The copyright law now addresses compact disk as a medium, and LC can
request one copy of that, or two copies if it is the only version, and
can request copies of software, but that fails to address magazines or
books or anything like that which is in machine-readable form.
GIFFORD acknowledged the thorny nature of this issue, which he illustrated
with the example of the cumbersome process involved in putting a copy of a
scientific database on a LAN in LC's science reading room. He also
acknowledged that LC needs help and could enlist the energies and talents
of Workshop participants in thinking through a number of these problems.
GIFFORD returned the discussion to getting the image and text people to
think through together where they want to go in the long term. MYLONAS
conceded that her experience at the Pierce Symposium the previous week at
Georgetown University and this week at LC had forced her to reevaluate
her perspective on the usefulness of text as images. MYLONAS framed the
issues in a series of questions: How do we acquire machine-readable
text? Do we take pictures of it and perform OCR on it later? Is it
important to obtain very high-quality images and text, etc.?
FLEISCHHAUER agreed with MYLONAS's framing of strategic questions, adding
that a large institution such as LC probably has to do all of those
things at different times. Thus, the trick is to exercise judgment. The
Workshop had added to his and AM's considerations in making those
judgments. Concerning future meetings or discussions, MYLONAS suggested
that screening priorities would be helpful.
WEIBEL opined that the diversity reflected in this group was a sign both
of the health and of the immaturity of the field, and more time would
have to pass before we convince one another concerning standards.
An exchange between MYLONAS and BATTIN clarified the point that the
driving force behind both the Perseus and the Cornell Xerox projects was
the preservation of knowledge for the future, not simply for particular
research use. In the case of Perseus, MYLONAS said, the assumption was
that the texts would not be entered again into electronically readable
form. SPERBERG-McQUEEN added that a scanned image would not serve as an
archival copy for purposes of preservation in the case of, say, the Bill
of Rights, in the sense that the scanned images are effectively the
archival copies for the Cornell mathematics books.
*** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
Appendix I: PROGRAM
WORKSHOP
ON
ELECTRONIC
TEXTS
9-10 June 1992
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Supported by a Grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Tuesday, 9 June 1992
NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION LAB, ATRIUM, LIBRARY MADISON
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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