Editorial

Citation

Mak, C. (2013), "Editorial", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 41 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2013.12241baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Interlending & Document Supply, Volume 41, Issue 2

Just as many will remember where they were when they heard the news of John Lennon having been shot, I will always remember where I was when the Kirtsaeng v. Wiley decision was released: I was teaching a copyright preconference, “The Watch, the Bulldog and the Score”, at the 2013 ILLiad International Conference with Cindy Kristoff (Kent State University). We had just completed our overview of recent US court cases dealing with intellectual property rights when the decision in favor of Kirtsaeng came across the Twitter feed. A roomful of resource sharing practitioners broke out in applause and a round of high-fives.

Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc was a test of the United States’ “first sale” doctrine and whether the normal rights that accompany ownership applied to goods manufactured outside of the United States. Those rights include the ability to lend which is why this was enormously important for libraries: if we could not assume the ability to circulate the books we buy, regardless of where those books originated, then one of the most basic functions of libraries would be problematic at best.

When the class resumed Cindy and I reminded the participants that as libraries move to digital resources the first sale doctrine becomes less significant than the rights we retain or negotiate in our e-resource license agreements. Over the next several years the role of license agreements and open access policies such as those of the United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), or Research Councils UK (RCUK) will become increasingly important.

Keeping current with legal developments, governmental policies such as those of the NIH, CIHR, or RCUK, and trends in scholarly publishing, open access and institutional repositories is a difficult but increasingly critical component of resource sharing. Because these regulations, movements, and trends are having a major impact on our profession, ILDS routinely publishes papers on copyright, open access, institutional repositories, and their impact upon resource sharing across the globe. In fact, this issue discusses the Korean approach to copyright and electronic document delivery; past issues have addressed these issues in the United States, Canada, Germany, Europe, and other jurisdictions.

To build on our work in this area, ILDS is planning a special issue to focus on the impact of the open access and the move from print to digital scholarship. We invite you, dear reader, to submit your ideas for articles on developments, threats, and opportunities in your respective countries and institutions.

Collette MakCo-Editor