[1] From: David Green <david@cni.org> (24)
Subject: AHDS Seeks Bids for Systems Suite
[2] From: David Green <david@cni.org> (123)
Subject: NCC Washington Update, Vol 3, #30, July 15, 1997 (fwd)
[3] From: David Green <david@cni.org> (86)
Subject: ENDORSEMENT OF COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES
[4] From: David Green <david@cni.org> (184)
Subject: NINCH NEWSLETTER No. 7
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 08:01:34 +0100
From: David Green <david@cni.org>
Subject: AHDS Seeks Bids for Systems Suite
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
July 15, 1997
Following is a technical request for bids for supplying a set of systems
providing access to networked cultural heritage material. See
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/projects/ahds/pol/or4a.htm> for full information
UK's ARTS & HUMANITIES DATA SERVICE SEEKS INTEGRATED SYSTEMS SUITE
Apologies for cross posting.
The AHDS requires an integrated suite of systems to provide users with
integrated access to its extensively distributed, mixed media, and
interdisciplinary holdings.
A draft Operational Requirement detailing the functional and technical
specification for that suite of systems which, it is expected, will be
based on the Z39.50 network applications protocol, is currently available
from our web site (http://ahds.ac.uk/).
The draft is being notified for public review and comment for a two-week
period ending 29 July 1997. All comments received before that date will be
considered for inclusion in the final operational requirement. A full and
final draft of the operational requirement will be posted and notified in
early August 1997 inviting proposals to supply the systems that it details.
All comments will be treated in the strictest confidence, and should be
e-mailed to: daniel.greenstein@ahds.ac.uk
Daniel Greenstein
Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service, Executive
King's College London, Library
Strand, London WC2R 2LS
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 16:52:16 +0100
From: David Green <david@cni.org>
Subject: NCC Washington Update, Vol 3, #30, July 15, 1997 (fwd)
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
July 16, 1997
The following NCC Update contains a succinct summary of current
Congressional movements on the Endowments, National Archives and NHPRC.
The news includes:
** Last Friday's 328:96 defeat in the House of the Chabot Amendment to
eliminate the NEH;
** Last Friday's 271:155 defeat in the House of the Ehlers Amendment for
replacing the NEA with a system of block grants to states. The House
Interior Appropriations Bill now includes no money for the NEA.
** Announcement that the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee will
meet this Friday July 18 to markup its appropriations bill, which will
include the budgets for the NEH, NEA, the Smithsonian, historic
preservation programs, and the National Park Service.
** Senate Appropriations Committee recommendations in its appropriations
bill for the budgets of the Nationa Archives and NHPRC
David Green
*******************************************************************************
NCC Washington Update, vol. 3, # 30 , July 15, 1997
by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>
1. House Defeats By Large Majority Amendment to Eliminate Funding for NEH
2. Senate Appropriations Committee Endorses Subcommittee
Recommendations for the National Archives and NHPRC
3. House Defeats Ehlers Amendment on $80 million in Block Grants
To States for Arts Funding
4. Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to Markup Budgets for NEH,
NEA, and Other Cultural and Historic Preservation Programs On July 18
1. House Defeats By Large Majority Amendment to Eliminate Funding for NEH
-- On Friday, July 11 the House debated an amendment introduced by
Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH) to eliminate funding in FY 98 for NEH.
On Tuesday, July 15 at 8 pm, in a roll call vote the House defeated the
Chabot Amendment by a vote of 328 against with only 96 voting to eliminate
NEH funding. There were 92 Republicans who joined the Democrats in
defeating this amendment.
Representative Ronald Dellums (D-CA) summed up the debate by saying that
while he opposed the amendment, he felt that Chabot had done the House a
service in allowing so many colleagues an opportunity to give eloquent
testimony about the valuable work of NEH. In the debate which last over
an hour, twenty-two members, including four Republicans, spoke in
opposition to the amendment stressing the many and varied contributions of
NEH. Only three members supported the amendment to eliminate funding for
NEH.
