Catherine A. Lemmer - Digital Rights Management: The Librarians Guide

Medical Library Association Books Panel

Lauren M. Young, AHIP, chair

Kristen L. Young, AHIP, chair designate

Michel C. Atlas

Dorothy C. Ogdon, AHIP

Karen McElfresh, AHIP

Megan Curran Rosenbloom

Tracy Shields, AHIP

JoLinda L. Thompson, AHIP

Heidi Heilemann, AHIP, board liaison

About the Medical Library Association

Founded in 1898, MLA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization of 3,500 individual and institutional members in the health sciences information field that provides lifelong educational opportunities, supports a knowledgebase of health information research, and works with a global network of partners to promote the importance of quality information for improved health to the health care community and the public.

Books in Series

The Medical Library Association Guide to Providing Consumer and Patient Health Information, edited by Michele Spatz

Health Sciences Librarianship, edited by M. Sandra Wood

Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment, edited by Amy Blevins and Megan Inman

Mobile Technologies for Every Library, by Ann Whitney Gleason

Marketing for Special and Academic Libraries: A Planning and Best Practices Sourcebook, by Patricia Higginbottom and Valerie Gordon

Translating Expertise: The Librarians Role in Translational Research, edited by Marisa L. Conte

Expert Searching in the Google Age, by Terry Ann Jankowski

Digital Rights Management: The Librarians Guide, edited by Catherine A. Lemmer and Carla P. Wale

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN 978-1-4422-6374-1 (hardback : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4422-6375-8 (paperback : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4422-6376-5 (ebook)

Unlike for most legal terms and concepts, the meaning of the term copyright is self-evidentprotecting the right to make copies. Prior to the advent of the digital age, the risk and associated loss of revenues from illegal or unauthorized copies was manageable or perhaps more appropriately characterized as bearable.

The digital age turned this equation on its head. Illegal copies are now of sufficient quality and number to pose significant financial risk to content creators and owners. Further, unauthorized modifications challenge the content creators original intent and expression. Enter digital rights management (DRM)the proposed but overreaching solution to illegal use, modification, and copying of digital content.

Libraries are challenged on a daily basis by DRMs overreach because in fulfilling their missions they stand at the intersection where the rights and demands of users and content owners often collide. As such, libraries need to be more than reluctant, noncomplaining consumers of digital content. The intent of this book is to educate librarians about DRM and, in turn, empower them to influence ever-evolving DRM in ways that enable them to best serve their users.

To this end, we start with an introductory chapter by Frederick Dingledy and Alex Berrio Matamoros that introduces DRM, its impact on libraries, and the DRM debate. Real-life examples are used to illustrate the arguments for and in opposition to the growing reach of DRM. Although we suggest you start with this chapter, the remaining chapters can be read independently and in an order that best serves you, the reader.

Generally, chapters 26 deal with operational concepts. In chapter 2, Jasper Tran explores and explains the various DRM technologies and systems that libraries encounter. The explanations, while comprehensive and technical, avoid jargon and are easily understandable. Similarly, in chapter 3, Amanda Watson explains digital authentication and how it is utilized by content owners in providing and limiting access to content. The chapter details a variety of authentication methods and provides guidance for librarians tasked with evaluating the impact of a particular authentication method on the librarys users.

Chapters 4 and 5 provide specific advice for libraries on managing DRM. In chapter 4, Ashley Krenelka Chase discusses and advises how best to adapt organizational structures, workflows, and library staffing to seamlessly integrate DRM. Her thorough description of a number of organizational alternatives, including the pros and cons of each, provides library administrators and managers a playbook from which to pick the best option for their library. In chapter 5, Brian Huffman and Victoria Szymczak reflect on how libraries can manage and respond to DRM via their collection development policies. In addition to a review of contract models and best practices, Huffman and Szymczak provide sample language for collection development policies any library will find useful. This section of the book concludes with chapter 6, in which Benjamin Keele and Jere Odell introduce and discuss the innovative idea of a compatible relationship between open access and DRM. Keele and Odell challenge the reader to think beyond the typical battlegrounds and envision an environment in which the use of DRM may work to further the goals of open access.

No work on DRM is complete without reference to the principles of privacy and copyright. Roberta Studwell and Jordan Jefferson provide a thoughtful and thorough discussion in chapter 7, detailing the continuing erosion of privacy, the law surrounding information privacy, and the impact of DRM on library user privacy. The chapter also includes best practices for protecting information in the library environment.

Copyright is the fundamental structure on which DRM relies. In scholarly journal publishing, the push for open access and the rise of peer-to-peer sharing via such mechanisms as Sci-Hub, Library Genesis, and #icanhazpdf are generating conversations that challenge us to reevaluate our long-held understanding of copyright and its goals. In chapter 8, Renate Chancellor and Heather Wiggins provide the reader with the copyright basics needed to fully engage in those conversations.