in his opinion, in the future digital preservation has the potential to be hugely commercialized. Lynch also points out the areas of research he asserts need to be further expanded.

This article provided some very interesting information about the history of digital libraries and how they have progressed. I also found all the information about research possibilities interesting. I also enjoyed how the author infused his own thoughts and opinions into the article, giving a clear idea as to where he thinks digital libraries are going.

The final article I examined, “Intellectual-property rights and wrongs”, by Joseph E. Stiglitz is a brief article discussing intellectual property protection. This article was a brief deviation from the previous two readings as its focus was much more intellectual protection. Stiglitz goal is explain the issues related to intellectual property rights, including monopolies, patents, and issues related to that. He also discusses how WIPO was considering a development oriented intellectual property regime.

I found this article to be very interesting; I never before had considered the issues related to intellectual property rights. The author’s writing style was both informative and interesting.