The twenty-two members who spoke in opposition to the Chabot amendment
which called for the elimination of funding for NEH were as follows,
listed in the order in which they spoke: Yates (D-IL), Vento (D-MN),
Fowler (R-FLA); Boswell (D-IOWA), Bereuter (R- NEB); Baldacci (D-Maine),
Castle (R-Del), Capps (D-CA), Johnson (R-CT), Gejdenson (D-CT), Obey
(D-WI) Nadler (D-NY), Strickland (D-OH), Moran (D-VA), Pelosi (D-CA),
Dellums (D-CA), Meek (D-FL), Engel (D-NY), Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Davis
(D-IL), Mink (D-Hawaii), Sawyer (D-OH). The three members supporting the
amendment were: Chabot (R-OH), Kingston (R-GA), and Cunningham (R-CA).
Chabot rooted his case for the elimination of NEH in the argument that NEH
benefits a small cultural bureaucracy. He stated that money should not be
taken out of the pockets of hard working Americans for junkets for
academic elites. The supporters of NEH responded by noting the many ways
in which the ordinary folks of America, not the academic elite, benefit
from the programs of NEH. The supporters of NEH highlighted the value of
specific programs such as the summer institutes for teachers, documentary
films, and many humanities councils programs that bring humanities
programs to rural areas. The twenty-two supporters stressed the that NEH
fosters creativity, teachers us as a nation who we are and what we might
become, engages the public in life long learning, builds a sense of
community, preserves America's history, enhances the soul of America,
excels at creating a public-private partnership, nurtures critical
thinking skills, and educates citizens about our democratic heritage.
2. Senate Appropriations Committee Endorses Subcommittee Recommendations
for the National Archives and NHPRC -- The Senate Appropriations Committee
met on July 15 and endorsed the recommendations of the Senate Treasury,
Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee for
the budgets for FY 98 for the agencies under its jurisdiction. The Senate
Appropriations Committee s markup of its appropriations bill includes $5
million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
(NHPRC) grants program, this is a 25% increase above the President's
request of $4 million. The NHPRC's grants program is currently funded at
$5 million. The markup also includes $207.939 million for the FY 98
operating budget for the National Archives. The Archives operating budget
is currently $196.963 million and the President had recommended $ 206.47
million. In a separate line item, the markup designates $10.65 million
for the repairs and alterations of the National Archives buildings, which
include the Presidential Libraries. This was an increase over the
President's request of $6.65 million.
3. House Defeats Ehlers Amendment on $80 million in Block Grants To
States for Arts Funding -- On July 10 the House in a very close 217 to 216
procedural vote decided to allow no votes on the National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA) and to permit only the Ehlers amendment on arts funding to
come before the House. Representative Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich) amendment
called for an appropriation of $80 million in block grants to states in
FY'98 for arts funding with 60% going directly to local school boards for
art education projects and 40% going to the state arts commissions.
Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was behind the development of this amendment
and its intent was to dismantle the national program of NEA while allowing
some federal funding for arts through block grants. Although the
procedural vote -- that allowed the Ehlers' amendment to be brought to
the floor -- passed by a very close vote, the Ehlers amendment when it
came to the floor for a vote on July 11 failed by a significant majority
with 271 voting in opposition and only 155 supporting it. The House
Interior Appropriations Bill includes no money for NEA and provides no
block funding for the arts.
4. Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to Markup Budgets for NEH,
NEA, and Other Cultural and Historic Preservation Programs On July 18 --
On Friday, July 18, at 10 am the Senate Interior Subcommittee will meet to
markup its appropriations bill, which involves determining the budgets
for all agencies and programs under its jurisdiction. This includes the
NEH, NEA, the Smithsonian, historic preservation programs, and the
National Park Service. Members of this committee are: Slade Gorton (R-WA)
Chairman <senator_gorton@gorton.senate.gov>, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
<senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov>, Thad Cochran (R-Miss)
<senator@cochran.senate.gov>, Pete Domenici (R-NM)
senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov>, Conrad Burns (R-MT)
conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov> , Robert Bennett (R-UT)
<senator@bennett.senate.gov>, Gregg (R-NH) <mailbox@gregg.senate.gov>, Ben
Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), Robert Byrd (D-WV) Ranking Minority, Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) <senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov>, Dale Bumpers (D-ARK)
<senator@bumpers.senate.gov>, Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
<senator@hollings.senate.gov> , Harry Reid (D-NV)
<senator_reid@reid.senate.gov>, Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
<senator@boxer.senate.gov>, and Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
<senator@dorgan.senate.gov>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.
