ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 217 Inside Washington C hristopher W rig h t A ssistant D irector A L A W a shington Office E ven m em bers of th e H ouse Judiciary C om ­ m ittee looked a b it skeptical w hen Irw in Karp, counsel for the A uthors L eague, dismissed out of h an d th e librarians’ suggestion th a t estab ­ lishing a nationw ide licensing system to cap­ tu re royalties for library photocopying was im ­ practical. “I t ’s poppycock to talk ab o u t these p ro b ­ lem s,” exclaim ed th e irrepressible K arp w hen R epresentative E d w a rd P attison ( D — N .Y .) asked du rin g hearings on M ay 14 on copyright law revision w h eth er “some sort of very com pli­ c a te d m echanism ” w ould b e req u ired to collect these licensing fees. W hy, it’s just “m eretricious,” a d d ed C harles L ieb, counsel for the Association of A m erican Publishers, to say th a t “paym ent cannot be m ad e because paym ent systems have not been established.” In fact, if it w eren’t for th e capri­ ciousness of librarians, a licensing m echanism w ould already hav e b e e n invented, L ieb im ­ plied. “W e stan d read y to establish a licensing system at our expense,” h e to ld th e com m ittee. B ut th e librarians keep backing out of th e agreem ent a t th e last m inute. “They keep going u p to the altar and backing aw ay.” A form er academ ic lib rary director in th e h earin g room audience lean e d fo rw ard and m u ttered , “You’d back aw ay from th e altar too, C harles, if you w ere about to b e sacrificed.” T w enty m inutes earlier, testifying for th e six lib rary associations concerned ( ALA, ARL, SLA, Music, L aw , M ed ical), ALA’s E dm on L ow h a d described th e latest efforts of lib rari­ ans and publishers to discuss th e possibility of defining a n d licensing “system atic photocopy­ ing” as am biguously described in th e pending copyright bill ( H R 2 2 2 3 ). “I t m ust b e em phasized, how ever,” Low told th e com m ittee, “th a t th ere has b een no agree­ m en t as to w h eth er such a paym ent m echanism is acceptable to librarians even if it is w orkable, a n d also I m ay say no seem ingly w orkable m echanism has y e t b een advanced in th a t it still appears it w ould take dollars to collect dim es.” In fact, representatives o f ALA a n d o th er li­ brary groups have m et eight tim es w ith the publishers since last D ecem ber in a vain ef­ fort to p a tc h u p differences over photocopying. H eld u n d e r the auspices of th e R egister of C opyrights and th e N ational Commission on L i­ braries a n d Inform ation Science, the m eetings are th e th ird series to b e convened on this sub­ ject since 1972. In th e previous two, no agree­ m en t w as concluded because, as B arbara R ing­ er, R egister o f C opyrights, has said, “b o th sides agreed com pletely to do nothing.” O n F eb ru ary 5 th e cu rren t conferees again decided th a t th ey could all agree to do nothing — except keep talking. A fter adm itting th a t “it was presently im possible to achieve any m ean­ ingful consensus concerning th e existence of any obligation of libraries to com pensate copy­ rig h t proprietors for photocopies . . . an d a d d ­ ing th a t all parties reserved “th e ir respective rights an d positions as to th e obligation of li­ braries . . . ‚” th e conferees agreed to do a study. A sm all w orking group has d raw n u p a set of objectives for th e study an d N C L IS has agreed to fu n d it. A ccording to th e w orking group’s m em orandum , w ritten b y ALA E xecu­ tiv e D irector R o b ert W edgew orth, th e study w ould take th ree m onths a n d will d raw d ata from several representative com m unities of li­ braries located in S tandard M etropolitan Statis­ tical Areas thro u g h o u t th e country. “A basic assum ption is th a t th e larger th e holdings of an SMSA, the larg er w ill be th e n u m b er of jour­ nal interlibrary loans,” said th e m em orandum . T h e individual libraries in clu d ed in th e test w ill be instructed to provide d a ta on all inter- library loan requests for journal articles th ey fill for other libraries. T h e d a ta w ill th e n be analyzed for frequency an d for geographic p a t­ terns. T here is also the “u n d erstan d in g th a t such a stu d y w ould include some testin g of a paym ent m echanism .” M em bers of th e w orking group hope th e study can get u n d e r w ay early this fall. T he purpose of th e study is essentially tw o­ fold in order to satisfy b o th parties. T he p u b ­ lishers, laying aside th e skepticism of lib rari­ ans, hope it will dem onstrate th a t a w orkable licensing system can be p u t into effect w ith m inim um expense a n d disruption to them or th e ir customers. T he libraries, w hile an ticip at­ ing th e experim ent will show this licensing m echanism is im practical, also expect th e d ata w ill show th a t m ultiple or large-scale d u p lica­ tion of individual journal articles b y libraries is n o t occurring a t all. M eanw hile, th e seven m em bers of th e Ju d i­ ciary C om m ittee’s subcom m ittee on courts, civil liberties, and th e adm inistration of justice will continue to w eigh th e argum ents. N o t th e least of these was E dm on L ow ’s concluding p oint b e ­ fore th e subcom m ittee at th e M ay 14 hearing. In th e final analysis, said Low , since “th ere is no evidence th a t th e libraries’ policies have caused publishers any h arm w hatsoever and m ay actually increase th e ir subscriptions, it is clear th a t such dem ands are com pletely un ju sti­ W A TS O UR LIN E ? 1-800-225-7894 F. W . F a xon C o m p a n y , th e on ly fu lly -a u to m a te d lib ra ry m a g a z in e su b s c rip tio n a g e n c y in th e w o rld , is n o w th e only a g e n c y to o ffe r you im m e d ia te a c c e s s ib ility on a to ll-fre e W A T S line. P ic k up th e p h o n e to ll-fre e from a n y w h e re in th e U n ited S ta te s to lea rn ab o u t o u r lib ra ry in fo rm a tio n se rv ic e , o u r d iffe r­ en t o rd e rin g plans, F A C S — o u r n e w a u to m a te d c la im s sys­ tem , an d o u r S e ria ls U p d a tin g S e rv ic e B u lletin . W e 'll als o send you o u r S e rv ic e B ro c h u re a n d o u r an n u al L ib r a ria n s ’ G u id e to P e rio d ic a ls . Library Business is our only business — sin ce 1881. F.W. FAXON CO., INC. 15 S o u th w e s t P a rk W e s tw o o d , M a s s a c h u s e tts 0 2 0 9 0 T e l: 1 -8 0 0 -2 2 5 -7 8 9 4 (to ll-fre e ) 6 1 7 -3 2 9 -3 3 5 0 (c o lle c t in M a s s . o n ly ) Now Being Published The Journal of Academic Librarianship A b im o n th ly jo u rn a l fo r th e p ro fe s s io n a l lib ra ria n An independent voice providing: • statem ents on th e c u rre n t and d iffic u lt issues fa c in g academ ic lib ra ria n s and th e results o f s ig n ific a n t research • the JA L G uide — key to the lite ra tu re o f lib ra ria n s h ip • artic le s by academ ic lib ra ria n s on specialized to p ic s • p ic to ria l features on innovative services o ffe re d by academ ic lib ra rie s • In c o m in g is s u e s : Ralph E. Ellsw orth, Fred H einritz, John Rather, M artha Boaz, Duane Webster, Paul Dunkin, Maryan Reynolds • W ritin g o n : subje cts w hich inclu d e change in academ ic libraries, co lle ctive b argaining, fa cu lty status, ca taloging, buildings, and n etw orks o f th e fu tu re Edited by: Richard M. Dougherty and William H. Webb The Journal of Academic Librarianship Subscription Dept. P.O. Box 3496 Boulder, Colo. 80303 ____ Individual $14 _____Institution $25 ____ Elementary or secondary school library $ 14 ____ Small public library $14 (book budget under $10,000) Name_________________________________________________________ Address___________________________Institution____________________ City_______________State_____________Zip________________________ fied and th e public interest requires th a t they be rejected b y C ongress.” B ut to m em bers of Congress, th e clearest definition of p u b lic interest m ay have b een su b ­ m itted b y F a th e r R obert D rin an ( D — M ass.). A w orried colleague w ho cam e to D rinan as a com m ittee m em ber to inquire ab o u t th e bill said he h a d already received m ore th a n 300 le t­ ters from librarians an d educators on th e sub­ ject. If it cam e to a b attle for th e bill on th e H ouse floor, said th e congressm an to D rinan, this w ould determ ine his vote. “H e to ld me, ‘W ell, th e re are m ore educators and librarians out th ere so I ’d b e tte r go w ith th em ,’ ” said D rinan. T h e lesson: good argum ents are fine in com­ m ittee, b u t num bers are best w hen it comes to a vote. Keep w riting. ■ ■ A CRL M em bership M ay 31, 1975 8,706 M ay 31, 1974 12,483 M ay 31, 1973 12,100 UPTIGHT about journal subscriptions? It's hard to keep cool at a time of rising subscription costs and dw indling se rials budgets. Especially when researchers keep asking you to add m ore journals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 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