march06c.indd


Jane Hedberg P r e s e r v a t i o n  N e w s  

Copyright for sound recordings 
The Library of Congress and the Council 
on Library and Information Resources 
(CLIR) have jointly issued a new report 
titled “Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital 
Preservation and Dissemination of Pre­1972 
Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries 
and Archives.” 

Copyright for sound recordings made be­
fore 1972 is protected by state rather than fed­
eral law, and those state laws can be based in 
criminal, common, or civil law. Consequently, 
determining what is allowable preservation 
action can be very complicated. The report 
examines relevant laws and precedent in 
California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and 
Virginia and how federal copyright law can 
affect legal interpretations of state laws. 

The report concludes that it is unlikely 
that activities permitted under federal copy­
right law would be actionable under state 
laws, but more research and legislation is 
needed to clarify the legal position of librar­
ies and archives engaged in preservation 
and digital dissemination of pre­1972 sound 
recordings. 

The report is available as a free PDF at 
www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub135abst. 
html. Printed copies cost $20 and may be 
ordered from the same URL. 

ARSC grant program 
The Association for Recorded Sound Col­
lections (ARSC) has created the Program for 
the Preservation of Classical Music Historical 
Recordings to encourage and support pres­
ervation of historically signifi cant Western 
art music. Funds are available through this 
program for a variety of activities, includ­
ing organizing, inventorying, rehousing, 
copying, reformatting, improving climate 

Jane Hedberg is preservation program offi  cer at Harvard 
University Library, e-mail: jane_hedberg@harvard.edu; 
fax: (617) 496-8344 

control, and promoting access to important 
sound collections. Grants can last up to two 
years and range from $2,000 to $10,000. This 
program was founded in 2004 and will offer 
its first grants in 2006. 

The application deadline is April 30, 
2006. For more information, contact Richard 
Warren Jr., ARSC Grants Program, Historical 
Sound Recordings, Yale Music Library, P.O. 
Box 208240, New Haven, CT 06520­8240; 
e­mail: richard.warren@yale.edu; URL: arsc­
audio.org/preservationgrants.html. 

California Rare Book School 
The Graduate School of Education and In­
formation Studies at the University of Cali­
fornia­Los Angeles (UCLA) announced the 
addition of the California Rare Book School 
to its Department of Information Studies. 
This new school will offer continuing edu­
cation courses to both professionals who 
work with rare books and manuscripts and 
students who aspire to do so. It will be the 
first to offer such training in the western part 
of the United States and is the product of an 
alliance among academic and research librar­
ies and antiquarian booksellers in southern 
California and the Rare Book School at the 
University of Virginia. 

The school is scheduled to open in sum­
mer 2006 with five courses: “Rare Book 
Cataloging,” taught by Deborah J. Leslie of 
the Folger Shakespeare Library; “Introduction 
to Special Collections Librarianship,” taught 
by Susan Allen of the Getty Research Institute 
and Lynda Claassen of UC­San Diego; “The 
Book in the West,” taught by Gary F. Kurutz 
of California State Library; “Descriptive Bib­
liography,” taught by Bruce Whiteman of 
UCLA; and “Book Illustration Processes to 
1900,” taught by Terry Belanger. 

For more information, contact Claire 
Raffel, phone: (310) 794­4138, e­mail: 
craffel@ucla.edu, URL: is.gseis.ucla.edu 
/news/rare_book_school.htm. 

182C&RL News March 2006

http:is.gseis.ucla.edu
mailto:craffel@ucla.edu
mailto:richard.warren@yale.edu
mailto:jane_hedberg@harvard.edu
www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub135abst