A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net.
See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 19:31:39 +0100
From: David Green <david@cni.org>
Subject: ENDORSEMENT OF COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
July 16, 1997
NHA PRINCIPLES ENDORSED BY CAA & ARL: OTHER ENDORSEMENTS NEEDED
The boards of the College Art Association and the Association of Research
Libraries recently voted to endorse the "BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT." This brings the total of
endorsees to six organizations, including the NHA's own sponsorship. The
National Humanities Alliance is an umbrella organization representing
nearly 90 organizations concerned with federal policy affecting work in
the humanities. The National Humanities Alliance encourages as many
organizations as possible in the broadly defined educational community to
consider signing on to these principles. Endorsements should be sent to
John Hammer <jhammer@cni.org>, Executive Director, National Humanities
Alliance, 21 Dupont Circle, 6th floor, Washington, DC 20036; tel:
202/296-4994; fax: 202/872-0884.
The "BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL
ENVIRONMENT" were developed in the Spring by a committee of the National
Humanities Alliance from a draft document "University of California
Copyright Legislation and Scholarly Communication Basic Principles." They
were developed in an effort to build consensus within the educational
community on the uses of copyrighted works in the digital environment.
The PRINCIPLES have been developed to assert the basic beliefs of the
educational community in the need to assure the continuation of the
principle of balance between creators, copyright holders and the users of
intellectual property from the present print environment into the
electronic world. As the introduction to the PRINCIPLES states:
"As they revolutionize the means by which information is recorded, disseminated,
accessed, and stored, digital technologies are eliminating the technical
limits that have supplemented the legal framework of balance between
ownership and public dissemination: Unlimited technological capacity to
disseminate by transmission in ways that can violate the rights of
copyright holders confronts equally unlimited technological capacity to
prevent works from being used in ways contemplated by law. Carried to its
logical extreme, either trend would destroy the balance, with results that
would likely undermine core educational functions as well as radically
transform the information marketplace."
The full text of the PRINCIPLES may be obtained from John Hammer at the
address above or from the NINCH website at:
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/ISSUES/COPYRIGHT/PRINCIPLES/NHA_Complete.html>.
A list of the principles themselves, without introduction or commentary is
appended to this message, together with a list of those organizations
currently endorsing them.
David Green
*******************************************************************
BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT
1. Copyright law provisions for digital works should maintain a balance
between the interests of creators and copyright owners and the public that
is equivalent to that embodied in current statute. The existing legal
balance is consonant with the educational ethic of responsible use of
intellectual properties, promotes the free exchange of ideas, and protects
the economic interests of copyright holders.
2. Copyright law should foster the maintenance of a viable economic
framework of relations between owners and users of copyrighted works.
3. Copyright laws should encourage enhanced ease of compliance rather than
increasingly punitive enforcement measures.
4. Copyright law should promote the maintenance of a robust public domain
for intellectual properties as a necessary condition for maintaining our
intellectual and cultural heritage.
5. Facts should be treated as belonging to the public domain as they are
under current law.
6. Copyright law should assure that respect for personal privacy is
incorporated into access and rights management systems.
7. Copyright law should uphold the principle that liability for infringing
activity rests with the infringing party rather than with third parties.
Institutions should accept responsibility for acts undertaken at their
behest by individuals but should not be held liable for the acts of
individuals--whether or not associated with the institution--acting
independently. This principle is an essential underpinning for academic
freedom.
8. Educational institutions should foster a climate of institutional
respect for intellectual property rights by providing appropriate
information to all members of the community and assuring that appropriate
resources are available for clearing rights attached to materials to be
used by the institution, e.g., in support of distance learning.
9. New rights and protections should be created cautiously and only so far
as experience proves necessary to meet the Constitutional provision for a
limited monopoly to promote the "Progress of Science and useful Arts."
10. Copyright enforcement provisions should not hinder research simply
because the products of a line of inquiry might be used in support of
infringing activity.
EMDORSEMENTS
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES
COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION
NATIONAL HUMANITIES ALLIANCE
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH
--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 07:26:08 +0100
From: David Green <david@cni.org>
Subject: NINCH NEWSLETTER No. 7
N I N C H
Networked Cultural Heritage Newsletter
No. 7
July 16, 1997
www-ninch.cni.org/news/news.html
====================================================================
A news and information digest for those working to preserve and
provide access to cultural heritage resources through networked digital
technology.
