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Right to ReadThere have been a couple of interesting stories on blogs recently about the BL's practice of universally copyrighting all the documents it holds. The author of a blog from Unilever Cambridge Centre for Molecular Informatics relates an incident where a colleague was forbidden from copying an 85-year-old document obtained via inter-library loan. See: Apparently any request for an inter library loan is only granted if you agree to the BL’s very sweeping copyright terms, which include not being able to: a) copy what they send The author makes a compelling analogy between the people's 'right to roam' and the much more restricted 'right to read'. http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/murrayrust/?p=531 Surely this can't be right? It's the library's role to help people access information not prevent them?
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PollWhat is your main concern about using the British Library? overcrowding 46% Noise from readers 8% noise from staff 8% cost of services: wi-fi, food, photocopies, documents 31% officious security guards 0% an 'us and them' attitude 8% mis-shelved, lost or non-deposited books 0% the online catalogue 0% Total votes: 13
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Copyright is too widely used
Copyright is too widely used at the BL as an excuse to prevent things. Many of us probably have 'war stories'.
Mine centres on a dissertation in Latin of 150 pages, published in the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1893. The only copy in the UK was in the BL. I'm probably the only person in the UK wanting to read it. But I live outside London.
I asked if I could borrow it -- the answer was 'no'.
I asked if I could get a photocopy of it -- the answer was 'no'.
I asked if a copy could be borrowed from overseas -- the answer was 'no - because the BL holds a copy!'
In the end I flew over to a European library, who photocopied it there and then.
No-one benefits from this kind of thing. I can understand how it arises -- from a decision by junior staff to 'be on the safe side'. But we need to also consider the public interest, surely? The Hapsburg emperor was fairly unlikely to complain, after all!