[ILL-L] ILL-L Digest, Vol 46, Issue 15

Tue Dec 15 13:48:48 EST 2009

If the article is available in a database my library owns, I direct the patron as to how to access the article from the database--I don't print it out for them.    

I do prefer an ILL article be emailed to me as a PDF.  I don't have Ariel or any other means of electronic data transfer other than email.  It is so much easier and faster for me to get a PDF in an email rather than having the article faxed or shipped.  The quality of a fax is not always so great either.  Then, I print the article out for my patron.  This is also my preferred method of sending a borrowing library an article.  I scan it and send it via email unless the borrowing library specifies otherwise (this is in my policy on WCRS).  

If I find an article online, I do just send the patron a URL (this goes for articles I find freely available on a publisher's website to anywhere I find it online).  I am also now wondering whether I should be sending patrons URLs to articles that are not on sites where I can verify that the article is legally freely available online.

Thanks for this discussion.

--Ledja 

Ledja Cullen, MLIS
Reference & Evening Services Librarian
Interlibrary Loans & Course Reserves
Golden Gate University - Law Library
536 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: (415) 442-6689
Fax: (415) 512-9395
Email: lcullen at ggu.edu 
http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary 

>>> "Robinson, Arthur " <arobinson at lagrange.edu> 12/15/2009 10:33 AM >>>
      I guess the question is how cautious we should be.   I agree we should err on the side of caution.   When our patrons ask for an article on ILL that we have in PDF in a database, I don't e-mail the PDF; I e-mail to tell them it is available in PDF in such-and-such a database, and ask them to contact me if I have difficulty accessing it.   I even (on the advice of a colleague), if a patron is in the library and I find the article s/he wants in PDF in a database on my computer, ask the patron to hit the "Print" button.   (This has convinced some patrons that I'm paranoid.) 

      But if I find the article in PDF on the Web, I usually e-mail the link, figuring I'm not sending the article, just a URL.   Do others do this?   In some cases, if the PDF is on a publishers' web site and the publisher indicates, e.g., that articles from 1986 to 2003 are available free in their "Archive," there shouldn't be a problem.   But sometimes I do wonder about the legality. I once had an ILL request for a 1953 article in French from a European journal that was held by only a few libraries.   After failing to verify the citation in JSTOR and various databases, I tried Googling, and was surprised to find a PDF of the entire article, complete with page numbers matching the citation.   I e-mailed the URL to the patron.   Maybe I shouldn't-- 

      AAAUGH!!   A SWAT TEAM HAS JUST INVADED THE LIBRARY AND THEY'RE POINTING THEIR RIFLES AT ME!   SOMEONE GET MY LAWY 

      The Late Arthur Robinson (GLG) 

    _____  

      From:   ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Potapoff,Jason 
  Sent:   Tue 12/15/2009 12:50 PM 
  To:   ill-l at webjunction.org 
  Subject:   Re: [ILL-L] ILL-L Digest, Vol 46, Issue 15 

  I don't want to talk on behalf of a director of another library but by take on it is... 

I would imagine mostly for legal reasons.   Just because an article is available on the internet for free that doesn't mean it's available legally. So obviously a library doesn't want to be sending their patrons to a link for an article that breaks copyright. It is not always clear if the PDF online/link etc. is legal so the director probably does not want the ILL department to make that assessment and sending the information over to the copyright department to determine if it is legal or not is likely too cumbersome to be worth it. So I imagine he is making a policy to ensure that the library is erroring on the side of caution. 

There is also the case that it is not clear that we are even legally allowed to send a PDf of an article directly to a patron. Depending on who you talk to we break copyright if we send the article to the end patron in electronic form, receiving the article electronically from another library as a PDF is ok it's the equivalent of faxing it, as long as the library prints it out and gives the patron the printed article with the proper copyright notices attached to it.   I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to this but the people who make these types of policy decisions for my Library have decided to go with that interpretation of copyright.   So unless I can find something substantial that clearly shows differently I have to follow those guidelines. 

In the end what this means is if I find an article online as a PDF (or the article is sent to me as a PDF) I have to print it out and give the patron the printed copy. Providing a direct URL to the article's PDF is a grey area but I am not supposed to do it unless I have to (normally I would give them a link to the site or article's page and tell the patron how to access the PDF themselves) I also have to be reasonably sure that the PDF online is legally available that way and if it's not then obviously I can't give the patron a link to it.   Which in practice this means I search online only as a last resort to minimize the chases I end up accessing an article "illegally". Some last resort situations are: If I can't get it using conventional means, if the article is really large and I won't want another library scanning in/copying that many pages and me printing that many pages, or if the first few libraries I tried to get it from were unable to send it and now I am running out of time before the patron's need by date arrives so I have to go to the web for the quicker turn around. 

Granted I am also coming from this from the Canadian side of the border and our copyright restrictions are a bit different than those in the States. So it's possible that in the United States PDFs are not as restricted.   The last I heard there is a chance that Canadian copyright law is going to become stricter and we might have to go back to using only faxes (not even Ariel) or worse yet not even by fax and can only mail physical photocopies.     Although I do not think it is likely to go that way but you never know. The copyright debate in Canada has been convoluted lately.. 

Jason Potapoff 
Interlibrary Loans Technician - NAIT Library 
Room U310 
11762 - 106 Street 
Edmonton, Alberta Canada T5G 3H3 
P 780.471.8780     F 780.491.3014 E illo at nait.ca 
Odyssey: 192.197.128.142/ILL 
Ariel: 192.197.128.142 
www.nait.ca 
NAIT - An Institute of Technology Committed to Student Success 

-----Original Message----- 

Message: 7 
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:38:12 -0800 
From: "Ledja Cullen"  < lcullen at ggu.edu >  
Subject: Re: [ILL-L] A Summary of Scientific Findings on Adverse 
                Effects onIndoor Environments on Student's Health, 
To: "Interlibrary Loan Listserv"  < ill-l at webjunction.org >  
Message-ID:  < 4B263FBD.3B93.009E.0 at ggu.edu >  
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" 

Wonder what your director's reason for this is? 

Ledja Cullen, MLIS 
Reference  &  Evening Services Librarian 
Interlibrary Loans  &  Course Reserves 
Golden Gate University - Law Library 
536 Mission Street 
San Francisco, CA 94105 
Tel: (415) 442-6689 
Fax: (415) 512-9395 
Email: lcullen at ggu.edu 
  http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary   

  >  >  >  "Reed, Sue"  < sue.reed at sos.mo.gov >  12/7/2009 10:36 AM  >  >  >  

Hello All: 

Thank you for the links and PDF?s found ?freely? on the web, that have 
been sent to me. 

My Director has asked that I not send/provide links/PDF?s to articles 
which are available ?freely? on the web to our patrons or ask the author 
of the article to send a PDF.     Unfortunitly, this has added to the 
length of time my patrons are waiting for articles if we don?t have the 
article in one of our databases.   I can only provide articles to my 
patrons which are filled through ILL or through one of our databases.   

I?ve been looking for documentation which   states, providing links or 
PDF?s of articles ?freely? available on the web or the author is 
considered a best practice for ILL.     Has anyone come across an article 
or statement which would help me include this practice as a ?Best 
Practice for ILL?? 

Anyway, I still need the article filled through ILL. 

Thank you for any help you can provide. 
Sue 
Sue Reed 
Office of the Secretary of State 
Missouri State Library, Reference Services Division 
600 W. Main Street, Room 205 
Jefferson City, MO   65109 
573-751-3596 
FAX: 573-526-1142 
sue.reed at sos.mo.gov 

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