====================================================================
This newsletter is published through the NINCH-Announce listserv of the
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. You are welcome to
distribute it freely, with due acknowledgments. It is also available in a
hyperlinked version on the NINCH web site, within two days of publication.
C O N T E N T S
1. COPYRIGHT: Where We Are
2. PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES
D-Lib: July-August Issue (includes NINCH article on Networking Moving Images)
Ariadne: July Issue
ACLS Publishes Survey of Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship.
Getty AAT & ULAN: Now Online
Perseus Expands Into English Renaissance
3. MOVING ON
-----------------------------
COPYRIGHT: WHERE WE ARE
Midsummer, and it's time for the broad cultural community to assess where
it stands and determine what its next steps are with regard to a number of
copyright related issues. As the Association of Research Libraries has put
it, one of the goals of the educational community should be to develop a
consensus about "the kind of practices in digital environments that are
understood to represent responsible applications of copyright, especially
fair use." We should be able to extend that to the even broader cultural
community (engaging museums, artists and arts organizations as well as
libraries, education and research institutions). What is fair and just in
the use of "intellectual property" on the networks? What are the tools that
we need to proceed? For a sense of the landscape from tha research library
perspective, see the Copyright Special issue of the ARL Newsletter for June
1997 at <http://arl.cni.org/newsltr/192/192toc.html>.
A number of developments have now come to a head that make this the time to
seriously survey the landscape and consider the direction we take. What has
brought us to this pass?
A. LEGISLATION
The proposed language for both last year's domestic legislation, the "NII
Copyright Protection Act," and the World Intellectual Property
Organization's Copyright Treaty skewed the current balance away from that
of existing copyright statute, re-asserting the rights of copyright holders
at the expense of certain limitations, notably Fair Use. Fortunately, the
domestic legislation was stalled and the final WIPO language reasserted the
balance between the rights of copyright holders and those of the users of
intellectual property.
As we prepare for new U.S. domestic legislation (including WIPO
implementing legislation) we need to be clear about what our values and
priorities are. As a member of the Digital Future Coalition, NINCH has been
an enthusiastic supporter of its positions and legislative activity. As a
community, we all need to be clear about what the issues are and how they
are represented in Congress.
B. CONFU
The longstanding Conference on Fair Use came to its ambiguous conclusion
this May. None of the proposed guidelines gained majority support and many
in the nonprofit educational world felt that their voices were not fully
heard nor were their positions included in the guidelines. Some are
prepared to continue the conversations; some are willing to test the
guidelines but there was generally a very strong feeling of blockage and
difficulty. There was the question whether some rights holders accepted and
understood Fair Use as a fundamental aspect of copyright practice, or saw
it as an obstruction to efficient commercial business. See the "Joint
Statement by Libraries and Cultural Organizations," at
<http://www.ala.org/washoff/confu.html>.
C. FAIR USE TOWN MEETINGS
Taking the debate on the road, the College Art Association and American
Council of Learned Societies organized a series of Kress Foundation-funded
town meetings to discuss the fate of fair use in a digital environment.
Three were held before May 19 (an interim report is available at
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/News/CurrentAnnounce/TownMeeting-Report>) and
three more are being scheduled. These educate and engage an audience, air
questions and grievances and will continue to shape our understanding of
what positions and actions we may need to take. The next Town Meeting is
scheduled for September 26-27 at Reed College, Portland Oregon, entitled:
"Copyright Law in the Digital World: Fair Use, Education and Libraries
after CONFU." Stay tuned for further announcements.
D. NHA PRINCIPLES
A committee of the National Humanities Alliance drew up a set of basic
principles in an effort to build consensus within the educational community
on the uses of copyrighted works in the digital environment. Currently
seeking endorsements from as many in the educational community as possible,
this document is a model for assembling community-wide bedrock principles
upon which we build practice. See
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/ISSUES/COPYRIGHT/PRINCIPLES/NHA_Complete.html>.
If other communities are evolving similar principles or policies, we should
encourage them but seek to integrate them with the NHA Principles.
E. LICENSING
Research libraries have been engaging commercial vendors delivering digital
content via licensing arrangements. Both sides are determining, often
through negotiation and practice, what acceptable terms and conditions are.
