ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


38 / C&RL News ■ January 2001

CONFERENCE CIRCUIT

Libraries in the Cyberage

A report from the symposium at Winthrop University

by Ron Chepes¡uk and Mark Y. Herring

Th is  p a s t  f a ll , t h e  D a c u s  l i b r a r y  o f  W inthrop University in R o ck  Hill, South 
Carolina, sp o n so re d  four forum s as part o f  a 
sym posium  o n  “Libraries in the C y berage.”1

F u n d ed  in part b y  a Sou th C arolina H u­
m an ities C ou n cil grant, the sy m p osiu m  ad ­
d ressed  fo u r k e y  issu es regarding the im p act 
o f the c y b e ra g e  o n  m aterials in the h u m an i­
ties and their ca re  in libraries: “C en so rsh ip  
and  the First A m e n d m en t” (S e p te m b e r 14 at 
W inthrop  U niversity), “E le ctro n ic P ublish in g 
and th e  Future o f  S c h o la rsh ip ” (O c to b e r  3 at 
the co u n ty  library in G re en v ille), “Copyright: 
W h o  O w n s W hat in C y b ersp ace?" (N o v e m ­
b e r 1 at th e C o lleg e o f  C h arleston in  C h arles­
to n ), and  “T h e  Im p a ct o f  D igitized  C o lle c­
tio ns o n  th e  H u m a n itie s” (D e c e m b e r  4  at 
W inthrop  U niversity).

The g re a t d iv id e
T h e first forum  sparked  a lively d ebate b e ­
tw een Carrie G ardner, chair o f  the A m erican 
A ssociation o f  the Sch o ol Librarians In tellec­
tual F reed om  Com m ittee, and Carol Clancy, 
and senior counsel o f the conservative National 
Law Center. G ard ner d efen ded  the ALA’s in­
tellectual freed om  v iew point by arguing that 
all e x p r e s s io n  is p ro te cte d  u n d e r th e  First 
A m endm ent.

“American citizens are so comfortable with 
the First Amendment right to receive infonna-

tion,” Gardner said, “that they d on’t realize what 
kind o f world they would live in if they didn’t 
hav e it.”

She w en t o n  to d efend  the library’s right to 
p resent inform ation by  strongly stating that li­
braries are the last n on com m ercial en terprise 
en gag ed  in su pporting o u r right to receiv e in­
form ation. Carol Clancy defen ded  the op p o si­
tion view point by defending filtering and claim ­
ing that not only did the First Am endm ent “not 
protect the o b sce n e  and/or p o rnograp h ic,” but 
that South Carolina law  also forbids th e traf­
ficking in “p orno g rap h y.”

Sh e further argu ed that inform ation has 
nev er b e e n  defined  as p o rno g rap h ic or o b ­
s c e n e  and that th e First A m endm ent no t only 
restricted sp e e c h  but w as very clear in its pro­
h ib ition  o f  certain  ty p es o f  s p e e c h  p e r se. 
“Shouting ‘fire ’ in a cro w d ed  theater w h e n  no 
fire w as p re sen t w as strictly forb idd en b y  the 
First A m endm ent,” Clancy said. “B esides, other 
Suprem e Court cases have revealed that speech 
in a library, including ev en  political sp eech, 
had n o t only b e e n  restricted, but up held, by 
the Su prem e C ourt.”

T h e  d ebate w as spirited but civil, and it 
s h o w e d  th e  g rea t divide e x istin g  o v er the 
foru m ’s topic. As o n e  W inthrop faculty m em ­
b e r in atten d an ce noted, “This d eb a te shows 
w hy issues involving the First Am endm ent and 
cy b e rsp ace have b e e n  tou gh to reso lv e.”