Librarians are being aided by a number of recent resources, among them the
"LibLicense: Licensing Electronic Resources" website and discussion list at
<http://www.library.yale.edu/~Llicense/index.shtml> and "Principles for
Licensing Electronic Resources,"
<http://arl.cni.org/scomm/licensing/principles.html> produced by six
library associations. In another realm, the Museum Educational Site
Licensing Project (MESL), examining the issues involved in licensing
digital images from museums' collections for use on university campuses, is
concluding and will shortly release its report. Two museum licensing
collectives are now being formed to put MESL's lessons and recommendations
into practice.
F. ROLES
Out of many of these developments, many have come to the realization that
online, a great majority of us, both as individuals and institutions, will
be, sometimes simultaneously creators, copyright holders and users of
intellectual property. The scenario is a far more complex one than that
between those who are exclusively copyright holders and those who are
exclusively users of copyrighted material.
-----------------------------
PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES
**The July/August double issue of D-Lib Magazine, now available at
<http://www.dlib.org>, is devoted to stories about conversion,
preservation, and archiving. Aside from NINCH's piece on Networking Moving
Images is an article on how humanities textbase projects can help the
digital library research agenda and a number of reports on particular
projects, including the University of Virginia E-Text Center, J-Stor,
Michigan's Humanities Text Initiative, the Model Editions Partnership, the
Making of America project and others.
**Ariadne, the magazine of the British e-Lib project, has just published
its tenth issue online at <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue10/>. Contents
include an interview with CNI's new director Clifford Lynch, an article
on issues academia has with electronic journals, an example of how Dublin
Core metadata is being embedded in Web pages and reports on a number of
e-Lib projects.
**The American Council of Learned Societies has just published "Information
Technology in Humanities Scholarship: Achievements, Prospects and
Challenges: The US Focus," as an Occasional Paper. This 54-page booklet,
written and compiled by Pamela Pavliscak and Charles Henry from Rice
University and Seamus Ross, of the University of Glasgow, is a selective
review of the application of IT to humanities practice. It also identifies
obstacles and challenges that need to be overcome for humanities computing
scholarship to flourish. Copies of the booklet are available from ACLS
(212/697-1505; <www.acls.org>); an electronic version will be available
this fall via the American Arts & Letters Network <http://www.aaln.org/>.
**Getty AAT & ULAN: Now Online
The extremely useful Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
<http://www.gii.getty.edu/aat_browser> and the Union List of Artist Names
(ULAN) <http://www.gii.getty.edu/ulan_browser> are now freely available for
use on the website of the Getty Information Institute. Both sites include
searching tips and information about the scope and content of the
vocabularies.
**Perseus Expands Into the English Renaissance
The well-known Perseus project <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/>, well known
for assembling a multimedia library of classical material is now beginning
to build an English Renaissance digital library, beginning with all the
work of Marlowe and expanding into Shakespeare's sources. Suggestions for
texts to work on are being accepted at <shake@perseus.tufts.edu>.
-----------------------------
MOVING ON
American Council of Learned Societies
Douglas Bennett has now left ACLS and is ensconced as President of Earlham
College; his position as ACLS Vice President is currently unfilled. Stan
Katz leaves his position as President of ACLS at the end of August; John
D'Arms takes his place September 1.
Coalition for Networked Information
Clifford Lynch, formerly Director of Library Automation at the University
of California, is now installed as Executive Director of the Coalition for
Networked Information. See press release at <http://www.cni.org/press/>
Kennedy Center
Scott Stoner, Director of ArtsEdge at the Kennedy Center, also left this
Spring. A search for his replacement is currently underway.
President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities
Ellen Lovell, Executive Director of the President's Committee departed for
the White House this Spring. Her new position is as Deputy Chief of Staff
for the First lady. Taking her place is Harriet Fulbright, formerly
president of the Center for Arts in the Curriculum and, from 1987 to 1990,
executive director of the Fulbright Association.
-----------------------------
===============================================================
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
www-ninch.cni.org
david@cni.org
202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax
==============================================================
See and search back issues of NINCH-ANNOUNCE at
<http://www.cni.org/Hforums/ninch-announce/>.
==============================================================
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Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
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