A b o u t the authors

Ron Chepes¡uk is head o f special collections at Winthrop University, chepesiukr@winthrop.edu, and Mark Y Herring is the 
dean of the Winthrop Library, e-mail: herringm@winthrop.edu

mailto:chepesiukr@winthrop.edu
mailto:herringm@winthrop.edu


C&RL News ■ January 2001 / 39

The status of electro nic publishin g
The second forum’s topic was the current state 
and future direction o f electronic publishing. 
Author Ron Chepesiuk outlined the current 
state of e-publishing and said that, “While 
the industry is in its infancy and experienc­
ing growing pains, it w on’t go away. So li­
brarians should begin experimenting with the 
new medium.”

He summarized som e o f the interesting 
experiments with e-books going on at such 
libraries as North Carolina State University 
and the Algonquin Area Public Library in Illi­
nois. Noting some o f the technical challenges 
in adopting e-books, the speakers argued that 
the library profession should involve itself 
more in the decisions being made about the 
development o f e-books.

Angela Adair-Hoy, ow ner o f BookLocker, 
a successful e-publishing com pany and the 
author o f the best-selling e-book, T he Secrets 
o f  Our Success, made an enthusiastic case for 
e-publishing. “Not only are e-books easy, 
quick, and inexpensive to publish, they rep­
resent an exciting opportunity for authors to 
get their works before the public,” she said. 
Adair-Hoy took the audience through a tour 
of her own success in e-publishing and pre­
dicted that, within a few years, e-publishing 
will become the dominant form o f publish­
ing.

John M ulchniki o f  Q uestia Media, an 
Internet startup com pany with the mission 
of being the source for humanities and so­
cial science research on the Internet, startled 
librarians in attendance with his revelation 
that his company will launch a 50,000-book 
digital library this January. The books will be 
searchable by word for free, while access to 
the full text will b e available either through 
annual subscription or time or page.

“Researchers will b e able to have infor­
mation at their fingertips w h en ev er they 
want,” Mulchiki said.

Three sid es o f th e  c o p y rig h t issu e
Forum three brought together copyright e x ­
perts from three different vantage points: the 
U.S.Copyright Office (Marybeth Peters, Reg­
ister of Copyright); the author (Sara Bew ley 
of the National Writer’s Union); and the Copy­
right Clearing House, the w orld’s largest li­
censer o f r e p r o d u c tiv e  rig h ts (E dw ard  
Colleran).

“… bo o ks w o n 't be rep laced  in 

y o u r or m y life tim e , and h u m a n ­

ists w ill co n tin u e  to  v ie w  th e  

p rin te d  b oo k as th e  su p re m e  

e m b o d im e n t o f th e  t e x t .”

The highlight o f Peters’s talk was her ex­
planation of the recent contentious ailing made 
by the Library o f Congress at her recommen­
dation. The October 26, 2000, ruling in effect 
gives copyright users more control over the 
way people use books and other media by 
endorsing a new federal law that makes it ille­
gal not to break technical safeguards for such 
works. “The library community disagrees with 
me, and I’m not saying that their arguments 
weren’t reasonable,” Peters said. “It’s just that, 
in our opinion, it wasn’t what the law pro­
vided.”

Bew ley portrayed writers as being allies of 
librarians on the copyright issue and explained 
why freelance writers, w ho are generally un­
derpaid, were forced into the landmark law 
suit, T a s in i v. N ew  Y ork T im es. C olleran 
wrapped up the forum by explaining how the 
Copyright Clearing House works to support 
writers and authors while protecting copyright.

Paper o r d ig itize d ?
The last forum addressed the question: with 
more and more collections appearing in digi­
tized form, what future is there for paper?

Both J. Edward Lee (associate professor of 
history at W inthrop University) and Ravi 
Sharma (director of the West Virginia State 
College Library in Institute) agreed that digital 
collections have a place in libraries and may, 
in fact, be the future o f libraries, but that there 
will always b e a place for brick and mortar 
libraries and seeing “materials in the raw.”

“I can assure you that books w o n ’t be re­
placed in your or my lifetime, and humanists 
will continue to view the printed b ook as the 
supreme embodim ent o f the text,” Sharma 
said.

Note
1. A copy o f the complete proceedings will 

be published by the College o f Charleston 
spring 2001. Contact the authors for details. ■



40 /  C&RL News ■ J a n u a ry  2001